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Bye. Last time, I talked to you was getting the he's still in the golf he plays basketball got a hell of a three -point shot. That's awesome. Yeah. That's your I'm doing great. It's it's cool. Alright everybody we are live so I'm gonna make the House and then get out. What's up everybody? it's Tuesday, so you know what time it is. It's time to turn up turn up Tuesday every Tuesday from now until the election. We're gonna be shining light on voting issues, voting reforms and getting voters educated to ensure that we have a fair safe and free election. We have 20 - four more Tuesdays until the elections so plenty of time to turn up and this week, we are shining a light on Missouri. the state of play what's happening and I have some great speakers with a. Today we have Denise Lieberman, who is with the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, Jason Kander, who is the former Missouri Secretary of state and founder of Let America Vote and Toshi Jones, The Saint Louis City treasurer. Welcome to the turn up everybody. Thanks. Thank you. okay. I'm gonna jump right into it and start with you. Denise. Can you give us a state of play around what is happening in Missouri for voting rights? Absolutely thanks so much for having me and I'm so excited to to have our special guest on you know here in Missouri. just like across the country, voters are concerned about the their ability to exercise their right to vote during this pandemic and like most voters across the country, they believe that they shouldn't have to sacrifice or choose between protecting their safety and protecting their fundamental right to vote and that's why the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition has been at the forefront of advocating for measures to ensure that all Missouri voters will be able to safely cast a ballot by mail in. This year and we've been doing so through advocacy there's no legislation that has recently passed that will expand opportunities for voters to cast ballots by mail and we are also in the courts with a case pending right now before the Missouri Supreme Court to ensure that all voters will be able to safely cast absentee ballots in Missouri this year. so I'm gonna dig in a little deeper but I wanna go to you to shara. I wanna know so I think a lot of people. Of different civic engagement events don't always know how localized elections are, and they say, Okay, you're the treasurer for the city of Saint Louis, like how what's your connection to voting in elections and so what role do you play in making sure elections are safe and fair and Saint Louis and across the state of Missouri. Yes, well, thanks again for having me Ashley. So officially the treasurer doesn't have any role in elections but unofficially because I'm a. Servant I've been an advocate for for fair and safe elections for a long time Jason Kander and I came into the Missouri House together and when he was when he won his election as Secretary of state, he appointed me to a advisory group. to try to get no-fault absentee in the state of Missouri. So I've been working on this issue. It's near and dear to my heart for a long time and then also you know personally. I've been I wouldn't necessarily say a victim of when when the voter suppression happen. But when when enough people don't turn out to vote, we get people who are elected that only represent a small portion of our population. in 2017, it's no secret that I ran for mayor of Saint Louis and only lost by eight hundred and 88 votes. so it's important that everybody has a chance to cast their ballot fairly safely and and especially now you know in whatever option that they wanna use it. Either that's in person or by mail and have no fault in doing that. you know, you know, sometimes people are like, Oh well, it's low turnout of form of voter suppression, and we think it is especially when voters don't have the right information they need about where to go to vote how to get their absentee ballot. You know Jason you help you were the former Secretary of State of Missouri. We are having conversations every single day with Secretary of state, Some who are doing things to make it more accessible and some that are not you know you know the PlayBook, what should people be doing? Now to make sure, particularly in covid- 19 to make sure that people have access to a fair and safe election in Missouri, so there's really two steps to this. I mean part of it is what you see more often in the National news, which is to push to make sure the funding is available. we can stimulus packages for States to you know, make the changes in the accommodations necessary to actually have vote by mail really work, particularly States that haven't had robust vote by mail. So that's you know part one and that is going decently well. it needs to be more funding but that's been going. It's been happening a bit the part two is just as important, which is to make sure that the States that receive that funding actually use it for the stated purpose because you can send federal funding for vote-by-mail to States until you're blue in the face. but States that are you know where the the the mechanics of elections are controlled by folks who are for lack of a better way. Putting in a little less customer service oriented when it comes to boating you've got to put pressure on them to make sure that they don't just sit on that money that they actually use it. They actually try and make it you know easier and safe to vote and the thing about that is there's sort of two ways to view this as you mentioned that I was Secretary of state, you know I came at this from a