Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Secretary of State Election and Voter Corruption

Transcript

Secretary of State Election and Voter Corruption · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The last half hour was Scott Vorhees. We had a
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: challenger to the Secretary of State position that was on
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: the air with Scott Vorhees, Scott Peterson. He made a
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  Speaker 1: lot of comments about why he is running and challenging
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  Speaker 1: the incumbent Secretary Bob Evanan and Secretary Bob Evanon is
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  Speaker 1: sitting right next to me right now.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, Good morning, Madam Mayor. Is great to be
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  Speaker 2: with you.
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  Speaker 1: Well, good for you to be and thanks for being
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  Speaker 1: here too. You know, Bob is an attorney, he is
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  Speaker 1: a former State Board of Ed member and the Secretary
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  Speaker 1: of State. Basically, one of the most important jobs that
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  Speaker 1: you do is you oversee the elections and you want
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  Speaker 1: to ensure that the elections that there's integrity, that they're honest, etc.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm going to let you talk a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if you had a chance to listen
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  Speaker 1: to what Scott Peterson said, probably not, you're probably out
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  Speaker 1: doing business. But he said he was running because he's
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  Speaker 1: not happy with what's coming out from the Secretary of State,
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  Speaker 1: and he said people don't trust election system and whether
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  Speaker 1: it's right or wrong, he said, it's a problem and
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  Speaker 1: it needs to be addressed.
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  Speaker 3: They need to be more transparent.
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  Speaker 1: This, of course, would be a big concern to anybody,
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  Speaker 1: especially the day.
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  Speaker 3: Before the elections.
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  Speaker 1: So I'm going to let you have the floor here
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  Speaker 1: and address some of those issues about do we have
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  Speaker 1: secure and accurate elections in the state in Nebraska, which
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  Speaker 1: you oversee.
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  Speaker 4: We do have secure elections in Nebraska. We have safe, secure,
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  Speaker 4: accurate elections in our state. Nebraska is the gold standard
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  Speaker 4: for our elections. You know, I've heard him say that
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  Speaker 4: the machines are fine, but people don't have confidence in them. Well,
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  Speaker 4: that's if the machines are fine, maybe he should be
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  Speaker 4: saying that. But we have the gold standard in our state.
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  Speaker 4: And part of that, a large part of that is
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  Speaker 4: because our elections are run at the county level, and
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  Speaker 4: it's our county election commissioners, it's our county clerks across
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  Speaker 4: all ninety three counties who are doing a tremendous job
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  Speaker 4: for the people of this state. They work hard, they're dedicated,
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  Speaker 4: they're committed, so are their staff, so are their poll workers.
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  Speaker 4: And they are the ones our friends and neighbors across
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  Speaker 4: the state in Nebraska who run our elections at the
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  Speaker 4: county level. They're the ones who are contributing mightily to
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  Speaker 4: making Nebraska the gold standard. And you know, when you
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  Speaker 4: go to the polls tomorrow, thank your poll worker. When
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  Speaker 4: you see your election commissioner or the staff of the
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  Speaker 4: election if you go in early and vote in the
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  Speaker 4: election office, thank your election commissioner's staff. Thank your election
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  Speaker 4: commissioner for the tremendous job that they're doing for the
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  Speaker 4: people of this state. Not all states can say this,
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  Speaker 4: but we can say it here.
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  Speaker 1: So, Secretary Evan, And when you said we are the
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  Speaker 1: gold standard, explain what you mean by the gold standard.
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  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, if you you know, there are
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  Speaker 4: a lot of components to this, we didn't get there accidentally.
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  Speaker 4: There are a lot of components to this. And I'll
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  Speaker 4: give you one example. Voter ID.
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  Speaker 2: We have voter ID in our state, and it was
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  Speaker 2: a struggle getting.
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  Speaker 3: It, and that was a constitutional amendment in.
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  Speaker 4: Twenty two, twenty two, correct, Okay, And I've championed voter
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  Speaker 4: ID for years. We could not get it through the
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  Speaker 4: unicamer So you know, let me just say in general,
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  Speaker 4: in a larger sense.
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  Speaker 3: We can't get it.
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  Speaker 2: You can judge me either.
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  Speaker 4: You judge me based on what I've done I'm not
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  Speaker 4: making empty promises. I'm not somebody who's coming up here
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  Speaker 4: saying I've never done anything and I'm making you a
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  Speaker 4: bunch of promises. I'm somebody who has a record, and
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  Speaker 4: you can go take a look at my record and
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  Speaker 4: make your decision what you think of that. I've championed
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  Speaker 4: voter ID for years and we could not get it
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  Speaker 4: through the unicameral. So a few years ago I went
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  Speaker 4: to someone who had the means to be able to
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  Speaker 4: put together a petition, an initiative campaign for a constitutional amendment,
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  Speaker 4: and what I said to him was, look, the unic
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  Speaker 4: camera won't pass it. We can't get it through the
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  Speaker 4: unic cameerl. The only way going to get it is
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  Speaker 4: if we get a vote of the people. If it's
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  Speaker 4: before the people for a vote, we'll get voter ID
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  Speaker 4: better than two to one. It's overwhelmingly supported. But that's
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  Speaker 4: what we need to do. We need to get an
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  Speaker 4: initiative petition going so it gets on the ballot. And
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  Speaker 4: he agreed and got the resources put together so that
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  Speaker 4: we had an initiative petition. Nebraska signed that petition, It
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  Speaker 4: went on the ballot, and it did. It passed better
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  Speaker 4: than two to one. It passed overwhelmingly as we knew
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  Speaker 4: it would, and so now we had voter ID in
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  Speaker 4: our constitution. And I'm the one who went to the
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  Speaker 4: guy who put that together and suggested that he do it.
