July 27, 2025 • 19 mins
We spoke with U.S. Election Assistance Commission, Vice Chair Thomas Hicks about advancing safe, secure, accurate, and accessible elections.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm
Alison Demurz. My guest this morning is Vice chair Thomas
Hicks with the US Election Assistance Commission. Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I'm wonderful, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
How are you doing great? Thank you great.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You have quite an impressive bio that could probably take
me a couple of hours to read. Can you please
tell people about yourself, your work with President Barack Obama,
how you were chosen. I'll let you tell everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So it was. It sounds more impressive than it is.
So I've been in elections for over thirty years, and
I started off as working on campaigns and then decided
in two thousand that after the two thousand election with
bushby Gore, that I never wanted to see an election
(00:52):
happen like that again. So I looked for a job
after working for the Clinton administration and went and worked
for a non governmental agency or group, good government group
called Common Cause. And one of the things that they
advocated for was the Help America Vote Act, which became
(01:14):
law in two thousand and two, and it's basically one
of the last huge pieces of bipartisan legislation out there.
Three hundred and fifty seven members of the House voted
for it, and ninety two members of the Senate voted
for it. It provided more than four billion dollars to
(01:36):
the states to improve the process, though mostly right, replacing
voting equipment and what became the US Election Assistance Commission.
I'm now a member of the four Commission panel. But
before that, I worked on Capitol Hill, where I've worked
(01:58):
in the Committee on House administer with oversaw elections overall,
and the members of the House would come to me
and ask me about appointments to the agencies and did
my recommendations for folks as well. And so one day,
(02:20):
you know, they came to me and said, you know, basically,
what do you think of these people? And I said,
that person's great, that person's not so great, and I
could do that job. And they called my bluff and
sent my name over to President Obama, who nominated me
(02:40):
for this position in twenty ten, nominated me again in
twenty and eleven, and nominated me again in two thousand
and thirteen because there was some controversy with the agency
at that time. But it took four and a half years,
but I I was confirmed by unanimous consent by US
(03:04):
Senate in December of twenty fourteen, and I've been here
ever since, working with my two Republican colleagues and my
one Democratic colleague. And I like to joke every once
in a while that I get along better with them
than I do with some of my own family. So,
(03:26):
and it's one of these agencies that does a lot
of work that no one's really heard of.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Great agency, congratulations, and yes, it's extremely impressive. Who's better
than you.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I've worked for the federal government for almost thirty years,
and I feel that there's always a chance to give
back to the American people. And that's one of the
things that my parents taught me, and one of the
things of why I've been advocating for National poll Worker
Recruitment Day, because so many folks have said, hey, I
(04:03):
don't trust how elections are run, I don't know what's
going on behind the scenes, this, what's that? And I say, hey,
if you have questions, serve as a poll worker, see
it from the inside, and don't just sit around and
complain about things and so forth. Be a part of
the solution and don't be a part of the problem. Basically,
(04:27):
so this is a chance for folks to do that.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
So for those who don't know about the US Election
Assistance Commission, or what we'll refer to as EAC, what
does the EAC do exactly?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
So we basically have four functions. One to serve as
a clearinghouse for election administration, so basically collecting a lot
of information from around the country and giving that to
other jurisdictions. Is basically sixty five one hundred jurisdictions around
the country that run elections, and so all those jurisdictions
don't have the re sources that they need to be
(05:02):
able to run their elections well. And so we gather
all that information and then that people can come to
our website or see our seminars and webinars and so forth,
or summits and so forth, things like that. The other
piece that we do is we certify voting equipment. And
(05:23):
so if you see if people are voting on equipment
and they look behind the machine, you know, don't do
it so that you're going to get yourself in trouble.
But behind the machines are on the side of the machines,
there's a sticker that says EAC certified, and so those
machines have been thoroughly tested by our labs. One is
(05:47):
a Huntsville, Alabama, and the other ones in Denver, Colorado,
where they basically take those apart, go through them, ensure
that they are accurate, that they basically you know, you know,
dropping the heat test, cold test and then running the
software and everything else on it as well. And so
(06:09):
you know, the other piece, that's the biggest piece that
I think that states care about and people care about
is giving out money to the states to help with
the running of elections. And so over the last twenty
plus years, we've given out close to six billion or
five or six billion dollars to the states to run elections.