customer service point of view right. I mean there's not that many areas where every single member of the of the country. Every single citizen interacts with their government on a single day right, it's like when you pay taxes, you know it's election day. It's not very many and so if you view voters as customers of that process, then you're gonna try and make it go it or not as convenient as possible for them and then the other way of doing it is to act like there's something suspicious about wanting to vote and then treating like criminal suspects and and I think that's. Whether you're in a band or you're not, that's what really stands in the way of us, you know, utilizing the resources that are gonna come our way and in every state around the country to actually make this work and I want to stay with you. Jason just for a second, you know we have been advocating for the leadership conference we had 400 million in the care package. The package has three point six billion for elections and people are like that's a lot of money when there's unemployment, why do we actually need to States actually need the money to do these elections? like what are you? What would you spend three point six? Billion dollars on I mean, I know one state doesn't get it, but break it down for folks. Well, you gotta think about it like this even before you think about you know going to a heavy vote-by-mail system. When you didn't previously have one, you gotta think about what it is to actually run an election in the first place right all of your employees. they're beyond part-time right they work like one day a year and then on top of that you have to have. It's a it's a massive company. basically that has to stand up for like a. Day and work really really well to serve an enormous and and diverse population ages. you know geographically every possible way and now combine that Toure that one day now you've got to basically do that process for a few weeks at a time and you've got to incorporate a correspondence or male process to it and you're changing your own process and in the first place, so you're training you're doing all sorts of things. So basically you just take the system that exists and it's not like. Byo is not more expensive like once you have the system in place. Most people argue I think accurately that it's less expensive than than a more traditional system, but anytime you're taking something as on will be as election day for those who run it and and just completely changing the way you do it in a short period of time, I mean that's gonna require a lot of resources. Yeah, we only have five months so is ticking. people need to act Denise just so people are clear. If they're in Missouri, what is the current law of the land for people who want to either vote by mail or just break it down for voters or in some of this is is a little bit in flux because they're there's legislation that still needs to be signed and there's a case pending before the Missouri Supreme Court. It's why we're turning up. Yes. That is why we are turning up and I also wanna say you know if that part of the challenge. Here is Missouri's somewhat antiquated voting systems 30 - four States plus the District of Columbia don't require voters to provide any excuse in order to vote absentee by mail and so if Missouri were among those States we could be turning up to do other things like voter turnout but instead, Missouri is in minority of States that requires voters to present one of a limited number of reasons to to vote absentee, and that's one of the reasons that that's so few people have traditionally voted by mail in Missouri in the past but I. Current law, one of the reasons that you can vote absentee is that you expect to be confined to disability or illness. and there are many who believe that those who are following CDC guidelines and stay at home orders practicing social distancing to avoid spreading or contracting covid- 19 virus is a valid reason to expect that you'll be confined to illness but not all election authorities agree and some do some don't. And so that's why our cases in court asking the court to make that final determination, but on top of that, just recently last Friday, the Missouri Legislature in the final hour of the legislative session passed a new bill that would allow another excuse for people who are at high risk of covid- 19 to be able to cast an absentee ballot without a notary that legislation would also allow any voter in the state of Missouri to vote A ballot. I would have to be notarized that legislation is awaiting the governor's signature as we speak, I want to say, so you know this is personal to all of us like I'm in my home by myself for the last 10 weeks, and I just actually checked my mail. I don't check it every day cuz I'm a millennial and we just don't do that and I got my voter guide and it's from DC and as soon as I opened, it had an application for my absentee ballot. And then envelope fell out and it had a return and it said no posters necessary if mailed in the United States and I said we'll go ahead. DC look at you empowering me and we think others should be like that So tsh when you think about like we don't have to go through the whole election process that you went through but turnout is hard voter education is hard and what do you think people need to be doing now in Missouri to help inform those communities who are historically disenfranchised who have low voter turnout to ensure that this November regardless of? Vote for that people are able to vote how do we reach those communities? I think we have to reach them in whatever way we can you know you just mentioned that we've been at home for the