 Alright, so thank you for joining us in Galaki. Where are you calling from? So I'm at my old high school, not Mansfield Union High School in Jericho, and this is this room that I guess the tech media lab room was converted into a polling station during the day. Usually they're across the hall in the library, but this time they were in this other room. And I'm with all the volunteers, staff, clerk, clerk's assistant, board of civil authority, and they're all here doing that wonderful thing in democracy called counting the votes and double checking everything. Well, thank you for joining and I'm so glad to see see all that action behind you. And so what kind of races have you been matching today? We don't have any results yet because the polls just closed a couple minutes ago. But what have been the big, you know, ballot items or candidates you're seeing locally? I have to say this has been as far as we're concerned in public access. It's been kind of a sleepy local race because there's no contested house seats really and not a lot of contentious local issues, which I guess is a good thing. But there weren't debates or anything on, you know, the very local levels. So it's been pretty quiet. But from what I hear from the clerks, there's been a really good turnout ranging from, I believe, about 50% in under hill of voting before the election to a really high number. It sounds like locally of 75% enrichment before even today. So they were, I know here in Jericho earlier in the day, they were processing in these fancy new vote tally machines behind me. They were processing, I think the nearest days like the day before and the day before that they had caught up on all the days up to that. And now I guess the hard work of processing all this big collection of votes from today. And it seems like it was pretty busy like very early in the morning. And there was a nice trickle of votes throughout the day, good turnout, even though there wasn't a lot of really heated local stuff, I think people are looking more at the national level. That's great. And I know this morning, you and maybe some of your team, your staff went out to the polls to record some interviews with people at the polling locations. How is that this morning? Yeah, well, I guess it was relatively easy to find parking. So it wasn't like overwhelming number of people or like people went at different times during the day. I'm even here at the high school, the high school students were kind enough to park in other places in the front of the building. Yeah, so it seemed like it was like very civil. And it was just quiet, like there weren't a lot of candidates in front of the buildings, which we usually like to find an interview. There weren't a lot of issues in the hallways. I guess it's just the midterm election kind of feel. And it felt very peaceful and not heated and very Vermont like sort of civic nature and people I happen to know locally from different parties kind of sitting side by side and chatting and laughing, I guess kind of idyllic Vermont voting situation in these little towns up here in Chittenden County. That's great. Is there anything else you'd like to add before we end our short time together? Well, we did, you know, there was an interesting candidate in Underhill. We had somebody running for governor, Peter Duvall, who I heard over at CCTV in a discussion you had there said that he didn't feel like he had a chance of really winning, but he still was throwing his hat in the race just as an effort to make sure that every single voice is heard. And I couldn't find him. I looked for him in Underhill. Did not find him. Maybe he was in Burlington. Yeah, I'm sure he's around somewhere. It's, you know, sometimes hard to tell or people will be. But thank you so much for for joining and for this, you know, spending this time together. You're welcome. We see once more of the whole stuff happening behind you. Absolutely. And I'll see if the clerk has a minute or two to say something if you'd like a little later. Awesome. Thank you. And yeah, hopefully we'll see if we can join with the clerk later. But otherwise, we're going back to the folks in the studio. Thank you again. So thank you for joining us. Where are you calling in from? Yep, calling from Burlington. Yeah. Glad to, you know, glad to have you on. So I know you work with the Vermont New American Advisory Council, the secretary of the Vermont New American Advisory Council. So I'd love to kind of chat about that. So as Vinak is working to build civic engagement for new Americans around elections, how do you feel that candidates, municipalities and the media have done this election season to engage new Americans in the process? Yes. Thank you for that question. And I think before I responded, I wanted to just also say congratulations to all the winners. You know, I know the results are coming. And also to all the voters because at the end of the day, they are the winners because their voices have been heard now and respected. And to your question, I think I will start, you know, and how the candidates engage new American during the election season. So as you know, in late July, five sheet in the central district, Vermont Senate candidate, that's a mouthful, you know, engaged with the Vermont New American Advisory Council to give their perspective and understanding on new American communities and how also what are also to understand the support needed regarding affordable housing, early childhood education, childcare, as well as their views about combating racism and promoting a sense of belonging, you know, for new American families calling Vermont home. I think that