The. Aljazeera in which every. And everybody im fairly ok will come to the street can you believe its less than 10 weeks to lay before the u. S. Elections in november theres been so much debate about voting methods about the safety of voting during a pandemic you will everybodys for the county that we put together an extra line up for you to talk to them you could ask them questions you can end your concerns and do that and you cheve and be in the street. Hi ladies so good to see you i will say hello to the guests the guests will introduce themselves to you starting with grace ice introduce yourself to our audience hi everyone im. A politics reporter at Business Insider covering everything related to elections with a particular focus this year on voting and election illustration of the current 1000. 00 pandemic fantastic to have you alexandria welcome to the stream tell everybody who. Powered all of whom are all formed a group or group will work with me and theyre all the way focus on young people in our great to have you and introduce yourself to our international audience. Hello there im Amber Mcreynolds and im the c. E. O. Of the National Vote at home and city to and we are solely focused on improving the voting experience for every single american thank you very much john but thanks ladies im thinking of this as a voting clinic so whenever you feel like we need some help as a result to take just jumping go for it and lets not a festival with some some real basics mailing vote absentee votes has been such a huge compensation about what the difference is doesnt even matter. Thats right and honestly that fundamentally it is the same thing the voter is choosing to vote at home i mean theres 2 options really to vote in the United States of america you can vote in person polling place vote Center Early Voting or you can vote at home and some states call that absentee voting in some states call it vote by mail or mail and voting but fundamentally the ballot is handled in the exact same way it just gives you more days more time more opportunity to vote at home and then you can either drop it off or you can mail it back. Race voices even a deep bay to a discussion the just seems like that would be a natural thing to do in 2020 and in a pandemic. Yeah so it really is not a partisan issue at all i mean Everyone Needs to vote somehow but the president of the United States and some of his allies you know starting at the beginning of the pandemic did really politicize this issue and make it you know a topic of debate the president of the United States has spread baseless claims that mail in voting is fraudulent that its subject to foreign interference that mail in voting hurts republicans which it doesnt theres no evidence whatsoever to support that and you know the president politicization evidence that this issue and his campaign fighting in court and many states to restrict mail and voting has made this you know a hot button partisan issue when you know in another world it probably wouldnt be. I love that youre in the conversation because you bring you bring the the you fangirl with you and im just looking here at pew and some of their research and they were looking at how people voted through the ages was since the ninetys and an online many votes i should say 9096 and 7 percent actually voted in that way and by the last election 20 percent or so behind this current election it should be even higher. Yes however there are a lot of issues right now that were facing as young people so our College Students have a big issue with whether theyre going to register their home address and have a place around campus so theres a huge issue of displacement thats really going to back where people how they vote and if theyre even registered as a lot of people have actually been a star just by virtue of not receiving a millions from. Catch us what you catch here is a Student Organization shes a student at the base campus vote project and she really bowed down the issue that young people having right now is even registering to vote. States like texas have very strict Voter Registration laws and they new neatly affect young people and people of color at higher rates in terms of disenfranchisement and part of this is because young voters are not able to register online which is one of the primary ways that young people are getting information and young voters are expected to figure out if they should make a plan to vote in person at their College Address make a plan to vote by mail at home or figure out if theyre even to be living at their College Address or living at home before november is even happening and make a plan months in advance during a time of completely unprecedented confusion for a lot of people in america. Xandra how do you fix not its a tough one because were essentially suppose we genies all these things are going back to some and we dont know whats going to happen we dont know if theres going to be a huge outbreak on their campus of covert and theyre going to be forced back home so there is something that were talking or another stooping to really push the 1st is that people do to vote. Thats going to be the big thing for all people whether youre called whether youre 80 years old and that you also want to really push your friends to the same or the 2nd thing is to really push in schools or i think that those students really get to the polls will have less polls because of the Elderly Community that is really. All right so the voting precinct is well and truly open and our if we need online voting grace is that possible. Yeah there are really a lot of Security Issues that come with trying to cast a ballot online and im obviously not a Cyber Security expert by any means but i just know that when you you know put a Voting System on the internet its much much more vulnerable to hacking whether theyre denial of service