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Learn more at CHILLFW.org.

Purdue University Fort Wayne will host Michael Barbaro, political journalist and podcast host of “The Daily” October 24th at 7:30 as part of the Omnibus Speaker Series - Inspiring Fresh and Diverse Thoughts.

Details at pfw.edu/omnibus.

The countdown continues to Election Day with Tuesday, November 5th now just over two weeks away.

>> Do you know where you're to vote?

What's on your ballot?

Who the candidates issues are?

Well, the answers to these and other election questions can be found on a Web site developed by the League of Women Voters and we'll learn more about vote for one one dog on this week's prime time.

And good evening.

I'm Bruce Haines.

Our guests are Karen Eller, vice president Voter Services and Sandy junk vote for one one chair and both ladies are with the league of Women Voters of Fort Wayne and we invite you to join the conversation too with your questions and coments.

You see the phone number there on the screen as we welcome in Karen and Sandy .

>> Welcome back.

Thank you so, so great having you here.

>> Thank you.

We all want to believe we could answer the question who is the League of Women Voters and what do they do?

>> But you're here and I think your answer will be more informed.

>> So let's start let's start with that.

Thanks for that.

I know you of all people know after the number of times we've been on the show but the League of Women Voters is actually one of the oldest nonprofits in the country.

>> It was founded back in 1920 just six months before the 19th Amendment was ratified and women were given the right to vote.

>> So for the last hundred or so years we have been a nonpartisan activist grassroots organization that believes that voters should play an active role in our democracy and this is across a broad menu of issues.

Of course election is is the focus tonight but I believe the environment is is part of this redistricting has always been I think also on the radar.

Sandy , what other things come up during the course of years discussion one of our big pillars is education.

>> We follow that closely.

Women's rights we follow closely like you said, the environment and redistricting.

So when that comes up again in five or six years we'll be very active with that.

>> Well well and because of these broad options we could be here for several 1/2 hours.

But the the focal point is can't escape and don't want to as as citizens in this country to exercise among everything that we say we're going to exercise the right to vote is >> Now with that though, there are some other things related to voting that are tied to that that we do want to talk about and what are they oh gosh.

>> We could talk about voting all night long for sure.

And so with a very short amount of time that we have tonight, we'd love to cover three basic things.

>> One, when you go to the polls or you vote absentee or you vote early, we want everyone who's watching the show to know that their vote will be counted and that the election is secure.

That is primary talking point for tonight.

The second thing we want to make sure is that voters have the Enfamil that they need in order to vote.

>> So how to request an absentee ballot if you have a college student who might be needing to vote while they're away at college, we want to make sure that people have access to that information and also how to do more research on candidates and the issues that are on their ballot for this year.

>> So we want to cover that a little bit and the very best thing if we have time to touch on is a quick civic resource that is available to all Hoosiers right now on the Indiana League of Women Voters website, which is the citizen's handbook.

So they have drafted two political scientists have drafted a book that's all about civics in Indiana and what voting and democracy looks like here and so that's available for everyone.

>> Now the wonderful thing is if you had questions the ladies are here.

We're live in studio.

call if you have questions as well.

The league has its website and you may find things on their own.

But the wonderful thing is we have a very strong election support infrastructure and they're really good at answering.

>> Oh my gosh, they're fantastic and we're going to get a little bit more into this.

But up on the screen right now is the information to contact the Allen County Election Board .

So if you live in Allen County and you have questions about your ballot or absentee voting or election security, these are the people who are the experts and can provide that information to you.

So we'll probably pop this number up again one more time before the end of the day.

And if you don't live in Allen County, your county does have an election board and so you can Google that and find out the the number for them and contact them as well.

Talk about election security.

It seems to be page one above the fold as a big topic and paramount with the other questions of who's on the ballot, where do I go all kind of thing.

But being able to understand are my actions secure?

>> Is the voting process secure?

What do we know?

Oh absolutely.

And yes, I am so glad to be able to talk about this because elections in the US right now are actually have never been more safe or more secure than they are today.

And I hope that people really take that home with them because you know, elections look very different today than they did back in 1790.

>> So we've made some changes as a community, as a culture and technology and just like everything else around us, our voting practices and procedures have evolved along with that technology and making them more the voting process more secure and more accessible to people to be able to vote in every election.

>> So I wanted to just give a quick example of that if you'll indulge me like lots of people like to think recent history 20 20.

Right.

But I wanted to come back to the 2000 election where your some of your viewership might recall that there were some pretty serious ballot issues in that election and after that election the League of Women Voters played a really important role in leading election security to help reform that process and they actually helped draft and pass the Help America Vote Act.

So it's have a and what this legislation allowed us to do is establish provisional balloting and also requirements for updating the voting systems and establishing the Election Assistance Commission.

