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[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to our Spain perspectiveers.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, Gaitano, how's it going?
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's going very bueno.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Mocho, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico
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[SPEAKER_00]: You go hiking or something and you say hello to everybody that's coming up and down the passes you just like a nice high But when you're in a big city, obviously you do not say hi to everybody that you walk past So you don't say hi to a lot of people if you live in a city, but if you live in a small town You do legitimately say hello to every single person that you pass
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, I need more words because I'm getting bored of the 15 that we haven't Spanish.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so we weren't going to do an ospane because we don't really do ospane's in perspective, but now that you've just brought this up, I have a funny story, so, okay.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Speaking of the saying, hello, I was at Mercadana, the, uh, yesterday.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Day before yesterday, day before yesterday, his story was all week, right?
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[SPEAKER_02]: We've got too many holidays.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's just been, well, to that point, we are on a Puente, Finde Semana, which is a long weekend, which is, so because we had a holiday on Friday and a holiday today.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So, yes, and then the story was on Sunday.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So, that's three days out of four, the stories have been closed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, assuming they're open today, I don't know.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they have to be.
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[SPEAKER_00]: but some of them have to be open because I was saying to a friend I need to go somebody listen to our and then I'll let you get back to your so this is a tangent but somebody listen to our episode about we were talking about smells and um and the last one that we posted
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[SPEAKER_00]: and they texted me and they were like, I know where to find lemon-centred cleanest spray for your house.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And then I was like, oh, we'll be there on Monday, and then I was like, no, not Monday, I guess, Tuesday.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And they were like, no, no, I think it's open on Monday.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to be the idiot that goes out on Monday, knowing that everything is closed, hoping that something's open and finding it closed.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, Chinese stories can be open, but it's like national chains are allowed or there's the way the law works is still confusing, but like some things can be open, but other things have to be closed.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I think the incorporation, so like a light, all those places have to be closed because
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[SPEAKER_00]: They have too many employees, you know, if you have too many employees, you have to hold them all right if you have three But I do believe I do believe there's also some law about how many days things can be closed in a row And I'm not sure if some of these places are even allowed to be closed two days in a row Like they have would have to pick one to be open maybe, but that's something I heard that I don't know if that's true
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[SPEAKER_02]: Don't work it down as close to three out of these four days.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So they are.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They are.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_00]: They're not true.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So your story at Mercadona.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So my story at Mercadona when I was in there with hundreds of people on Saturday because it is the only day open.
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[SPEAKER_02]: So everyone's buying all their dinners and everything that they mean.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I said hello to someone.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I said hi.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Hello.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Um, yeah, it wasn't my neighbor and he looked at me like I was completely crazy.
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[SPEAKER_02]: He was a doppelganger of the guy who lives across the hall from us and I was like, oh, I'd never see you on a public.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, hi, how are you?
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[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, oh, no, what else?
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[SPEAKER_02]: And the man he was like, and I was like, I felt like such an idiot.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And I swear he was staring at me at the rest of the store like who is this freak?
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[SPEAKER_00]: That is so funny because if you did that where I live, it would start a two-hour conversation with the person that you clearly don't know, but now you do Plus if the plus the person at the red the other people at the register Like nobody would think twice about you starting a conversation with a complete stranger because no one's really a complete stranger because if you don't know who they are they
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[SPEAKER_00]: For sure, no who you are right because you're like the foreigner and town and all this kind of stuff So I feel like everybody knows who I am even if I don't know who they are So if I said hi, it's like oh, yeah, you know, that's that's fine.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's so funny
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[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm sorry you had that experience, but it could have been, you know, maybe you made a new friend.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I could have made a new friend, I guess.
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[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's just, it's, it's, it was just a funny thing.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, yeah, carte was fooled with all, all of our, all of our meals for the next few days.
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[SPEAKER_02]: But,
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[SPEAKER_02]: You know, speaking of old friends, today on Perspectives, we are welcoming back an old friend about, from vote from a bother, our dear friend Andrew Anderson, talking about something very important.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Voting.
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[SPEAKER_00]: voting and more information we've had a number four as you just alluded to and we have sort of new information and also just be wanted to make sure that everybody is kind of prodded to get out and get it done before the deadlines and every every state has different deadlines but not a different deadlines but yeah they have different times where your bat ballet needs to be put in so he's going to talk a bit about all of that and some other interesting things and
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[SPEAKER_00]: and just encourage everybody to vote.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly, so let's go straight to the interview.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Hello, Andrew.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back.
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[SPEAKER_02]: How are you doing?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Good.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate being back on your show.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Appreciate that.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We're very excited to have you back as people might remember.
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[SPEAKER_00]: We have an interview from before, which I also encourage people to go back and listen to
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[SPEAKER_00]: more information there and different things here, but we're excited to kind of see how things are going and encourage everybody to vote from abroad, you know.
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[SPEAKER_01]: correct.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's the thrust of our conversation today is really kind of we're in a marathon with the last of the marathon right now and what's happening is everybody knows we're moving quickly to the November, November the first Tuesday, November day of voting which a lot of people will show up back in the US but as abroad which are roughly about anywhere between
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[SPEAKER_01]: 69 me in Americans abroad and about 50,000 Americans in Spain that need to make sure that participate and have a privilege to vote in their elections for the mentor.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And what are the deadlines?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Like, have people still get it going?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Or is like, what are we looking at?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure different states are different situations, but generally speaking, we're the same.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So by majority,
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[SPEAKER_01]: you have 50 states, but in every state it's got a little bit of a different rhythm and reference to when their ballots are supposed to be in the election's officials offices for counting.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody has got to have it postmarked of the day of the election.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Some states will allow you once you postmarked
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[SPEAKER_01]: the day of the election, no later than November the 4th, I think it's November the 4th that it's actually the date.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What ends up happening is that as long as it's postmarked by the election day, some states kind of the 10 days after that they're able to count those votes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: But the idea from being abroad is to get it in sooner than later.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you should be moving now to make sure your ballot is inbound to the United States into your states.
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[SPEAKER_01]: mostly and so we're talking about Spain specifically, the average has been eight to ten days through regular mail in Spain through the international pouch, if you will, mail service, eight to ten days to get to the U.S., once it gets into the U.S., it has to get to your state, and once your state has the U.S. post-docs, it will stamp that date of the day they receive the
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[SPEAKER_01]: So, that's what could go ahead.
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[SPEAKER_02]: Is that meaning that's the postmark date?
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[SPEAKER_02]: Is the date the United States receive it?
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[SPEAKER_02]: Not postmarked from Spain?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Correct.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Correct.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely correct.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It has to be a US stamp date.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It cannot be a foreign stamp date, because that's not considered part of the election process, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: I think of point.
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[SPEAKER_00]: A good point.
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[SPEAKER_00]: And also to that end, do you recommend that?
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[SPEAKER_00]: So, I still have to...
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[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of the questions I have.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I still have to make my envelope and put it all together, and it's a little bit confusing.
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[SPEAKER_00]: I've got all these things printed.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So that's one question, but do you recommend, since we're on the mailing part, do you recommend people do like a certified mail or some kind of speedy thing in a jiggy or just send it?
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[SPEAKER_01]: So a great question.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Let me answer it this way in the interest of making sure that your ballot
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[SPEAKER_01]: that you try to expedite your envelope back to the US as quick as possible.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'll give you a good example.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm an example.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a Virginia voter.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I voted the city of Alexandria, Virginia.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And what I ended up doing last time, the last voting sequence was I certified my letter back to the US once I put the envelope together based on a Virginia requirements.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And actually expressed delivered it within five days to Virginia, which they stamped it, and then they basically counted it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: This time, this time, what I would recommend you do is because it takes 8 to 10 days, you've got plenty of time and it costs about 15 to 16 euros to get that envelope back to the US.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So I recommend two things.
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[SPEAKER_01]: One is if you have the time, which you should be doing it now, you've got 8 to 10 days to come back, then you should be putting that envelope in regular international mail now.
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[SPEAKER_01]: so that way your ballot gets back home.
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[SPEAKER_01]: If not, and you're within the window of five days, I highly recommend you expedite your ballot through a certified mail requirement.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that can be done in a bit.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's a little bit more expensive, but not more expensive than it would be that the eight to ten days.
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[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why, but that's the way the kind of the Spanish mail system works.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Because we're talking about Spain specifically.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and I'm also Alexandria and so my question is the envelope.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a unique experience when you get all these.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So this is I don't know how many states do this, but I've got like four different things I can print and I think one of them is an option.
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[SPEAKER_00]: to use or not use, so you pick one of those things, but the envelope is a piece of paper that has some printing on it that you then, and then on that, where it's printed, something it says, nothing else goes in this envelope except for your ballot, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's correct, correct.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Also that thing that you've printed, I mean that's going in there too, because that's on the piece of paper, and then you've got to fold everything around and do a little crafty thing to get it to turn it into an envelope.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's not super clear.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So let me walk you through that because we just did it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, and again, this is not clear.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I'm saying.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like, I printed out envelopes to make envelopes that were had better, like, little marks on them that kind of made sense.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So so so the Virginia ballot.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So this is specifically Virginia ballot.
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[SPEAKER_01]: The Virginia ballot requirements are ABC and D or ABC and yeah, ABC and D.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You print everything out from the website, which is really good.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then you actually vote on the website and then you print it, right?
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you have your ballot, okay?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Then you've got two specific requirements, which is, there is one that you print that has that it becomes an envelope and you fold it like a box.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And you put your envelope in it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And that has to be, make sure that you do that because that's an elections official in Virginia as a former elections official in Virginia.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That was one of the requirements we had to make sure that the ballot was not what we called spoiled, if you did not follow the process.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you've got that one piece of paper that you bring out that's got the four lines that said fold here, fold here, four of here.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It actually becomes a box to which you put your ballot in.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure that when you print your ballot, your ballot reflects what you voted in the watermark that's on that ballot.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's critical and it's printed out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It comes printed out.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Then you kind of close that box up if you will that piece of paper and then what you end up doing is you got to put it in a regular envelope right so you got to put it in the regular envelope you do yes yes yes yes yes yes I think what I was going to do I was going to fold that thing with my back inside and then I was going to cut out the envelope front and stick that on top
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[SPEAKER_01]: people have done that and the problem is is that you have to buy the stamps in spending to get it over there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So you got to be careful with that.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So take a regular envelope, put it in the envelope, and then the other piece of paper that has the information for Virginia, the elections office address your address, and then that kind of franking that's on there.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So when it gets the status paid by itself, that needs to be outside.
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[SPEAKER_01]: and then what you end up doing you go to the post office and you put it in another envelope and then you put a stamp on that Spanish stamp to the address you need to write to it and ship it to Virginia.