attacks that can bring down an entire towns Voting System or just noticed individual open to malware malfeasance any of that and really you know there are no countries that have been able to figure this out you know developed countries have been able to its securely figure out a way to have voting online and really just the most secure way at this time to have voting that safe from interference and hacking any of that is paper ballots or electronic voting with a peeper trail for audits there just you know so opening a huge can of worms trying to have a Voting System thats online but it should be easier to vote now than it is already and i definitely see where that desire comes from to this one to cast a ballot online. Im but let me put this into you a l says on you chief i will be voting in pes and dont want to race my phone being lost or not counted or place any more strain on the u. S. P. S. Thats the United States postal system so that presidency im just going im going to to the polls and i actually going to do it in person and you would say why. Well i think its every voters choice right so the great thing is that you have the choice in every single state even the states that mail a ballot to every elector but i do want to go back a 2nd just on the on the even the last 2 questions as well. The system that we designed in colorado addresses all of these gaps were talking about and so 1st and foremost same day registration automatic registration that that gives you a stopgap if theres the eventual of a student not being on campus anymore same day registration and eliminating those overly burdensome deadlines like what texas has is extremely important colorado has that many of the frankly all the top states for turnout every cycle have same day registration its very clear that that helps especially Younger Voters colorado also was one of the top states for youth voter turnout so was or again and again were empowering voters with multiple days multiple options to vote as well as eliminating those burdensome to outlines and then the online voting piece there is electronic transmission happening for military voters thats been in place because weve had to solve those logistical challenges and then thats also being expanded in some states for accessible purposes but grace is exactly right the security is not there for a full rollout and really a lot of the reason is because you have a right to a secret ballot under the constitution and so because of the way that that voting works we have to break your name from your ballot and thats different from Online Banking everyone always asks me oh i can online bank so i must be able to vote but theres actually some more complications with the voting process that a lot of people dont realize exist. The security is concerned about this this is just saying hi jacki thanks for being in today is there any proof system fairy flight that votes that are coming by mail on the key to mint and shes one of the concerns of the bubbling up in the u. S. The last couple weeks who wants to handle that press you just fall into it. So there are actually a number of different ways Election Officials verify voted absentee ballot so firstly you have to sign the on follow up that comes from your about comes with your ballot you have to have your signature on there and now there are 31 states that use something called signature matching where they see the signature that on your return ballot on below and they compare it to a signature thats already on file whether its the one you use when you register to vote or one on file with the d. M. V. Its and there are teams that you know verify signatures and confirm that the person who was sent the ballot is the one who received less other security measures to ensure the integrity of mail ballots include ballot tracking where every ballot gets a barcode or a tracking number a specific to the voter and it allows to track their ballot see if its been received its arrived back at the Elections Office and also john secure a ballot drop boxes are being expanded now in several states and those are those that are set up by Election Officials and allow voters to drop off their ballots without having to go through the u. S. Postal service and just get from point a to point b. And so there are many many measures that states new is to verify mail ballots thats why they take longer to count process to and when alexandria anything else to add to that pretty comprehensive answer. Yeah i went out a couple of things so it was so everything that gray said for sure and where i was in Elections Official we actually created the 1st ballot tracking system now 11 years ago so its been around for a while but theres actually other additional pieces throughout the process that add security so your ballot has to go to your registered address or where you requested it if youve moved or that kind of thing your ballots not forwarded so theres an address validation also that type of paper thats used and the coding on each of the individual ballots actually cant be replicated some people said oh we could use a copy machine thats actually not feasible given the size the paper density the way without that being detected also on the outside of the envelope in addition to the elements gray said theres actually a barcode in sequence id thats created not only with your voter id but the particular Election Code so if you for instance use an envelope from a previous election the barcode would be caught so there is literally i think close to 30 possibly even more different pieces of Data Information steps that happen throughout the process where the validation occurs and therefore we would be able to detect any malicious activity so its extremely difficult to do what some people are kind of throwing around us something easy to do and frankly the systems been designed that way to enhance and