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  Speaker 1: And it is a shame it could not get through
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  Speaker 1: the legislature. But look what's happened with the Save Act
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  Speaker 1: or Save America Act in Congress. Now Congress passed it
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  Speaker 1: can't get it through the Senate. Well, about seventy two
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  Speaker 1: percent of the people, yeah, well.
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  Speaker 2: The save it.
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  Speaker 4: There are two major components of the Save America Act.
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  Speaker 4: One is voter ID, which we have, and the second
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  Speaker 4: is proof of citizenship and we have that too, and
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  Speaker 4: I'll talk about that in a second. But then you know,
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  Speaker 4: it was up to the legislature to enact a bill
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  Speaker 4: to implement voter ID after the constitutional men was passed,
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  Speaker 4: and they could not get that put together. So the
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  Speaker 4: leadership of the unicameral came to me and said, would
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  Speaker 4: you please prepare a bill for us, which I did.
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  Speaker 2: And that bill there was back and forth over it.
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  Speaker 4: That bill was overwhelmingly passed into law, and now we
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  Speaker 4: have voter ID. Those are things Gene that I have
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  Speaker 4: done while in office as your Secretary of State to
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  Speaker 4: get voter ID in the state of Nebraska.
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  Speaker 2: Now we have it.
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  Speaker 4: It's just common sense, it's overwhelmingly supported, and it is
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  Speaker 4: an important component to election security. And then you know
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  Speaker 4: you mentioned the Save America Act, Well, that's one component
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  Speaker 4: of it and we have it. The other component of
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  Speaker 4: it is proof of citizenship. And you know the prior administration,
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  Speaker 4: the Biden administration. In the Biden administration, ten or fifteen
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  Speaker 4: million people walked across the southern border of the United
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  Speaker 4: States without the legal right to do so. And you
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  Speaker 4: have to ask yourself, did any of those people wind
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  Speaker 4: up on a voter roll? And so we're looking at
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  Speaker 4: that in the state of Nebraska.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 4: The President last year, in his Executive Order on Election Integrity,
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  Speaker 4: I'm completely aligned with this, he made available he ordered DHS,
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  Speaker 4: the Department of Homeland Security, to make available a series
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  Speaker 4: of databases that the states could access easily in order
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  Speaker 4: to check citizenship status.
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  Speaker 2: We could never do that. Before, you could make one.
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  Speaker 4: You could ask for one registrant at a time, and
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  Speaker 4: they charge you five bucks to do it. It was
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  Speaker 4: not practical. It couldn't be used. Now we can upload
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  Speaker 4: many get a faster response and there's no charge for it.
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  Speaker 4: That was rolled out last year. It had a lot
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  Speaker 4: of glitches. Now those glitches are overcome and now we
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  Speaker 4: are using that system. Now, we already know in Nebraska
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  Speaker 4: the ninety seven or ninety eight percent of our registered
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  Speaker 4: voters or citizens and we know that because they come
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  Speaker 4: through the DMV. The DMV check citizenship. So when we
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  Speaker 4: get records from the DMV, we know that they these
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  Speaker 4: people approved citizenship to the DMV. But then you have
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  Speaker 4: those other two or three percent, and these people we
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  Speaker 4: are rolling through this process.
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  Speaker 1: Now, do you regularly conduct audits after elections to ensure
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  Speaker 1: that the results are accurate?
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  Speaker 4: Yes, we do. We conduct audits after every state wide election.
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  Speaker 4: We'll conduct an audit after this primary. We will conduct
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  Speaker 4: an audit after the general election in November. There are
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  Speaker 4: a couple of things to assure the accuracy of the
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  Speaker 4: ballot tabulators. There are three things that I want to
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  Speaker 4: talk about there. One is that prior to every state
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  Speaker 4: wide election, in the month prior to every state wide election,
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  Speaker 4: we test every ballot tabulator in the state three times.
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  Speaker 4: We run three separate test decks of ballots through every
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  Speaker 4: single ballot tabulator. In the state of Nebraska, so we
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  Speaker 4: run three separate test decks in the month prior to
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  Speaker 4: every state wide election. We did that a couple of
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  Speaker 4: weeks ago across the state. In Nebraska, we're because we're
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  Speaker 4: coming up on a statewide primary, and I went out
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  Speaker 4: across the state to observe that and to bring attention
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  Speaker 4: to the fact that we do that. One of the
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  Speaker 4: things that's a development in that area is that we
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  Speaker 4: now have observers. Now, I strongly supported a bill in
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  Speaker 4: the unicameral that was adopted and signed by the governor
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  Speaker 4: that provides that the parties have a right to have
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  Speaker 4: observers to watch this logic and accuracy testing. And so
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  Speaker 4: this is the first time that we've had observers there
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  Speaker 4: for this logic and accuracy testing in the machines. That's
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  Speaker 4: what we do prior to the election. After the election,
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  Speaker 4: we do audits. So in November of twenty twenty four,
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  Speaker 4: after the general election, in November of twenty twenty four,
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  Speaker 4: we randomly selected ten percent of the precincts across the state. Now,
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  Speaker 4: we selected at least one precinct from every county. So
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  Speaker 4: if your county only had one precinct, it was that one,
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  Speaker 4: but if your county had more than one precinct, we
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  Speaker 4: selected it using a random numbers table. And that selection
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  Speaker 4: was made after the close of the polls on election night.
