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10 23 24 Colorado Inside Out host Kyle Dyer talks about securing the voting process
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When you told us you were doing something about this, about following the ballot process beginning to end, I was totally intrigued. Tell me what you learned and what the episode unveils and reveals to everybody. My producer Rachel and I both thought, of course, we have two big tickets that everyone's talking about, but I feel like there's a third thing, much under scrutiny, that being our election. Let's answer some of the questions, some of the allegations, some of the accusations that are out there. You pulled together for our show, Two County Clerks, one from Boulder, one from Weld County, a law professor and Amber McReynolds, who's regular on Colorado Inside Out. She is a national election expert, administration expert and Alton Dillard, who worked for the Sydney County of Denver as a spokesperson during election time. That was our cast. I learned that we should not be concerned about what happens to our ballot. In terms of when it arrives, the amount of work that gets put into crafting the ballot for your specific county, for your specific district, to making sure it goes to the correct address, to making sure once it goes in the ballot box, there is a team of election judges, one Republican, one Democrat, who picks up those ballots from the box and takes them over to the processing season at center. There is a chain of custody just in that and the amount of judges and people who are looking at our ballots, scanning codes, checking our signatures, making sure I am living at the correct address. I personally feel very secure and I learned so much. You talk about the life of the ballot and a much simplified version of the very extensive process of what it goes through in order to get your ballot counted. But pretty much all I ever know is that I seal it up. I do what I can on my end to make sure that it is all accurate. I put it in that drop off box and then I go, what happens from there? What was a part of that process that was most surprising to you? I think one of the things that interested me was what happens to even get to our mailboxes. There are some people who say, and I live in a community where there's a community mailbox. What if ballots are stolen? Well, every ballot that comes to your house, Gina, has a barcode that is different from Marty's. So aside from your addresses, you have a barcode, your ballots are already singled out. So from that process from when it leaves the printing center and the county offices, it is secure. It is for you. When your ballot comes in to the ballot box and then gets transferred to the processing center, they're checking off that scan. They're looking at the signature that you put on the outside of your ballot. Don't forget to sign your ballot, everybody. That's the one thing people always forget. You know when you go to your safety deposit box and they bring out that piece of paper and it has your various signatures over the years, the counties have that as well. So they can be like, my signature has changed in 20 years. They can be like, oh, this is, yeah, this is right, or whoa, this is totally different. Let's say you never got a ballot in the mail. Let's say because a ballot tracks, the county can be like, oh, wait, we have one that came from your address. Wait, this isn't yours, okay, we'll avoid that. Let's get you a new ballot. So there are a lot of ways to know where your ballot is at all time. And ballot tracks started in Denver. And now it's a nationwide thing and 150 million people do track their ballots. Kyle, we hear so much about technology. This is what throws me a little bit with this, but still we use paper ballots and one of the anecdotes I saw in doing some due diligence is more voters are voting on paper than any time in history. So more audits are taking place. This enhances safety, but how when people have concerns, I guess about paper ballots. And, you know, I didn't realize all the processes to you hear about audits and certification. I'm like, which one comes first? The audit happens before you can certify. So basically the judges, again, from both parties, bipartisan judges will look at your ballot, Gino or Marty, that you filled out and then compare it to the cast vote record, which is basically what the computer voting system scanned in its report. So it's going to be scanned your ballot, but then a judge is going to make sure the scan lines up with what you wrote on your ballot to make sure that it's the same. We've been telling a lot of listeners how thick their ballots are this year. Lots of propositions, lot of statewide proposals, even local counties all have a lot of ballot initiatives who actually has the most complicated ballot in our state. And then if you went in completely blind, unaware of what to select, how long would it take you to fill out your ballot? I can tell you that Weld County, we learned from our Weld County Clerk and Recorder who is on our special show, Carly Copas, they have a thousand different ballots that go out in Weld County. So imagine working in the election office, the Clerk and Recorder is trying to get a thousand different ballots, and that is