Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:04 <inaudible>
Speaker 1 00:00:37 Good evening. Thank you for doing disability and progress, where we bring you insights into ideas about and discussions on disability topics. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. Thanks so much for tuning in Charlene doll is my research woman. And hello, Charlene with me, Charlene. You're not with me, Charlene. Hopefully I'm with somebody. Um, Matt Finkel and Annie Harvey. You are my engineers. And tonight we are speaking with Justin Page. Justin, are you with me?
Speaker 0 00:01:13 I am. And it looks like Charlene Charlene is on mute. Sorry.
Speaker 1 00:01:19 She needs done mute herself. And when she does, she can talk. Let's see. So Matt is the assistant supervising attorney with the mid Minnesota legal aid and Minnesota disability law center. And tonight we're going to be talking about voting and all that good stuff. So lots of changes with voting and such a strange time. So I've already dated this show. So thank you very much for coming on, man. I really appreciate it, Justin. Sorry, Justin, can you start out by giving me a little bit of history and how you got involved with, um, legal aid in Minnesota disability law center?
Speaker 0 00:02:06 Yeah, so I've been, uh, attorney, uh, at mid Minnesota legal league, which houses, the Minnesota disability law center, wide protection and Minnesota. We provide free legal services to individuals with disabilities education in the service integration program. And then again, we have a non program I've been, I was a staff. I started out as a staff attorney, uh, and I've been working on our voting rights project for probably about 10 years. I was recently, uh, given the, or promoted to assistant one of our assistant supervising, uh, positions where I oversee, uh, the bottom rights work we do.
Speaker 1 00:03:10 So what is the disability law center and what all, what did they do? And I know that's a huge question, but give us a little bit of an overview.
Speaker 0 00:03:18 Yeah, so the disability law center again is outside. It's a statewide protection and advocacy organization for people with disabilities. Every state has a protection and advocacy for people with disabilities and Minnesota. It is the Minnesota, uh, disability law center. Uh, we provide free legal services to individuals with disabilities. Uh, we focus, we do community services and integrations, a lot of medical assistance, appeals, uh, access and discrimination work. Uh, your more traditional, any day of fair housing act, uh, discrimination litigation. Uh, we do employment, uh, work for people who are involved with the vocational rehabilitation plant. Uh, so we do work, uh, in our office. Uh, we, our main office is in Minneapolis. They have a Duluth office and make keto office an office in fertile, Minnesota, which is up in Northwestern, Minnesota.
Speaker 1 00:04:30 Okay. And you said every state has some kind of state disability law office,
Speaker 0 00:04:36 Correct? Uh, yeah, it's called the protection and advocacy all, you would probably need to do it in another state to find what their protection and that would see is, uh, is just to Google the state and the words, protection and advocacy for people with disabilities. Uh, and you should be able to find it,
Speaker 1 00:04:56 Does that change in what types of things that they cover?
Speaker 0 00:05:00 Uh, you know, every state, every state, uh, has their own priorities, uh, and the types of cases they do. Uh, so I mean, a lot of it will overlap, uh, but there probably is a small amount of variation. For example, I know of the protection and advocacy organization and on the way to equip for equality, uh, does employment discrimination. We don't do a lot of employment discrimination work. So that's just one kind of example.
Speaker 1 00:05:39 All right, well, speaking of restrictions, there seems to be a lot of changes going on now. Um, we have a whole lot of things that have kind of changed and turned our world upside down during this strange COVID time. And I want to talk a little bit about the restrictions and accommodations that are in place because of COVID-19, uh, that will probably affect voting process for many Minnesota and other States as well. That's happening. So what is the difference in first of all, there's two voting times coming up and I want to talk a little bit about each one. There's two elections coming up, one in August and one in November. Can you talk a little bit about the differences in those two elections and do they change state to state?
Speaker 0 00:06:37 Uh, well, I can focus on Minnesota, uh, because I think a lot of States have, or most States have primary. Uh, although don't call me on that. Uh, but Minnesota, we definitely have a primary, uh, kind of run off, uh, and that election is on August the 11th and that election it's a valid. So you are voting for you kind of pick a party and then you pick the candidate. You would like to see, uh, you know, for example, like, you know, the there's a Senate us Senate race, uh, there's a, there's all the femoral life, the us house races and all of the, um, but you picked the party you want to vote for. So if you want to vote for the Republicans, you would just pick the Republicans for each race and then pick the person you would like to see when, uh, that race and then the boats will be counted. Uh, and then for example, there might be three Republicans running for U S Senate. You might vote for, uh, the second camp or the second candidate. And, you know, if George candidate gets the most votes, your candidate will then move on to the general election where it will be the U S uh, Senate Republican versus the us Senate, a Democrat, uh, as well as the nominees for the other parties.