was that speaks volume to that the candidates really want to engage with the new covers and also the minority groups. I think also the municipalities have done, you know, tremendous amount of work in order to translate the ballot items in collaboration with the Secretary of State. And I think the city of Burlington is currently contemplating non-citizen voting for local elections and the Charter Change Committee of the City Council, you know, engage with the Vermont New American Advisory Council about the ballot language and the outreach mechanism needed to make it happen, you know, and also you see on all the candidates such as Enfinite, who is an African American, and he intentionally found new Americans to be part of his team, you know, basically supporting him, supporting his candidacy and I wish them all very well. And I think, you know, over the years also the translated ballot items that we have done, candidates are, you know, showing up every single day to ask us questions, to engage when we call them for debates they show up. And I think all of that is, is that they have an intention to working with Vermont New American Advisory Council as we move forward and new Americans in general. But in terms of the media, I think everything that we have done so far, VNAC related events and everything we collaborate with CCTV Channel 17, you have been an instrumental partner around this work and we cannot thank you enough. The only hope that we have is basically all the media outlets in the state of Vermont to look into you and to, you know, basically also try to engage just the way that you do it. It's genuine, it's clear, and this is just that you want to build the communities and doing so it requires including every single person. Yeah, thank you. And, you know, in the media piece, you know, we appreciate the compliment and, you know, we're always, you know, really trying to be there for the community and support organizations like VNAC and definitely hope that, you know, that mentality can spread to other places. And so thinking about, you know, what more can be done? Do you think to access the talents, the talents and experiences of new Americans and other organizations like VNAC and building strong and healthy communities? Absolutely. Thank you. I think that's a great question. What can be done more as we move forward? And I think the fact that understanding there are different community groups who speak different languages, who have different cultures and try to engage in is one concrete example that everyone need to strive for, whether or not you are a state agency, you are a municipal government, whoever you are, organization philanthropists, you need to engage these people because they are smart, they are educated, and their perspectives also are unique in making this state the best place to leave, work, raise children, etc. And I think people also need to stay away from using new American as an afterthought, you know, I think it would be important, I mean, from the get go from the beginning to include them in thinking about policy ideas and thinking about reform or structures. And I think their perspective are only going to diversify and increase also your perception about about life about well-being as well. I think those are concrete things that people need to be to build a strong, healthy community. The fact that we need to reach out to the new Americans is something that we need to strive for. I mean, if they are organized and trying to, you know, come together and to build something, support them in any ways that you can, monetarily with resources, give them a space, give them a resources that they need in order for them to solve their own problems. You know, and I think doing it with the community is something great. And, you know, also look into if you are an agency, look into your staffing. Is it diverse? Does it represent the people that you serve? And if not, have an intentional goal in diversifying your staffing, you know, and also once you bring them in, also try to retain them, make sure that they are respected, they are supported, you know, to support them to stay and be one of the states. And I think just let's all understand that, you know, she didn't county is the most diverse place in the state of America, right? And over 37% of the population growth in she didn't county is composed of new Americans, right? And I think having concrete example programs that would support them to stay here, because now there is a mass exodus of the new Americans going to all the states such as, you know, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utica, New York, and we have invested so much money in bringing them here. And we need to do the same in keeping them here because they will only make the society, the economy stronger and healthier. Yeah. Thank you. And before we end our time, before we end our time together, is there anything else you want to talk about that we haven't yet talked about? You know, I mean, I think, thank you, channel 17 for the work that you do in building a stronger Vermont in a strong accounting. I think that's that. Yeah. And I don't know about the ballot item for the Bullington High School, but we hope that that's the best investment the community have done. I hope that it will pass. Thank you. Yeah, thank you for joining. And yeah, we'll be reporting on the results throughout the evening as we get them. But for now, we're going to go back to Jordan and Christine in the studio. Prop five is the the proposal to amend the Vermont Constitution to allow for what the constitutional to allow an amendment which will read that everyone has