last 10 weeks. so you know platforms like this on Facebook on Zoom Instagram, you know all of the social media channels that we can reach people because 80 percent of people do have some sort of device that they are accessing the Internet through or. through so that's also texting I using whatever methods we can't to let people know that an election is coming up and what their rights are um if they can both tea or or or or not you know and I think the the reason why turn on the specially so low in in Mussoorie specially since low is is because we have a lot of ah working parents like myself who are juggling um you know their kids school or taking care about Of the things that work in two and three jobs and not having an opportunity to go and vote, even though it is their right and they can request time off. it. it's still you know it's what's the bandwidth of the average you know every day person who's working really hard just to make ends meet to remember to vote or to give them the opportunity to and that's what vote by mail. Does it gives everybody an opportunity to vote and in time you know versus just. On one day, you get maybe a two or three week process where you can get your absentee ballot and mail it in and that's one of the best ways we can increase turnout. Yeah. if you just turned in and you have a question for our panelists, you can go ahead and put it in the comments. I'm joined today by Denise Lieberman, who was with the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, Jason Kander, who is the former Missouri Secretary of state and founder of Let America Vote, as well as Toch Jones, the Saint Louis City Treasurer Jason if you were. Your former Secretary of state and you have I'm not gonna call out names. I'm not gonna turn up on them today, but if you know the list of the people who are doing what they're supposed to and the people who are not supposed to be what would you say to a Secretary of state who is making it harder for people to vote in this covid- 19 pandemic. you know a couple of things I mean, just in general, whether it's cold or not what I said to people all over the country who see eager to suppress the vote is that this debate. Long settled in the country you know folks marched across the bridge in Selma and they they face down their dogs and batons and hoses. so the idea that anybody has the audacity to say that Oh, you know we're still sort of figuring this out. We're still we're still arguing about this as if it's any other issue like any other partisan issue like health care and education tax, those places where there are genuine disagreements, you know I just I try to make sure we're all dealing with the same set of facts and not pretending otherwise. I mean facts are to the extent. There is a debate around this issue. It's not a debate about policy. It's about power is a debate about whether or not to spread that power is the power to vote to as many people as possible or whether to try to keep it pretty exclusive to a group of people who were inside things is gonna vote for that right-I first. It's like that's let's all work with reality and then the second is that you know specific to your question. What would I say to a Secretary of state of any state who doesn't seem? who wants to you know, erect challenges and barriers to voting. I'm always amazed by that. I always say when I talk to those folks like I'm not sure why you wanted this job right who campaigns? I mean by the way like it's a statewide office. It's not the easiest campaign and I did it. We put a 90000 miles on one vehicle. just you know, I mean there's a lot of work and to campaign that hard for a job where big part of your job is running elections and the. Platform is like we're gonna have fewer people in them, It makes no sense to me and and so you know just logically. I mean that's the argument. I mean it's like if you're gonna be in this job. Why not do it really well? and I think what happens is it folks forget that some people may not vote for me. It's not actually a valid policy argument right like right like I've I've heard recently. The President say that he you know he is he is against. Some forms of vote by mail because he thinks that people if they do that people won't vote for him and like he acts like that's an argument against it and I'm like no matter what you think of the President like that's not an argument that has anything to do with people's lives right. Yeah, you couldn't go out and say like you know, really my problem with your health care position is people may like it, but you couldn't go on on TV and say my problem with it is it might be popular and it might hurt me in the. And have people go. It's a good point like I don't know why we accept that no matter who people are voting for if they're voter, they're voting eligible citizens like you should work as hard as possible to make sure that it's literally the job. Yeah, it's like saying I wanna be a tennis player, but I'm not gonna run well good luck. You're not gonna be Venus Serena anytime soon, so we have a question from one of our viewers and it's saying people are having a hard time finding a notary for their completed absentee ballot for June second if they're leaving town. Advice for Missouri voters and then another viewer is wondering about the status of the voting lawsuit. You mentioned. so Denise, you wanna take the first one. What if people are struggling to find a notary right now, What should they do? Yeah? I'm very sympathetic to that claim. I mean, not only our people staying home and don't wanna go out and have to find a notary, but many businesses remain closed and and maybe unavailable to the voters and