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[SPEAKER_00]: But that's how you the last time I mailed an envelope was never.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So let's start there.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you go to Ted to ED and go get your envelope.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So it doesn't work to fold that piece of paper up and then stick that front of the envelope cut that out and stick that on top.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So I've created an envelope because they won't be able to open that, right?
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[SPEAKER_00]: So that'll be annoying.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Well, not only that though, but then you're going to have to go to the Spanish post office and the question is, is where are they going to put the stamps?
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So it needs to go into a, it needs to go into a, it needs to go into a, they can put the stamps on top of the, you know, and that, okay.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So you're right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So what I need to do is put all that stuff in an envelope and then another envelope.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So that's okay that there's multiple envelopes.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because they let open it up.
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[SPEAKER_01]: They're open it up, I mean, I was, I did, I did that, I did that for several years where we had the incoming mail-in ballots from all over the world and we would sort we would categorize and sort them out in boxes and basically we would rip open the outer envelope to get the inner envelope which had the balladet and that was the key.
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[SPEAKER_01]: And then what you end up doing is you want to go out to the Alexander.gov website, go to the elections office and look at where your ballot is in reference to.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It's mailed to you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was emailed to you.
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[SPEAKER_01]: It was, you know, you send it back and it's in process.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Those are critical.
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[SPEAKER_01]: By the way,
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[SPEAKER_01]: Most states will do the same, most states will do the same thing.
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[SPEAKER_01]: They'll have something on the website that you can track your ballot.
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[SPEAKER_01]: You can also go to voter.
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[SPEAKER_01]: From the broad.org and do the same thing on tracking.
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[SPEAKER_01]: because if you use, and this is what I want to tell the audience is, if you are going to use vote for my broad to get to your state, to get your ballot, use vote for my broad for all of your tracking, post your ballot.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So meaning post your submission of ballot, and that's critical.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we recommend everybody, all Americans to use vote from the broad.
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[SPEAKER_01]: There's other links out there right now that I need
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[SPEAKER_01]: One is run by Elon Musk and it's a sham and it's a scam.
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[SPEAKER_01]: What they're doing is they're collecting your data.
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[SPEAKER_01]: Do not use anything other than vote from abroad.poRG.
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[SPEAKER_01]: That is my recommendation.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Keep your... Yeah, since we're talking about yours, what are from your website, from this website, not yours, your larger organization, right, that does this.
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[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
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[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, from that website,
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[SPEAKER_00]: that is a well-established website for voting from abroad.
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[SPEAKER_00]: You can start your, can you tell everybody like, if they haven't started yet or, you know, for any election, they can go on to that website and initiate the process all the way to monitoring where their ballot has got to, is that correct?
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[SPEAKER_01]: Cut is absolutely correct.
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[SPEAKER_01]: They actually, they actually have buttons for you to follow.
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[SPEAKER_01]: So, for example, vote from abroad is a very, vote from abroad.org is a very good website to which you can literally request through and it goes to your state and it goes through your state's election office.
16:33.524 --> 16:37.926
[SPEAKER_01]: You can request your yearly registration from voting from abroad.
16:38.706 --> 16:47.928
[SPEAKER_01]: You can then ask for your ballot, then the election's office will handle that and send you the ballot, whether it's going to be email or mail or whatever.
16:48.088 --> 16:49.348
[SPEAKER_01]: Each state is a little bit different.
16:50.508 --> 17:02.410
[SPEAKER_01]: Then once you register your vote, and stuff, and you send it back, you can go to vote from abroad.org to track when it goes back to your state and when the ballot has been counted by your state.
17:04.951 --> 17:05.391
[SPEAKER_00]: Very good.
17:06.344 --> 17:20.519
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have a question, so I'm a California voter and I have had issues getting my ballots from California meaning it takes a long time to get them.
17:20.599 --> 17:27.826
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have got repeated emails saying your ballots on the way, it's been shipped, but I haven't received it here yet.
17:28.587 --> 17:36.516
[SPEAKER_02]: However, which is not a concern for me because I also went online and printed out the ballot that I Okay, back's in
17:38.234 --> 18:00.630
[SPEAKER_02]: It is 2020-6, and don't want to have spacts machines in their homes anymore, so I was wondering, and I know with faxing it in, you have to sign up both saying that you are acknowledging that your vote is no longer secret, which is fine with me.
18:02.291 --> 18:07.664
[SPEAKER_02]: But do you know of any free facts online fact service to use?
18:07.985 --> 18:09.509
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you come across that?
18:09.549 --> 18:12.055
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have recommendations or where to find one?
18:12.798 --> 18:24.642
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, actually it's interesting you say that because if you go to the Apple store and if you use Apple or if you're using Android, there are applications that allow you to fax from their app.
18:25.042 --> 18:29.764
[SPEAKER_01]: And my HP here can actually scan and fax if you have a phone number.
18:30.124 --> 18:31.545
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if it's a landline kind of thing.
18:31.945 --> 18:33.746
[SPEAKER_01]: So there are those tap options.
18:33.926 --> 18:37.567
[SPEAKER_01]: However, in Spain, because it will be behind the times.
18:38.006 --> 18:46.175
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had the time to research this to be honest with you, wherever you are in Spain with your enormous Spain, Eastern Spain, Western Spain, Southern Spain, on the coast, whatever.
18:46.856 --> 18:51.100
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a lot of photocopy centers that still have fax machines.
18:51.830 --> 18:58.833
[SPEAKER_01]: So you could literally go to a fax machine with one of these little stalls and thanks your ballot back.
18:58.893 --> 19:05.536
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the question becomes is can they do international call because it's an international number that you're going to call, right?
19:05.556 --> 19:07.617
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're going to have to pay the international fee for it.
19:07.877 --> 19:13.760
[SPEAKER_01]: And it may have said that these little, these little stores will probably have that factor in because they've done it before.
19:14.360 --> 19:15.441
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's another option.
19:16.874 --> 19:33.268
[SPEAKER_01]: However, to your point, the idea of fact seeing stuff back is so antiquated that I'm sure with the state of California and other states, they've probably come up with an alternative for you and reference to me and able to get your ballot back in time.
19:34.027 --> 19:41.811
[SPEAKER_00]: I have used online faxes before, there's websites that you can upload a PDF and faxes and totally works.
19:41.831 --> 19:56.598
[SPEAKER_00]: I've done it for, I want to say like many years ago for like a passport thing or something and there are loads of places where you can, if you're not doing it on a regular basis and you just need to do it one time faxes, loads of places online you can send a one time fax for free.
19:58.059 --> 20:09.207
[SPEAKER_00]: But also, is it normal that there are other many states where you literally need to get a paper ballot sent to you and then you need to send it back?
20:09.268 --> 20:11.609
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that quite a lot of states these days?
20:12.170 --> 20:19.175
[SPEAKER_01]: No, my understanding is that the states that really move towards more automation, making it easier for people such as email.
20:20.496 --> 20:24.559
[SPEAKER_01]: And so email and email back your ballot, you can do that, that some states are doing that.
20:26.060 --> 20:28.901
[SPEAKER_01]: For example, Virginia is a unique because of the state laws.
20:29.461 --> 20:32.782
[SPEAKER_01]: We literally have to hand back our paper ballot in order to be counted.
20:32.802 --> 20:36.563
[SPEAKER_01]: Virginia is kind of out there in a sense a little bit behind the times, if you will.
20:37.203 --> 20:44.285
[SPEAKER_01]: But other states have moved quickly to automate as much as possible the ability to put your ballot back into the election's office.
20:56.823 --> 20:59.826
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, unfortunately, California is either paper or facts.
20:59.886 --> 21:02.709
[SPEAKER_02]: They have, they haven't bridge the new modern.
21:02.769 --> 21:03.549
[SPEAKER_02]: There's the new modern.
21:03.569 --> 21:04.630
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it re-modern.
21:05.111 --> 21:06.232
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.
21:06.292 --> 21:08.654
[SPEAKER_01]: I think part of it is it's to be honest with you.
21:08.674 --> 21:09.635
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's politics.
21:10.416 --> 21:17.442
[SPEAKER_01]: Part of it is to dissuade people abroad from submitting balance because it's cumbersome that can state of Virginia.
21:17.502 --> 21:20.245
[SPEAKER_01]: I find it to be very cumbersome, but we do it because we want to vote.
21:20.285 --> 21:21.866
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure our vote counts to privilege.
21:22.607 --> 21:34.407
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, for example, Oklahoma and Nebraska, the more redder states are going to be probably more complicated than the blue or states are going to be complicated.
21:36.171 --> 21:52.824
[SPEAKER_02]: I did say it in my California ballot that you know, they allow facts, but there was a disclaimer that I think like in 2025 or something, the federal government outlawed or stopped faxing in ballots.
21:52.844 --> 21:55.366
[SPEAKER_02]: So it really is just dependent on each state.
21:56.427 --> 22:00.030
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because the state elections office and I would recommend those at a listening.
22:00.693 --> 22:26.469
[SPEAKER_01]: I highly recommend that if you have the time which you should make time for is go out to your elections official or elections office website for every state and look up the information to make sure you are talking you you understand your requirements for your state another way of doing it in the state of Virginia is very good about it by the way the the out of state voter
22:29.419 --> 22:36.482
[SPEAKER_01]: elections official that handles phone calls and emails and they're very responsive and I think that every state is the same way.
22:36.842 --> 22:55.430
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would recommend those at a listening that if you will have any doubts or any questions, go to your elections office website in your state, look up out of state voters or absentee ballot information and talk to an election official.
22:55.490 --> 22:56.190
[SPEAKER_01]: It's worth the money.
22:56.717 --> 23:00.719
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you can email them then email them and ask them the questions and they're really good about answering.
23:01.059 --> 23:07.023
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that we'll learn as we're learning through this for Americans that are living abroad and I kind of discussed it with what's going on back home.
23:08.482 --> 23:21.249
[SPEAKER_01]: The good news is that the state election officials down to the city level are really committed to making sure every ballot is taken care of, every ballot is cured properly and they follow the rules.
23:21.989 --> 23:31.834
[SPEAKER_01]: The federal government is playing games, ignore that, go to your state, work with your state, work with your county, work with the law school, I as a former elections official
23:34.255 --> 23:48.525
[SPEAKER_01]: particularly in the city of Alexandria, we took our absentee ballads very seriously along with the regular voters and did our due diligence to make sure that their ballot was taken in effectively verified and counted.
23:50.254 --> 23:56.955
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good point, and I think, that's how I always felt when I went to vote.
23:56.995 --> 24:02.497
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, everyone was just really interested in making sure that everyone's right to vote was taken care of properly.
24:03.157 --> 24:10.318
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you had mentioned on our last call, and I don't know if you have these numbers off the top of your head, so I'm kind of putting you on the spot.