Speaker 1 00:08:17 Um, sometimes they hear people say, well, it's not a big deal. If I don't vote in August, I'll just vote. Make sure I vote in November. Is this true?
Speaker 0 00:08:27 Uh, not, I don't, I don't, I don't know. Describe that view. I mean, I think all elections are important, uh, and you should do your research on all candidates. And if you think there's a candidate you prefer, uh, then you should definitely make your voice heard, uh, in the primary, uh, because if it's not hurting the August primary, there might be a different candidate, uh, in your party who gets, uh, the nomination. Uh, and I realized, I didn't talk about, uh, the November, uh, election and how it's different. Uh, the November election is kind of the party nominees, uh, and they are, and there's, so you have November, you'll have races for the president. So there's no, GRD had our primary for the president and this past March, uh, you'll have the U S Senate. Uh, so you'll have the Democrat and the Republicans and the other parties, uh, vine for who's going to be Senator, uh, all the house ready, uh, y'all have house races and all of the congressional races y'all have the whole Minnesota legislature is up for election. So you'll have your state rep and state, uh, Senator who you'll be voting for. And also there might be some local lessons. For example, I live in Minneapolis and there's a school portal election. Uh, so that'll be on the ballot, uh, this November. Okay.
Speaker 1 00:10:11 And presumably each state kind of has a couple of different things that may be here or there on their different elections.
Speaker 0 00:10:23 Yeah. Yeah. I mean, every state, every state will vote in the November election is on November 3rd and every state, uh, will vote on November 3rd. That's kind of the big, that's kind of the main election where there'll be you traditionally for the primary. The primary is not as well attended. Uh, even though I think it's as important. Uh, but most people do vote, uh, in the general election in November,
Speaker 1 00:10:52 If somebody isn't quite sure of all the things that's going to be on the ballot, is there somewhere they can go to look that up?
Speaker 0 00:11:01 Yep. So the secretary of state's office, uh, does a great job of providing a lot of voting information on the last 10. So if you have questions, uh, you can go to MN votes, MN votes.org, uh, and that'll take it to the secretary of state's website. And one of the features on that website is a sample ballot. So you and I did it today and it's really split. Uh, so you can just type in your address, uh, and it will actually bring you up. It'll pull up your actual sample ballot. So the sample ballot, you will actually see, so you'll know who the candidates are, and it'll give you a time to, or give you the ability to, uh, all those candidates.
Speaker 1 00:11:56 So each state anybody's listening since we are global, um, if they want, they should go to their secretary of state and on their website and they should be able to pull up their ballot.
Speaker 0 00:12:08 Well, I can, I can just, uh, say what Minnesota does, uh, what the secretary of state's office admin is something that does, I don't know, uh, if that feature, uh, is available in other States may, hopefully it is, it's a, it's a really great tool, uh, to help individuals know who it is, and it's not on the mouth.
Speaker 1 00:12:30 So we're talking about voting, right? And there's a change, um, from Minnesota state elections law. There's a, there was a new law, I think, right. That helps, um, with these elections to help them be safer. So what are some of those changes that came about?
Speaker 0 00:12:50 Right. So the legislature, um, passed a law in response to the COVID-19, uh, epidemic that we're experiencing right now, uh, to make voting safer. I mean, it's encouraging because we want to encourage people, uh, in Minnesota, we have absentee, uh, voting, so you can vote absentee, uh, through the mail or in person, uh, and the state. Uh, and everybody's trying to get everything encouraging everybody, uh, to vote, uh, absentee. So we really don't have, uh, a bunch of people that are, so you don't have to show up at the point in place and make a decision. You know, I have to get sick or can I vote, uh, we want to make possible. Uh, so there are so encouraging and then provides more money, uh, to encourage, uh, folks to vote absentee, uh, and because the polling places will also be open. So that is an option. Uh, if you do want to go to the polling place on election day, uh, and it, so it provides money for resources for kind of personal protective equipment, uh, such as hand sanitizer, uh, masks, uh, plexi class. So, so pole burgers, uh, chin, so we can make this experience as safe as possible for people who do, uh, go to vote.