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  Speaker 4: And then the races that we designated that was made
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  Speaker 4: after the close of the polls on election night November
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  Speaker 4: twenty twenty four. After that was done across the state.
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  Speaker 4: And this was also the observers were had a right
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  Speaker 4: to be present for this as well. Seventy thousand ballots
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  Speaker 4: were hand counted in three races. This was all done
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  Speaker 4: before the results were certified.
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  Speaker 3: Seventy thousand were hand counted.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, across the state in three races. And what we
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  Speaker 4: found out of those seventy thousand is that there were
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  Speaker 4: five ballots that the machines couldn't count because the ballot
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  Speaker 4: had been marked too lightly by the voter. It was
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  Speaker 4: too light for the bout for the machine to read it. Now,
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  Speaker 4: every single ballot that goes out in the state of
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  Speaker 4: Nebraska carries the following instruction, darkened the oval completely with
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  Speaker 4: blue or black.
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  Speaker 2: Black not blue.
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  Speaker 1: Oh really, well, it says, oh see, I even made
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  Speaker 1: a mistake there, but black.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's black. That's better.
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  Speaker 4: But it'll it'll read it if it's dark, and if
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  Speaker 4: it's dark and completely, it'll read it. But these five people,
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  Speaker 4: they marked the ballot too lightly to be read. Now,
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  Speaker 4: seventy thousand of their friends and neighbors were able to
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  Speaker 4: give all that instruction, but these five people were not.
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  Speaker 4: And I asked myself what happened there? Why was that?
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  Speaker 4: And the best I can come up with, Gene, is
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  Speaker 4: that they wanted to vote for this guy, but not
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  Speaker 4: very bad. He's just don't You don't get to do
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  Speaker 4: it that way?
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  Speaker 2: You do?
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  Speaker 1: You find those more with voting on election day or
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  Speaker 1: with the mail in ballots. And I want to ask
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  Speaker 1: you about mail in ballots in a minute, and I
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  Speaker 1: am with here this morning Secretary of State Bob Evanan,
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  Speaker 1: who is up for re election tomorrow.
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  Speaker 4: It's hard to say because we mix the ballots together, Okay,
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  Speaker 4: so I can't I can't say, But you know, when
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  Speaker 4: you look at that and then two other ballots from this filed,
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  Speaker 4: So that's seven ballots out of seventy thousand, that's ten
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  Speaker 4: thousands of one percent.
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  Speaker 1: It seems like a lot of time and effort has
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  Speaker 1: gone to ensure the integrity of these elections. Now one
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  Speaker 1: of the things that I have to bring up this
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  Speaker 1: because it was your opponent said it is.
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  Speaker 3: He said that he.
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  Speaker 1: Wants to modernize the state services. Is there any I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I don't understand what he means by modernization of what
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  Speaker 1: we already do.
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  Speaker 3: Vote.
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  Speaker 4: You just explained in terms of our voting. Yes, well,
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  Speaker 4: there are elections, yeah, there are. There have been proposals
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  Speaker 4: that we should vote on screens. We're not going to
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: vote on screens. We're going to vote on paper. That's
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  Speaker 4: part of the President's Election Integrity Order from last year.
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  Speaker 4: Vote on paper, we will. We're not going to accept
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  Speaker 4: ballots after the close of polls. That's another thing that
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  Speaker 4: the President called for, and is Election Integrity Order last year.
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  Speaker 4: And Nebraska, we don't do that. You know, if you
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  Speaker 4: accept ballots after the close of the polls, then that's
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  Speaker 4: a real that's a genuine avenue for manipulating elections.
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  Speaker 2: We don't do it.
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  Speaker 4: If you want your ballot to be counted, and ladies
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  Speaker 4: and gentlemen, please go to the polls and vote tomorrow.
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  Speaker 4: But if you're voting early, don't put it in the
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  Speaker 4: mail because it won't be received in time and the
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  Speaker 4: postmark doesn't matter. So make sure that you get that
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  Speaker 4: ballot either put in a ballot collection box or taken
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  Speaker 4: to the election commission office before the close of the
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  Speaker 4: polls tomorrow. So you know what other modernization, Well, you
• 12:36
  Speaker 4: could have electronic poll books. We don't have electronic poll books.
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  Speaker 4: Electronic poll books, in my opinion, are too vulnerable. They're
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  Speaker 4: too vulnerable to being manipulated from the outside. We don't
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  Speaker 4: want that. We don't use electronic poll books until we're
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  Speaker 4: satisfied of the security of those I don't want to
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  Speaker 4: use them, and we don't. So what other modernization that
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: we taking place? There are people who want to vote
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  Speaker 4: on their iPhones or on their smartphones. We're not going
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  Speaker 4: to be voting on smartphones. This isn't going to happen
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  Speaker 4: in the state of Nebraska. So you know, you can
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  Speaker 4: you can under the word modernization. You don't define it.
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  Speaker 4: What are we what are we talking about?
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  Speaker 1: And would it ensure the integrity of voting any more
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: than we already have. One of the things that your
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  Speaker 1: opponents did say that he does not support them mail
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  Speaker 1: in ballots, and that makes it, in his opinion, a
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  Speaker 1: thirty five day election. Tell us your opinion on mail
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: in ballots.
