#12 Go Vote Today

Go vote! Shelly Roehrs, President with the Pikes Peak Region League of Women Voters reminds us the deadline to postmark a ballot is coming. If you mail it in, it must be postmarked 8-10 days before November 3. Yet, ballots can be dropped off at drop-box locations anytime up to 7:00 PM on voting day and of course you can vote in person. Find drop-box locations at govotecolorado.gov. The League has been an active, non-partisan voice encouraging voter engagement and understanding of issues since 1937. Visit 411.org to review summaries submitted by candidates and issue sponsors. Visit the local League at lwvppr.org for more information. Additional ballot issues are discussed at the League podcast at lwvppr.org. Transcript: Cynthia: Hello everyone, this is Cynthia Margiotta with the Area Council of Government's Area Agency on Aging, volunteering some time to do an interview with Shelley Roerhrs. She is with the League of Women Voters of the Pikes Peak region and their mission is to empower voters and defending democracy, thank you. The League of Women Voters has fought since 1920 to improve our systems of government and impact public policy through citizen education and advocacy. The League is a nonpartisan and grassroots organization. The League of Women Voters from the Pikes Peak area region has been active since 1937. Members actively promote voter and civic education by registering voters in high schools and nationalization ceremonies, attend city and council government meetings, present the pros and cons of the issues of our elections, and much more. The League of Women Voters has two separate and distinct roles: better service and citizen education and action advocacy. What this means to you guys who are listening, is the league's mission is to inform voters about the issues and candidates on our ballots. Candidates and issue organizations fill out information provided to them in an online voter guide and voters can visit vote411.org for this convenient information. The League also encourages active participation, whether it's in the office of an elected representative, City Council meetings, writing a letter to the editor, or at rallies. The program also empowers voters by emphasizing the power of the voter and promotes voting in every election: presidential, gubernatorial, municipal, primaries, and special elections. Wow, you guys do a lot! Shelley Roerhrs: We do, we do. We keep pretty busy, especially in a presidential year. Cynthia: I bet you do! Now, it's like every commercial out there is about elections. Shelley Roerhrs: It is, it is. We try to strive like you mentioned the presidential, gubernatorial, and municipal, we want you to vote in every election. We don't care who you vote for, we are a very nonpartisan group. But again, it doesn't matter who you vote for! For us, as long as you vote in every election, that includes your primaries, municipal elections, and special elections as well. Cynthia: Yes, I agree with you it's important to vote. We are leaving ourselves out of the discussion if we don't vote. Shelley Roerhrs: Yes, ma’am. Cynthia: Let's get to our first question! Q: We are a mail-in-ballot state. Is there a lot of voter fraud in a mail-in-ballot state? Will my vote be counted? Shelley Roerhrs: So, yes, 100%! Mail-in-ballots are safe. The unique thing about Colorado is that we've been a mail-in-ballot state for quite a while. They are pretty much the grade A of how other states basically relate to and say "this is what we want to do in compared to Colorado." So, you know, there are no issues with mailing in your ballot, as long as you mail it in on time. We'll get to kind of some dates later on as far as when you're supposed to mail it in. But yes, mailing your ballot or you know, what's even more convenient is if you don't want to Mail it in, the El Paso County has all of those drop boxes. So, they are located all over the city and the county. Just go to one of those drop boxes and drop off your ballot if you don't feel like mailing it in. Again, so another convenient way the drop-off box. Cynthia: Q: Where do the drop-off boxes tend to be? Shelley Roerhrs: I think like there sixty-something boxes across the county. I know there's one on that, of course, the El Paso County Clerk and Recorder on Garden of the Gods typically have them. DMV places typically have them. Community centers, like your Municipal Court, have them. City locations, anywhere a lot of people congregate, that is a government facility, are typically where they're going to have one of those drop boxes. I know there's one down at the courthouse downtown as well. Cynthia: Yes, that's typically where we drop ours off. Q: Do you have a calendar of important upcoming dates? Shelley Roerhrs: Well, I want to go back to when you said is there a lot of voter