Speaker 1 00:14:36 And, um, it said in, uh, in some of the materials, I read that some voting places may be closed depending on if they're near like some, you know, a compromised population of people that it's possible, they might close the polling place. Um, how would one know if that's going to happen?
Speaker 0 00:15:00 Right. Yeah, that's absolutely right. Uh, the, the bill allows, uh, local election officials to close polling places, uh, that are in, like, for example, a senior center, uh, where they're at a heightened risk, uh, to get COVID, uh, 19, uh, so you can find out, uh, and then I'm gonna, again, I'm gonna refer you to the secretary of state's website. Uh, you can go there type in your address if you're going to go vote in person. Uh, you'll want to go type in your address in make sure in that will tell you where, where you are voting, uh, because your place may change, uh, depending upon where you live. So if you've lived somewhere, uh, and you're used to going to, you know, the church down the street to go vote, uh, I'd encourage you, uh, to just make sure to double check, to make sure that your polling place has changed. So you're going to the right place.
Speaker 1 00:16:10 And so any, any polling place that is open, will it be required to have accessible voting machines?
Speaker 0 00:16:19 Yup. And that's one of the reasons, uh, why point places it is important, uh, point places to be opened is, you know, there are a lot for a lot of people, uh, accessible or absentee voting, uh, won't work, uh, because it's not necessarily accessible to everyone. Uh, whereas if you go to the polling place, uh, there are the ballot marking machines, uh, where you can vote privately and independently, uh, and make sure your votes cast, uh, and you can do that on the election day. Or you can do that if you vote absentee in person, uh, which has also an option, they should have the accessible out marking machine. So those be in all the polling places.
Speaker 1 00:17:12 So, uh, many months back, I went to somewhere where they were demonstrating different voting machines. I know they're, they're looking at while they, they are presumably bringing in some different voting machines to follow certain guidelines because each state under my understanding each state has its own guidelines of what it accepts or doesn't accept from a voting machine. So for instance, my understanding is our state requires a full ballot to be printed. And there are some States that don't require full ballot. Um, does that make sense to you?
Speaker 0 00:17:55 Right. So Minnesota decided, no, I think this all kind of stems out of the 2000 election, kind of the bottom line on what happened, uh, in Florida. And you might remember, uh, that hanging CHADS and the case when all the way to the Supreme court who won, uh, after that the Congress passed the help America vote act and to give States, uh, money to kind of fix their election systems. Uh, and in that they required, uh, accessible, uh, voting machines, which is definitely a great thing. Uh, one of the Minnesota decided, you know, States could decide whether they want to do to go kind of all electronic, uh, and just do it that way, Minnesota, because we like paper ballots, uh, in Minnesota. And I think paper ballots, aren't a good thing because at the end of the day, if something does go wrong, you have the paper ballot, uh, that you can go back and look at it and actually see who the person bothered for. Uh, so our machines, uh, so any machine that's used in Minnesota has to be able to print a printed, uh, ballot.
Speaker 1 00:19:11 Yes. I remember seeing, I believe I saw like three different kinds. So depending on where you are, I know for like, all I knew was the AutoMark and now there's a couple of different kinds coming out and some of them are being introduced into different counties. So I presume this is happening kind of all around different States. So people need to check out that idea of they need accessible voting machines, but that being said, how does the polling workers get trained on these machines? So they know how they work and how you know what to do with them.
Speaker 0 00:19:51 Right. So the point, I think one of the, of, you know, pulling them workers have to go through a training, uh, through the County and the secretary of state's office. And one of the pieces of the training is how to set up and use, uh, the accessible voting machine. But you're right. Uh, you know, most people will be familiar with the AutoMark Diaz. That's, what's been used, uh, kind of since 2004, 2005. Uh, now the machines are kind of aging out. So counties are having to figure out the next generation, uh, of voting machines, uh, gonna be, uh, whatever County you go to. You should be assured that the County workers, uh, that'd be trained on how you use a cane and we'll have it set up in a way that will allow people to vote independently and privately,
Speaker 1 00:21:00 Let's talk about voting by mail. Okay. That's one of the ways that you can vote early and safely, where if you feel uncomfortable going to the actual place, um, or don't want to do what the lines, all sorts of things, you may vote by mail. Can you talk about how that process works?