protect the integrity of the election. Bringing a new voice into the station the state the greek state the c. E. O. And director executive director of the line does and what im hearing from david is planning planning. For his. 35 states with voter id laws in an estimated 25000000 voters nationally who lack a current government issued photo due to code that many states are moving towards people i mean absentee even. Billions of voters are going to be voting by bill for the 1st time ever in states which require the haiti to go back the same time give us its grease closures it allays were doing Everything Possible in the writers to make sure were sharing up to the Accurate Information so voters have confidence in the head with the need to vote into votes in. Race yeah definitely voter id laws you know presented additional challenge and the pandemic because as david mentioned Service Center is where you can obtain an idea or close to there also cost prohibitive to obtain a for a lot of people are and you know thats one of the things thats most important for you as youre making your voting plan is to figure out does your state require an i. D. Is a photo id is it a non photo id most of the states that do have a voter id laws are nonstrike states meaning that if you dont have the required id you can sign an affidavit affirming your identity or hope to work or about fuel but those are additional steps you have to take and so we had super super important to figure out what the id requirements are in your state and how you need to meet. We have kind of skirted around the issue of a Global Pandemic during a major election but it is a concern alexandra let me show you this this is from the very well known web site 538 and this one Voter Registrations are way down during the pandemic im thinking they should probably be way up jane i mean. Whats your take on how coronavirus is impacting this upcoming election in United States i really wanted to ask that question of people that it was only about Student Learning another system of a dam a problem if you think about what upon them because in terms of our basic needs. Housing food people of us jobs who are concerned about who wish to go back and. Especially in you know skirt around this issue to the fact that we have. A mystery and people are being murdered theres a lot going on so frankly i think people have been less concerned about getting register as compared to 26 in that list but i think that were going to. Especially in september now that its too much. Is it the case that if you have to match the you have to go to where you would normally pick up your driving license or you actually have to register in person or does that depend on what state you actually happen to be in because that would mean that registrations would be no when if you want to go into any Office Anywhere and to the offices have fewer hours in which theyre actually open and available to people. Thats thats right and actually the top method that voters get registered to vote in the country is actually through the Motor Vehicle locations and part of the reason for that is because we have a motor voter law that was put into place under the m. P. R. A National Voter registration act and that is at the point where you do that transaction thats where youre asked the questions register to vote a lot of states have automated that but that is the top method and so because those locations were closed because people are avoiding those sorts of transactions or being in crowded environments it complicated an already very complicated and difficult situation the 2nd piece is in some states you can register to vote online not all but many and i would advise that you know you should check that now if you can at least even just verify that your address is up to date thats really critical to do today but the reason that weve seen these registrations down is because of the d. M. V. Being closed because they are the top method every election cycle of for registration activity and this is honestly again another exposure that the pandemic has brought forward which is laws around Voter Registration because most states still have antiquated outdated laws on the books that require a 30 day registration requirement in your precinct and all of that and if you move even within the jurisdiction you end up voting a provisional and so thats why were such a big advocate of same day registration automatic registration as well as ballot ina automatically so that voters dont have to think about these sorts of questions and potentially be disenfranchised the one final point ill say on that the help america vote act set up a provisional voting process after florida 2000 and im im actually starting to be more concerned that were going to have a very high number of provisional ballots cast this year because of the registration issues and those actually. Even longer to process and theyre more expensive to process and they also backup the voting lines so i think one of the challenges were going to see with in person voting is an increase in provisional ballots because of this gap in registration that we continue to see right i want to add something to that i think its implicit that. There are so 20 years ago exactly i voted right attempted to vote for the 1st time and i was unable to care about it. And i was one of those disenfranchised people on the land and really hard for the position of the right. But what were seeing now and this is my biggest concern especially for students exactly what you just said about the original vote my concern is that this president whos really pushing in person voting will say you know what lets just handle this in the court lets just deal with this just like bush v gore and we saw the fruit of that and what happened a concern is that all of the provisional voting and all of the vote by mail and all the absentee vo