24:10.358 --> 24:15.059
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a very small portion of people that do do the absentee ballots from abroad,
24:19.857 --> 24:42.582
[SPEAKER_00]: the amount of people that are making the effort, because just because your abroad doesn't mean that you're not interested and want to be a part of what's going on, because you might still have family, you might want to go back, you just care because it's your country, like whatever the reasons, it's important that everybody participate, and I think we want more people to do that from abroad and in the country, but since we're talking about abroad, we'll just talk about that, those numbers.
24:43.542 --> 24:48.763
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, yeah, so the latest numbers that we have,
24:49.693 --> 24:53.454
[SPEAKER_01]: is that they're roughly not 6 to 9 million Americans abroad.
24:53.574 --> 24:55.035
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's all over the world, right?
24:55.975 --> 25:08.498
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the big pockets of American expatriates, if you will, living abroad, it's Canada, Mexico, England, Germany, France, and Spain.
25:08.818 --> 25:13.340
[SPEAKER_01]: So then it starts to drop off in Africa, Asia, at least in that type of stuff.
25:15.067 --> 25:30.415
[SPEAKER_01]: But yes, the idea is in 2024, the amount of absentee ballots that were sent back to the United States, roughly was a population of New Jersey, which was roughly about 5 million people.
25:31.696 --> 25:33.577
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how important it is.
25:33.597 --> 25:36.619
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, you break up the 5 million into 50 states.
25:37.779 --> 25:42.762
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the last last kind of information that I've got, the data that I've been able to accumulate,
25:43.205 --> 25:57.722
[SPEAKER_01]: has been that California, Texas, New Jersey, Colorado, Florida, and Virginia is starting to come up and have been the largest recipients of absentee ballots from abroad.
25:58.662 --> 26:02.287
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, that's kind of the majority of people that have moved abroad, right?
26:02.327 --> 26:05.991
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't mean that there's somebody from Idaho, that doesn't mean it's the numbers.
26:06.051 --> 26:13.420
[SPEAKER_01]: If you look at the cumulative numbers, those were the states that had the most Americans abroad that lived in those states.
26:13.580 --> 26:14.181
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense?
26:14.761 --> 26:28.793
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, and it means it's also very important for us to vote because those numbers if we if we didn't vote A election could be turned in a way you may not want to happen because that is the huge number of people that need to send a balance in
26:29.534 --> 26:31.577
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely critical critical critical.
26:31.617 --> 26:41.752
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, yeah, again, you know, for those that are listening and American that is listening right now kind of wondering, well, you know, you know, I've completed this engage.
26:41.772 --> 26:43.434
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want anything to do with my country.
26:43.454 --> 26:45.156
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so sick and tired of what's going on.
26:45.437 --> 26:46.078
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I get it.
26:46.976 --> 26:56.208
[SPEAKER_01]: But let me be very honest with you, that you and your vote count in reference to what may happen in your county and in your city.
26:56.569 --> 27:02.456
[SPEAKER_01]: Your ballot could be the difference between a Democrat or Republican holding a seat or not holding a seat.
27:03.081 --> 27:03.962
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is critical.
27:04.302 --> 27:06.423
[SPEAKER_01]: It is critical in reference to what's going on today.
27:06.623 --> 27:26.416
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, we don't want to get over dramatic about what's happening today in the United States, but these midterms are basically a real clear message that we abroad as well as in-country, want to send the administration that's in power right now to say stop the stupid stuff and start governing seriously.
27:26.516 --> 27:30.859
[SPEAKER_01]: And the only way you can do that is by changing Congress and to send it at this point.
27:31.587 --> 27:37.089
[SPEAKER_00]: But also, I mean, don't be, I mean, it is a, you know, we've, we're Americans that have moved abroad.
27:37.809 --> 27:39.870
[SPEAKER_00]: What goes on there affects other parts of the world.
27:39.930 --> 27:44.391
[SPEAKER_00]: So, actually, it's not just looking at your state and your city.
27:44.492 --> 27:45.872
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what goes on there?
27:45.912 --> 27:48.653
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's all international politics and everything.
27:48.693 --> 27:56.116
[SPEAKER_00]: So just because you're in another country doesn't mean that you're not affected directly by politics in another country, not just America, any country.
27:56.156 --> 27:58.716
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's all affecting different things.
27:58.737 --> 27:59.477
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all connected.
28:00.503 --> 28:06.925
[SPEAKER_00]: you can't separate, it's impossible to separate yourself and completely like that and just be like, not gonna worry about it.
28:06.985 --> 28:11.786
[SPEAKER_01]: So worry about it, but... Great, that's a great messaging.
28:12.226 --> 28:18.607
[SPEAKER_01]: And to add a little bit more underlimant to what you just said, think about this is an American.
28:19.267 --> 28:21.028
[SPEAKER_01]: You have stock investments back home.
28:21.468 --> 28:23.428
[SPEAKER_01]: You have your probably on social security.
28:24.429 --> 28:29.050
[SPEAKER_01]: And you got to think about those two have a tremendous impact on how you're gonna live your life abroad.
28:30.790 --> 28:41.676
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the hell goes in the hand basket back home, meaning the government decides to really start screwing with stuff and we start to lose investments from abroad in the United States.
28:41.696 --> 28:42.856
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're absolutely right.
28:42.956 --> 28:45.258
[SPEAKER_01]: Your words are really well said, but I wanted to affect you.
28:46.167 --> 28:49.210
[SPEAKER_01]: As an American listening to this, that this will affect your pocketbook.
28:49.810 --> 28:52.512
[SPEAKER_01]: You won't be able to live in Spain if you don't vote.
28:52.933 --> 28:59.558
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean that because that could, the dollar could be devalued to the point where you can't afford to live in a country that you thought you could live in.
29:00.059 --> 29:03.262
[SPEAKER_01]: Your social security could be acted, you don't have the money that you thought you had.
29:03.922 --> 29:05.423
[SPEAKER_01]: and it has all these implications.
29:05.563 --> 29:06.123
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
29:06.463 --> 29:07.164
[SPEAKER_01]: Without question.
29:07.404 --> 29:07.764
[SPEAKER_01]: Agreed.
29:07.824 --> 29:11.386
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you can't complain if you don't vote as always hell up.
29:11.406 --> 29:13.647
[SPEAKER_02]: But I was taught to me as a kid, right?
29:14.467 --> 29:15.008
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
29:15.048 --> 29:16.668
[SPEAKER_00]: I was going to say that's exactly it.
29:16.748 --> 29:19.590
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you need to be able to complain.
29:21.711 --> 29:24.492
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like you need to be able to get together and complain about it.
29:24.632 --> 29:27.934
[SPEAKER_00]: So whatever it is, like, you know, it's just part of life.
29:28.054 --> 29:29.395
[SPEAKER_00]: So you have to vote to do that.
29:30.796 --> 29:37.081
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to say something to that you had mentioned before about the emailing and calling your state voting offices.
29:37.862 --> 29:45.208
[SPEAKER_02]: I would like to shout out to California because whenever I've emailed them, someone has gotten back to my email within like, seriously 10 to 15 minutes.
29:45.268 --> 29:47.190
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, it's been amazing.
29:47.310 --> 29:48.891
[SPEAKER_02]: So, thank you, California.
29:49.692 --> 29:54.436
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so glad you answered my emails, but a shout out, Andrew, you're correct.
29:54.776 --> 29:56.398
[SPEAKER_02]: That was work work work work work.
29:58.223 --> 30:01.525
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, a lot of people that are doing those jobs are voluntary, right?
30:01.545 --> 30:07.429
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they're volunteer jobs and they're taking that job very seriously.
30:07.629 --> 30:17.415
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, shout out to everybody that volunteers in those areas for this, because all those extra hands are needed to make this go smoothly, I think.
30:17.875 --> 30:18.776
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right, that's right.
30:20.797 --> 30:26.741
[SPEAKER_01]: voting is a privilege and we have the privilege to vote and we have the opportunity.
30:27.942 --> 30:29.663
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, absolutely.
30:30.103 --> 30:35.006
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think on that note and that's we have any other questions or anything else you want to point out.
30:35.066 --> 30:37.588
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that it's a privilege is maybe a good place to end.
30:38.256 --> 30:38.476
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
30:38.576 --> 30:38.817
[SPEAKER_01]: Great.
30:38.857 --> 30:51.907
[SPEAKER_01]: Just remember vote from abroad that RG is a site that we highly recommend Americans go to so they can follow up on their get the registration to vote, follow up with their state and be able to track their vote.
30:51.987 --> 30:55.129
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will say because you can't we don't highly recommend it.
30:55.169 --> 30:55.789
[SPEAKER_00]: Just go there.
30:57.251 --> 30:57.471
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
30:58.311 --> 30:59.292
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the only one.
30:59.512 --> 31:01.254
[SPEAKER_00]: Just go there.
31:03.555 --> 31:05.417
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you so much Andrew.
31:06.983 --> 31:07.723
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a pleasure.
31:07.744 --> 31:10.365
[SPEAKER_01]: It's pleasure to seem both to be again talking with you guys.
31:10.846 --> 31:11.806
[SPEAKER_01]: Hope everything goes well.
31:12.166 --> 31:13.047
[SPEAKER_01]: Please don't forget to vote.
31:13.587 --> 31:14.128
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
31:14.308 --> 31:15.569
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.
31:15.609 --> 31:15.949
[SPEAKER_01]: Bye.
31:22.333 --> 31:24.034
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that was a wonderful interview.
31:24.054 --> 31:24.975
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think, Tanya?
31:25.900 --> 31:26.600
[SPEAKER_00]: That was fun.
31:26.721 --> 31:27.921
[SPEAKER_00]: I am so glad.
31:27.941 --> 31:30.923
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, because I actually printed out my ballot.
31:31.023 --> 31:31.804
[SPEAKER_00]: No, not printed out.
31:31.824 --> 31:32.064
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.
31:32.444 --> 31:32.625
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
31:33.125 --> 31:35.266
[SPEAKER_00]: I have printed out the ballot and everything that I got.
31:35.727 --> 31:38.388
[SPEAKER_00]: So now I know how to fold this envelope back together.
31:38.568 --> 31:43.392
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm feeling a bit because it is literally it looks like some enigma machine or something when you print it out.
31:43.492 --> 31:45.013
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, thank you for explaining it.
31:46.854 --> 31:58.338
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember you and I having this conversation about the envelope and to mind my mind went Oh, because I'm like, how can you print out a flimsy paper and envelope that's supposed to go across the world?
31:58.638 --> 32:01.058
[SPEAKER_02]: And like he said, you put it inside another envelope.
32:01.079 --> 32:02.739
[SPEAKER_00]: You put it in another envelope.
32:02.759 --> 32:07.120
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's just funny because when you print everything out, it says nothing else should go in this envelope.