(06:33):
And you know, as if you just look at the states,
that's fifty states, five territories in the District of Columbia.
And that's been really really great for us to do
some of the high level things that we do, which
I think is just absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And these are just some of the ways that the
EAC interacts and assists election offices across the.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Nation, right, and so that helps to sure that the
elections are secure, accurate, and that people can have confidence
that their votes are being counted. Accurately.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
The EAC recently held events in Jacksonville, Florida, also in
Iowa in LA. Do you have more of these events
going around the country.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah. We're going to be holding a National Poll Worker
Recruitment Day event at the World War Two Museum in
New Orleans on August twelfth. It will be live stream
if folks want to just watch that, But it's basically
we partner with Vet the Vote, who is a military
(07:38):
recruiting in Goo that recruits veterans and their families to
serve as poll workers across the country. And so who
better to serve as a poll worker than someone who's
already devoted so much time and energy to our country
as veterans. And I'm really looking forward to it New
(07:59):
Orleans and in August is a little hot, but I
think that it's going to be It's going to be
a great event, and I'm really looking forward to it
and being down there with some of our veterans as well.
One of the events that we held recently out in
La at the uss Iowa was absolutely fantastic to see
so many veterans who've given so much time and energy
(08:22):
and devoted their lives to our country. Being so proud
to be there and talk about the chance that they
served as poll workers and to still be able to
give back to our country.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I read that it takes a million poll workers to
run the election structure across the country. If someone's interested
in signing up to serve as a poll worker, how
can they get involved.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
So there's two ways to do that, and it's almost
a million people, but not quite so. But we're always
looking for more, always looking for more people to do this.
But they can go to Health America vote dot gov
or EAC slash VAC dot gov slash vote to look
up their jurisdiction and see what sort of things are
(09:07):
happening in the areas that they are. You know, in
twenty twenty, we had, you know, everyone remembers the pandemic
and the fact that the number one story was the
pandemic in twenty twenty, But the next story that was
talked about each and every day was about the election,
(09:27):
and so people were so entrenched in the election process,
but there was the election. Officials basically had to run
three elections that year, one in person for folks who
decided that they still wanted to go into a polling place.
To vote the absentee portion of that for people who
(09:48):
wanted to basically do it vote by mail, and then
still they had to do the early voting piece as
well for the jurisdictions that had early voting, so early voting,
in person voting, and then vote by mail as well.
So election officials had to run all three of those.
And one of the aspects that we've lacked on was
(10:12):
poll workers because for in person voting, because those who
are a little bit older were more susceptible to the
pandemic in basically COVID, and so we had younger people
service poll workers during that time, but that's sort of
fallen off in the last couple of years, and so
(10:32):
we're doing our best to get more people involved in
the process over Also college students, people who are you know,
have a little more time on their hand, like retirees
and so forth, or even you know, school teachers because
they are basically people who can look to see what's
(10:55):
going on and make corrections to it as well. So
I'm really looking for to this event and I hope
that we will be able to continue more events like
this in the future as well.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Absolutely, the EAC tests and certifies election systems to provide
confidence in our nation's elections. I understand that the EAC
is also the distributor of grant funding from Congress to
election jurisdictions. Can you speak a little bit more about
what happens.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
There, Yeah, happy to do so. So states run the elections.
But it's the same sort of thing as if you
go to have your car inspected. You take it to
the gas station or wherever, and they look at certain things.
