 each person's information to record that they showed up to vote. So that, as you can imagine, also slowed down the line. By all accounts of both co-workers here, our campaign workers, and also others, that slowed down the process. And many people who showed up to vote left because they had to get back to work, or if they came here very early in the morning, they had to run off to work. And so if this was a one-time occurrence that was just happening at Las Palmas, we've heard other reports of understaffing throughout Beirut County today. If it was just a one-time thing or a one-day thing, that would be one thing. But as I stated earlier, this has been a recurrence, a constant thing in Beirut County elections for several cycles now, and it needs to stop. We're calling on the Commissioner's Court and the county elections office to make sure that they do right by the people of Beirut County and fully staff each of the early voting sites and dedicate the resources necessary to make sure that people, Republican or Democrat or Libertarian or anything else, can fully express their political preference. This is not a partisan issue. In fact, the county is controlled by Democrats, not Republicans. And so before we invest in another study on a soccer team or a football team or landing a baseball team, we need to make sure that we invest in updating our voting machines. The San Antonio Express News reported yesterday that Beirut County uses what are considered some of the nation's most outdated electronic voting machines that leave absolutely no paper trail. These kinds of machines have been banned in many other states across the United States, yet the people of Beirut County are still made to vote on these machines. And so with that, I'm gonna turn it over to, we'll send in this for some more remarks and then we'll be glad to take questions. All right, thank you Congressman Castro. It's an honor and a privilege to be here. Welcome to the west side, the heart of District 26, here in Las Palmas across the street from San Fernando Cemetery. And as I look out over, I have fond memories of many, many campaigns. And as I think about 1997, my first city council race where out of 8,000 votes cast, I win by 41, I think what would have happened then? If maybe some of my supporters would not have been able to cast their vote. Would I be here today? I don't think I would have run again. But I think it's more important than what my career turns out. What's important is, can people exercise their right to vote? And at a time when we're asking people to come out to vote, where we're doing everything we can, some of us are doing everything to encourage people to ask them to get out and vote. We have got to, as a county, make sure they have the ability to exercise that vote in a reasonable way. And so it doesn't make sense to me, and I will tell you this, that after Congressman Castro called me, I called Jackie Callam, and she assured me that they were completely overwhelmed, they were not prepared for this. And if they've called in reserves and she feels that they'll be better prepared tomorrow, we will be checking again tomorrow. One of the things that we've had constituents suggest, and maybe we could post waiting times at different election sites. So tonight at the end, she said, look to see where, who have the most votes, so that we can try to help people go to voting locations where maybe people could get in and out easier. This is about encouraging people to exercise their right to vote. It is not right that only 14% of Bear County residents have traditionally exercised that right. We have got to do more to encourage more people. Congressman Castro and I are for making it easier to vote for people to express their right. I would like to see same day voter registration. I'd like to see countywide voting every day, including election day. We have the technology to do that. There's no excuse for us to use antiquated methods. I'm confident that both County Judge Wolfe and the commissioner's court will step up to the plate with Jackie Cal-Alan to make the voting accessible, easier, better, and it can be done. Respect our voters. It's a shame that the congressman and I have to take up these concerns and make sure, and that's why we're here. Because we care so much about each and every voter because I can remember, if you remember our first, it was 2000, the special election of 2000. Then a good friend of ours might be a real one, his special election by one, one singular vote. So when people say, my vote doesn't count, every vote counts. So if people, for whatever reason, weren't able to vote today and we're asking you please come back and vote tomorrow. We've been assured that it's gonna be better to do, easier to do. Make today election day. If it can't, make tomorrow election day and bring people with you. Any questions? Are you thinking of doing anything tonight? They've been there for a long time, they've been there. And the other elections, what physically, what can you do to sort of jumpstart the process? So immediately this morning when the congressman and I were getting feedback, I called Jackie, I talked to the county judge and Commissioner Elizondo about