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"Ballot Shenanigans: A New York City Voting Adventure" · D-constructing Topics

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  What's going on, my legendary people, my legendary folks, and welcome to an
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  impromptu or a little another special, special, special edition of the Deconstruction Topic Podcast.
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  My name is David, and I'm your legendary host of this beautiful, legendary podcast.
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  Oh, we making it happen on a hot day here in New York City.
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  Woo, let's make it happen. And I tell you, for those people that like following
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  my socials, I just posted a little picture of me.
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  And today, a couple of hours ago, decided, you know, hey, let me vote because
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  I always tell people, hey, listen, if there's one person that you could trust
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  the most, then I always say, why not vote for yourself, put your name in.
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  But we got the ranking choice. That means that you could put your name in and
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  you could kind of rank the other two major candidates that today is the primaries
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  for New York City major candidates and other candidates as well.
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  So if you exercise that thing of
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  voting Make sure that If you have any questions Make sure that they reach out
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  to your The local people there working hard To ensure that your vote counts
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  For whatever the purpose is But But But Feel free to share,
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  comment And all that good stuff Because this podcast is increasing by the numbers
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  I'm across all platforms Spotify, Apple.
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  Podcasts On the YouTube On whatever You listen to your podcast You put deconstructed
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  topics My information is there You hear the birds chirping?
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  Yeah Yeah, they part of the show too Whatever you talking about That's what
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  I'm talking about You voted?
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  Okay, next time vote for me I got you I tell you And I got my lovely neighbors
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  Out here already Asking me Hey, listen Was you in a ballot?
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  I'm like, hey, hey A lot of people Has always encouraged me to vote I mean,
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  I take it back to run for office Whatever office, whether it's local, district council,
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  mayor Now that I can run for United States president Because I'm a natural-born
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  citizen of Puerto Rico And I've been living here in the United States for seven
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  years The requirements, if I'm not mistaken Please, somebody correct me if I'm
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  wrong For some reason, I always stored,
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  Because I was born outside of the United States territory The 48 states or the continental to.
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  For some reason, I couldn't be in a ballot. But hey, listen,
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  that's neither here and there.
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  I always, from a young age, when I was a teenage homeless, you know,
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  family went through a little something, something.
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  And listen, things happen. You know what I mean? You know, one day I decided,
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  hey, listen, let me get to know New York City. Why not?
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  I decided, hey, listen, let me go downtown.
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  I stood a couple of nights there just because, for some reason,
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  I always felt like, hey, listen, The streets kind of adopted me,
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  so that's what's going on with that situation.
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  So we on with the show. We doing something incredible. And look,
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  here's the thing, what I post.
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  So, apparently, when I voted, and, you know, once again, I tend to write myself
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  in, or if I see that there's somebody interesting that might not be in the ballot,
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  but they qualify. You see, a lot of people don't know.
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  If there's somebody, let's say me, for some reason I qualify to be there,
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  but I'm not in the ballot, you can write my name in.
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  See, that's why they got a writing for that purpose.
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  Because there's candidates out there That just You won't see them in the ballot
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  But they are candidates Never the case might be Hey, sometimes we might have
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  20 candidates You cannot put 20 candidates in a slate,
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  Most likely you're going to put The popular ones Obviously Democrat, Republican.
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  Working families Whatever families So you got all those people in So once again
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  There's always that option That's one thing that I Like people to exercise more
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  And when you look at the ballot You look at the slate,
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  You're going to see something that says write in.
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  For some reason, there's been people out there, some of the elders that I've
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  came across who just did not know that. And sadly, the thing is this.
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  And I always have been a little bit critical as there's people over the age of 65, 70, 75.
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  And listen, by all means, you have the right to vote.
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  By all means, you have the right to all that. And just that if you don't know
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  Or let's say you were not aware that Hey,
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  you can do that little thing And somebody got a Amazon ring thing on As I do
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  in my little podcast In the beautiful confines of the streets of the Bronx Because hey, why not?
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  You know what I mean? It's a hot day and you know Hey, listen,
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  why not just get some of that A little bit of what happened once again When
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  I put my name in And then I'd do the ranking choice for the others,
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  And I'd put, you know, the other ranking for the others For some reason I'd
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  put that little ballad in that little machine Going scanning Dee-dee-dee-dee-dee.
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  Get an error. Please contact whatever your clerk. Tell them,
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  okay, let's do my thing. Open machine.
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  Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. They took the ballot out,
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  my ballot. Boom, boom, boom. Doing the scanning.
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  Asking me questions. Is this who it is? Yes. Next. Next.
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  You know, and I'm going through the little process. It's in there. It's doing their thing.
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  You know what I mean? It just, you know, percolating in that,
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  you know, that little ballot box, little scanning machine. And then, bam.