the right to so called reproductive liberty. I think in general that the intent of that prop five was to protect Vermont and to protect women's rights to terminate their pregnancies. And I do want to talk about why I think it was put on the ballot and what its importance was. In the overturn of Roe v. Wade, many, many states saw the question of abortion in particular went back to legislatures, which then turned it into a matter of majority rule. And if in the legislature, the majority of the legislators voted to ban abortion, then therefore abortion would be banned. And that would be from conception onward. And that did happen in some of the red states, including a place like Mississippi. In other words, abortion was banned from conception onward. And that affected women's rights to terminate a pregnancy. And that is what was happening throughout the country. But many states like Vermont knew that with the overturning of Roe that the state should protect a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy. And so they began, we began to have constitutional amendments, which would include the right to so called reproductive liberty. And what that means to me is a woman's right to control pregnancy. It doesn't necessarily mean abortion, although it includes abortion, but it really is therefore a woman's right more than any particular medical procedure, but a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy as sort of a human right that all women and girls who are pregnant can exercise. And that's true in Vermont. However, because Vermont was worried that perhaps there would be some legislative ban on all abortions, this has now become part of our Constitution. And I think it's going to pass widely tonight. There are certain concerns about it. And I'm glad I'm talking about those concerns now after the vote is in, because I'm in favor of Prop 5. But there's a little bit of language there, which should concern people too. Will this include, because part of it says that each person has the right to determine the course of their own life. In a Boston Globe article a couple months ago, there are some states that are interpreting that to mean that maybe a child would be able to get so called gender affirming surgeries to determine the course of their own life, maybe even without the consent of the parent. That was of concerns among more Republicans who are opposed to that kind of gender affirming surgeries and hormone treatment. Other people too were concerns. I'm also concerned about that. But the main component of that reproductive liberty was aimed at the attack on women's rights to terminate their pregnancy. And so I think that's the way most people think of it. Most people are going to, in this state, I believe they are going to pass, they're going to pass this overwhelmingly. And that's what I wanted to comment on, because I thought the results would be in. There is a third concern, which I do want to speak to. In the language of that amendment, it also says something like a woman has the right to determine her pregnancies unless there is a compelling state interest to restrict that right. I wanted to say how the Republicans argued, would argue those, I shouldn't say Republicans, I should say pro-life advocates. How they would interpret that is that there is a compelling interest to protect the fetus after viability. The compelling state interest, therefore, would kind of overwhelm a woman's rights to terminate her own pregnancy. In other words, the concern for fetal life would be paramount over a woman's life. And so there is a little bit of concern about that language of what is the compelling state interest. I would argue as a lawyer that the compelling state interest on the part of the state is always, always to protect the life of the mother. And when the choice is to be made, the choice has to be made for the mother. And I'll give you an example, which occurred in Ireland. And this is fairly recent. In Ireland, all abortions were banned from conception onward. The Roman Catholic Church controls Ireland or did till recently. And because of that, all abortions were banned. And there was in that constitution that life begins at conception and that the Irish government protects all life from conception onward. As a result of that, a woman in Ireland at 17 weeks pregnant, she was an Indian who was living in Ireland, perhaps she was a citizen, became aware that her pregnancy was not tenable, that she would become ill if that pregnancy continued. This was at 17 weeks and that maybe she would even die. Because of Ireland's law that said you can never get an abortion, she was denied an abortion and she died. So in other words, in my view, there is the main compelling interest at any stage is to protect the woman. If she's going to die even in late term or her health is going to be ruined, even in a late term pregnancy, I believe that her interests come first over the fetus at any stage. In fact, in Ireland, what happened is that because of that death, there was a big vote in Ireland after that 66% of the Irish population voted to legalize abortion after that case. And now Ireland, you can get an abortion. So this is a very important proposal. I'm anxious to see because there's such a battle also going on in this country about a woman's right to terminate her pregnancy. I'm very interested to see tonight what's going to happen to Prop 5. I believe it's going to pass heavily because Vermont has always been a pro choice state ever since 1972. But in 1972, actually, I was part of a bunch of women who formed the Vermont Women's Health Center. That was prior to Roe, when the Vermont