32:07.140 --> 32:11.862
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, when you do these official things, whether you're sending in for a new passport or doing something like this,
32:12.282 --> 32:18.426
[SPEAKER_00]: you don't want your thing to not work up or putting all that effort in for some stupid reason that could be avoided, right?
32:18.747 --> 32:22.929
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm looking at it and the thing literally says do not put anything else in this envelope.
32:22.989 --> 32:27.412
[SPEAKER_00]: That to me means they should open an envelope and there should be one piece of paper in it.
32:27.432 --> 32:29.094
[SPEAKER_00]: It should be your ballot and that should be the end of it.
32:29.134 --> 32:35.318
[SPEAKER_00]: So the idea of putting the ballot in that envelope and then that envelope and another envelope to me would be like a big no-no.
32:35.538 --> 33:00.875
[SPEAKER_00]: right that to me is like the person's gonna get it they're gonna open it up and they've only been certified to open one envelope so now they can't open the second one do you know what I mean like something like that that's what I would expect like it's not my job to open a second envelope just because you're trying to get it from another country so I will hope that my printer has ink and and print everything out and do it properly and send it off
33:01.247 --> 33:14.215
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, after we get off of this, this, I'm going to go straight to my scanner and scan the ballot that I printed out online and find a faxing service for free on my computer to fax this ballot back to California.
33:14.555 --> 33:16.136
[SPEAKER_02]: And it is very important to everyone.
33:16.216 --> 33:17.577
[SPEAKER_02]: It's still not too late to vote.
33:17.737 --> 33:23.100
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you think you've missed a deadline, like Andrew said, check your state, lottery, it will slattery.
33:23.120 --> 33:23.621
[SPEAKER_02]: It will slattery.
33:23.641 --> 33:24.321
[SPEAKER_00]: It will slattery.
33:25.862 --> 33:37.171
[SPEAKER_02]: Check your state's election office and find out how and when you can do, you know, it's to lead to the send you a ballot, but you can probably print what out and mail it back or fax it back.
33:37.452 --> 33:51.003
[SPEAKER_00]: And also, if you are listening to this outside of this election cycle that we're talking about, which is the November midterm elections in the United States here, if you're if you're listening at a completely other time, go to their website.
33:52.048 --> 33:55.813
[SPEAKER_00]: and make sure that you are signed up for the next election whenever that is.
33:55.853 --> 33:57.274
[SPEAKER_00]: It's never too late to sign up.
33:57.314 --> 34:02.781
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe if you've been here six, seven years, or however long you've been here, maybe you've been here five months and you just haven't got into it.
34:03.541 --> 34:07.927
[SPEAKER_00]: Go up there, sign up, get yourself sorted so that when the next election is you're ready to go.
34:09.488 --> 34:12.171
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this is good for everybody at any time.
34:13.093 --> 34:20.256
[SPEAKER_02]: And I also like to end with, if I may, he did it for you up this interview, but he brought it up the last interview.
34:21.397 --> 34:29.100
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to register every year when you live abroad, so remember that so I get notification.
34:29.160 --> 34:33.322
[SPEAKER_00]: So once you have signed up through an organization like the one that he works with.
34:33.722 --> 34:35.183
[SPEAKER_00]: they will send you emails.
34:35.283 --> 34:41.607
[SPEAKER_00]: So it won't be, they're not going to send you loads of emails all the time, but they will send you an email saying, make sure you do this.
34:41.627 --> 34:45.070
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll send you emails to make sure that you're up to date of the things that you need to do.
34:45.150 --> 34:54.096
[SPEAKER_00]: So that is also another reason to sign up because if you try and do it just directly without the assistance of one of these organizations, you might forget some of those deadlines I'd say.
34:54.116 --> 34:55.497
[SPEAKER_02]: It's very easy to forget again.
34:55.537 --> 35:00.680
[SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't know I had a register every year until he told me last night when we interviewed him.
35:02.561 --> 35:05.644
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't know that was what I was doing when I get these emails.
35:05.744 --> 35:09.027
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I click on something and send something in it.
35:09.607 --> 35:10.909
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't really connecting those dots.
35:10.929 --> 35:13.651
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just doing what the email tells me and it was happening.
35:13.671 --> 35:14.332
[SPEAKER_00]: It was working.
35:14.412 --> 35:17.054
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't really putting a lot of thought into it to be honest.
35:17.074 --> 35:21.278
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was nice to have somebody else take care of that because we all need an assistant.
35:21.378 --> 35:24.681
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is one scenario where you can actually get a free assistant.
35:24.981 --> 35:25.381
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
35:25.482 --> 35:26.242
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm at all for you.
35:26.523 --> 35:27.183
[SPEAKER_00]: So take care.
35:27.223 --> 35:28.825
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm very important thing to take care of.
35:29.505 --> 35:30.987
[SPEAKER_00]: and a very important thing to take care of.
35:31.047 --> 35:36.052
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we hope you enjoyed the interview and we will see you next time.
35:36.072 --> 35:37.634
[SPEAKER_02]: Adios, Karnya.
35:38.415 --> 35:39.256
[SPEAKER_00]: Adios, ciao.
35:42.920 --> 35:45.223
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to another episode of our Spain.
35:46.011 --> 35:49.812
[SPEAKER_02]: We really appreciate all the support we have received since we started this podcast.
35:49.912 --> 35:54.014
[SPEAKER_00]: Visit usbain.com for transcripts to this and our other episodes.
35:54.514 --> 36:01.256
[SPEAKER_00]: Some exciting merchandise, and if you are so inclined, there is also a link to bias a coffee which helps support this fun endeavor.
36:02.197 --> 36:05.558
[SPEAKER_02]: And please follow us on Instagram and YouTube at usbain podcast.
36:05.698 --> 36:07.999
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't forget to subscribe to us wherever you are listening.
36:08.019 --> 36:10.640
[SPEAKER_00]: It really helps us stay connected, and we'd love to hear from you.
36:11.397 --> 36:14.222
[SPEAKER_02]: Let us know if there's any topics you would like for us to talk about.
36:14.422 --> 36:18.188
[SPEAKER_02]: Even though we are happy to talk about anything, we also want to make sure it's informative for you.
36:18.248 --> 36:18.669
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
00:05.778 --> 00:07.579
[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to our Spain perspectiveers.
00:07.599 --> 00:08.219
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, Gaitano, how's it going?
00:08.239 --> 00:08.819
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going very bueno.
00:08.839 --> 00:32.228
[SPEAKER_00]: Mocho, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico
00:32.789 --> 00:50.872
[SPEAKER_00]: You go hiking or something and you say hello to everybody that's coming up and down the passes you just like a nice high But when you're in a big city, obviously you do not say hi to everybody that you walk past So you don't say hi to a lot of people if you live in a city, but if you live in a small town You do legitimately say hello to every single person that you pass
00:51.312 --> 00:56.435
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm like, I need more words because I'm getting bored of the 15 that we haven't Spanish.
00:57.396 --> 01:06.942
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, so we weren't going to do an ospane because we don't really do ospane's in perspective, but now that you've just brought this up, I have a funny story, so, okay.
01:06.962 --> 01:11.005
[SPEAKER_02]: Speaking of the saying, hello, I was at Mercadana, the, uh, yesterday.
01:11.992 --> 01:16.315
[SPEAKER_02]: Day before yesterday, day before yesterday, his story was all week, right?
01:16.475 --> 01:17.536
[SPEAKER_02]: We've got too many holidays.
01:17.636 --> 01:28.083
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just been, well, to that point, we are on a Puente, Finde Semana, which is a long weekend, which is, so because we had a holiday on Friday and a holiday today.
01:28.303 --> 01:30.965
[SPEAKER_02]: So, yes, and then the story was on Sunday.
01:31.005 --> 01:34.227
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that's three days out of four, the stories have been closed.
01:34.447 --> 01:36.549
[SPEAKER_00]: So, assuming they're open today, I don't know.
01:36.569 --> 01:38.130
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they have to be.
01:38.670 --> 01:53.740
[SPEAKER_00]: but some of them have to be open because I was saying to a friend I need to go somebody listen to our and then I'll let you get back to your so this is a tangent but somebody listen to our episode about we were talking about smells and um and the last one that we posted
01:54.220 --> 02:01.304
[SPEAKER_00]: and they texted me and they were like, I know where to find lemon-centred cleanest spray for your house.
02:01.725 --> 02:06.107
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I was like, oh, we'll be there on Monday, and then I was like, no, not Monday, I guess, Tuesday.
02:06.147 --> 02:07.768
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were like, no, no, I think it's open on Monday.
02:07.808 --> 02:14.112
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm going to be the idiot that goes out on Monday, knowing that everything is closed, hoping that something's open and finding it closed.
02:14.332 --> 02:25.763
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, Chinese stories can be open, but it's like national chains are allowed or there's the way the law works is still confusing, but like some things can be open, but other things have to be closed.
02:26.744 --> 02:30.427
[SPEAKER_02]: I think the incorporation, so like a light, all those places have to be closed because
02:31.088 --> 02:48.682
[SPEAKER_00]: They have too many employees, you know, if you have too many employees, you have to hold them all right if you have three But I do believe I do believe there's also some law about how many days things can be closed in a row And I'm not sure if some of these places are even allowed to be closed two days in a row Like they have would have to pick one to be open maybe, but that's something I heard that I don't know if that's true
02:49.042 --> 02:50.923
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't work it down as close to three out of these four days.
02:51.143 --> 02:51.883
[SPEAKER_02]: So they are.
02:51.903 --> 02:52.223
[SPEAKER_00]: They are.
02:52.483 --> 02:53.544
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
02:53.564 --> 02:54.524
[SPEAKER_00]: They're not true.
02:54.784 --> 02:55.104
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway.
02:55.184 --> 02:56.705
[SPEAKER_00]: So your story at Mercadona.
02:56.725 --> 03:02.967
[SPEAKER_02]: So my story at Mercadona when I was in there with hundreds of people on Saturday because it is the only day open.
03:02.987 --> 03:05.728
[SPEAKER_02]: So everyone's buying all their dinners and everything that they mean.
03:05.748 --> 03:05.988
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
03:06.568 --> 03:09.149
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, I said hello to someone.
03:09.169 --> 03:09.830
[SPEAKER_02]: I said hi.
03:09.890 --> 03:10.410
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello.
03:11.390 --> 03:16.272
[SPEAKER_02]: Um, yeah, it wasn't my neighbor and he looked at me like I was completely crazy.
03:17.133 --> 03:23.295
[SPEAKER_02]: He was a doppelganger of the guy who lives across the hall from us and I was like, oh, I'd never see you on a public.
03:23.415 --> 03:24.396
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, hi, how are you?
03:24.456 --> 03:25.857
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, oh, no, what else?
03:25.997 --> 03:31.519
[SPEAKER_02]: And the man he was like, and I was like, I felt like such an idiot.