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  Speaker 4: Well, he may not support it, but President Trump does
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: mail in ballots, mail in ballots. President Trump issued an
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  Speaker 4: executive order on this year on mail in ballots, and
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  Speaker 4: what he didn't say, get rid of them. What he
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: said was that the Postal Service has to kick his
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  Speaker 4: game up. Binach, I don't know whether you're aware of
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: this gene, but did you know sometimes the Postal Service
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  Speaker 4: can be a little slow.
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  Speaker 3: Yes, I kind of know about that. Holy cal Yes.
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  Speaker 4: So what the President is calling for is for the
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  Speaker 4: Postal Service to kick its game up a notch, to
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  Speaker 4: treat ballots as priority mail, to standardize envelopes, to standardize coding,
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  Speaker 4: and for the States to provide a database of people
• 14:23
  Speaker 4: who are requesting early ballots so that the Postal Service
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: can compare that list with who they're sending to. As
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: soon as the Postal Service is ready to receive that,
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  Speaker 4: we will be sending that to them. The President did
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  Speaker 4: not say get rid of early voting. Now you know,
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  Speaker 4: I've I have been a proponent of shortening the early
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: voting period for some time. It's too long. But getting
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: rid of early voting, getting rid of mail in ballots.
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  Speaker 4: I'll tell you something interesting about mail in ballots. In
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  Speaker 4: the twenty twenty four general election, two hundred and sixty
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  Speaker 4: thousand Nebraskans voted by mail. This is not the all
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  Speaker 4: mail in counties. These are people who chose to send
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  Speaker 4: their ballots in by mail, two hundred and sixty thousand.
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  Speaker 4: The largest percentage of those voters were Republicans. Interesting, so
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  Speaker 4: you better be careful of whose ox you're going here.
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  Speaker 3: Secretary of State Bob Evanon is on with us today.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 1: I get it's a personal preference too. I like the
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: mail in ballots because I like to study the candidates.
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: I like to have some time I vote over about
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: two days. I like to look at it. I like
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: to study it. My husband, consequently, he loves going to
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: the polls and voting there in person. So in a
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: way it's a personal preference. I mean, we always had
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: absentee ballots if you're going to be out of town
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: or whatever, and that you want to make sure that
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: you vote. I was always afraid I would get busy
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: on election day and then not be able to get
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: to the polls. Talk a little bit about provisional ballots too,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and explain what those are, because they haven't they've only
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: been used in Well, I would thank a couple election
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  Speaker 1: cycles before two thousand and six because that is the
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: election that Gene Stotht lost for the legislature on a
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  Speaker 1: provisional ballot count like nine days after the election by
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  Speaker 1: fourteen votes. So number one, let me tell you every
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: vote does count because I lost to the a legislative
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: race by fourteen votes. But talk about the provisional ballots.
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  Speaker 1: What you do with those to ensure that they are
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: that they are accurate, and that those are really people
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: that are registered to vote.
• 16:25
  Speaker 4: Well, first of all, with voter ID, if you forget
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: to bring your ID in, you have until a week
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: from Tuesday to bring in your acceptable form of ID
• 16:39
  Speaker 4: to the election commission office and show it. But if
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: you come into the if you come into the polling
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  Speaker 4: place you don't have your ID, you're permitted to cast
• 16:48
  Speaker 4: a ballot. It's put in a provisional envelope and then
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: it's held until you come in and show your ID.
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: And if you come in and show a proper ID,
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: then it comes out of the envelope and it's counted
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: with all the rest. If you do then that ballot
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: is not counted. Or if you come in too late,
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: the ballot is not counted. There are other provisional ballots
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: that are based upon you not on the voter roll,
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: or there's a record that you've already voted. For instance,
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: if you vote early and then you come in and
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: try to vote at the polls, you'll vote a provisional ballot,
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: and the first ballot that we've received is the ballot
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: that will be counted, and the next one won't. So
• 17:28
  Speaker 4: these are just a couple of a couple of the
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: reasons why we wind up with provisional ballots. We really
• 17:36
  Speaker 4: want to minimize those, of course, but there are certain
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: rules that we're observing when we do it.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: There's one other question I want you to give you
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: time to respond to, and that is your opponent, Scott Peterson,
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: just said that he called it a fake ad that
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: you have saying you were endorsed by President Trump. Go
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: ahead and explain that.
• 17:58
  Speaker 4: I am completely aligned with I'm completely aligned with his
• 18:02
  Speaker 4: election integrity executive order from last year. I'm completely aligned
• 18:07
  Speaker 4: with his executive order for election integrity this year, the
• 18:11
  Speaker 4: purposes of the Vote America Act we're doing here. I
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: have never said I've been endorsed by President Trump. But
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: I have said, and it is absolutely true, that I'm
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: completely aligned with his initiatives. And you take a look
• 18:25
  Speaker 4: at my record, and you take a look at what
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: he issued in his executive orders, and you'll see it.
• 18:29
  Speaker 4: And there are a lot of other things that I
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: have actually done here. I brought a bill, I wrote
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: a bill, and it was passed to ban foreign money
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: in ballot measures. We already had a prohibition of that,
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: but the penalties were not enough to keep people from
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: doing it. So we really beefed up the penalties this
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: year and defined what foreign contributions foreign money meant. I
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: brought a bill to ban Zuckerbucks. This is private money
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: that's given to public counties that are conducting elections, and
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: you have private money coming in to conduct the elections,
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: you can put your thumb on the scale.