(11:40):
They look under the hood, make sure that you know
things are connected correctly, things are running fine, lights are
going okay, and so forth. It's the same sort of
thing with the EAC, but more on a more intense
level for voting equipment overall. And like I said earlier,
we have two labs, one in Alabama and the other
(12:03):
one up in Colorado, and they take those machines apart
and they go through it thoroughly to ensure that they
are functioning well. And you know, at the end of
the day, if they are certified and pass the tests
that are going on, they get a seal of approval
(12:25):
from US. We just in twenty and twenty one upped
our level of voluntary voting system standards to two point
zero and just you know this week we were just
last week we certified the first system to pass the
(12:47):
new vigorous standards for better accessibility, better access and better
security for voting systems overall. And that's not to say
that the systems out there now don't still adhere to
those standards. It's just the same thing of if you're
driving a car from twenty ten, that car still is
(13:09):
good to be on the road and so forth, as
long as you have it inspected and so forth. But
if you have a newer model, it's going to come
with new bells and whistles and more more safety features.
And that's the same thing with these new voting systems overall.
In terms of money, we have been allocated a number
of billions of dollars over the last few years to
(13:32):
pass out to the states, and that's done on a
population of voting population basis, though state like California and
Texas would get a larger percentage of the money than
a smaller state put population wise. But that's not to
say that states don't need that money, and they need it,
(13:55):
they want it, and they use it correctly. Because I
believe that are Inspector General in going through the audits
for the states, found that basically there's a ninety nine
point whatever percent has been spent correctly and they haven't
had the claw too much of that money back. And
(14:15):
I think that that's a huge testament to the election
officials who administer these funds, because we want to make
sure that the American people are getting a big value
for their dollars.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Absolutely, I'm always amazed when people say to me over
the years, I don't vote, and I'm blown away because
it's a privilege. What would you say to someone who
doesn't understand how important it is to vote.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It is very, very important to have your voice being heard.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of going
on a delegation down to Cuba where they were quizzing
me on Americans lack of vote and the fact and
(15:03):
I also was there to talk about campaign finance. But
one of the things that we have in our country
which is absolutely phenomenal and is basically not anywhere else
is the freedom speech. So I can say, hey, as
for my first Amendment, I want to have exercised my
first Amendment rights to vote and have my voice being heard.
(15:28):
Or I can say, you know what, I don't like
any of these candidates, and therefore I'm going to sit
at home and not vote. But if you do that,
you can't really complain about the way that systems are
going on at that moment, because if you don't express
your opinion on improving the process or even saying, hey,
(15:52):
I don't really want to advocate for any of these candidates,
you can still go in and cast your vote but
not vote for anyone, and so you're still basically casting
that vote. But I always go back to the fact
that I've known a number of people who have fought
(16:14):
and basically, you know, known folks who have died for
the right to vote. And that's not just to say, hey,
the civil rights folks one hundred years ago, one hundred
and five years ago. Now women got the right to vote,
and so we want to ensure that as we expand
(16:34):
the franchise to more folks, that they exercise that and
make sure that their voices are being heard. You know,
when we did the amendment to allow for eighteen year
olds to be able to cast their votes, I think
right now that's the lowest percentage of folks who cast
their votement. I think that they don't understand and don't
(16:57):
see the value of that, but hopefull you know, as
they get older and so hopefully service poll workers as well,
they will start to participate in the process.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I'm speaking with Vice Chair Thomas Hicks with the US
Election Assistance Commission. If you would like to serve as
a poleworker, you can go to Help America Vote dot gov.
If you'd like to register to vote, you can go
to EAC dot gov forward slash vote. Is there anything
else that you would like our listeners to know.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Well, I would just want them to know that, you know,
there's a lot of vitriol about the federal government and
the role that the federal government plays in people's lives,
but I think that, you know, agencies like the Election
Assistance Commission play such a positive aspect for people that
(17:52):
they don't hear about and they don't know about. So
I would, you know, tell folks too if they get
a chance to look at our website and see some
of the things that we're doing. We provide reports on
a number of different things, and you know, I've had
the privilege of talking to Americans in every single state
(18:13):
in our country and going to visit folks in every
one of those states, and everyone wants the same sort
of thing. They want to ensure that their vote is cast,
that those who are eligible to cast their votes can
do so and have those votes counted accurately. The way
that we go about doing it, we might disagree, but
(18:34):
that's what makes our country so great, and that we
can look towards differences but still come up with solutions
that are good for everyone. And that's one of the
pieces of the Help Meerca Vote Act, as I said earlier,
which was a huge piece of bipartisan legislation where no
(18:55):
one party benefited over the other, and it was mostly
done for the benefit of the American people. And that's
what our agencies is here for the benefit for the
American people by helping administrators administer the elections.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Overall, wonderful, Thank you so much for being here today
and thank you for serving the community.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Thank you for having me, and you have a wonderful day.