03:31.559 --> 03:35.381
[SPEAKER_02]: And I swear he was staring at me at the rest of the store like who is this freak?
03:36.497 --> 03:53.556
[SPEAKER_00]: That is so funny because if you did that where I live, it would start a two-hour conversation with the person that you clearly don't know, but now you do Plus if the plus the person at the red the other people at the register Like nobody would think twice about you starting a conversation with a complete stranger because no one's really a complete stranger because if you don't know who they are they
03:53.996 --> 04:05.856
[SPEAKER_00]: For sure, no who you are right because you're like the foreigner and town and all this kind of stuff So I feel like everybody knows who I am even if I don't know who they are So if I said hi, it's like oh, yeah, you know, that's that's fine.
04:05.977 --> 04:06.638
[SPEAKER_00]: That's so funny
04:08.336 --> 04:13.480
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'm sorry you had that experience, but it could have been, you know, maybe you made a new friend.
04:13.620 --> 04:15.282
[SPEAKER_02]: I could have made a new friend, I guess.
04:15.382 --> 04:15.982
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
04:16.323 --> 04:21.407
[SPEAKER_02]: It's just, it's, it's, it was just a funny thing.
04:21.467 --> 04:27.151
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, yeah, carte was fooled with all, all of our, all of our meals for the next few days.
04:27.351 --> 04:27.572
[SPEAKER_02]: But,
04:28.052 --> 04:41.369
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, speaking of old friends, today on Perspectives, we are welcoming back an old friend about, from vote from a bother, our dear friend Andrew Anderson, talking about something very important.
04:41.729 --> 04:42.070
[SPEAKER_02]: Voting.
04:43.014 --> 05:10.665
[SPEAKER_00]: voting and more information we've had a number four as you just alluded to and we have sort of new information and also just be wanted to make sure that everybody is kind of prodded to get out and get it done before the deadlines and every every state has different deadlines but not a different deadlines but yeah they have different times where your bat ballet needs to be put in so he's going to talk a bit about all of that and some other interesting things and
05:11.405 --> 05:13.106
[SPEAKER_00]: and just encourage everybody to vote.
05:14.007 --> 05:16.048
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly, so let's go straight to the interview.
05:22.272 --> 05:23.092
[SPEAKER_02]: Hello, Andrew.
05:23.152 --> 05:23.853
[SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back.
05:23.893 --> 05:24.593
[SPEAKER_02]: How are you doing?
05:24.613 --> 05:24.713
[SPEAKER_01]: Good.
05:25.694 --> 05:26.434
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much.
05:26.454 --> 05:28.215
[SPEAKER_01]: I appreciate being back on your show.
05:28.355 --> 05:28.956
[SPEAKER_01]: Appreciate that.
05:29.196 --> 05:31.838
[SPEAKER_00]: We're very excited to have you back as people might remember.
05:31.898 --> 05:37.181
[SPEAKER_00]: We have an interview from before, which I also encourage people to go back and listen to
05:39.585 --> 05:47.300
[SPEAKER_00]: more information there and different things here, but we're excited to kind of see how things are going and encourage everybody to vote from abroad, you know.
05:48.452 --> 05:48.932
[SPEAKER_01]: correct.
05:48.992 --> 06:09.987
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's the thrust of our conversation today is really kind of we're in a marathon with the last of the marathon right now and what's happening is everybody knows we're moving quickly to the November, November the first Tuesday, November day of voting which a lot of people will show up back in the US but as abroad which are roughly about anywhere between
06:10.687 --> 06:20.994
[SPEAKER_01]: 69 me in Americans abroad and about 50,000 Americans in Spain that need to make sure that participate and have a privilege to vote in their elections for the mentor.
06:21.594 --> 06:23.575
[SPEAKER_00]: And what are the deadlines?
06:23.635 --> 06:26.517
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, have people still get it going?
06:26.677 --> 06:28.438
[SPEAKER_00]: Or is like, what are we looking at?
06:28.498 --> 06:32.541
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure different states are different situations, but generally speaking, we're the same.
06:33.602 --> 06:35.443
[SPEAKER_01]: So by majority,
06:36.224 --> 06:46.733
[SPEAKER_01]: you have 50 states, but in every state it's got a little bit of a different rhythm and reference to when their ballots are supposed to be in the election's officials offices for counting.
06:47.974 --> 06:51.857
[SPEAKER_01]: Everybody has got to have it postmarked of the day of the election.
06:52.558 --> 06:55.140
[SPEAKER_01]: Some states will allow you once you postmarked
06:55.702 --> 07:01.545
[SPEAKER_01]: the day of the election, no later than November the 4th, I think it's November the 4th that it's actually the date.
07:02.465 --> 07:12.030
[SPEAKER_01]: What ends up happening is that as long as it's postmarked by the election day, some states kind of the 10 days after that they're able to count those votes.
07:12.670 --> 07:16.172
[SPEAKER_01]: But the idea from being abroad is to get it in sooner than later.
07:16.232 --> 07:22.875
[SPEAKER_01]: So you should be moving now to make sure your ballot is inbound to the United States into your states.
07:23.395 --> 07:47.680
[SPEAKER_01]: mostly and so we're talking about Spain specifically, the average has been eight to ten days through regular mail in Spain through the international pouch, if you will, mail service, eight to ten days to get to the U.S., once it gets into the U.S., it has to get to your state, and once your state has the U.S. post-docs, it will stamp that date of the day they receive the
07:49.940 --> 07:51.721
[SPEAKER_01]: So, that's what could go ahead.
07:51.761 --> 07:53.561
[SPEAKER_02]: Is that meaning that's the postmark date?
07:53.601 --> 07:55.422
[SPEAKER_02]: Is the date the United States receive it?
07:55.482 --> 07:56.842
[SPEAKER_02]: Not postmarked from Spain?
07:57.343 --> 07:57.743
[SPEAKER_01]: Correct.
07:58.063 --> 07:58.463
[SPEAKER_01]: Correct.
07:58.623 --> 07:59.283
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely correct.
07:59.583 --> 08:02.484
[SPEAKER_01]: It has to be a US stamp date.
08:02.925 --> 08:08.427
[SPEAKER_01]: It cannot be a foreign stamp date, because that's not considered part of the election process, right?
08:08.447 --> 08:09.007
[SPEAKER_00]: I think of point.
08:09.187 --> 08:09.707
[SPEAKER_00]: A good point.
08:09.727 --> 08:13.008
[SPEAKER_00]: And also to that end, do you recommend that?
08:13.168 --> 08:14.589
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I still have to...
08:15.429 --> 08:17.350
[SPEAKER_00]: This is one of the questions I have.
08:17.430 --> 08:22.312
[SPEAKER_00]: I still have to make my envelope and put it all together, and it's a little bit confusing.
08:22.332 --> 08:23.613
[SPEAKER_00]: I've got all these things printed.
08:25.014 --> 08:34.998
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's one question, but do you recommend, since we're on the mailing part, do you recommend people do like a certified mail or some kind of speedy thing in a jiggy or just send it?
08:35.018 --> 08:37.279
[SPEAKER_01]: So a great question.
08:37.459 --> 08:42.102
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me answer it this way in the interest of making sure that your ballot
08:45.285 --> 08:50.347
[SPEAKER_01]: that you try to expedite your envelope back to the US as quick as possible.
08:50.507 --> 08:51.527
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll give you a good example.
08:52.007 --> 08:52.948
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm an example.
08:52.988 --> 08:53.908
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a Virginia voter.
08:54.108 --> 08:57.129
[SPEAKER_01]: I voted the city of Alexandria, Virginia.
08:57.589 --> 09:07.133
[SPEAKER_01]: And what I ended up doing last time, the last voting sequence was I certified my letter back to the US once I put the envelope together based on a Virginia requirements.
09:07.793 --> 09:14.095
[SPEAKER_01]: And actually expressed delivered it within five days to Virginia, which they stamped it, and then they basically counted it.
09:14.843 --> 09:28.494
[SPEAKER_01]: This time, this time, what I would recommend you do is because it takes 8 to 10 days, you've got plenty of time and it costs about 15 to 16 euros to get that envelope back to the US.
09:28.954 --> 09:30.455
[SPEAKER_01]: So I recommend two things.
09:30.956 --> 09:39.803
[SPEAKER_01]: One is if you have the time, which you should be doing it now, you've got 8 to 10 days to come back, then you should be putting that envelope in regular international mail now.
09:40.355 --> 09:41.837
[SPEAKER_01]: so that way your ballot gets back home.
09:42.497 --> 09:50.245
[SPEAKER_01]: If not, and you're within the window of five days, I highly recommend you expedite your ballot through a certified mail requirement.
09:50.566 --> 09:51.947
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that can be done in a bit.
09:52.027 --> 09:56.973
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a little bit more expensive, but not more expensive than it would be that the eight to ten days.
09:57.013 --> 10:00.116
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know why, but that's the way the kind of the Spanish mail system works.
10:00.296 --> 10:01.958
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we're talking about Spain specifically.
10:02.545 --> 10:02.845
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
10:02.945 --> 10:08.590
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and I'm also Alexandria and so my question is the envelope.
10:08.990 --> 10:12.893
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's a unique experience when you get all these.
10:12.993 --> 10:21.480
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is I don't know how many states do this, but I've got like four different things I can print and I think one of them is an option.
10:22.220 --> 10:37.603
[SPEAKER_00]: to use or not use, so you pick one of those things, but the envelope is a piece of paper that has some printing on it that you then, and then on that, where it's printed, something it says, nothing else goes in this envelope except for your ballot, right?
10:37.643 --> 10:39.183
[SPEAKER_00]: That's correct, correct.
10:39.243 --> 10:48.785
[SPEAKER_00]: Also that thing that you've printed, I mean that's going in there too, because that's on the piece of paper, and then you've got to fold everything around and do a little crafty thing to get it to turn it into an envelope.
10:48.805 --> 10:50.025
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not super clear.
10:50.980 --> 10:51.260
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
10:51.320 --> 10:53.061
[SPEAKER_01]: So let me walk you through that because we just did it.
10:53.282 --> 10:56.504
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, and again, this is not clear.
10:56.524 --> 10:57.384
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all I'm saying.
10:57.404 --> 11:04.049
[SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of like, I printed out envelopes to make envelopes that were had better, like, little marks on them that kind of made sense.
11:05.369 --> 11:05.610
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
11:05.830 --> 11:08.852
[SPEAKER_01]: So so so the Virginia ballot.
11:09.072 --> 11:10.633
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is specifically Virginia ballot.
11:10.933 --> 11:16.637
[SPEAKER_01]: The Virginia ballot requirements are ABC and D or ABC and yeah, ABC and D.
11:17.285 --> 11:20.547
[SPEAKER_01]: You print everything out from the website, which is really good.
