 I've been a long time advocate for Vote by Mail nationwide and it has never been more important than it is now because obviously we're living through a pandemic and we have absolutely no idea how long this is going to last. So in order to make sure people can safely make their voices heard in November, we've got to have some way that they'll be able to vote by mail. So we have time. Now is when members of Congress should be acting to put some sort of mechanism in place and, you know, codify Vote by Mail into law. It's not just something that we need throughout the duration of this pandemic, but it's something that should have already been a thing because it works really well. There's a number of benefits. It's easy. It also increases voter turnout. But that's one of the problems with Vote by Mail is that because it increases voter turnout because it makes it easier to vote, Republicans don't like it because they're self interested and they know that if more people show up to vote, that means that they'll have, you know, a worse chance of winning because usually an election will come down to turnout. When turnout is high, Democrats win. When turnout is low, Republicans win. So they are banking on disenfranchising people and Trump has been disgusting and weasley unsurprisingly in talking about Vote by Mail because he's trying to fear monger about it and make it seem as if we open the door to nationwide vote by mail of any kind. That's going to lead to fraud and abuse, except there's no evidence for that. And what's interesting is that he's a hypocrite because even though he's publicly railing against Vote by Mail privately, him and Republicans are trying to make sure that their supporters will have access to Vote by Mail. Yeah, pretty shameless, pretty transparent. So his AP's Nicholas Ricardi reports while President Donald Trump claims mail-in voting is ripe for fraud and cheaters, his reelection campaign and state allies are scrambling to launch operations meant to help their voters cast ballots in the mail. Through its partnership with the Republican National Committee, Trump's campaign is training volunteers on the ins and outs of mail-in and absentee voting and sending supporters texts and emails reminding them to send in their ballots. Quote, while we strongly disagree with the ill intended Democrat push for mail-in ballots, we have an obligation to our voters to inform them of what the law is in their state and what their options are. Tim Murtaugh, Trump campaign spokesperson, said, OK, so do you understand what they're saying here? They're basically saying, look, we really love Vote by Mail. It's just that we only want our supporters to be able to vote by mail and benefit from that. But we still want to make sure that we can disenfranchise as many Democrats as we possibly can, because that's what's going to help us win the election. I mean, they're shameless. They're not even hiding their agenda. They're hypocrites. And, you know, as Trump rails against Vote by Mail, as Republicans repeat what he says, remind them of this fact that Trump's team is currently trying to educate voters about the options that they'll have in states to mail in their ballots or submit absentee ballots, whatever. They want to make sure voters know they can safely vote if they don't want to risk their asses and come out to support Donald Trump at a poll. It's shameless. As someone who advocates for Vote by Mail, I don't only apply that advocacy if it benefits me. I think nationwide every single citizen should have access to Vote by Mail. And I speak with experience. As long as I've been old enough and eligible to vote, I have voted by mail because I live in the state of Oregon. We've had this now for about two decades and it makes voting really, really easy. I basically have no excuse to not vote. My ballot gets mailed to me weeks in advance. I take as much time as I need to fill it out. And I just put it in the mailbox. It's done. You don't even have to put a stamp on it. You just fill it out, put it in the envelope that they provide you with, and you've made your voice heard. It is incredibly easy. And even though Republicans are trying desperately to make this a partisan issue in the state of Oregon, it's not a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats in this state like it. And there's a lot of benefits with it as well. As Cynthia McFadden and Kevin Monahan of NBC News explains, it's a system that constantly produces some of the highest voter participation rates in the country. In 2016, 68% of Oregon's registered voters voted. 