Good morning, Thank you for listening to Community Access. I'm
Alison Demurz. My guest this morning is Vice chair Thomas
Hicks with the US Election Assistance Commission. Good morning, Good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
I'm wonderful, Thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
How are you doing great? Thank you great.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
You have quite an impressive bio that could probably take
me a couple of hours to read. Can you please
tell people about yourself, your work with President Barack Obama,
how you were chosen. I'll let you tell everybody.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
So it was. It sounds more impressive than it is.
So I've been in elections for over thirty years, and
I started off as working on campaigns and then decided
in two thousand that after the two thousand election with
bushby Gore, that I never wanted to see an election
(00:52):
happen like that again. So I looked for a job
after working for the Clinton administration and went and worked
for a non governmental agency or group, good government group
called Common Cause. And one of the things that they
advocated for was the Help America Vote Act, which became
(01:14):
law in two thousand and two, and it's basically one
of the last huge pieces of bipartisan legislation out there.
Three hundred and fifty seven members of the House voted
for it, and ninety two members of the Senate voted
for it. It provided more than four billion dollars to
(01:36):
the states to improve the process, though mostly right, replacing
voting equipment and what became the US Election Assistance Commission.
I'm now a member of the four Commission panel. But
before that, I worked on Capitol Hill, where I've worked
(01:58):
in the Committee on House administer with oversaw elections overall,
and the members of the House would come to me
and ask me about appointments to the agencies and did
my recommendations for folks as well. And so one day,
(02:20):
you know, they came to me and said, you know, basically,
what do you think of these people? And I said,
that person's great, that person's not so great, and I
could do that job. And they called my bluff and
sent my name over to President Obama, who nominated me
(02:40):
for this position in twenty ten, nominated me again in
twenty and eleven, and nominated me again in two thousand
and thirteen because there was some controversy with the agency
at that time. But it took four and a half years,
but I I was confirmed by unanimous consent by US
(03:04):
Senate in December of twenty fourteen, and I've been here
ever since, working with my two Republican colleagues and my
one Democratic colleague. And I like to joke every once
in a while that I get along better with them
than I do with some of my own family. So,
(03:26):
and it's one of these agencies that does a lot
of work that no one's really heard of.
Speaker 1 (03:31):
Great agency, congratulations, and yes, it's extremely impressive. Who's better
than you.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
I've worked for the federal government for almost thirty years,
and I feel that there's always a chance to give
back to the American people. And that's one of the
things that my parents taught me, and one of the
things of why I've been advocating for National poll Worker
Recruitment Day, because so many folks have said, hey, I
(04:03):
don't trust how elections are run, I don't know what's
going on behind the scenes, this, what's that? And I say, hey,
if you have questions, serve as a poll worker, see
it from the inside, and don't just sit around and
complain about things and so forth. Be a part of
the solution and don't be a part of the problem. Basically,
(04:27):
so this is a chance for folks to do that.
Speaker 1 (04:30):
So for those who don't know about the US Election
Assistance Commission, or what we'll refer to as EAC, what
does the EAC do exactly?
Speaker 2 (04:40):
So we basically have four functions. One to serve as
a clearinghouse for election administration, so basically collecting a lot
of information from around the country and giving that to
other jurisdictions. Is basically sixty five one hundred jurisdictions around
the country that run elections, and so all those jurisdictions
don't have the re sources that they need to be
(05:02):
able to run their elections well. And so we gather
all that information and then that people can come to
our website or see our seminars and webinars and so forth,
or summits and so forth, things like that. The other
piece that we do is we certify voting equipment. And
(05:23):
so if you see if people are voting on equipment
and they look behind the machine, you know, don't do
it so that you're going to get yourself in trouble.