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  Error Paper Jam Contact the clerk The clerk comes in.
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  She calls somebody else One of the technicians If you will They open the box
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  The paper's not there But yet the machinists say that it's jammed But the paper
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  Or my ballot's not there So I ask politely Hey With all due respect What does that mean?
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  I'm going to take it that I got to ask you There's a good chance that my Vote
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  won't count Look at me And I think what they did Is that they go to computer
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  They voided my vote If I'm not mistaken That's something that could be done Only them,
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  You know, if I'm not mistaken On the best that I understand,
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  So they give me this little private ballot Whatever it is You know,
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  whatever the case might be My understanding is that Yes, my vote will You know, will count,
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  Once I do the second process I did the second process And now this time I had
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  to go to a different machine That they have And what happens?
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  Boom I do the machine Bom, bom, bom Now, this is my thing, right?
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  This is interesting Because the first time You know, where the paper machine
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  There were questions that it was asking me It was asking me to confirm if that's
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  the person you pick And you go, yes, next.
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  See, the second time around, and this is where I tend to throw red flags in,
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  and I don't want, look, my thing is this.
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  I don't want to discourage anyone that's voting. Then again,
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  if you want to question the process, the machines, and all that,
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  by all means, hey, you have the rights to do so.
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  Now, I'm one with the mindset that, hey, listen, if down the line I decide to
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  run, I have to know the process.
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  I would have to understand how certain things, you know, that would happen.
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  You know what I'm saying? I will have to know these things That are first hand
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  And for me to see that The questions that were asked On the first ballot Were
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  not asked on the second Not the first time That that happened to me When I voted
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  for the United State presidential elections 2024,
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  The same thing happened It just said thank you You know Whatever it is,
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  So you know I like to think Like if you got my ballot and you're scanning it,
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  I like to confirm that the screen or the ballot is recognizing what I pick.
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  Once again, I'm not sure if every state is different in New York.
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  They got that little ball that you got to make sure that you black it out.
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  Not a tag, not halfway. You know what I mean?
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  Make sure that that's there or graded out or blacked out, whatever it is that
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  you want to call it. Fulfill that little circle.
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  Again, I like the fact that when I first used the machine, the first machine.
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  It confirming that, hey, this is who you voted This is who you grade out But
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  they didn't do that to me on the second one.
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  It just said, you know,
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  whatever's doing his thing, you know Thank you for voting That's it, you know what I mean?
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  I like to think that there gotta be something a little bit more better,
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  you know And by the way, if you're in New York, so my thing is this And I know
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  that some people find upon this,
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  Because you don't need an ID, right? Or a state ID or whatever picture ID.
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  But if you're a registered voter, you give your information, they'll ask you.
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  So in other words, you know, I give out my name. They confirm.
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  They tell me, this is your address. Please sign.
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  They have a, how can I say when it comes to New York, and I'm saying New York
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  City, is that they do have a database, register signature from previous voting,
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  and they want to confirm.
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  I think I had a little issue with that as well today But, you know,
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  the clerk did accept my signature this time around For whatever,
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  and I explained to her, you know what?
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  I'll be honest, I'm a little bit hungry And it's hot, and my energy level is
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  normally From 1 to 10, it's normally 11, but now I'm at a 9 And between 9 and
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  11, that's a lot of energy for me You know what I'm saying?
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  So she understood, she laughed, whatever, did my thing Again,
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  keep this in mind And I always tell people when some of the,
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  you know, debates when it comes to voting, that you need a voter ID or whatever the case might be.
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  When I say voter ID, you mean like a state picture ID or something like that.
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  Your information is there. If you don't have a picture ID, now I recommend,
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  and I always have recommend people, regardless of your status,
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  it's always good to have some type of identification.
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  It's always good to have some type of, again, photo ID, is what I mean.
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  Everywhere you go, you know what I mean? And I think a lot of people agree that,
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  hey, listen, you get stopped by the cops.
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  Let's say you had an emergency, you had to call the ambulance.
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  You know what I'm saying? I mean, your information is basically there on that
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  state ID, regardless of what your status or your legal status in the United
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  States. My understanding, you know, New York, New York City makes it a bit easier
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  for those people to get it.
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  By all means, get it, get it, get some type of photo ID and official photo ID.
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  And once again, if you go to the vote, they will ask you and they will say,
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  hey, is this you? Like, if it's not you, you know what I mean?
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  You know, you could either pay a fine, do some time. I'm not sure what,
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  you know, the amount or what the penalty would be.
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  But don't go out there and say, oh, I'm this person. Oh, yeah,
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  that's me. and then vote on their money. That's a no-no.
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  So keep in mind, New York City does have some good measurements when it comes
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  to voting and your identification on who you are, especially if you have voted
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  before, especially if you are registered.