because in Weld County, there are 22 school districts, there are 30 municipalities and all sorts of fire and water districts, so you have to make sure that somebody's ballot is correct for them across the street. It might be a different ballot, complicated yes, or even in-person voting that's happening now. If you weren't prepared in Weld County, it could take you an hour and a half to go in-person vote. But they also say Weld County is a county that really loves to do the mail-in voting. And the majority of Coloradoans do because it's convenient and when it's so thick like this, you can sprawl it out on and you're, you know, down your table and get the blue book and do your research. Do the counts in each county, are they done differently? Is it done different in Weld County, different in Jefferson County, in the sense of how they count the votes, whether it's the in-person first, the ballots first? From what I heard from our panelists, no, everything is pretty uniform. And at seven o'clock, they all expect the same rush at five o'clock, that's the same. At seven o'clock, the ballot boxes are locked. The judges that are out there, the bipartisan judges take the last load and they go out to the Frost City Center. People who are in line can still vote, but it is done. And that is again, where they are checking the scanned ballots versus the paper ballots, checking those signatures. We've talked about how some counties in this country, or forget the computers, let's go back to people counting. Our election law experts said, "We're really good at humans at doing a lot of things, showing empathy, understanding, but we're really bad at counting things." If you go to the bank, they count the dollar bills in that machine, let's have the computers continue to do the processing and have the extra eyes of the people. Is speed of the count an accuracy of the count, are they in conflict or confluence? People want results immediately, but then they also concern about the accuracy. And can you have a speedy count and be inaccurate? All of our county clerks say this will go on because of the many steps we're doing, because the public demands, because it's our democracy, and we need to take our time. We need to take our time and make sure everything is counted correctly. And so when you say, "Oh, what's the matter with the people counting the ballots? Why don't we know before we go to bed to tonight?" Right. That's what I'm saying. We hear that a lot. It's because of the steps and the processes taking to make sure this is a secure election, and then everyone's vote is heard properly. Some people allege that our voting machines are connected to the internet. True or false? That is false. Our ballots are scanned, and they are not connected to the internet. Last week on Colorado Inside Out, one of our panelists brought up a lot of the allegations that are being made. One of our panelists has said, "No, .23456, no, this is not correct." That segment of our show has received so much, so much feedback, because people are like, "Why are you spreading conspiracies? Why are you doing that?" We followed up with the accurate part, but I think that right there shows you how much this program is needed to show people the inside and out. What is the biggest takeaway you hope listeners and viewers take? Trust the system. There are people that are devoted 24/7 the whole year. It's not that you started getting busy last summer. They are constantly working on how to improve our processes. Also, I want people to know that they care deeply. The people who are working in these election offices, they don't care who wins or what wins. They just want it to be right, and they care deeply. When they hear questions, they welcome questions. All of our county election offices offer tours. You can go in and see the process. They'll open the doors. Come in. Let us show you. But when there are threats, that was upsetting to them. Kyle, give our listeners all the information of where they can see this for themselves on PBS 12. Colorado Inside Out's special edition of the election security process airs for the first time at 8 o'clock this Thursday night, and then, of course, we're going to run it a lot, because I think this is a topic that we all need to see. It's also streaming on Spotify and Apple Podcasts, and you can watch it on YouTube as well, so really, if you're not around Thursday night at 8 o'clock, we got you covered. It is fascinating, and there are just so many people working so hard, and for as much as they're working so hard, they can't believe there's still so many questions. But they welcome the questions. They want the transparency. They want people to trust that this is a fair, honest, and secure election. I must see episode of Colorado Inside Out on PBS 12. It's our friend and host Kyle Dyer. Kyle, thank you so much. Thanks for caring. But there's only one feeling like knowing your banker personally, like growing up with a bank you can count on, like being sure what you've earned is safe, secure, and local. There's only one feeling like knowing you're supporting your community. You deserve more from a bank. You deserve an institution that stood strong for generations. Bank of Colorado, there's only one. Number FDIC. 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