But behind the machines are on the side of the machines,
there's a sticker that says EAC certified, and so those
machines have been thoroughly tested by our labs. One is
(05:47):
a Huntsville, Alabama, and the other ones in Denver, Colorado,
where they basically take those apart, go through them, ensure
that they are accurate, that they basically you know, you know,
dropping the heat test, cold test and then running the
software and everything else on it as well. And so
(06:09):
you know, the other piece, that's the biggest piece that
I think that states care about and people care about
is giving out money to the states to help with
the running of elections. And so over the last twenty
plus years, we've given out close to six billion or
five or six billion dollars to the states to run elections.
(06:33):
And you know, as if you just look at the states,
that's fifty states, five territories in the District of Columbia.
And that's been really really great for us to do
some of the high level things that we do, which
I think is just absolutely wonderful.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
And these are just some of the ways that the
EAC interacts and assists election offices across the.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
Nation, right, and so that helps to sure that the
elections are secure, accurate, and that people can have confidence
that their votes are being counted. Accurately.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
The EAC recently held events in Jacksonville, Florida, also in
Iowa in LA. Do you have more of these events
going around the country.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah. We're going to be holding a National Poll Worker
Recruitment Day event at the World War Two Museum in
New Orleans on August twelfth. It will be live stream
if folks want to just watch that, But it's basically
we partner with Vet the Vote, who is a military
(07:38):
recruiting in Goo that recruits veterans and their families to
serve as poll workers across the country. And so who
better to serve as a poll worker than someone who's
already devoted so much time and energy to our country
as veterans. And I'm really looking forward to it New
(07:59):
Orleans and in August is a little hot, but I
think that it's going to be It's going to be
a great event, and I'm really looking forward to it
and being down there with some of our veterans as well.
One of the events that we held recently out in
La at the uss Iowa was absolutely fantastic to see
so many veterans who've given so much time and energy
(08:22):
and devoted their lives to our country. Being so proud
to be there and talk about the chance that they
served as poll workers and to still be able to
give back to our country.
Speaker 1 (08:34):
I read that it takes a million poll workers to
run the election structure across the country. If someone's interested
in signing up to serve as a poll worker, how
can they get involved.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
So there's two ways to do that, and it's almost
a million people, but not quite so. But we're always
looking for more, always looking for more people to do this.
But they can go to Health America vote dot gov
or EAC slash VAC dot gov slash vote to look
up their jurisdiction and see what sort of things are
(09:07):
happening in the areas that they are. You know, in
twenty twenty, we had, you know, everyone remembers the pandemic
and the fact that the number one story was the
pandemic in twenty twenty, But the next story that was
talked about each and every day was about the election,
(09:27):
and so people were so entrenched in the election process,
but there was the election. Officials basically had to run
three elections that year, one in person for folks who
decided that they still wanted to go into a polling place.
To vote the absentee portion of that for people who
(09:48):
wanted to basically do it vote by mail, and then
still they had to do the early voting piece as
well for the jurisdictions that had early voting, so early voting,
in person voting, and then vote by mail as well.
So election officials had to run all three of those.
And one of the aspects that we've lacked on was
(10:12):
poll workers because for in person voting, because those who
are a little bit older were more susceptible to the
pandemic in basically COVID, and so we had younger people
service poll workers during that time, but that's sort of
fallen off in the last couple of years, and so
(10:32):
we're doing our best to get more people involved in
the process over Also college students, people who are you know,
have a little more time on their hand, like retirees
and so forth, or even you know, school teachers because
they are basically people who can look to see what's
(10:55):
going on and make corrections to it as well. So
I'm really looking for to this event and I hope
that we will be able to continue more events like
this in the future as well.