fraud. I want to solve voter fraud because you see a lot of that coming from our leaders who say mail-in ballots are not safe. I think just a couple weeks ago there was a time when our president was actually telling people to vote twice. That's actually not a good thing, right? We don't encourage that. It's actually a felony in some states to vote twice. So from a voter fraud perspective, this is from Chuck Broerman, we have our own podcast called "Making Democracy Work" and we interviewed Chuck Broerman for this specific reason regarding voter fraud. Because, honestly, my dad thinks that mail-in-ballots are rot with fraud. Now, he comes from a state that does not have mail-in-ballots, so we try to educate him. Again, one of those things that the League of Women Voters does is try to educate voters. In my case, I'm trying to educate my father as a voter. Your mail-in-ballot, if you do choose to mail it in, is safe. It is not going to be manipulated. It will count. The great thing, again M. Broerman, the Clark County Recorder you know? They have specifically designed our ballots so they have a special barcode on special weighted paper that they know exactly when they come in. That might be a fraudulent ballot and the number of fraudulent ballots that actually come in is very, very minuscule. I think it's a matter of the ones, that he said that came in, and someone voted twice. And again, it was very small. So the thought that we need to spend money on trying to fight voter fraud is, I think, somewhat comical actually. You know, if some people think that there's voter fraud out there I would encourage them to actually talk to their Clerk and Recorder. The Clerk and Recorder is the person who deals with your voter registration in your elections. They know exactly what is going on. Just don't believe everything that you see on T.V. or look at in the paper. It's not necessarily the truth. But your last question was; will your vote be counted? I think yes, as long as you vote. That's the most important thing, right? The most important thing is that you vote and yes, it will be counted. Cynthia: They have a specific weight, you know? I don't know how anyone would mimic that so well. Shelley Roerhrs: There are some smart people out there, but again, I think that they're doing things in other ways to manipulate our elections rather than this voter fraud that we're focusing on. I think, for your listeners, yes drop it off if you feel that the mail-in- ballot is rot with fraud. Mail it in or go ahead and drop it off in one of those drop boxes knowing that that goes directly to the Clerk and Recorder's office. There's no in-between man and the post office is not in there. But, again, mail-in-ballots are safe. Here's the thing, the military people didn't have a choice, right? Overseas, people don't have the choice to mail it in. You know, they have to mail-it-in. Cynthia: Right! Shelley Roerhrs: Your other question was about important upcoming dates. I'll just kind of move into your other question! Military and overseas voters, they have already started mailing those ballots. So they are arriving in the next couple of days if you haven't already received them. So, those specifically were already mailed in. Our ballots, for everybody else, will be mailed out on October 9th. Cynthia: Okay, good! Shelley Roerhrs: So that's when we should be looking for them in the mail. Cynthia: That gives us plenty of time to do our individual research to see, you know, who do we want to vote for? I like that you guys are nonpartisan, that's an important part of who you are because you're not trying to convince people to vote one way or the other. Shelley Roerhrs: For candidates, I will say that. I'm going to preface that a little bit because we are going to get into some ballot issues, right? We do not specifically tell you who to vote for, especially candidates as a League of Women Voters. You know, that's not our job. There are certain ballot issues that we do take a stance on, just because it goes with our advocacy. Whether that's the park's air quality or the water, right? Those are big, important issues of the league and for us. We do kind of take and give you. There is one proposition, 113, which is a state ballot issue. The national popular vote is coming up. And, again, we will get into those ballot issues. That is one where we would like you to vote yes, right? We don't want the same issue to happen again with the Electoral College. You know, we want every vote to count and that is exactly how every vote counts, is the national popular vote. So, that is one thing but another date that is going to be important for your listeners. In the state of Colorado, two notices come out. One is a state notice that the state puts out, and it's on state issues. Those come out around the...