court said that there should be no ban on abortion, that doctors could be allowed after this case, it was called the Jacqueline R. Case, went to the Vermont Supreme Court, one law on the books against abortion, which was that a doctor could not perform an abortion, that would be a felony, and that law was overturned. And ever since then, Vermont has had no restrictions on a woman's right to choose. So I'm hoping I will be anxious to see this, what happens to Prop 5, but I believe it's going to pass, but we'll see, I guess, and that's what I wanted to say tonight. I was hoping we'd have results, so Jordan, so I'm anxious to see the results come in, okay? Yes, and thank you, and I'm also hopeful to see results soon, and we'll be reporting that here on the channel, but I appreciate you taking the time to share with me, and hopefully we'll have our results soon to go with it. Thank you very much, Jordan. Thanks for allowing me to do a little spiel. Thank you. Thank you. Lovely to see you. Have a good evening. Here I am with Jessica Alexander, our town clerk here in Jericho, and something I used to send my absentee ballot when I lived abroad for many, many years. So Jessica, tell us what's happening tonight. I know you're busy. Right, it's election night, and where the machine has tabulated all of our ballots. We have no hand count ballots, so we're happy about that, but we're now emptying the machine, and we have to separate out Chittin' the Solid Waste District ballots from general election ballots, because they're going to get bags separately, and the write-ins still need to be hand counted because they can't be tabulated by the machine. So we have a team that's separating the write-ins by race, so we'll count the first, is it US Congress? I think is the first race on the ballot, so those will get counted first, and if there's more write-ins on that ballot, it gets moved down to get counted in the second race. So I'm not going to ask you any more questions, because there's lots of volunteers here that keep asking you questions, but thanks for joining us. All right, thank you. So I don't know, does it matter that it's 8.15, and we're still working? It's dark outside. Yes, it's dark. All right, so thank you. Bye. All right, well thank you for joining me, Andrew. It's great to have you here. Where are you, where are you calling in from? I'm calling in from Sunderland, which is just a little bit south of Manchester, and a little north of Orlington. Wonderful, and I know you work with GNAT, your news director at GNAT, the Greater Northshire Access Television Station, so another public access station in Vermont, which is wonderful. So can you tell us a little bit about some of the local races you've been watching down there, and if you have any results so far? Well, yeah, there are about four local competitive races we've been following. Three of them are four house seats, and one is the county sheriff's race. I'll start with the house seats. One in particular was kind of interesting, the Bennington four district, that includes Manchester, Orlington, Sandgate, and a part of Sunderland, where I'm calling in from. It's a two-member district. The two current incumbents are represented as Kathleen James and Seth Bondegards, and they were challenged this year by a Republican candidate, both the South and Kathleen or Democrats, I should say, they were challenged by a Republican candidate for one of those two seats, a gentleman named Joe Jervis, who was from Orlington, both Kathleen and Seth from Manchester. So the only results I've gotten in so far are from Orlington itself, and I guess if Mr. Jervis was going to make a challenge out of the race, it would have been expected he would have performed strongly in this hometown of Orlington. But the results I'm seeing show him in third place, about 200 votes behind both Kathleen and Seth, so it's not over yet and all of that, and the biggest vote totals will be coming from Manchester, it's the biggest town in the district, but I guess that's probably not what Mr. Jervis was hoping for, but we'll see. It's still early as they say. The other two races that we were following pretty closely here was the district just north of that, the Bennington-Rotland 1 district, that includes the towns of Dorset, Danby, Landgrove, Peru, and Mount Sabre. That's kind of an interesting district because the incumbent representative, Linda Joyce Sullivan, opted not to run for re-election, she had served for three terms. It's basically been a Republican leaning district over the years. Since about 2000, until 2016, they had sent Republican candidates, including Representative Patty Comline, who was a house minority leader for the Republican Party, and before that, Walter Freed, who was the last speaker of the house, was from Dorset. Then Linda Joyce Sullivan, who was a Democrat, flipped that seat in 2016, but it's definitely a district that could go either way. This year, two new newcomers are running. One gentleman named Bill Giotti, who's from Mount Sabre, a lifelong resident from there, and a newcomer, Michael Rice, a Democrat, was running. No results in yet. Definitely a race that could go either way. We had both of them into our studio for a debate, and that was kind of interesting. I should have said we had Mr. Jervis and Kathleen James, and I said, by the guards in for a discussion also in our studio, which is quite interesting. Actually, I got into an interesting conversation about the January 6th event, which Mr. Jervis had attended in Washington, although he's very careful to say that he hadn't gone into the Capitol or taken part in any of the violence that