And so that's an example of something that still exists today.

I was actually just on the secretary state website and HAVA Act is on there and so we're still using those provisions.

So the League of Women Voters has been a part of voter security and advocating for safe and fair elections since its inception and more recently in twenty twenty as you've probably heard there were a number of audits and lawsuits that were going around that required legal review of all of these elections and we've had now enough time and space away from that to draw some conclusions and the conclusions are that our elections are very safe and secure so just one quick data point and there are hundreds of data points on this but the Heritage Foundation found just eighty five cases relating to allegations of non-citizens voting between 2002 and twenty twenty three.

So that's a 20 plus year history.

Eighty five cases of allegations and that's just one data point.

But if you like lots of data points, so does the League of Women Voters and they havepcr of these these audits and other deep dives into election security that you can find on our website.

>> Well, one of the things that you encourage folks to keep in mind when they go to the polls is that we should remind ourselves that we have a right to cast a provisional ballot.

>> What are the conditions under which that might come up that we will want to be sure we know that that option could be one we'll need.

>> Yeah, that's a really important question and it's the it's the last case scenario.

Right.

We have really important protocols in place which we're going to talk a little bit about tonight hopefully.

But the provisional ballot is if there is something that happens at your polling location that you can't quite get worked out in that moment.

The idea is that no one should walk away from their polling place without casting a provisional ballot and that will be reviewed and determined after the after the election is over.

>> They go through all the provisional ballots and walk through those case by case and if you are found to indeed be correctly entered, your ballot does count.

>> That's the point.

So that's the provision.

That's the provisional part.

But they are definitely a case by case.

Now you said just before we came on air that Election Day is the last day to vote.

>> That is correct.

Which is literally to suggest as many know, the polls are open now many in other states we hear stories of the turnout that's happened so soon and not some like to go early and some may not be able to go physically.

So how does that happen on the absentee?

That's right and there are lots of different reasons why someone might not be able to vote in person.

And in the state of Indiana there is a list of state approved excuses for voting absentee.

If you are a college student you can vote absentee but there is a process for that.

So one of the things that we start with is going to the voter portal which is Indiana voters dotcom and we have just a couple of slides here that can help walk through this process.

We don't want to spend too much time on it.

But just so you can get a sense of what's happening here in your voter portal, what's happens when you go to Indiana voters dotcom is that you're going to fill in your first name, your last name, your birthday and your county.

And I just want to give a quick shout out to our board member league member Sharon who did this process for us.

So this was her actual walking through of the process and she was able to not find her name and that just goes to show that sometimes you have to look for it a couple of times.

So she was able to find your name.

But if you are not able to find your name and you're a registered voter, that's the time that you might want to call vote for one one.

So you get into the website it says welcome and on the right hand side it says vote by mail and you're going to push that button and you're going to that's going to land you here on a screen.

And so what you're going to do is you're going to fill out your driver's license in this screen and that's the most common thing although you can put in your Social Security number and then you're going to keep scrolling and it's going to say is this your information and you keep scrolling and you approve that that is your information and then it's going to display your address and it says is this your current address?

And you say yes and then it asks you if your name is change and you answer that question and then it asks you and this is a really important question is your absentee ballot mailing address the same as your your current address and that's for those college students or anyone who's living abroad that absentee ballot mailing address needs to be filled out because that is where they're going to send your ballot.

So you need to make sure that is there and then the next area is where you are going to need to fill in.

This is a double check of both your driver's license and the last four digits of the Social Security number.

So we're talking about security and that is where you put in both of those items and then you have to attest to a reason for why you're voting absentee and then at the very end you say that yes, I'm the person who's filling this out or no and you agree that you are not perjuring yourself and I think that we can talk about this a little bit too.

But the states on there that there are severe penalties for perjury here.

>> So we are talking up to ten thousand dollars in fines up to two and a half years of jail time if you were to provide any information that is not correct.

>> So up on the screen now is October twenty fourth.

That's a really important date for anyone who wants to vote by mail or get an absentee ballot.

This is the last day to apply for your absentee ballot.

So if you have not done this already now is the time.

So if you do not have access to your voter portal you can always call the election board and they can mail you the application in person.

>> Again, we're relying on the mail so we got to have to do that now.

But if you have access to the Internet and can go to Indiana voters dotcom that's the easiest way to do that.

>> I just wanted to add to that I did help my mom fill out for an absentee ballot not too long ago a couple of weeks ago she texted me today let me know she was mailing it back in but it was really super simple at the end of it I did have to put I I helped order this for her so that that is documented.