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  Because keep in mind, if you are registered, they will tell you.
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  If it's you, since who you register, so on and so forth.
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  You know, that's that situation. And, you know, obviously there are laws where
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  if you're going to vote for the primaries, let's say you're going to vote Democrat
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  or something to that effect.
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  You know, my understanding that there are states that you have to be registered under that party.
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  But, yep, once again, but the fact that that little thing happened is not the
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  first time it happens to me where something questionable happens.
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  And I say to myself, again, if I'm an independent candidate who is scraping
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  to get, you know, the amount of votes, the amount of, how can I say to you,
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  donors or whatever the monies.
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  So it's definitely concerning because, hey, listen, you as an independent,
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  let's say, again, once again, if I decide if there's somebody else that is running independent.
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  And now, you know, we have people with money, Mayor Bloomberg,
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  when ran as independent, not
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  to front of the Democrat, Republican Party or whatever happened, you know.
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  But hey, listen, the dude, you know, he's a multi-villainer.
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  So that means he could afford discrepancies because he got the money.
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  He's going to get the airtime. People like me, hey, listen.
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  So that means is this If I'm independent That means I have to trust the ballot
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  That they're going to work Especially if you write my name in That means that
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  those ballots Got to be flawless But sadly, hey, listen We understand in life.
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  Anywhere, you know If you're a technological person You depend on a computer
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  Let's just be honest There's a lot of.
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  You know, we live in a time That we depend on technology Cell phones You know,
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  and a lot of things You know what I mean?
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  You know, that's why You know, there's some people That I know of And I sometimes
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  forget that sometimes it's good to work with cash.
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  If you got it like that, you know what I mean? Or, you know,
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  depending because if you go to a place and the credit card, the machine,
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  the computer, nothing, the internet's not working.
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  You know You're stranded You know what I'm saying So it's one of those things
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  That yes I could understand There will be errors That will be made And I know that there is a,
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  Formula they use To correct these errors In the event,
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  And so yeah You depend You depend on The polls You depend that yes So just throwing
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  it out there Once again It's not something Where I want people To kind of You
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  know Get discouraged Or whatever the case might be Because hey If your boy Deconstructing topic podcast.
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  The size to fulfill, that little epiphany that I had since I was with this young kid,
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  a teenage homeless that I woke up one day, not too far from City Hall,
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  New York City, where I said, you know what, one day I would like to be there
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  and one day I would love to make changes.
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  And keep in mind, sometimes you don't have to be a politician to make and help people's lives.
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  But sadly, we live in a time where people depend on they think or their condition
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  to think that, hey, listen, you have to vote so you can get certain things done, you know what I mean?
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  And, you know, perhaps that's the case. Sometimes perhaps that's not the case.
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  But we make it happen. So if you're listening out there, and most likely I'm
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  going to close my podcast pretty soon.
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  So that means that if you are in New York City, you still got like about,
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  what, six, seven hours to make those decisions. And if you're not unsure or
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  you're unsure, whatever the case might be, just pop in that thing. My thing is this.
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  I'm not going to kind of divorce yet on who I voted on the ranking choice.
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  But one thing is for sure that I'm not a fan of these comos and these politician
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  families, whatever I call them, the families of politicians.
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  Where basically they live a long time. Yes, helping people. But then,
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  again, I always say, when you come to New York City, if you're living in New York City.
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  Every single thing or for one thing that they claim that were there for you,
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  let's say in New York City, we had labor unions years ago, maybe pre-COVID,
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  but the fact that it was like less than 10 years ago, in New York City,
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  keep in mind, New York City,
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  talking about a place that's like, what, 90% Democrat or something to that effect,
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  there was no paid sick time.
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  Keep that in mind how important sick time is for people out there that got a
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  family, they get sick, whatever it is.
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  Now New York City by law There's seven days that you get What they call PTO
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  Personal time off But keep that in mind That yes Under the Democratic administrations,
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  Of the Cuomo's Whatever it is Bloomberg Not
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  Bloomberg But uh De Blasio and So on
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  And uh You know Labor unions and companies Were able to push this pay time Off
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  But just because They give you that There are probably going to be five different
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  things That will be taken away from you And the fact that the rent in New York
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  City Tends to be a little bit pricey A little bit pricey,
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  If I wasn't living with my relative.
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  I'll be honest with you I'm 50% on my salary We go on rent in itself Keep that in mind 50%,
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  But we got to fix that We got to fix that But we making it happen Much love
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  out there This is your boy Deconstructing Topic Podcast My legendary folks Hope
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  you enjoyed this Once again, feel free to comment, share,
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  like, and all that good stuff.
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  Get together. We can make it happen. And that's for sure. Let's make it happen. I'm out. Peace.