took place that day. The third race we're watching is just to the south of us, the Shassebury Sunderland District, Bennington 3, incumbent David Durfee has a comfortable lead over his Republican challenger, Victor Harwood. I just saw some numbers on the Secretary of State's website, which indicates that Dave is going to be, I think, comfortably in the lead. We also had them in for a discussion as well. The fourth race we're following down here is the Bennington County Sheriff's Race, which is kind of interesting. The same three candidates who ran, well, not quite, well, the same three candidates who ran in the primary, in the Democratic Party primary, are in the general election. The winning candidate in the Democratic primary obviously is in the race. One of the other candidates switched parties to run as a Republican, and another switched party ran as an independent. So it's kind of a replay of the primary in a strange way. That race attracted a fair amount of interest down here as well. The incumbent, Chad Schmidt, is not running for reelection. He became sort of well known because there was evidence to suggest that he had been spending a lot of his time in Tennessee and was kind of working remotely when that hadn't been agreed to in advance. Let's put it that way. So that became kind of interesting. So those are the ones we were following pretty closely down here. That sounds great and, you know, glad to hear you are also hosting some debates or forums of candidates. I know that's something a lot of public access centers try to do, really, you know, bring the candidates in and, you know, let them, you know, share their thoughts. So glad to hear that you guys are doing that as well. And so what about statewide, you know, keeping it brief, what were some of the statewide races that y'all are watching currently? Well, I mean, all of them are interesting in one way or another. The one I found kind of particularly intriguing was Lieutenant Governor's Race. Again, we had David Zuckerman and Joseph Benning, the two major party candidates into our studio for debate there. What struck me about that discussion was that they were so cordial and friendly to each other. I mean, they got their shots in and didn't hold back any punches, but it was, it was kind of an interesting thing to say, to see in this current climate of polarization and sort of general nastiness, it seemed sometimes that they both had really, I think, a remarkably intelligent and substantive discussion. What struck me as interesting about that is that it would seem very likely to me that this could well be, should Phil Scott win a fourth term tonight. And again, we don't know what the outcome of that race is going to be, but if he does win, both seem to indicate that he's got a fairly good chance of doing that. Then the person who's in the Lieutenant Governor's seat obviously has a great, is in a great position in 2024 to run for the governorship. So I thought it was kind of interesting to see how that was going to play out. And well, I guess we'll find out later on this evening if it's going to be Mr. Zuckerman's chance to return to his old job, or if State Senator Joe Benning is going to take that position. But I thought that was kind of one of the more interesting races on the statewide level. Yeah, I agree. I'm definitely curious to see what happens and we'll be covering results here on Time Meeting TV, as well as many other public access centers are covering results as well. And so I'd like to end with talking about, you know, GNAT and VAN. So the Vermont Access Network, your public access station GNAT is a part of the Vermont Access Network. Can you tell me a little bit about that and how different public access centers across Vermont are working together for election coverage and just, you know, coverage in general this season? Well, we work together with other partners in the public access network. You know, we've shared our programs and our segments and things that we put out there on the Vermont Media Exchange. And we've also the candidate interviews. And I think, you know, we've tried to do our part to, you know, bring more awareness and information to voters in our coverage area, which is basically northern Benning County and part of western Wyndham County, just to kind of give them as much information as they could, as we could to help them help inform their decisions when it comes to going to the polls. And I think, you know, I think we we did our share. Well, thank you. Thank you for joining, Andrew. I really appreciate you taking the time to chat with us tonight. And we're going to go back to you Jordan and Christine in the studio. Well, thank you for joining us, Nick Carter. You're a Harvard Kennedy School Ash Center Reimagining Democracy Fellow and we appreciate you taking the time to chat with us tonight. Tell me, like what are some of the key things happening nationally, specifically with Congress and the House and Senate control? Well, thanks so much, Jordan, for having me and also to the service that CCTV Town Meeting television provides. It's nights like tonight, where I think people are reminded of the value of local media and and the services that community access provides. You know, it's really remarkable when you think about it. The number of candidates, the number of ballot initiatives that are on the ballot this year at all levels of government. So ranging from control of the United States Congress to state voting rights to marijuana legalization, there is quite a lot going on. And according to the United States Election Assistance Commission, there's somewhere in the ballpark of 176,000 voting