voters shouldn't certainly should have to just like. And have to sacrifice their their safety to to make it to the polls on election day, they shouldn't have to sacrifice their safety in order to find a notary that said, banks libraries government offices the local election board. We'll have notaries available in addition, while it is the deadline for requesting an absentee ballot for the June second elections by mail has passed, it is still possible to vote absentee in person at the election, Board, Orr or your local clerk's office, and you can then. Void the crowds on Election day and they will notarize that ballot. They're right there for you because you'll be doing it in in their presence and that's one of the reasons that the lawsuit that we filed in addition to securing the right to vote by mail for all voters also argues that all voters should be able to cast a ballot during this pandemic without a seal voters there are many provisions already in our laws that. that protect the integrity of those ballots, including the fact that we all signed a legal statement on the ballot envelope under penalty of perjury in doing so falsely is is a criminal offense. You know I just was thinking as you were talking, sometimes you have to pay for notaries. so it's like you're actually having you have to pay for a stamp, but then you actually have to pay. Now that ain't right, that's why we got now. there's there's there's a provision that doesn't allow go ahead. I said some might call that a poll tax that's right now. That's right. That's right. Wow. Y'all. We gotta turn up in Missouri. That's to make any sense. they're putting like that's a that's a present day poll tax in a pandemic like I'm actually sitting here and thinking I'm not sure how I would have got my stuff notarized like I if I if I needed that for DC, it just feels. Going to the grocery store feels like an obstacle now and then to think it's just it's just shouldn't be. We've been talking a lot about who has power and you know you have run for office to charge you are the city treasurer people who run local elections. Yes, there's a Secretary of state that is a big office to run for. but people who often run local elections are also elected if you could give someone people are always asking me and I'm gonna ask Denise and Jason later if there are things that people. Do before our time comes, But people are always like what can I do and one thing people could do is consider running for office for some of these local elected officials. What advice would you give anyone if they were considering you know what the change I wanna see is like becoming a County clerk. What would you suggest to them if they were thinking about running for office? do your research on that office and do your research on yourself? because you never know what kind of information is out there on you that you know that your opponent may use. Also don't get discouraged that you may not win the first time that doesn't mean just because you don't win the first time doesn't mean that that it's not in the cards for you. one of the things I have to tell myself all the time is delay is not denial come on now. I think it's the church great but you know and and we need people to consider running for office. I'm not you know nothing against the people who are there now but these offices were not meant to be held for you know decades. I the gentleman. I replaced to have been in office for 31 years. so you know I think there's you know something to be, said about office is changing hands. You know at least every decade or so and then you know like I said and believe in yourself you you are already complete. You have everything you need to run. Yeah Denise. I cut you off. I wanted to give you a quick update on the lawsuit as well. You were gonna give a update on that. Yes, so our our case is now pending before the Missouri Supreme Court which has agreed to review it Quickly on an expedited basis, okay, Thank you and if people wanna get involved, you know hearing about this modern day poll tax hearing about this pending lawsuit and the legislation that's waiting to be signed if people wanted to get involved in the Missouri protection coalition. What can I do? Where can they go? How can they get engaged? Thank you so much for that question. So we need voter advocates from across the state of Missouri. We have a weekly tune up Missouri calls every. And people can get involved by texting MOV PC to 68 six and you'll get on our mailing list because not only are we fighting to ensure that voters can have safe free fair and accessible elections this year during the pandemic, but going forward and so what this is make people realize is that some of Missouri's voting laws are antiquated, for example, the fact. We don't have no excuse absentee voting and so we're working to make those things permanent moving forward to a prospective ballot initiative that would help modernize Missouri's elections in the meantime if you go vote on Tuesday, which is a municipal elections across the state of Missouri, we will have our election Protection Hotline live and if you have any problems or questions at the polls, please call us at eight six our vote. That's eight 668 78 68 three. Any questions about your voting rights and that hotline that's for anyone in the country who will be voting. That's a hotline so eight- six our vote. Can you say one more time where people can text if they wanna join your effort? Absolutely join if you are interested in protecting the right to vote, you can join the efforts of the Missouri Voter Protection Coalition, which is non-partisan by texting MOV PC to 68 six. Okay. We're coming up to our