So those out there that maybe are helping people that are not as familiar with the Internet but want to get it done online ,feel free to help them, you just got to make sure that you you fill out this stuff at the end that you help them out gets right moving as long as you heard about October twenty four hours being a red-letter deadline day.

Here is some numeric phone number information if you have a question that comes up on Election Day, folks could just put this on a sticky note on their phone.

>> That's right.

Yeah.

You take a screenshot of it right now.

Just take a little picture of that if you have any issues at your polling station, if you have any questions.

This is the number to call on Election Day to get any assistance if you're at the polls and there's something that you're having problems with you, it's the voter can call and also the the the inspector there any of the poll workers are happy to assist you.

>> They can also reach out to the election board.

How can we participate in an election in a way that allows us to know that they are indeed more secure?

I think that there are multiple layers of security for our elections and it was actually interesting to try to break this down for a short time period that we have.

So what's built in already at the federal level is that there are two mandates for who can vote.

You have to be 18 years of old years of age by the time of the election date and you have to be a U.S. citizen and there are many penalties in place if you violate either of those options.

And then the other thing that people maybe not don't know about is that there are infrastructure there are multiple layers of checks and balances statewide and at our local county level to ensure that people are abiding by these rules.

So we saw that walking through the absentee ballot process you have to enter in your state issued ID in addition to the last four digits of your Social Security card.

>> So something that's occurring as well is that all of this then says I need to be able to take control of my part in this process.

>> Being informed certainly is is key in knowing how to improve your posture, getting out the door and over to wherever I'm going to cast my vote and here for that now going on some what 18 years now is vote for one one big yeah.

>> Vote for one on one dialog has been around.

I'm going to believe you when you say 18 years we've personally the Fort Wayne chapter has been doing it since twenty nineteen.

I've been personally involved with it since twenty twenty two and what we have now is a chance for you to follow so long as your whole television set sort of becomes a computer.

And let me allow the ladies to give you that tour of all the different things that can be this one stop shop to get ourselves set and ready to go do our patriotic duty.

>> Yeah, yeah.

They can really help you out all right.

>> All right.

So you're just going to go you're going to open up your computer.

You're going to go to your favorite browser.

You can go to the you are albar and type in for one one dog if for some reason I remember you can always Google it you can get to the site.

>> I see we're on the home page here you can register to vote here check your registration here.

>> It's it's a great place to do that but we are past the deadline there and I wanted to include here remember we're a national organization so when you're talking to your friends about voting and stuff and you're talking about this great vote for one on one website, this isn't just local like it's national.

Send them to this website and they can go into their own state and check it out.

>> So what we're focusing on here today is finding out who's on our sample ballot.

>> We're going to go ahead and use the Allen County Downtown Library to see what their sample ballot looks like because it's important to remember that everybody's ballot looks a little bit different.

McKernon It's on a different side of town to meet her ballot.

It's going to look different than mine.

This first page gives you just some key dates to remember you can choose English or Spanish.

>> I believe all of ours is just in English though this takes you here's Allen County Library sample ballot.

>> So you have races down the line from US President down to County Surveyor Corner.

We've got judges on there today we're going to focus on the Allen County Council races these great six candidates all filled out their candidate surveys.

>> So we're going to we're going to focus on them so you can see they've got their pictures there.

There is a place where you can check that says view answers to keep everything fair.

>> We'll pick a Republican and a Democrat and when you scroll down a little bit you will see side by side there biographical information which is really stuff you could probably get from their website.

But when you scroll a little bit further you will see our questions.

We ask them and then their responses so you can compare them side by side.

So let's say you want to now maybe look and see what Kevin Hunter said on these questions side by side.

So again, you just scroll down and look at them.

You could pull up all six candidates at the same time.

But I think I might get a little overwhelmed if I did that so not necessary to do it and this is my favorite part about it at the end you decide I like these three candidates, you can hit that my choice oval and the system saves that in the background for you.

So as you go on to the next race or you go back and look at another race for instance county commissioner, maybe you want to go back and make sure you hit your choice on that.

The system is saving that information in the background and you go back to all races on the right side.

>> You're going to see this nice little button there and you can print it when it saves those responses it gives it will print those out on a sheet for you that you can take to the polling location with you or you can save it as a PDF and email it to yourself.

Whatever clearly works best for you .

I find that's really nice for going back to those council races where you have to pick three candidates.

You want to make sure that you remember all three that you wanted to pick.

>> You did bring up something that ought to get both of you to weigh in on why you vote for one one over say individual candidate websites.

I'll weigh in on that first.

So we take we asked three questions that we feel are relevant to the position and we asked them in a nonpartizan way it is it is our goal to bring the temperature down a little bit in specifcally what's going on now.