precincts or equivalent precincts across the United States. And to make things even more interesting is the decentralized electoral system. So voting rules being decided at the state, county, town, city level. And so having very different voting rules and systems in very close proximity makes for some really interesting dynamics. But it's also a testament to election officials, town clerks, volunteers and others who make this wonderful process actually work. And frankly, I think for the most part it's working pretty well. Certainly there are concerns from across the political spectrum about issues with the voting process, intimidation at the polls. But I think most voters are expecting that their vote will count and that they'll be able to participate in the electoral process. So obviously everyone is going to be watching what happens with the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate where Republicans just need to pick up net five votes to take control of the U.S. House, which they're highly expected to do. And for a variety of reasons, historical trends, the President's approval rating, the economic condition. And you know obviously that hasn't been called yet, but a very good reason to think that's going to happen. And then the U.S. Senate Republicans will just need a net one vote pick up to take control of the U.S. Senate. And so election watchers are watching very closely the outcomes of the U.S. Senate races in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and even in next door, New Hampshire, where Maggie Hasson's re-election has gotten much closer, especially over the last couple of days. I think it's important that people keep in mind that in some of these really close contested races we may not know the results for a couple of days. As ballots come in, as results are challenged, you could expect a slew of legal challenges in a few of these races. So it's likely that we might not actually know who's going to control the U.S. House or the Senate for a couple of days, leaving many, many folks anxious. But additionally, you also have some really interesting and important statewide races. If you think about Arizona, not a lot of similarities with the Senate states, but not entirely. So Arizona is one where you also have a very competitive gubernatorial race. Secretary of State, Attorney General, go up a little bit to Oregon, where you have an unexpectedly close governor's race. Next door in Nevada, also U.S. Senate, but also a very closely contested governor's race, as well as Secretary of State. Then moving more to the Midwest, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, where you have really close statewide races, which will have real implications on a variety of policy issues, but also voting dynamics going into the 2024 presidential election. So the stakes are extremely high. Lots of energy and focus has been spent on those states, and we'll see what happens. And lastly, not only do you have candidates running against each other, you also have the Democratic process, the electoral process itself on the ballot in a few places. So the range from the town and city level. So for example, in Portland, Oregon, voters will be deciding a rank choice voting proportional representation system for the city of Portland. Next door in Seattle, voters will be deciding between a few different approaches to elections, approval voting, rank choice voting. And then statewide, you have a voter ID ballot initiative in Arizona, as well as a ballot initiative in Michigan to expand voting options. So not only is it candidates that are being decided, but the process itself is on the ballot in many places across the country. So those are some things that I think a lot of folks are going to be watching tonight, and these will have immediate implications for the many more elections that will be happening in states and communities in 2023. And then of course impacting the next presidential election in 2024. And so also there are items on the ballot nationally. Can you tell me about some of those ballot initiatives and different things that people should be watching for? Absolutely. So there's a range of issues ranging from tax policy to abortion rights to voting rights. The voting rights is where I've been specifically focused on. So for example, in Arizona, Proposition 309, which essentially relates to voter ID, and that it requires birth and government identification number for people voting by mail and creates new requirements to participate in the vote by mail process. In Arkansas, interestingly, you have something that is more related to the threshold necessary for ballot initiatives. So raising the threshold to 60% in order to move ballot initiative forward. And then Prop Proposal 2 in Michigan, this would create a nine day early voting period with drop boxes. It ensures that military ballots are counted if postmarked by election and allows for an affidavit instead of ID for in-person voting. There's also some provisions to protect against harassment at voting locations. So that just gives you a range of the types of democracy related ballot initiatives that are being decided. In additionally, it even gets further granular. So for example, Dane County, Wisconsin has a ballot initiative specifically for that town, I'm sorry for that county. I don't believe it's binding, but it essentially gives a recommendation to the state legislature around marijuana legalization. So even just at the county level, voters will be deciding specific ballot initiatives as they're doing as well in the state of Vermont. And just kind of to wrap it up and, you know, is there anything