Speaker 0 00:21:24 Right. So you'll want to request, uh, an absentee ballot. Uh, and this is something that mid Minnesota has had absence that validated absentee voting, or, you know, many, many, many years. Uh, it used to be that, uh, prior to a few years ago, it used to be only a few go cause you needed a, an excuse, uh, to be able to vote absentee. Uh, I think in 2013 or 2014, Minnesota did away with that requirement and allows anyone, uh, to vote absentee. So you don't need, uh, an excuse anymore. What we'll need to do though, in order to vote, absentee is to contact, go on the secretary of state's website, MN votes.org, and request an absentee ballot. An absentee ballot will then be mailed to you and you can fill out that ballot and return it. Uh, before the election day, I would encourage people who are doing absentee ballot, just because I know when I put something in the mail that it's going to get there, but I'm never quite sure how long it's going to take.
Speaker 0 00:22:45 Uh, I would, you know, do it, you know, at least four or five days before, even though you can wait up until post market on election day just needs more kind of election day. But just to make sure that it's, uh, that it gets there. Cause I believe that for the primary, uh, if it's postmarked by election day and it gets there within two business days, they will count it. Uh, but I would just wanna make sure I give a little bit more time, uh, to do, to do that. And I should say that for the primary right now for the August primary absentee voting, uh, is underway. Uh, so if you want to vote now, uh, you can vote now.
Speaker 1 00:23:34 Okay. And it's unfortunate to me that having getting a male, you know, voting absentee by mail or voting early by mail is not accessible. I'm kind of disappointed on that one because I'm the one who needs the accessible ballot. And, um, and I mean, you can do that and get help. Obviously I could get somebody to help me fill it out, but it is not the same as having that full control under your fingers did vote for whom you want and feel like this is truly my private, you know, um, thing to be able to do that being said, you know, I'm confident in what I'm voting for and I don't ever feel pressured or, you know, I, I can vote for who I want. I imagine there are people out there that could feel in a position where somebody's helping them and they feel like, um, they might feel a little pressure. Like what if they say something about who I'm voting for? So what could they do about that if they aren't able to go into the polls, but need some unbiased help?
Speaker 0 00:24:56 Uh, I guess it kinda depends, uh, on the individuals, uh, situation, uh, because if they're not able, if they do need unbiased help, I mean, hopefully they have someone they know, uh, or could that could help them, that they can ask, uh, for help is I understand the point on, um, the accessibility of the absentee balloting. Uh, it's one of the few disappointing features of the system. Uh, I know in other States, uh, there has been work, uh, to make ballots accessible. Uh, and I know in Minnesota there's been legislation to do that. Uh, and it hasn't passed, uh, it hasn't passed the legislature. And unfortunately, I don't think they're been taken up in this special session, the governor, uh, uh, but I do know that there's people, uh, looking at that issue and working on it, hopefully we can get a face to that sometime soon.
Speaker 1 00:26:17 Let's say you're not registered to vote yet. How do you go about doing that?
Speaker 0 00:26:23 Well, there's a couple of ways, uh, to go about registering. So in order to be, uh, to register, you need to be at least 18 years old, us citizen, uh, in Minnesota for 20 days and be, have your felony sentence, uh, completed. If you want to register, uh, before the election, uh, you would again go to the secretary of state's website and they have a registration online registration, uh, and you can just register online, uh, for, you know, if you're not able to, or you move to Minnesota, you know, um, say you move, you know, late October, uh, and you just haven't been able to register yet. Uh, you can go, uh, you can actually register at the polling place on election day. Uh, and if, even if you don't and so you'll have to bring kind of the documents you need, uh, for registration and find out all the documents, go on the secretary of state's website. Uh, if you don't have the documents, you can have someone vouch for you who lives in the precinct. Uh, and they'll vouch that they know you live in the precinct, so you'll be able to register.
Speaker 1 00:27:46 Yeah. My understanding is like, you need your ID and probably at some kind of bill or statement that States your address. Right?
Speaker 0 00:27:54 Correct. And if you don't have that, you can have someone bought for you.