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: We've banned that in Nebraska to bill that I brought.
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: So those are just a couple of examples of things
• 19:15
  Speaker 4: that I've actually done over the course of time as
• 19:19
  Speaker 4: we pay attention to election integrity.
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: So you've never claimed that you were endorsed by President Trump. No,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: there's an ad that has a picture of Trump, but
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: you're just saying with that ad you're in alignment with
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: what his policies and what he feels about elections, which
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: is what the AD says. Absolutely okay. So with Bob
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: Evanan today, he is the Secretary of State. You are
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: the twenty seventh Secretary of State. You have served since
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. You took over from John Gail, who is
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: a good friend. You've been endorsed by everyone from the
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Attorney General to the Lieutenant governor. All five members of
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: the Nebraska federal delegation have endorsed you, and they watch
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: what's going on in this state.
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: They do, they do, and you know.
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: Geane, I'm also the only candidate in this race who's
• 20:04
  Speaker 4: been endorsed by Nebraska Right to Life. I'm the only
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: candidate who's been endorsed by the Nebraska Farm Bureau. I'm
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: the only candidate in this rate with race with an
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: A rating from the National Rifle Association the NRA, and
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: I worked hard to get those endorsements and I'm very
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: proud to have them. I'll tell you it's been an
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: honor of privilege to serve as Nebraska's Secretary inist of State.
• 20:28
  Speaker 4: And I would respectfully ask for your vote in the
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: votes of your listeners for reelection.
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I was going to ask you for any last
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: words and you just covered them right there. So Secretary
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: of State Bob Evanon is with us today. We had
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: Scott Peterson on this Wheat Show a little bit earlier.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: But the most important thing I know you'll agree with
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: me is tomorrow is election day. Please get out and vote.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: A lot of people have told me, and I'm sure
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: you hear it too.
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: I don't vote in primaries. I just wait to see
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: who gets through. Mary's are so important because you determine
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: who gets through. So we really encourage everybody to get
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: out and vote. The mayor's race beck in May last
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: year about twenty eight percent voter turnout. We can't have
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: that anymore. We need people to get out and let
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: your voices be heard. And let me tell you, every
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: vote does count. So Secretary, very very good for you
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: to be here today. Good luck tomorrow, and we'll be watching.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: We'll be watching the results tomorrow evening.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Thanks, it's great to be with you.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: Thanks, we've had an interesting morning. At nine point thirty
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: on the Voorhee Show, Scott Peterson, who was a challenger
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: for Secretary of State, was on and then I had
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: the current secretary, Bob Evan and on, and now.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: I have Brian Cruz here.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Brian Cruz was the Douglas County Election Commissioner from twenty
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: sixteen to twenty twenty six Brian, welcome to the show.
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: Well, thanks, it's great to be back, good to see you.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: Good to see you.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: And truly, Brian Cruz is one of the nicest people
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: in politics.
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, I mean that too.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: I always say Adrian Smith is the nicest man in Washington,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: d C. And you truly are one of the nicest
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: people in politics in Douglas County. But I think you've
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: heard what the two candidates were saying, the incumbent and
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: the challenger were saying. And I wanted you to come
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: on because this is a really it concerns me being
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: a disservice to the voters in Douglas County to even
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: assume that there could be voter fraud or corruption and
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: our voting system here in Douglas County, and I know
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: you have a great system of making sure votes that
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: every vote counts and that they're very accurate. And can
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: you just describe a bit for us and for the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: listeners what you have done to make sure of the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: integrity of the voting in Douglas County and that it
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: is accurate.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 22:50
  Speaker 5: Absolutely, Well, thanks again for having me on. First of all,
• 22:54
  Speaker 5: I would just like to say that the ad that
• 22:57
  Speaker 5: mister Peterson has on claiming voter corruption in Douglas County
• 23:02
  Speaker 5: is really very insulting in my opinion, to the thousands
• 23:06
  Speaker 5: of poll workers in Douglas County tomorrow who will be
• 23:09
  Speaker 5: giving twelve to fourteen hours of their time to ensure
• 23:14
  Speaker 5: fair and free elections. And you know, in addition to that,
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: in the ten years that I was at the office,
• 23:23
  Speaker 5: I gave tours to people numerous times, and hundreds of people.
• 23:28
  Speaker 5: I don't ever recall Scott ever asking for a tour
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: to see what our processes and procedures were, So, you know,
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure he's making an informed comments on that.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: Having said that, I will say this. You know, we
• 23:47
  Speaker 5: installed an extensive camera system when we moved into our
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: new building in twenty nineteen. There are cameras everywhere. We
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: have double authentification to get into the rooms. As Secretary
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: Evening said, their machines are tested three times by tests ballots.
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: We have permanent staff in there we have windows to
• 24:13
  Speaker 5: where Secretary Evening made the comment that folks can come
• 24:17
  Speaker 5: and observe or parties can send individuals to observe. We
• 24:22
  Speaker 5: have to ensure transparency, insure transparency absolutely, and so you know,
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: there's just so many levels of transparency and protection. A
• 24:35
  Speaker 5: live ballot is never touched unless it's by two people
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: of different parties.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: And you know, I don't explain that really really quickly
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: because the election commissioner you were appointed by the governor.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: You're appointed two times by Ricketson, once by Pillin, that's right,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: and then your assistant it has to be at the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: other party.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: Okay, that's right, absolutely, and they're you know, different individuals
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: of different parties, nonpartisans. Republican Democrat are obviously the most common,
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: but there is Lego marijuana now and Libertarian as well.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Now, Brian, I'm interrupting you a little bit here, but
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: when you're talking about the cameras and all of these
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: things that you have done, talk about we have thirteen
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: drop boxes, drop boxes that you could drop your ballots
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: off and you don't have to put a stamp on it.