But when we ask these questions there in a nonpartisan way there in a way where you're not attacking your candidates and so forth, we don't edit responses but we do ask them in a way that wouldn't go along with that.

So we feel that it's better I mean go to the candidate website.

You should absolutely do that.

But we might be asking questions that they are not talking about on their website and yes, their website.

They can do whatever you want with it.

>> So we feel like ours just it's nonpartisan and it just takes the temperature down a little bit.

>> And do I understand correctly it's the responses of the candidates themselves.

>> So this is their inputting their information for sharing in a public yes.

>> It is uploaded unedited.

We don't mind if if they make a spelling mistake that's on them.

We do not edit those at all.

We did offer candidates an opportunity on several elections to do a video.

We didn't have many take us up on it.

We were trying to reach a younger crowd on that but we're hoping as time goes on maybe more candidates will do that take that opportunity and I think in a way you have already addressed this before both of you.

And let me ask you what do you hope a vote for one one org accomplishes?

>> You know, I I've stood at a lot of tables trying to provide nonpartizan voter education to whoever happened to be walking by and the thing that I hear the most is that many if not most people know who the president candidates are.

The further down you get on the ballot, the less informed voters are about who those people are and what those positions are.

And so my hope is that people can feel more confident in knowing who they're voting for if they don't have the time to go to every single website and check out every single candidate.

My hope is that vote for one one is a one stop shopping for someone who's really busy and it's like Oh I got to go vote who's on my ballot and it pops it up and you can see it all right there and so really taking the guesswork out of trying to find them all on the World Wide Web and like making the voting process more more accessible to them.

>> And in Indiana especially, we need more voter activation, more people going to the polls .

We we're kind of dragging in the rest of the states in terms of voter turnout.

We're we're theist.

>> Yeah, we're last.

OK, well there's nowhere to go but if you vote for one hand and also to you reminded us that you can take this information with you to the polls rather than feel the pressure of having to commit things to memory.

>> Right, exactly like you might be checking out vote for when one today and you're someone that likes to vote on Election Day.

So that's you know, over two weeks away.

So it's a great opportunity to get your homework done on the weekend or whatever and then it's really easy to go in and vote.

>> Well, one of the things you should take notes regarding or perhaps grab your phone and get ready to take a landscape shot on your TV screen is we put this information for you now because on good old if you will slide 17 we are looking at the fact that polls are open or at least the common ones are walk us through what you have presented here.

>> So I was just showing first that I carried this in my purse.

I have a little doubt this is the early on the left side of the screen is your early vote times so right now the polls are open at Rousso Center and then a one week before the election.

>> So starting on October twenty eight there are going to be four satellite offices that are available from eight a.m. to eight p.m. throughout town.

So anyone who lives in Allen County can vote at any of these locations at any of these time.

So the actual election date November 5th, the polls are open from six to six sometimes that timing doesn't work out for people's work schedules.

>> So if you're someone who needs to vote later in the day like eight o'clock, those satellite offices are a great way to do that starting on October 28th on the other side ,just a reminder of what vote for when one is and why someone might want to use it and that's that's that's all you need.

>> That's your one stop shopping for early vote times and who's on your ballot?

>> We also have a chance to reprise this which again objects in the mirror are closer than and we also want to be sure that you understand that there are ways in which you can stay in touch with the work of the League of Women Voters of Indiana and this is where they live in cyberspace LWR being dug but carrying on this this tradition of knowledge is power, if you will.

>> That's right.

Yes, that's right.

You continue to use the schoolhouse Rock notion you have our social media app.

>> So we do encourage folks to follow us on social media.

We aren't flashy.

We don't post a ton but we post really good reminders and and things like you'll see that little graph of the voting times one hundred times between now and Election Day and again there it is available to be recorded on any piece of paper with a crayon or pen of your choice and once more to this shows how much we have had to move through the speed of life to get everything to where it is right now.

But in the fleeting seconds, any final thoughts from each of you on on heading into elections?

>> Yeah, I just want to make sure that everyone in the viewing audience knows just how exceptional the Allen County Election Board is in how seriously they take voter security.

We we are recognized throughout the state as having an exceptional election board and they take their jobs very seriously and they work on it every day.

>> And so this is not something that like oh, it's election time.

We're going to do some election things.

They work on the election and every single day and that is what they do and they do it exceptionally well.

So I just want people to have confidence in our local team and and I would encourage people who want to know more about election security to try to work a poll some time because you'll really find out as much as you want to know about that if you're there in person we'll leave it there and we wish you happy voting season along with a happy fall Karen Ella and Sandy joke with the League of Women Voters of the Fort Wayne .

And I'm Bruce Haines with PrimeTime here in Fort Wayne as well.

We want to get to know you too is to take care out there and we'll see you back here next week.

>> Good night