Speaker 1 00:28:00 Oh, okay. That's always good too. So, um, remembering all those who want to preregister or register, if you need to, if you've just moved somewhere or you have moved to a different, uh, you probably do need to register again, if you have moved to a different County.
Speaker 0 00:28:23 Uh, it's my understanding that every time you move, you need to register, uh, your new, your new address.
Speaker 1 00:28:34 Okay. So let's talk about the safety things that they're doing for voters and polling workers in regards to at least in Minnesota, so that people feel safer. Is there a mandatory masks wearing in the polling places?
Speaker 0 00:28:55 Um, you know, there is not a mandatory, um, mask, uh, wearing in the polling places. Uh, but they are. I do, I did, uh, share the secretary Simon, who was the secretary of state in Minnesota, uh, interview, uh, say they are going to have masks, uh, for people and encourage people to bring their mass and they don't have a mass, uh, they're, they're good. They're going to give them a mask. Uh, and they want encourage people, uh, who come to vote, uh, to wear a mask because masks work, uh, based on the, kind of the science. So they want to make this as safe as possible. Uh, for everybody who's coming in the point place.
Speaker 1 00:29:44 Do they worry about not finding enough polling workers if they don't have enough safety things in place?
Speaker 0 00:29:53 Well, I'm not even sure that it's a question of how many safe, how much safety things, uh, are in place. Uh, it's just a question of, and I just read an article today, uh, in the Duluth paper, uh, where they're scrambling to try to find polling workers, uh, because there are a lot of point workers. Who've been workers for many, many years who, you know, just basically COVID-19, they're very, they're very concerned about getting, getting COVID, uh, and it kind of doesn't matter how many protections you put in place. Uh, the they're just concerned and, you know, you can't blame, uh, you can blame people for just being concerned, uh, spend a lot of hours, right? You spend a lot of bend. A lot of now you spend basically all day, uh, there. Uh, so there is a concern that there aren't going to be enough polling places. Uh, that's another reason why they're probably not going to be able to staff all the polling places, uh, that they've staffed, uh, in previous elections and why you'll want to check the website, secretary of state's website to see if your polling place is open and if not, where you should be able to go, well,
Speaker 1 00:31:20 Let's talk about curbside voting. How do we have it? And if so, how does it work?
Speaker 0 00:31:26 Yup. Uh, current. So in Minnesota, we have curbside voting, uh, so curbside voting, if you can't get into the polling place, uh, and you want to vote curbside, uh, you can, uh, and so you pull up to the election, uh, election, um, polling place, uh, to judges, uh, will come out and they will give you your ballot. You can fill out your ballot, uh, if you need assistance, uh, one of the election judges, uh, could help you, uh, provided that assistance for you. After you fill it out, you return it to the election officials, the election officials take the ballot and then submit the ballot. And then you can go on your way.
Speaker 1 00:32:20 Now, do you have to, presumably you have to let somebody know you're coming to do that, right? You wouldn't get out of your car, walk in and say, I will never vote curbside. How do you let them know
Speaker 0 00:32:31 I would, and this is always a question that gets raised every election, uh, how the let Alaskan workers know biz, I've been to many, uh, election, uh, polling places. And there's never an election worker or rarely an electron worker just kind of waiting outside. Uh, so I would, I mean the best bad test, uh, elections, uh, worker or County, uh, so call the elections office, uh, tell them, you know, where do you vote? What time are you gonna be there and ask them to have, you know, an electron worker, just kind of looking for you, uh, to keep, to keep an eye out for you. Uh, so that they know you're coming, that's probably, uh, the best way to do it.
Speaker 1 00:33:30 Okay. Now, presumably they'll have wipes and plexiglass things installed and things like that to kind of help with separation and keeping a little bit of distance. But I have been lucky enough in my polling place. I think I am going to vote early by mail. I will have to have somebody help me, but, you know, like I said, I feel confident that that I will be okay. And I don't feel like I'm going to get pressured. And do you foresee some people saying, you know, this is just too hard this year. I'm not going to vote.