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Explain how you can guarantee that those are secure.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 25:33
  Speaker 5: We have cameras that surveillance them twenty four hours a day.
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: All drop boxes. They are picked up every day by
• 25:45
  Speaker 5: two people of different parties. It takes two keys to
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: open those. And as I said, those are picked up
• 25:52
  Speaker 5: every day. And the other thing is, I think they
• 25:58
  Speaker 5: have proven themselves in last year's election, in the city
• 26:03
  Speaker 5: elections and in presidential elections. It's about fifty percent early voting,
• 26:08
  Speaker 5: in fifty percent polling place voting. But of that fifty
• 26:12
  Speaker 5: percent to vote early, over seventy percent of people choose
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: to use a drop box rather than the US mail.
• 26:22
  Speaker 5: The election office encourages that because if you take your
• 26:26
  Speaker 5: ballot and put it in the drop box, we pick
• 26:30
  Speaker 5: it up. It goes from you to us. If you
• 26:33
  Speaker 5: use the US Postal Service, there's a lot of hands
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: that touch that ballot.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: There certainly is our problems in the US government with
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: the postal Service. They're sure we know that, and that's
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: one of the things President Trump was talking about about.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: You know, the US Postal Service needs to increase up
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: their game as far as as getting mail delivered and
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: not getting lost in the mail. Good lord, the last
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: thing you'd want is your ballot to get lost in
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: the mail. Brian, what's your opinion about the mail in
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: ballots and the early ballots?
• 27:06
  Speaker 5: Sure, you know, I think, well, I don't think. I
• 27:10
  Speaker 5: know for a fact. They're safe, They're secure. Both parties
• 27:15
  Speaker 5: use them widely, as Secretary even and said across the state.
• 27:19
  Speaker 5: And the number one reason that we hear people like
• 27:24
  Speaker 5: to use the early voting by in mail ballot or
• 27:27
  Speaker 5: did hear was exactly what you just said. People like
• 27:30
  Speaker 5: to sit at their kitchen and study the bolts, and
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: especially when you get all of these bond.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: Issues, the bond issues and the judges.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: And the judges right.
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: Exactly, absolutely, and that's the number one reason we hear
• 27:44
  Speaker 5: as people enjoy being a more informed voter as they
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: should be. Absolutely absolutely. You know one thing too, I'd
• 27:51
  Speaker 5: like to point out quick on the safety and security
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: of elections. Back in twenty twenty, and I've used this
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: example many times, our former mayor Mike Boyle god Rest
• 28:03
  Speaker 5: his soul was county commissioner, and Roger Garcia was running
• 28:07
  Speaker 5: against him in that primary and District one. There were
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: over six thousand votes cast. It came down to three
• 28:14
  Speaker 5: votes and we had a recount, and the recount was
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: exactly three votes as well.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: That's really amazing.
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: That's that's your proof right there that the system is tried, true,
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: tested and works. And you know, Commissioner Garcia never once, never,
• 28:34
  Speaker 5: once questioned the integrity of that election.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: And we are with Brian Cruz today, a former Douglas
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: County election commissioner for ten years up until just this
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: past year, you've gone on to another job, which you
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: know I have to tell We have to tell people
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: what you do for a Now what are you doing?
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: You are?
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: I'm I'm a funeral director and I'm the general manager
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: of Forest Lawn Cemetery and Funeral Home.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: That good for you, and what an important job that is.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: I remember one time I ask you what joy do
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: you get out of this? And you said it's helping.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: People absolutely, service to others.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: Yes, And I think that that's a great response for you.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: But I wouldn't expect anything different from you either, Brian.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: But so once and the last thing I want to
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: end with today is can can you assure our voters
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: that voting in Douglas County is not corrupt?
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: Absolutely?
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: And you know I can assure you, having worked there
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: and seen it with my own eyes, for ten years.
• 29:31
  Speaker 5: But you can also be assured through the hard work
• 29:36
  Speaker 5: of the people who dedicate their lives, the staff at
• 29:39
  Speaker 5: the election Commission and as I said, the thousands of
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: poll workers. You know, there was also some comment made
• 29:46
  Speaker 5: in the ad from mister Peterson's ad that's on the
• 29:49
  Speaker 5: radio about thirty five days and the corruption and he's
• 29:52
  Speaker 5: going to get rid of that. Well, maybe he should
• 29:55
  Speaker 5: understand how the system works. That's a state statute, so
• 30:01
  Speaker 5: he would need the legislature to change that. He's not
• 30:04
  Speaker 5: a dictator, he's not an overlord, and he can't just
• 30:07
  Speaker 5: automatically change things that he wants to change.
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: That would be in state statute and that would be
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: up to our legislature then, absolutely, and you know how
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: that goes sometimes well we do well. A voter ID
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: is one good example because it could not get passed
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: in the legislature, but he did it as a petition
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: and a ballot initiative and got it done.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: That's right.