that, you know, you think is really different from this midterm election compared to, you know, the other elections and how does it compare to prior years? For good or for bad, I do think more people are recognizing the importance of what happens in between presidential elections. And there's much more of an awareness and enthusiasm. I do think turnout is going to be high. I think it's going to be high for all parties. So I'm not sure if, you know, high turnout is a guaranteed win for either side. I think you're going to see high turnout across the country. And I think, you know, thinking about the next year in 2023 that there's going to be plenty of municipal elections in cities and towns. You're going to have special elections. And the realization that democracy is very much a 365 day all the time activity. And I think that's something that is different about this cycle. And so I guess we'll see what happens. We will see what happens. Thank you so much, Nick Carter, for joining us. And we're going to go back to Jordan and Christine in the studio. Great. Thank you very much. All right. Well, thank you, Kevin, for joining us here to talk about, you know, the election and the election results we're getting in tonight. So where are you calling from? I'm calling from Waterbury, where I'm doing some other election analysis on WDEV. But it's great to be with you. Yeah, really appreciate you taking the time to join us. So what are some of the state races and some of the local races that you've been watching this evening? Well, obviously the election of Peter Welch to be the next U.S. Senator from Vermont replacing long time Senator Patrick Leahy is somewhat historic. And then there is the election of Becca Ballant to be the first woman and a gay woman to be Vermont's lone member of Congress in the U.S. House of Representatives. That is truly historic. And she both Welch and Ballant won overwhelmingly. And then Governor Scott, Phil Scott has won convincingly as well with a wider margin that I had thought. And so those are those are the early ones that one of the local races that I'm keeping my eye on is down in Orange County. There's a spirited challenge by a guy named John Clark against a long time incumbent Mark McDonald. McDonald had a stroke recently and couldn't campaign. Clark is way out to the right. Is something of an election denier and has gotten involved in a debate over transgender issues at the local high school. So we're all looking to see whether election denialism on the national stage infects Vermont at any level. So far it seems not to have. And now at this point in the evening we're starting to get results. What are some of the trends you're seeing with these results and how do you think they're impacting during this midterm election? Phil Scott is winning a fourth term by a very convincing margin. Right now sort of 70 some 70 plus to 20. And that's surprised me. The Lieutenant Governor's race featuring David Zuckerman a long time Chittenden County Senator former two term Lieutenant Governor ran for Governor against Governor Scott lost badly two years ago is now seeking his old Lieutenant Governor's position against popular and well respected Republican Joe Benning. Not an election denier but one of the more I would say moderate Republicans that still exists in Vermont and New England. Zuckerman's ahead by 12,000 votes at this point. And it seems like that's just too much to make up for a guy with Zuckerman's name recognition and record in Chittenden County. And is there anything else overall that you think has really been interesting or surprising you know this election? Well again I gotta say you know there's a tradition in Vermont that when a governor is running for a fourth term whether it was Howard Dean whether it was Jim Douglas you people get tired of governors after after six years at least that's been the pattern. The strength and durability of Phil Scott's reputation in the state in a hugely Democratic state. I often call Vermont the most liberal state in the country. There is little to no evidence that Trump and MAGA politics are infecting our politics yet. It was tried. It looks to be failing. But so therefore a Republican like Scott retaining this kind of popularity I gotta say is surprising to me. And I gotta give Scott all the credit in the world. I mean a Republican running in a hugely Democratic and liberal state. It's a real testament to the reputation that he's built and his record. Yeah you make a great point. And is there any last last thoughts or last comments you have as we kind of close up our time here together? Well I I think we all have to take a moment and recognize the achievement of Becca Ballant. There's an old saying in politics that at least in Vermont that it's really hard to run as a state senator or a state representative and then run statewide. Madeleine Cunin ran once and lost and then won the governorship after that. It's often said that you have to run statewide and lose in order to win again. Becca Ballant first time out of the gate from Brattleboro southern part of the state she is going to be the first woman to represent Vermont in Congress in the Congress of the United States it is truly historic. It is well earned. And there's nothing you can take away from her. She was an excellent candidate and she won this race both the primary and the general election going away and look out for Becca Ballant in the future. She is going to be a force to be reckoned with. Thank you Kevin for joining us. You know to to talk about some of the election results we're seeing what we're seeing across Vermont we appreciate you taking the time.