Speaker 0 00:34:16 I hope not. Uh, because actually, you know, you know, it's, it might be hard to get to the polling place and we want to encourage people, uh, to vote, uh, absentees. So there's less people going to the polling place. So that's better for the health of the voter and health of the polling place, a worker, but absentee ballot. We've had absentee validating in Minnesota, uh, for a number of years. Uh, so there's really nothing that's changed about the way that, you know, people are voting, uh, absentee. Uh, so I would hope that it's been around so long that people are comfortable waiting for agitate. And they just realize that voting absentee is just like voting in person except you're voting from home. And that would not, uh, that would not discourage someone from voting
Speaker 1 00:35:19 If somebody has trouble or is having trouble casting their ballot, what can they do?
Speaker 0 00:35:25 Um, if someone is, and I guess if you're having trouble casting your ballot and you're in the polling place, uh, ask, uh, the left hand official, uh, help you, or, I mean, another option is you can have, you know, if you need assistance, you don't have to rely on, you can bring someone, uh, to assist you, uh, and they can assist you in the ballot if you want.
Speaker 1 00:35:56 Um, and our election and, um, August 11th, you said the, the, um, ballads can get there. As long as they're stamped the day of will they be accepted a day or two after?
Speaker 0 00:36:13 It's my understanding that they will be accepted two days after, but, you know, because I've, you know, and usually the post office is pretty good. Uh, but they're going to have a lot of, a lot of mail. Uh, I would just want to make sure just for the couple of days earlier, uh, to make sure that you're okay.
Speaker 1 00:36:40 Things have been a little crazier lately. So how, what about the, the election on November? Um, they might be a little more strict about that because they do want to get I'm. Uh, I am presuming that a lot of people are going to take advantage of the voting early in the mail and ballot this year. Um, so do they, if they're not there on November 11th, do they, are they not accepted?
Speaker 0 00:37:13 You know, I think that the postmarking and voting on election day, uh it's for right now, uh, it only applies to the August 11th, uh, the primary, uh, so I would need to check in further, uh, before, uh, about when you have to get in, uh, the ballot for election. I mean, my view was just, you should just make sure you get in the ballot, uh, sooner rather than later. Uh, so yeah, I'm going to get it in like a week early, uh, just to be,
Speaker 1 00:37:57 It can't be too early, right. I mean, if it, if you send it in earlier, that will it just sit and wait for them to count it.
Speaker 0 00:38:05 Right. And I believe, uh, so you can start voting early again, you can vote early, start winning early now, uh, for the August, uh, 11th flashing, it actually started early voting, uh, started June 26 for the November 3rd election. Uh, you can start voting September 18th, uh, but the votes won't actually be, I don't think they'll that until a week or two though. I'll think they'll start a week, maybe prior to the election counting them so they won't count them. Uh, but you can vote, uh, any time after September 18th,
Speaker 1 00:38:53 You know, there has been a lot of stuff going around as far as from the white house and stuff about mailing ballots and that they lead to higher fraud and whatnot. And then, you know, we were, I hear that. No, that's not true, but it does not. Um, it doesn't mean that there's a bunch of mail fraud going on with mail in ballots. Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 0 00:39:23 And that's absolutely right. Uh, there is not a lot of fraud, uh, in general in the, uh, voting process in Minnesota and especially with mail in ballots, especially is although that has been definitely raised, uh, as a concern. Uh, but it's not something that is the case, uh, because, you know, in order for mailing ballots and by mail unbalance, I mean, absentee, uh, voting by mail, uh, the individual has to request a ballot. Uh, so kind of a fee for someone who wanted to, to Jew who was up to no good and wanting to, you know, steal a ballot, they would have to know the person has requested a ballot because Balaton Cohen to everyone. Uh, and then the voter puts identifying information on their ballot, uh, which kind of someone who wanted to monkey around with the ballots want to be able to want to be able to switch the ballots because like steal the ballot, uh, because, you know, you need the voter needs to have that personal identifying, uh, information, uh, on the ballot in a Minnesota. Uh, you give there's a way on the secretary of state's website, uh, to track the ballots. So you, you know, you do have concerns, uh, you can, you know, go to the <inaudible> website and go to the ballot tracker, uh, page and put in your information and you can be assured that, okay, my ballot has been received and it's been counted.
Speaker 0 00:41:20 Yes, absolutely. How do you do that? Right. So you to get your absentee ballot, uh, you can fill it out. Uh, and then I haven't, I haven't, I haven't thought at absentee yet. Uh, I'm planning on it. Uh, but I know there's a site on the secretariat's website where you can track your ballot and you would put in the information on your ballot, and it would give you an update as to where things are, uh, whether your ballot has been received or not.