this. And I said, what's gonna happen? She reassures me that they've reached out to the reserves, that they're gonna have more people on site. But I think the congressman has some other issues that didn't make sense. The whole label, printing, writing, handwriting, that needs to be addressed. I reached out after spending some time here last fall, not early this morning. I reached out to Judge Wolf to let him know the concerns of voters and the fact that as I went through the line here, there were many people that were very upset, clearly frustrated. And he assured me that he would start to take action. I've also traded phone calls with Commissioner Elizondo, who represents his precinct, I believe. So we're trying to work collegially with the county commissioners. And of course, as Senator Menendez mentioned, he reached out to Jackie Calendar directly. Again, this is not a personal beef that we've got with anybody. But it's hard to watch year after year. When I say it's year after year, remember in 2016, the county had to be sued by Maldef to take down signs that gave wrong and bad information to voters about the new voter ID law. It shouldn't take a lawsuit against the county to take down a sign that's got bad information that misdirects voters. So we cannot keep having these things happening. The other thing that people need to know, if they're disabled or they're just in a physical condition where they can't get out of the car, they can bring a voting machine to the car window. People need to know if physically they just don't feel up to it and they didn't ask for a mailing ballot, they can still vote. They can have a machine. The bottom of us is a perfect place to drive through and have an election judge bring the machine out to you. Voting needs to be done. If you are registered to vote, you need to exercise that right. I think the whole computer glitch thing where they have a hand right. Is it the concern of any of your that these votes didn't get counted or they wanted this red or I mean, is that a concern of yours? Of course it's concerning. We want to be sure that none of those votes go uncounted because there's a claim that whatever information was written down by the clerk or the poll worker doesn't match whatever was presented to that person. So the county is going to have to be very vigilant about that. Would you be ready? Again, we've heard, I've been told of issues with understaffing and at least a few of the other early voting sites. It's been in the news for a long time that we were expecting big turnout in midterms. So this was not a surprise to anybody that we were going to need to staff up. And for whatever reason, the proper staffing has not happened. The county says the voter hotline is 335 votes. If you have constituents, you have people that are having trouble. If they can't get through on the line because the lines are jammed, we have those calls today too, but people are so concerned they're calling in. Do you have any other advice for people who find themselves stuck and can't get a phone call? I'm sure the congressman will have a similar response, but anybody feel free to call my office, 733-6604. Come by Wonderland Mall, visit us. There's a early voting location site there. Look, my office in Wonderland Mall, you don't need an appointment. If you want to vote and the ride's too long, you just need a rest. Come and sit on the couch. It's your office, it's the people's office. The issue is that we want everyone to vote. We want people to exercise this right. We want to encourage people. One of the things that I'm going to work with the congressman on at the federal level and me at the state level, I'd like to see what can Texas do to improve and get new machines. I would love a machine that gave every voter some type of paper receipt so that when you did have a recount, how many of us have thought? What are they recounting? The machine doesn't give you anything to recount. Right. So why do you recount? So I'd like to see some paper about, I remember the days when we did the fill-in, the little scantron. And I had a manual recount on that election with the 41 votes. And we picked up 12 more because it was a check mark or an accident instead of the full circle. So paper voting, in my opinion, is more secure and it provides a real record of who voted and how the elections came about. No, I absolutely agree. Where are the regents? Texas is one of the 13 states that allows more of these outdated voting machines and don't leave any trail at all, paper trail, about how somebody voted. That's a serious problem at a time with very deep cybersecurity concerns. And the fact that, as far as I can tell, there isn't a single federal law and I still can't find a state law that establishes a minimum level of cybersecurity protection for our money. You layer on top of that the voter ID laws and the gerrymandering that's occurred in Texas over the past decade. And this just adds to the problem. And again, this is a county government that is controlled by majority Democrats. This is an issue that we should be able to figure out. We should be able to do better than this. Yeah, I'm worried, I think we're both worried for the people. Whether