11:20.667 --> 11:23.770
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you actually vote on the website and then you print it, right?
11:23.790 --> 11:26.411
[SPEAKER_01]: So you have your ballot, okay?
11:26.612 --> 11:35.718
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you've got two specific requirements, which is, there is one that you print that has that it becomes an envelope and you fold it like a box.
11:36.258 --> 11:37.619
[SPEAKER_01]: And you put your envelope in it.
11:38.320 --> 11:44.364
[SPEAKER_01]: And that has to be, make sure that you do that because that's an elections official in Virginia as a former elections official in Virginia.
11:44.970 --> 11:52.412
[SPEAKER_01]: That was one of the requirements we had to make sure that the ballot was not what we called spoiled, if you did not follow the process.
11:53.133 --> 11:59.515
[SPEAKER_01]: So you've got that one piece of paper that you bring out that's got the four lines that said fold here, fold here, four of here.
11:59.895 --> 12:03.196
[SPEAKER_01]: It actually becomes a box to which you put your ballot in.
12:03.376 --> 12:10.599
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure that when you print your ballot, your ballot reflects what you voted in the watermark that's on that ballot.
12:10.619 --> 12:12.219
[SPEAKER_01]: That's critical and it's printed out.
12:12.379 --> 12:13.079
[SPEAKER_01]: It comes printed out.
12:15.439 --> 12:35.533
[SPEAKER_01]: Then you kind of close that box up if you will that piece of paper and then what you end up doing is you got to put it in a regular envelope right so you got to put it in the regular envelope you do yes yes yes yes yes yes I think what I was going to do I was going to fold that thing with my back inside and then I was going to cut out the envelope front and stick that on top
12:36.772 --> 12:43.353
[SPEAKER_01]: people have done that and the problem is is that you have to buy the stamps in spending to get it over there.
12:43.693 --> 12:45.314
[SPEAKER_01]: So you got to be careful with that.
12:45.354 --> 12:58.096
[SPEAKER_01]: So take a regular envelope, put it in the envelope, and then the other piece of paper that has the information for Virginia, the elections office address your address, and then that kind of franking that's on there.
12:58.556 --> 13:03.217
[SPEAKER_01]: So when it gets the status paid by itself, that needs to be outside.
13:05.679 --> 13:16.246
[SPEAKER_01]: and then what you end up doing you go to the post office and you put it in another envelope and then you put a stamp on that Spanish stamp to the address you need to write to it and ship it to Virginia.
13:17.850 --> 13:25.396
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's how you the last time I mailed an envelope was never.
13:25.576 --> 13:28.418
[SPEAKER_00]: So let's start there.
13:28.918 --> 13:29.539
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
13:29.579 --> 13:32.901
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, you go to Ted to ED and go get your envelope.
13:33.262 --> 13:33.762
[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.
13:34.683 --> 13:42.168
[SPEAKER_00]: So it doesn't work to fold that piece of paper up and then stick that front of the envelope cut that out and stick that on top.
13:42.208 --> 13:45.771
[SPEAKER_00]: So I've created an envelope because they won't be able to open that, right?
13:45.811 --> 13:46.692
[SPEAKER_00]: So that'll be annoying.
13:47.152 --> 13:52.215
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, not only that though, but then you're going to have to go to the Spanish post office and the question is, is where are they going to put the stamps?
13:52.835 --> 13:53.076
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
13:53.116 --> 13:58.439
[SPEAKER_00]: So it needs to go into a, it needs to go into a, it needs to go into a, they can put the stamps on top of the, you know, and that, okay.
13:58.459 --> 13:58.939
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're right.
13:58.959 --> 14:03.302
[SPEAKER_00]: So what I need to do is put all that stuff in an envelope and then another envelope.
14:03.322 --> 14:05.223
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's okay that there's multiple envelopes.
14:05.778 --> 14:07.619
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, because they let open it up.
14:07.699 --> 14:25.345
[SPEAKER_01]: They're open it up, I mean, I was, I did, I did that, I did that for several years where we had the incoming mail-in ballots from all over the world and we would sort we would categorize and sort them out in boxes and basically we would rip open the outer envelope to get the inner envelope which had the balladet and that was the key.
14:26.185 --> 14:35.491
[SPEAKER_01]: And then what you end up doing is you want to go out to the Alexander.gov website, go to the elections office and look at where your ballot is in reference to.
14:36.072 --> 14:37.092
[SPEAKER_01]: It's mailed to you.
14:37.252 --> 14:38.393
[SPEAKER_01]: It was emailed to you.
14:38.874 --> 14:41.976
[SPEAKER_01]: It was, you know, you send it back and it's in process.
14:42.276 --> 14:42.836
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are critical.
14:43.056 --> 14:43.356
[SPEAKER_01]: By the way,
14:44.998 --> 14:48.102
[SPEAKER_01]: Most states will do the same, most states will do the same thing.
14:48.122 --> 14:51.385
[SPEAKER_01]: They'll have something on the website that you can track your ballot.
14:51.626 --> 14:54.229
[SPEAKER_01]: You can also go to voter.
14:54.289 --> 14:57.412
[SPEAKER_01]: From the broad.org and do the same thing on tracking.
14:58.057 --> 15:13.285
[SPEAKER_01]: because if you use, and this is what I want to tell the audience is, if you are going to use vote for my broad to get to your state, to get your ballot, use vote for my broad for all of your tracking, post your ballot.
15:14.046 --> 15:16.607
[SPEAKER_01]: So meaning post your submission of ballot, and that's critical.
15:16.927 --> 15:21.009
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why we recommend everybody, all Americans to use vote from the broad.
15:21.349 --> 15:24.971
[SPEAKER_01]: There's other links out there right now that I need
15:28.713 --> 15:33.056
[SPEAKER_01]: One is run by Elon Musk and it's a sham and it's a scam.
15:33.216 --> 15:35.137
[SPEAKER_01]: What they're doing is they're collecting your data.
15:35.717 --> 15:40.159
[SPEAKER_01]: Do not use anything other than vote from abroad.poRG.
15:40.540 --> 15:42.000
[SPEAKER_01]: That is my recommendation.
15:42.160 --> 15:52.886
[SPEAKER_00]: Keep your... Yeah, since we're talking about yours, what are from your website, from this website, not yours, your larger organization, right, that does this.
15:53.106 --> 15:53.746
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
15:54.147 --> 15:55.968
[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, from that website,
15:56.868 --> 16:01.410
[SPEAKER_00]: that is a well-established website for voting from abroad.
16:01.930 --> 16:15.356
[SPEAKER_00]: You can start your, can you tell everybody like, if they haven't started yet or, you know, for any election, they can go on to that website and initiate the process all the way to monitoring where their ballot has got to, is that correct?
16:15.776 --> 16:16.957
[SPEAKER_01]: Cut is absolutely correct.
16:17.117 --> 16:20.698
[SPEAKER_01]: They actually, they actually have buttons for you to follow.
16:21.198 --> 16:33.004
[SPEAKER_01]: So, for example, vote from abroad is a very, vote from abroad.org is a very good website to which you can literally request through and it goes to your state and it goes through your state's election office.
16:33.524 --> 16:37.926
[SPEAKER_01]: You can request your yearly registration from voting from abroad.
16:38.706 --> 16:47.928
[SPEAKER_01]: You can then ask for your ballot, then the election's office will handle that and send you the ballot, whether it's going to be email or mail or whatever.
16:48.088 --> 16:49.348
[SPEAKER_01]: Each state is a little bit different.
16:50.508 --> 17:02.410
[SPEAKER_01]: Then once you register your vote, and stuff, and you send it back, you can go to vote from abroad.org to track when it goes back to your state and when the ballot has been counted by your state.
17:04.951 --> 17:05.391
[SPEAKER_00]: Very good.
17:06.344 --> 17:20.519
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have a question, so I'm a California voter and I have had issues getting my ballots from California meaning it takes a long time to get them.
17:20.599 --> 17:27.826
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have got repeated emails saying your ballots on the way, it's been shipped, but I haven't received it here yet.
17:28.587 --> 17:36.516
[SPEAKER_02]: However, which is not a concern for me because I also went online and printed out the ballot that I Okay, back's in
17:38.234 --> 18:00.630
[SPEAKER_02]: It is 2020-6, and don't want to have spacts machines in their homes anymore, so I was wondering, and I know with faxing it in, you have to sign up both saying that you are acknowledging that your vote is no longer secret, which is fine with me.
18:02.291 --> 18:07.664
[SPEAKER_02]: But do you know of any free facts online fact service to use?
18:07.985 --> 18:09.509
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you come across that?
18:09.549 --> 18:12.055
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you have recommendations or where to find one?
18:12.798 --> 18:24.642
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, actually it's interesting you say that because if you go to the Apple store and if you use Apple or if you're using Android, there are applications that allow you to fax from their app.
18:25.042 --> 18:29.764
[SPEAKER_01]: And my HP here can actually scan and fax if you have a phone number.
18:30.124 --> 18:31.545
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if it's a landline kind of thing.
18:31.945 --> 18:33.746
[SPEAKER_01]: So there are those tap options.
18:33.926 --> 18:37.567
[SPEAKER_01]: However, in Spain, because it will be behind the times.
18:38.006 --> 18:46.175
[SPEAKER_01]: I've had the time to research this to be honest with you, wherever you are in Spain with your enormous Spain, Eastern Spain, Western Spain, Southern Spain, on the coast, whatever.
18:46.856 --> 18:51.100
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a lot of photocopy centers that still have fax machines.
18:51.830 --> 18:58.833
[SPEAKER_01]: So you could literally go to a fax machine with one of these little stalls and thanks your ballot back.
18:58.893 --> 19:05.536
[SPEAKER_01]: Now the question becomes is can they do international call because it's an international number that you're going to call, right?
19:05.556 --> 19:07.617
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're going to have to pay the international fee for it.
19:07.877 --> 19:13.760
[SPEAKER_01]: And it may have said that these little, these little stores will probably have that factor in because they've done it before.
19:14.360 --> 19:15.441
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's another option.
19:16.874 --> 19:33.268
[SPEAKER_01]: However, to your point, the idea of fact seeing stuff back is so antiquated that I'm sure with the state of California and other states, they've probably come up with an alternative for you and reference to me and able to get your ballot back in time.
19:34.027 --> 19:41.811
[SPEAKER_00]: I have used online faxes before, there's websites that you can upload a PDF and faxes and totally works.
19:41.831 --> 19:56.598
[SPEAKER_00]: I've done it for, I want to say like many years ago for like a passport thing or something and there are loads of places where you can, if you're not doing it on a regular basis and you just need to do it one time faxes, loads of places online you can send a one time fax for free.
19:58.059 --> 20:09.207
[SPEAKER_00]: But also, is it normal that there are other many states where you literally need to get a paper ballot sent to you and then you need to send it back?