8% above the national average. The Oregon way is also endorsed across party lines. Current Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, a Republican and one of his predecessors, Phil Keisling, a Democrat, agreed that it gets people to vote and is cheaper and more secure than machines and polling places. Quote, you can't hack paper, said Richardson. Isn't that amazing in its simplicity, said Keisling. Give everyone their ballot and then let them decide where they want to market, whether they want to market at all. Keisling, who pushed for voting by mail as secretary of state in the 1990s, says that in-person voting can actually discourage people from voting, especially now that 32 states have some kind of voter ID requirement. I think polling places have become the single biggest voter suppression device in American politics, said Keisling. Richardson said the Oregon way removes the pressure of being in a voting booth and they're both right. A Democrat and a Republican in Oregon are saying the exact same thing about vote by mail. I don't know what it's like to experience the pressure of voting in the booth. I'm assuming that you feel rushed because there's usually long lines because the number of polling stations have been reduced in precincts across the country where there's voter suppression, not just by Republicans, but Democrats as well during primaries. But I mean, I don't know what that's like. Like to me, voting is so easy and it's difficult to imagine having to leave my home and stand in line all to cast a vote when the Oregon way is super simple. Like it's easy. Like it feels like Oregon is a different country than other states. It really does because you know, we vote by mail and when I'm done putting my ballot in the mailbox, I can walk into a store and legally purchase cannabis. I mean, people have got to catch up. You've got to get with the times. Vote by mail is not a new idea. Oregon has proved that it works and there's literally no excuse in anyone who actually believes Trump's fear mongering. You've been duped. You are making your life more difficult for no reason. Or maybe you do have a reason. Maybe you want the turnout to be lower so Republicans win. Either way, this benefits everyone. It's really, really nice to be able to vote from home safely and not have to worry. Like the minute that we had this pandemic, I was worried about the safety and health of people voting in states like Wisconsin. But in Oregon, I knew that come primary day, I would be able to make my voice heard because as it usually is, my ballot would be mailed to me and I'd fill it out, take my time doing so, research all of the ballot initiatives, research all of the candidates running and it's simple. Look, there's no reason to not have vote by mail. And because we're in a pandemic, there's every reason in the world to adopt it. So Democrats should be screaming from the rooftops of every single building about the necessity of vote by mail because if they don't have some form of vote by mail by November in every single state, Republicans are the favorite to win big. Because if you suppress the vote, if you make it so people don't feel safe to vote, that they may be risking their own health, that's going to hurt Democrats disproportionately. Sure, some Republicans who are immunocompromised may choose to stay home, but more than anything, Democrats will suffer the consequences if we don't have vote by mail. And think about this, as COVID-19 increasingly becomes a partisan issue, there's a portion of the Republican base that doesn't even believe that this is a real thing. They either think it's overblown and that's usually the good scenario if they believe it at all. Some of them think it's just a hoax. So this should be priority number one for Democrats and it shouldn't just be throughout the duration of the pandemic. This should be a normal thing because we have it in Oregon, it works in Oregon. And to Donald Trump's claim that it is conducive to widespread fraud, let's look through the Heritage Foundation and their study about election fraud or voter fraud more specifically and what they had to say about Oregon's rate here. So their election fraud tracker found just 15 instances of voter fraud in Oregon since 2000. 15 instances of voter fraud since 2000 and we have had this for 20 years. So this idea that this leads to abuse, it hasn't happened in Oregon and everyone here is very satisfied with it, everyone who I know, Republican or Democrat would be angry if you try to take away vote by mail from us. So it works here and I know it'll work everywhere else, it's just a matter of getting it passed, getting it codified into law. And if you live in these states that don't have vote by mail yet, you've got to put pressure on your state governments because this is something that you're missing out on. I think that vote by mail is the future and I think it's really the only way going forward in a post COVID-19 world that people are going to want to participate because even when COVID-19 is gone, people are going to have virus and germs on their mind. So people need that reassurance that they can still make their voices heard in a democracy and vote by mail is the way to go. So I've said everything I needed to say. It's a no-brainer. Don't believe Donald Trump's lies. He is lying to you for self-interested reasons. Vote by mail works. It's not conducive to more fraud. It's exactly what the country needs during a pandemic and beyond that. Mike treats me so unfairly.