last question. And it's something I like to ask everyone that comes on to a turn up. we hear a lot of things like I'm still stuck on this notary piece and that people have to pay to basically vote and have to find these obstacles, But despite all the challenges despite the attempts of voter suppression despite this pandemic I always like to ask what is giving people hope to keep fighting this fight. So Jason can I start with you? What is something that is giving you hope these days. Sure, I can list all sorts of things. you know my Organization that I founded that I'm still on the board of America Vote. I said the most engagement in the last two months that it has had since I started it at the beginning of 2017 and I think that's because people really understand that this is an issue that is that the Cros of everything like it doesn't matter What issue you care about if you don't have the mechanics to actually exercise your right to vote, Then your opinion is only an opinion right. It's not counted and so I think people get that makes me very helpful. I'm on top of that if you just. If you just look at the the hoops that people have already demonstrated their willingness to jump through in the elections that have been difficult already during this pandemic and I feel what happened in Wisconsin. I think there are a lot of reasons to be hopeful and then the final thing is that while we talk a lot about maybe secretaries of state who are less inclined to to make it easier to vote or other politicians, the thing to remember is you as you referenced is that a lot of the actual you know with the rubber meets the road on our elections. At the local level and so people have enormous agency to do something about that because a lot of these positions like County clerk you know folks, they become a County clerk and folks in the County know, but it's not like they're getting talked about for every upcoming vote in the Capitol. every controversial thing that happens now, people just get used to the idea of the County Clerk Doss, the County clerk job, and they rely on it and so as a result, if you wanna see your whatever state you're in County Clerk County Recorder County Auditor whoever runs your local election, your local election board and some parts of Missouri if you wanna see them. More responsive to the people and get more aggressive and making sure that everybody gets a chance to vote put some calls into their office, and I think people are willing to do that because I promise you unlike you know, statewide officials or legislators hyper local officials they're not used to getting a ton of phone calls when a County clerk gets like five phone calls saying. Why aren't you doing like their hair is on fire and you know if if they're in the. And people are stopping and I'm going. Hey what am I gonna get my application in the mail. So I'm optimistic because I think people have a tremendous ability to influence that sort of thing at the local level and I think they were, I couldn't agree with you more to shara Jones City the city treasurer for Saint Louis. What is giving you hope right now? a couple of things so Jason sort of stole my thunder about the hyper elected officials. We're usually on the same page. Here's the problem. We're also we're also members or he's a former member of the New Deal and and that's a collection of state and local elected officials who are leading the change on issues like this, and so that's still gives me hope that there are elected officials at the local level at the state level who really care about this and are making the necessary changes to push these changes in their community and are showing up during this crisis for the people that they represent. That's what's giving me hope and the other thing that's given. Me hope is the Children's savings program that I started to the treasurer's office that has over 16000 children saving for post-secondary education because studies show that it's not the what's in the account is the presence of the account that makes the difference and I can't wait to see what my babies and I call all 16000 of them. my babies what they've become when they are when they start looking at their post secondary options as they get closer to graduation. so that's what. Me hope our children are our future and that's what's giving me hope. Thank you. Denise. I'm gonna give you the last word. What is giving you hope these days. Well, The voters are giving me hope. Yeah, I sometimes our debates about voting rights when I've been in this battle for a long time I can see in the weeds or seeing really political and I think people are understanding the true nature of the power of the vote in a very visceral way. because of the particular challenges we're facing right now and people understand that the. To vote is not about Democrats versus Republicans. It's about ensuring that everybody has a voice and that voice is really powerful and people I think are understanding on a very different level what it might feel like if if they were hindered and exercising that voice and democracy doesn't function if all who are eligible, don't have a seat at the table and that's such an important concept that all of us have to buy into the importance of securing the right to vote for everybody and if you don't have a seat. Like Chas, bring your own food and chair, Jason Kander and Denise Lieberman. Thank you so much for turning up Tuesday on Missouri, Missouri, you better get right cuz that Texas is wrong. you know voters deserve access to the ballot. It's a pandemic. We need to have safe. Thank you for all you do and stay in the fight. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.