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: And you know the other thing I'd say is, yes,
• 30:32
  Speaker 5: Secretary Evening has been very high on election security, and
• 30:37
  Speaker 5: he has been very high and was pushing or moving
• 30:41
  Speaker 5: forward the voter ID. And you know what Secretary Evening
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: has been a great, great partner with the election officials
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: around this state. He works with us, he works with us,
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: and we all work together to do what's best for
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: the voters to ensure safe and secure elections. You know,
• 31:03
  Speaker 5: I was at an event a couple weeks ago with
• 31:05
  Speaker 5: Scott or a couple months ago, and Scott made some
• 31:09
  Speaker 5: comment to me about, oh, you left too soon. I
• 31:12
  Speaker 5: could have been your boss. No, you're not anybody's boss.
• 31:18
  Speaker 5: Most of the election officials are elected by the people.
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 31:22
  Speaker 5: Therefore the people are the ones who they serve and
• 31:26
  Speaker 5: they answer to. So again, I just you know, he
• 31:31
  Speaker 5: just needs, I think, to understand how the system works
• 31:34
  Speaker 5: here and who is he actually working for himself or
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: the voters.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: Or the people.
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: Brian Cruz former election commissioner for Douglas County for the
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: last ten years. Now the election commissioner is Daniel Jensen,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: and I think we can assure that she's going to
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: continue what you have established and can can guarantee the
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: confidence that our voter should have in the election system
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: in Douglas County.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 32:02
  Speaker 5: And you know, my chief deputy Chris Chris Krivers is
• 32:05
  Speaker 5: still there. The staff all remains the same. You know,
• 32:09
  Speaker 5: we had temp workers who are returning again who have
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: been there twenty plus years, and our poll workers. I mean,
• 32:16
  Speaker 5: we have one poll worker who has served over sixty
• 32:20
  Speaker 5: five years.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: And they're proud of it too.
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Let me tell you they're proud of you there on
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: election day, Brian Cruz, thank you so much.
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: And tomorrow's a big day.
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I bet you you're kind of gonna sit back with
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: your feet up and go not my problem today.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: That's right, exactly.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Probably wish you were there again, knowing you, Oh, thank
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: you a little bit.
• 32:38
  Speaker 5: You know, it's a little bit or sweet, but I
• 32:41
  Speaker 5: just liked end by saying Secretary Evenon has been a
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: great champion for safe, secure, fair and accurate elections. So
• 32:50
  Speaker 5: if you're going to vote in the Republican primary tomorrow,
• 32:53
  Speaker 5: vote for Bob. He's done a great job.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: I appreciate what you have to say today. Thanks for
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: being with us.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: I think it's so so important this Secretary of State
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: election that is tomorrow.
• 33:04
  Speaker 3: Our the election is tomorrow. Many of us have already voted.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: It's so important for those of us that didn't to
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: get out and vote tomorrow. But it's kind of a contentious,
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: not kind of a it's a contentious race. And I
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: thought it was very very important to get to get
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: both of the top candidates, the incumbent and the challenger,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: on the show today, and then to have the election
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: commissioner former election commissioner, he was still an election commissioner
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six, so he is the one that's
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: being accused of corruption and fraud, and I thought it
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: was very very important that he comes on today. So
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: thank you all and email us or call in your
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: comments too. But you know, I'm going to move right
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: on to another subject, and that is number one, Scott
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: Voorhe's read an email this morning that I about died laughing,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: and somebody wrote in and said, Gene Stothard orchestrated the
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: hunt of virus.
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: I orchestrated the hunt of virus.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Orchestrated so that I could get attention on Omaha and
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: run for American Okay, this is probably the same person
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: insist I live in Saint Louis. You know, one of
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: these days we're just going to have to say, Okay,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: I live in Saint Louis. I just I get up
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: really early every morning and I drive here every morning
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: and then I go, that's ridiculous. But no, I didn't
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: orchestrate the hunt of virus. And I am not going
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: to ever run for a Maragan, So let's put that
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: one to rest. But we do have one of the
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: few biocontainment units in the country in Omaha, Nebraska. And
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: I remembered when I was mayor, I met the first
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: patient that was brought to the United States with the
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Ebola virus. He came directly from the congo. I sat
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: and talked to him. He was a physician. Once he
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: was out of the biocontainment unit. But what I mean,
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: what a facility we have here in Omaha, Nebraska. I
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: remembered at that time when we ended up Bola patient,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: and then when COVID happened, I remember so many people
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: contacting me saying, how can you let these infec Did
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: people be in Omaha, Nebraska? And it is because of
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: what we have here now. The plane carrying seventeen Americans
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: exposed on a cruise ship from in Spain. They arrived
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: at Eppley just before two thirty a m On Monday.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: What a complicated, coordinated effort this is to get them
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: where they are. They are in quarantine most of them,
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: one of them is in the biocontainment unit. But it
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: just shows how important these are and we are I
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: think we are the only federally funded biocontainment unit in
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: the country and we have the capability of twenty beds
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: twenty people, and you could see how the need is
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: out there for much much greater facilities that can bio
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: contain for a numerous types of viruses or bacteria or whatever.
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: Doctor Angela Hewitt is the director of the Biocontainment Unit.