Speaker 1 00:42:01 Okay, cool. And, um, that's actually, that's good to know. And presumably this whole mail in ballot thing can work as well with people in group homes and whatnot that they can get mail in ballot and get help presumably in their group home, if they need anything explained.
Speaker 0 00:42:25 Yeah, they can. Absolutely. If you're in a group home or residential, uh, facility assisted living, I mean, you can get, uh, requests for ballot, uh, by mail in both, uh, absentee.
Speaker 1 00:42:42 Do you have statistics on approximately how many people with disabilities vote each election?
Speaker 0 00:42:51 I know I don't have statistics on kind of the raw number of how many people vote. I do know that it is generally, you know, five to 10% less, uh, than the voting percentage. So let's say 60% of the people voted in your state. So the States such as Minnesota, uh, that would be, you know, people with disabilities with a rate of 55 or 50%. So it is lower. So, you know, we want to encourage, uh, people with disabilities to vote, to get that number up. So people with this buddies, uh, are voting, uh, at a similar level, uh, than the general population.
Speaker 1 00:43:39 Presumably maybe with things being made a little bit easier that more will vote this year. If you had to give a couple of reasons to somebody, they say, why should I vote? What would you tell them?
Speaker 0 00:43:55 I would say, you know, because you're voting for, uh, the government, uh, at all different levels from school board to president, uh, you want to vote, if you want to see change, uh, if there are issues that are really important to you, uh, such as transportation, healthcare, education, housing, I mean, the list goes on and on. Uh, and you think there are issues with those areas and you'd like to see changes in those areas. Uh, you should vote, uh, because really in our society voting is the only way, uh, to make those changes. Uh, so I would encourage anyone, uh, who's passionate or, or feels whatever way about whatever issue, uh, to vote for the candidate that reflects their beliefs.
Speaker 1 00:44:57 I do want to remind people how important it is to make sure you vote. And I really like the idea that it's being way acceptable for people to vote early. And I think just really opens up the timeline for people to get their votes in and to be able to do that and get help if they're having trouble. So can you give us the websites again for if people need questions answered, if they need a ballot, if you know, whatever they might need to know about coming up voting
Speaker 0 00:45:34 To, to know about the dates, uh, the registration requirements, uh, how to request an absentee ballot, where to vote, uh, the time of the elections, uh, they should go to the secretary of state's website, uh, M and votes.org. Uh, there's also a one 800 number, uh, that they can call. It's a one eight, seven, seven, 600 vote. It's one eight, seven, seven, 600 vote.
Speaker 1 00:46:15 I really appreciate this, Justin, is there anything I missed?
Speaker 0 00:46:18 Yeah, I guess the only other thing, uh, that I would add, uh, is for there's sometimes there's confusion in the community about people under guardianship, uh, and just want to clear up that confusion. Uh, people under guardianship can vote, do have the right to vote, uh, of less their guardianship papers, uh, specifically, uh, make a finding that they are unable to vote. Uh, so if you're, uh, under a guardianship or have a guardianship question, uh, take a look at your guardianship, uh, papers. And if they say nothing about voting, that means you're, you should be able to vote and we encourage everybody to vote.
Speaker 1 00:47:06 All right. Excellent. Charlene, did you have any questions for Justin before we left? I'm going to take that as a no. Well, Justin, thank you. It's been great having you on. I really do appreciate this and, uh, take care and happy voting this year.
Speaker 0 00:47:25 Well thank you for having me on and I agree. Happy voting go.
Speaker 1 00:47:30 This has been disability in progress. The views expressed on the show are not necessarily those of cafe or its board of directors. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. Charlene bell is my research woman, Matt Finkel, and Annie Harvey are my engineers. Thank you guys. I couldn't do it without you. And tonight we were speaking with Justin Page. Justin is the assistant supervising attorney with the mid Minnesota legal aid, Minnesota disability law center. This is Kathy I 90.3, FM, Minneapolis and Kathy I dot O R G. Don't forget about our podcasts and, um, our archives, an app that you can download on your phone. And if you want to be a part of the email or you may email disability,
Speaker 2 00:48:18 <inaudible>.