20:09.268 --> 20:11.609
[SPEAKER_00]: Is that quite a lot of states these days?
20:12.170 --> 20:19.175
[SPEAKER_01]: No, my understanding is that the states that really move towards more automation, making it easier for people such as email.
20:20.496 --> 20:24.559
[SPEAKER_01]: And so email and email back your ballot, you can do that, that some states are doing that.
20:26.060 --> 20:28.901
[SPEAKER_01]: For example, Virginia is a unique because of the state laws.
20:29.461 --> 20:32.782
[SPEAKER_01]: We literally have to hand back our paper ballot in order to be counted.
20:32.802 --> 20:36.563
[SPEAKER_01]: Virginia is kind of out there in a sense a little bit behind the times, if you will.
20:37.203 --> 20:44.285
[SPEAKER_01]: But other states have moved quickly to automate as much as possible the ability to put your ballot back into the election's office.
20:56.823 --> 20:59.826
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, unfortunately, California is either paper or facts.
20:59.886 --> 21:02.709
[SPEAKER_02]: They have, they haven't bridge the new modern.
21:02.769 --> 21:03.549
[SPEAKER_02]: There's the new modern.
21:03.569 --> 21:04.630
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, it re-modern.
21:05.111 --> 21:06.232
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, exactly.
21:06.292 --> 21:08.654
[SPEAKER_01]: I think part of it is it's to be honest with you.
21:08.674 --> 21:09.635
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's politics.
21:10.416 --> 21:17.442
[SPEAKER_01]: Part of it is to dissuade people abroad from submitting balance because it's cumbersome that can state of Virginia.
21:17.502 --> 21:20.245
[SPEAKER_01]: I find it to be very cumbersome, but we do it because we want to vote.
21:20.285 --> 21:21.866
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure our vote counts to privilege.
21:22.607 --> 21:34.407
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, for example, Oklahoma and Nebraska, the more redder states are going to be probably more complicated than the blue or states are going to be complicated.
21:36.171 --> 21:52.824
[SPEAKER_02]: I did say it in my California ballot that you know, they allow facts, but there was a disclaimer that I think like in 2025 or something, the federal government outlawed or stopped faxing in ballots.
21:52.844 --> 21:55.366
[SPEAKER_02]: So it really is just dependent on each state.
21:56.427 --> 22:00.030
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, because the state elections office and I would recommend those at a listening.
22:00.693 --> 22:26.469
[SPEAKER_01]: I highly recommend that if you have the time which you should make time for is go out to your elections official or elections office website for every state and look up the information to make sure you are talking you you understand your requirements for your state another way of doing it in the state of Virginia is very good about it by the way the the out of state voter
22:29.419 --> 22:36.482
[SPEAKER_01]: elections official that handles phone calls and emails and they're very responsive and I think that every state is the same way.
22:36.842 --> 22:55.430
[SPEAKER_01]: So I would recommend those at a listening that if you will have any doubts or any questions, go to your elections office website in your state, look up out of state voters or absentee ballot information and talk to an election official.
22:55.490 --> 22:56.190
[SPEAKER_01]: It's worth the money.
22:56.717 --> 23:00.719
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you can email them then email them and ask them the questions and they're really good about answering.
23:01.059 --> 23:07.023
[SPEAKER_01]: One of the things that we'll learn as we're learning through this for Americans that are living abroad and I kind of discussed it with what's going on back home.
23:08.482 --> 23:21.249
[SPEAKER_01]: The good news is that the state election officials down to the city level are really committed to making sure every ballot is taken care of, every ballot is cured properly and they follow the rules.
23:21.989 --> 23:31.834
[SPEAKER_01]: The federal government is playing games, ignore that, go to your state, work with your state, work with your county, work with the law school, I as a former elections official
23:34.255 --> 23:48.525
[SPEAKER_01]: particularly in the city of Alexandria, we took our absentee ballads very seriously along with the regular voters and did our due diligence to make sure that their ballot was taken in effectively verified and counted.
23:50.254 --> 23:56.955
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good point, and I think, that's how I always felt when I went to vote.
23:56.995 --> 24:02.497
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, everyone was just really interested in making sure that everyone's right to vote was taken care of properly.
24:03.157 --> 24:10.318
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think you had mentioned on our last call, and I don't know if you have these numbers off the top of your head, so I'm kind of putting you on the spot.
24:10.358 --> 24:15.059
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a very small portion of people that do do the absentee ballots from abroad,
24:19.857 --> 24:42.582
[SPEAKER_00]: the amount of people that are making the effort, because just because your abroad doesn't mean that you're not interested and want to be a part of what's going on, because you might still have family, you might want to go back, you just care because it's your country, like whatever the reasons, it's important that everybody participate, and I think we want more people to do that from abroad and in the country, but since we're talking about abroad, we'll just talk about that, those numbers.
24:43.542 --> 24:48.763
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, yeah, so the latest numbers that we have,
24:49.693 --> 24:53.454
[SPEAKER_01]: is that they're roughly not 6 to 9 million Americans abroad.
24:53.574 --> 24:55.035
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's all over the world, right?
24:55.975 --> 25:08.498
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the big pockets of American expatriates, if you will, living abroad, it's Canada, Mexico, England, Germany, France, and Spain.
25:08.818 --> 25:13.340
[SPEAKER_01]: So then it starts to drop off in Africa, Asia, at least in that type of stuff.
25:15.067 --> 25:30.415
[SPEAKER_01]: But yes, the idea is in 2024, the amount of absentee ballots that were sent back to the United States, roughly was a population of New Jersey, which was roughly about 5 million people.
25:31.696 --> 25:33.577
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how important it is.
25:33.597 --> 25:36.619
[SPEAKER_01]: But again, you break up the 5 million into 50 states.
25:37.779 --> 25:42.762
[SPEAKER_01]: And in the last last kind of information that I've got, the data that I've been able to accumulate,
25:43.205 --> 25:57.722
[SPEAKER_01]: has been that California, Texas, New Jersey, Colorado, Florida, and Virginia is starting to come up and have been the largest recipients of absentee ballots from abroad.
25:58.662 --> 26:02.287
[SPEAKER_01]: In other words, that's kind of the majority of people that have moved abroad, right?
26:02.327 --> 26:05.991
[SPEAKER_01]: That doesn't mean that there's somebody from Idaho, that doesn't mean it's the numbers.
26:06.051 --> 26:13.420
[SPEAKER_01]: If you look at the cumulative numbers, those were the states that had the most Americans abroad that lived in those states.
26:13.580 --> 26:14.181
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that make sense?
26:14.761 --> 26:28.793
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, and it means it's also very important for us to vote because those numbers if we if we didn't vote A election could be turned in a way you may not want to happen because that is the huge number of people that need to send a balance in
26:29.534 --> 26:31.577
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely critical critical critical.
26:31.617 --> 26:41.752
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, yeah, again, you know, for those that are listening and American that is listening right now kind of wondering, well, you know, you know, I've completed this engage.
26:41.772 --> 26:43.434
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want anything to do with my country.
26:43.454 --> 26:45.156
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm so sick and tired of what's going on.
26:45.437 --> 26:46.078
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I get it.
26:46.976 --> 26:56.208
[SPEAKER_01]: But let me be very honest with you, that you and your vote count in reference to what may happen in your county and in your city.
26:56.569 --> 27:02.456
[SPEAKER_01]: Your ballot could be the difference between a Democrat or Republican holding a seat or not holding a seat.
27:03.081 --> 27:03.962
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is critical.
27:04.302 --> 27:06.423
[SPEAKER_01]: It is critical in reference to what's going on today.
27:06.623 --> 27:26.416
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, we don't want to get over dramatic about what's happening today in the United States, but these midterms are basically a real clear message that we abroad as well as in-country, want to send the administration that's in power right now to say stop the stupid stuff and start governing seriously.
27:26.516 --> 27:30.859
[SPEAKER_01]: And the only way you can do that is by changing Congress and to send it at this point.
27:31.587 --> 27:37.089
[SPEAKER_00]: But also, I mean, don't be, I mean, it is a, you know, we've, we're Americans that have moved abroad.
27:37.809 --> 27:39.870
[SPEAKER_00]: What goes on there affects other parts of the world.
27:39.930 --> 27:44.391
[SPEAKER_00]: So, actually, it's not just looking at your state and your city.
27:44.492 --> 27:45.872
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, what goes on there?
27:45.912 --> 27:48.653
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's all international politics and everything.
27:48.693 --> 27:56.116
[SPEAKER_00]: So just because you're in another country doesn't mean that you're not affected directly by politics in another country, not just America, any country.
27:56.156 --> 27:58.716
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's all affecting different things.
27:58.737 --> 27:59.477
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all connected.
28:00.503 --> 28:06.925
[SPEAKER_00]: you can't separate, it's impossible to separate yourself and completely like that and just be like, not gonna worry about it.
28:06.985 --> 28:11.786
[SPEAKER_01]: So worry about it, but... Great, that's a great messaging.
28:12.226 --> 28:18.607
[SPEAKER_01]: And to add a little bit more underlimant to what you just said, think about this is an American.
28:19.267 --> 28:21.028
[SPEAKER_01]: You have stock investments back home.
28:21.468 --> 28:23.428
[SPEAKER_01]: You have your probably on social security.
28:24.429 --> 28:29.050
[SPEAKER_01]: And you got to think about those two have a tremendous impact on how you're gonna live your life abroad.
28:30.790 --> 28:41.676
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the hell goes in the hand basket back home, meaning the government decides to really start screwing with stuff and we start to lose investments from abroad in the United States.
28:41.696 --> 28:42.856
[SPEAKER_01]: So you're absolutely right.
28:42.956 --> 28:45.258
[SPEAKER_01]: Your words are really well said, but I wanted to affect you.
28:46.167 --> 28:49.210
[SPEAKER_01]: As an American listening to this, that this will affect your pocketbook.
28:49.810 --> 28:52.512
[SPEAKER_01]: You won't be able to live in Spain if you don't vote.
28:52.933 --> 28:59.558
[SPEAKER_01]: And I mean that because that could, the dollar could be devalued to the point where you can't afford to live in a country that you thought you could live in.
29:00.059 --> 29:03.262
[SPEAKER_01]: Your social security could be acted, you don't have the money that you thought you had.
29:03.922 --> 29:05.423
[SPEAKER_01]: and it has all these implications.
29:05.563 --> 29:06.123
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
29:06.463 --> 29:07.164
[SPEAKER_01]: Without question.
29:07.404 --> 29:07.764
[SPEAKER_01]: Agreed.
29:07.824 --> 29:11.386
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, you can't complain if you don't vote as always hell up.
29:11.406 --> 29:13.647
[SPEAKER_02]: But I was taught to me as a kid, right?