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: Doctor Wadman is the director of the quarantine unit. I
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: worked both of them, particularly doctor Hewitt during COVID, and
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: she is fantastic, and so you know, we should be
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: very very proud of the facilities that we have here.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: But just to talk a little bit more about the need.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: I remember during COVID that they were people were even
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: talking about opening up the old Holiday Inn on seventy
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: second Street to house people with COVID. I mean, we
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: were just wringing our hands for quite a while, thinking,
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: wonder if this just continues to grow and grow and grow.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: So definitely we are lucky of what we have right
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: here in Omaha, Nebraska, and it is I just looked
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: it up. This facility is the only federally funded quarantine
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: unit in the United States, and that is a place
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: to safely house and monitor those who might have been
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: exposed to high consequence infectious disease. The quarantine unit isn't
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: people that are infected, it's people that they are monitoring.
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: If they come start with symptoms, are start testing positive,
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: then they go to biocontainment.
• 37:09
  Speaker 6: That was in the live news conference this morning for
• 37:13
  Speaker 6: the hands of virus at the med Center, and I
• 37:16
  Speaker 6: can't remember the name, and she said, it's basically like
• 37:19
  Speaker 6: a hotel. You know, when you're in this quarantine containment unit.
• 37:23
  Speaker 6: You know, it's not like you're hooked up to a
• 37:25
  Speaker 6: hospital bed twenty they're doing they're not doing patient care,
• 37:28
  Speaker 6: they're just monitoring. But this particular virus, just to re emphasize,
• 37:32
  Speaker 6: it's not as contagious as the others. And I want,
• 37:36
  Speaker 6: I think it's very important to let everyone know that
• 37:38
  Speaker 6: there's no alarm or no panic as a result of
• 37:42
  Speaker 6: this emergency, and it should not be confused with other
• 37:46
  Speaker 6: emergencies such as COVID that we have experienced here. I
• 37:50
  Speaker 6: want to ask you something real quick in regards to this.
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: You know, I had an email coming I'm trying to
• 37:54
  Speaker 6: find it, but it was basically, why would we be
• 37:58
  Speaker 6: housing these this quarantee unit here? Why wouldn't they Why
• 38:02
  Speaker 6: hear in Omaha, Nebraska, in the middle of the country.
• 38:04
  Speaker 6: Why not on a coast somewhere where it's easy and
• 38:07
  Speaker 6: easy out, you're not crossing a lot of lines. And
• 38:10
  Speaker 6: then also, Gene, is this something where as Nebraska's as
• 38:13
  Speaker 6: Omaha's we should be proud excited that we are the
• 38:18
  Speaker 6: ones taking this responsibility or is this something that we
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: should kind of be I don't know, like it's kind
• 38:23
  Speaker 6: of a big risk bringing them.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: Becare It's fantastic, and it's because we number one, we
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: are in the middle of the country, and number two,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: because of the excellent physicians and research and what we
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: have right here. We are very very lucky that we
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: have it. And you know, the new hospital that the
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: Nebraska Medicine and University of Nebraska continues to talk about
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: on the campus here in Omaha that has a lot
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: to do with more biocontainment facilities right here. It's nothing
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: that we should fear. It's nothing that we should be
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: afraid of. It's because of the excellent physicians that we
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: have here and the researchers we have here, and the
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: ability to take care of these patients here. And you know,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: like I said, doctor Hewlett, I worked with her so
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: much during COVID, with doctor Oddie Porr, with Douglas County,
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: and I mean, we did so many different press conferences
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: just to keep people informed.
• 39:19
  Speaker 3: But you know, we just need to remind people that this.
• 39:25
  Speaker 1: Particular virus is very very rare in human to human transition.
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: Transmission is much more difficult compared to COVID nineteen, so
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: it's nothing that we should really be worried about. But
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: they do an excellent job there. But the need is
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: great too. I mean, there are facilities at Johns Hopkins
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: in Baltimore and Emery and Atlanta. I believe I can't
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: even name the others, but I believe there's only less
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: than ten biocontainment units in the entire country, so and
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: I think it's way less than ten. So it's very
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: important that we have those facilities and we continue to
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: do research and to expand those facilities for the safety
• 40:06
  Speaker 1: of our community.
• 40:09
  Speaker 6: An awfully political day today and is probably forecasting to
• 40:12
  Speaker 6: be one tomorrow. Just this primary election and anticipation of
• 40:16
  Speaker 6: vote election day tomorrow. Absolutely, we want to hear from
• 40:19
  Speaker 6: you though, as we continue to go throughout this week, Geane,
• 40:22
  Speaker 6: is there anything that we can look forward to on
• 40:24
  Speaker 6: The gen Stauthor Show for the rest of the week.
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: Well, I think tomorrow we're really going to talk a
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: lot more about the elections and about how important it
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: is that people get out to vote. I've said it again,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: I've said it many times. I lost an election in
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: two thousand and six by fourteen votes on a recount,
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: so yes, every vote does count. I hope every mother
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: that's listening had a great Mother's Day. I certainly did.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about what Max did for me yesterday.
• 40:48
  Speaker 3: We'll talk about that tomorrow too.
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: But you know, and Friday, we had a great time
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: when I never saw Peyton look more panic in my
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: life here, but our signal for Glenn and Buck went
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: out the satellite and lan Buck Glenn, that's Glenn back
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: it went out.
• 41:07
  Speaker 3: Peyton looked panicked.
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: Chris Baker and I came in here together and we
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: talked for about philibustered for about thirty minutes, and we
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: had a great time. So that's up. That's it for
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: us today. We'd love for you to join us tomorrow.
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: I am Jean Stothart and this is eleven ten ky
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: baby