their votes are gonna count, whether they get discouraged and a lot of people will come over here and turn around because the line's too long because it's taking too slow and they end up not voting. We want to make sure that everybody gets a chance to vote. Look, I feel horrible every time I hear people say why should I vote? What difference does it make? Nothing changes. All of the cynicism, these things only make that worse. The better and the more secure we can make our elections, the better that everyone will feel about their right to vote and the difference it will make. Now, for all those people out there to think and feel that it doesn't make a difference, if they don't vote, they're actually voting to let the other person win. So when you don't vote, you actually are making a choice to let the people that you don't care about have, and other people, the strong vocal minorities that get out no matter what, they're gonna have a bigger choice, a bigger say. You're gonna be stuck with what they've decided for you. All right, any last question? If this is not fixed tomorrow, what's next? I'm just going to keep pressing until it ends. Well, as I understand the county, I think Jackie Kalanin was gonna have a press conference this afternoon also to talk about the situation and we'll be watching that. But yeah, look, we're gonna keep pressing. As I said, we're calling on the county to do better. Look, here's the reality is we are close colleagues with the people who everybody at the commission is core. We don't think this is malicious. We want to see a change, and we're here to help. Whatever we can do to make it better, if it's helping cough volunteers, it's helping to get people, we are here to make anything we can do to help. We want people to get engaged, stay engaged, go out to vote. And if it's like, the question is, wanna land too busy, what's the closest other early voting site that's not? And maybe can we put online, on instant media, social media, where are the shortest wait times? So that people say, hey, I only have 30 minutes. Well, here's, there's no way here, there's no way there. We need to encourage that. We all need to be a part of the solution. We're not here just to complain, we're here to help as well. Well, and I agree with what's said, I don't think that this is malicious on the part of county leaders or even the elections department. But when it comes to suppressing votes, the shrug of the shoulders for inertia can be just as harmful and damaging as active attempts to actually suppress votes. Early voting continues through November 2nd. So if somebody's having real trouble today, we have a come talk for them, like, keep at it. Yeah, please, look, don't give up. Yeah, please, make sure that you vote. Your vote is absolutely important. We care about you voting, and just keep at it. Now for those people who are sick and tired of getting phone calls, of getting mailed, they just want it to stop. Go vote, as soon as you vote. They can't do it. They'll take you off the list. The smart campaigns take you off the list. I mean, because it just saves them money. So if you want to stop getting harassed about voting, go vote, because if not, I guarantee you, you're going to get harassed through election day. And I want everyone to please vote. Let's show the nation that we care about who governs us, because that's what it's about. All right, maybe one more. Anybody? Is there anything specifically you can do about funding, that the state can do about funding, extra staffers, or anything like that? Yeah, well, I'll speak for Congress. I think Congress should step up and do more. The Congress appropriated a few hundred million dollars for election assistance. But after the episode in 2000, with the contest election and the hanging chads and the butterfly ballot, that amount, I believe, was over a billion dollars. So this amount has been a lot smaller. Yes, I think the Congress should step up and do more to fund elections in Texas, probably. I think the state needs to do a better job. I think there are many other states that have shown that they have a real desire to see as many of their citizens vote. I think we can do a better job with same-day registration. I think we need to encourage more people of all walks of life to get up to go and vote and make it easier. I mean, to some degree, I think it should be, in many countries, it's a holiday to vote. And in some countries, Australia, if I'm not mistaken, it's against the law not to vote. And therefore, what I hear is that everyone talks about the election. They talk about who they're gonna vote because they have to vote. I think that we owe it to the hundreds of millions of veterans who've served this nation, put their lives on the line to give us the right to vote, to live in this society, that we should go out and respect them by voting. And that's the thing. I mean, you wanna show veterans, my family, we all tell them we thank them for their service, and they are very kind and say thank you for the support. Let's show them real support by going out to vote. All right, thank y'all. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you for my, for my direct. Thanks, honey. Thank you.