29:14.467 --> 29:15.008
[SPEAKER_02]: Exactly.
29:15.048 --> 29:16.668
[SPEAKER_00]: I was going to say that's exactly it.
29:16.748 --> 29:19.590
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you need to be able to complain.
29:21.711 --> 29:24.492
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like you need to be able to get together and complain about it.
29:24.632 --> 29:27.934
[SPEAKER_00]: So whatever it is, like, you know, it's just part of life.
29:28.054 --> 29:29.395
[SPEAKER_00]: So you have to vote to do that.
29:30.796 --> 29:37.081
[SPEAKER_02]: I wanted to say something to that you had mentioned before about the emailing and calling your state voting offices.
29:37.862 --> 29:45.208
[SPEAKER_02]: I would like to shout out to California because whenever I've emailed them, someone has gotten back to my email within like, seriously 10 to 15 minutes.
29:45.268 --> 29:47.190
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like, it's been amazing.
29:47.310 --> 29:48.891
[SPEAKER_02]: So, thank you, California.
29:49.692 --> 29:54.436
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so glad you answered my emails, but a shout out, Andrew, you're correct.
29:54.776 --> 29:56.398
[SPEAKER_02]: That was work work work work work.
29:58.223 --> 30:01.525
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, a lot of people that are doing those jobs are voluntary, right?
30:01.545 --> 30:07.429
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they're volunteer jobs and they're taking that job very seriously.
30:07.629 --> 30:17.415
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, shout out to everybody that volunteers in those areas for this, because all those extra hands are needed to make this go smoothly, I think.
30:17.875 --> 30:18.776
[SPEAKER_01]: That's right, that's right.
30:20.797 --> 30:26.741
[SPEAKER_01]: voting is a privilege and we have the privilege to vote and we have the opportunity.
30:27.942 --> 30:29.663
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, absolutely.
30:30.103 --> 30:35.006
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I think on that note and that's we have any other questions or anything else you want to point out.
30:35.066 --> 30:37.588
[SPEAKER_00]: The fact that it's a privilege is maybe a good place to end.
30:38.256 --> 30:38.476
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
30:38.576 --> 30:38.817
[SPEAKER_01]: Great.
30:38.857 --> 30:51.907
[SPEAKER_01]: Just remember vote from abroad that RG is a site that we highly recommend Americans go to so they can follow up on their get the registration to vote, follow up with their state and be able to track their vote.
30:51.987 --> 30:55.129
[SPEAKER_00]: And I will say because you can't we don't highly recommend it.
30:55.169 --> 30:55.789
[SPEAKER_00]: Just go there.
30:57.251 --> 30:57.471
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
30:58.311 --> 30:59.292
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the only one.
30:59.512 --> 31:01.254
[SPEAKER_00]: Just go there.
31:03.555 --> 31:05.417
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, thank you so much Andrew.
31:06.983 --> 31:07.723
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's a pleasure.
31:07.744 --> 31:10.365
[SPEAKER_01]: It's pleasure to seem both to be again talking with you guys.
31:10.846 --> 31:11.806
[SPEAKER_01]: Hope everything goes well.
31:12.166 --> 31:13.047
[SPEAKER_01]: Please don't forget to vote.
31:13.587 --> 31:14.128
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you.
31:14.308 --> 31:15.569
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye.
31:15.609 --> 31:15.949
[SPEAKER_01]: Bye.
31:22.333 --> 31:24.034
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that was a wonderful interview.
31:24.054 --> 31:24.975
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you think, Tanya?
31:25.900 --> 31:26.600
[SPEAKER_00]: That was fun.
31:26.721 --> 31:27.921
[SPEAKER_00]: I am so glad.
31:27.941 --> 31:30.923
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, because I actually printed out my ballot.
31:31.023 --> 31:31.804
[SPEAKER_00]: No, not printed out.
31:31.824 --> 31:32.064
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry.
31:32.444 --> 31:32.625
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
31:33.125 --> 31:35.266
[SPEAKER_00]: I have printed out the ballot and everything that I got.
31:35.727 --> 31:38.388
[SPEAKER_00]: So now I know how to fold this envelope back together.
31:38.568 --> 31:43.392
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm feeling a bit because it is literally it looks like some enigma machine or something when you print it out.
31:43.492 --> 31:45.013
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm like, thank you for explaining it.
31:46.854 --> 31:58.338
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember you and I having this conversation about the envelope and to mind my mind went Oh, because I'm like, how can you print out a flimsy paper and envelope that's supposed to go across the world?
31:58.638 --> 32:01.058
[SPEAKER_02]: And like he said, you put it inside another envelope.
32:01.079 --> 32:02.739
[SPEAKER_00]: You put it in another envelope.
32:02.759 --> 32:07.120
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's just funny because when you print everything out, it says nothing else should go in this envelope.
32:07.140 --> 32:11.862
[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, when you do these official things, whether you're sending in for a new passport or doing something like this,
32:12.282 --> 32:18.426
[SPEAKER_00]: you don't want your thing to not work up or putting all that effort in for some stupid reason that could be avoided, right?
32:18.747 --> 32:22.929
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm looking at it and the thing literally says do not put anything else in this envelope.
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[SPEAKER_00]: That to me means they should open an envelope and there should be one piece of paper in it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: It should be your ballot and that should be the end of it.
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[SPEAKER_00]: So the idea of putting the ballot in that envelope and then that envelope and another envelope to me would be like a big no-no.
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[SPEAKER_00]: right that to me is like the person's gonna get it they're gonna open it up and they've only been certified to open one envelope so now they can't open the second one do you know what I mean like something like that that's what I would expect like it's not my job to open a second envelope just because you're trying to get it from another country so I will hope that my printer has ink and and print everything out and do it properly and send it off
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[SPEAKER_02]: Well, after we get off of this, this, I'm going to go straight to my scanner and scan the ballot that I printed out online and find a faxing service for free on my computer to fax this ballot back to California.
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[SPEAKER_02]: And it is very important to everyone.
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[SPEAKER_02]: It's still not too late to vote.
33:17.737 --> 33:23.100
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you think you've missed a deadline, like Andrew said, check your state, lottery, it will slattery.
33:23.120 --> 33:23.621
[SPEAKER_02]: It will slattery.
33:23.641 --> 33:24.321
[SPEAKER_00]: It will slattery.
33:25.862 --> 33:37.171
[SPEAKER_02]: Check your state's election office and find out how and when you can do, you know, it's to lead to the send you a ballot, but you can probably print what out and mail it back or fax it back.
33:37.452 --> 33:51.003
[SPEAKER_00]: And also, if you are listening to this outside of this election cycle that we're talking about, which is the November midterm elections in the United States here, if you're if you're listening at a completely other time, go to their website.
33:52.048 --> 33:55.813
[SPEAKER_00]: and make sure that you are signed up for the next election whenever that is.
33:55.853 --> 33:57.274
[SPEAKER_00]: It's never too late to sign up.
33:57.314 --> 34:02.781
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe if you've been here six, seven years, or however long you've been here, maybe you've been here five months and you just haven't got into it.
34:03.541 --> 34:07.927
[SPEAKER_00]: Go up there, sign up, get yourself sorted so that when the next election is you're ready to go.
34:09.488 --> 34:12.171
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this is good for everybody at any time.
34:13.093 --> 34:20.256
[SPEAKER_02]: And I also like to end with, if I may, he did it for you up this interview, but he brought it up the last interview.
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[SPEAKER_02]: You have to register every year when you live abroad, so remember that so I get notification.
34:29.160 --> 34:33.322
[SPEAKER_00]: So once you have signed up through an organization like the one that he works with.
34:33.722 --> 34:35.183
[SPEAKER_00]: they will send you emails.
34:35.283 --> 34:41.607
[SPEAKER_00]: So it won't be, they're not going to send you loads of emails all the time, but they will send you an email saying, make sure you do this.
34:41.627 --> 34:45.070
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll send you emails to make sure that you're up to date of the things that you need to do.
34:45.150 --> 34:54.096
[SPEAKER_00]: So that is also another reason to sign up because if you try and do it just directly without the assistance of one of these organizations, you might forget some of those deadlines I'd say.
34:54.116 --> 34:55.497
[SPEAKER_02]: It's very easy to forget again.
34:55.537 --> 35:00.680
[SPEAKER_02]: And I didn't know I had a register every year until he told me last night when we interviewed him.
35:02.561 --> 35:05.644
[SPEAKER_00]: And I didn't know that was what I was doing when I get these emails.
35:05.744 --> 35:09.027
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I click on something and send something in it.
35:09.607 --> 35:10.909
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't really connecting those dots.
35:10.929 --> 35:13.651
[SPEAKER_00]: I was just doing what the email tells me and it was happening.
35:13.671 --> 35:14.332
[SPEAKER_00]: It was working.
35:14.412 --> 35:17.054
[SPEAKER_00]: I wasn't really putting a lot of thought into it to be honest.
35:17.074 --> 35:21.278
[SPEAKER_00]: But it was nice to have somebody else take care of that because we all need an assistant.
35:21.378 --> 35:24.681
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is one scenario where you can actually get a free assistant.
35:24.981 --> 35:25.381
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
35:25.482 --> 35:26.242
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm at all for you.
35:26.523 --> 35:27.183
[SPEAKER_00]: So take care.
35:27.223 --> 35:28.825
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm very important thing to take care of.
35:29.505 --> 35:30.987
[SPEAKER_00]: and a very important thing to take care of.
35:31.047 --> 35:36.052
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we hope you enjoyed the interview and we will see you next time.
35:36.072 --> 35:37.634
[SPEAKER_02]: Adios, Karnya.
35:38.415 --> 35:39.256
[SPEAKER_00]: Adios, ciao.
35:42.920 --> 35:45.223
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to another episode of our Spain.
35:46.011 --> 35:49.812
[SPEAKER_02]: We really appreciate all the support we have received since we started this podcast.
35:49.912 --> 35:54.014
[SPEAKER_00]: Visit usbain.com for transcripts to this and our other episodes.
35:54.514 --> 36:01.256
[SPEAKER_00]: Some exciting merchandise, and if you are so inclined, there is also a link to bias a coffee which helps support this fun endeavor.
36:02.197 --> 36:05.558
[SPEAKER_02]: And please follow us on Instagram and YouTube at usbain podcast.
36:05.698 --> 36:07.999
[SPEAKER_02]: Don't forget to subscribe to us wherever you are listening.
36:08.019 --> 36:10.640
[SPEAKER_00]: It really helps us stay connected, and we'd love to hear from you.
36:11.397 --> 36:14.222
[SPEAKER_02]: Let us know if there's any topics you would like for us to talk about.
36:14.422 --> 36:18.188
[SPEAKER_02]: Even though we are happy to talk about anything, we also want to make sure it's informative for you.
36:18.248 --> 36:18.669
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