Speaker 1 (11:05):
Absolutely, the EAC tests and certifies election systems to provide
confidence in our nation's elections. I understand that the EAC
is also the distributor of grant funding from Congress to
election jurisdictions. Can you speak a little bit more about
what happens.
Speaker 2 (11:20):
There, Yeah, happy to do so. So states run the elections.
But it's the same sort of thing as if you
go to have your car inspected. You take it to
the gas station or wherever, and they look at certain things.
(11:40):
They look under the hood, make sure that you know
things are connected correctly, things are running fine, lights are
going okay, and so forth. It's the same sort of
thing with the EAC, but more on a more intense
level for voting equipment overall. And like I said earlier,
we have two labs, one in Alabama and the other
(12:03):
one up in Colorado, and they take those machines apart
and they go through it thoroughly to ensure that they
are functioning well. And you know, at the end of
the day, if they are certified and pass the tests
that are going on, they get a seal of approval
(12:25):
from US. We just in twenty and twenty one upped
our level of voluntary voting system standards to two point
zero and just you know this week we were just
last week we certified the first system to pass the
(12:47):
new vigorous standards for better accessibility, better access and better
security for voting systems overall. And that's not to say
that the systems out there now don't still adhere to
those standards. It's just the same thing of if you're
driving a car from twenty ten, that car still is
(13:09):
good to be on the road and so forth, as
long as you have it inspected and so forth. But
if you have a newer model, it's going to come
with new bells and whistles and more more safety features.
And that's the same thing with these new voting systems overall.
In terms of money, we have been allocated a number
of billions of dollars over the last few years to
(13:32):
pass out to the states, and that's done on a
population of voting population basis, though state like California and
Texas would get a larger percentage of the money than
a smaller state put population wise. But that's not to
say that states don't need that money, and they need it,
(13:55):
they want it, and they use it correctly. Because I
believe that are Inspector General in going through the audits
for the states, found that basically there's a ninety nine
point whatever percent has been spent correctly and they haven't
had the claw too much of that money back. And
(14:15):
I think that that's a huge testament to the election
officials who administer these funds, because we want to make
sure that the American people are getting a big value
for their dollars.
Speaker 1 (14:26):
Absolutely, I'm always amazed when people say to me over
the years, I don't vote, and I'm blown away because
it's a privilege. What would you say to someone who
doesn't understand how important it is to vote.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
It is very, very important to have your voice being heard.
A few years ago, I had the privilege of going
on a delegation down to Cuba where they were quizzing
me on Americans lack of vote and the fact and
(15:03):
I also was there to talk about campaign finance. But
one of the things that we have in our country
which is absolutely phenomenal and is basically not anywhere else
is the freedom speech. So I can say, hey, as
for my first Amendment, I want to have exercised my
first Amendment rights to vote and have my voice being heard.
(15:28):
Or I can say, you know what, I don't like
any of these candidates, and therefore I'm going to sit
at home and not vote. But if you do that,
you can't really complain about the way that systems are
going on at that moment, because if you don't express
your opinion on improving the process or even saying, hey,
(15:52):
I don't really want to advocate for any of these candidates,
you can still go in and cast your vote but
not vote for anyone, and so you're still basically casting
that vote. But I always go back to the fact
that I've known a number of people who have fought
(16:14):
and basically, you know, known folks who have died for
the right to vote. And that's not just to say, hey,
the civil rights folks one hundred years ago, one hundred
and five years ago. Now women got the right to vote,
and so we want to ensure that as we expand
(16:34):
the franchise to more folks, that they exercise that and
make sure that their voices are being heard. You know,
when we did the amendment to allow for eighteen year
olds to be able to cast their votes, I think
right now that's the lowest percentage of folks who cast
their votement. I think that they don't understand and don't
(16:57):
see the value of that, but hopefull you know, as
they get older and so hopefully service poll workers as well,
they will start to participate in the process.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
I'm speaking with Vice Chair Thomas Hicks with the US
Election Assistance Commission. If you would like to serve as
a poleworker, you can go to Help America Vote dot gov.
If you'd like to register to vote, you can go
to EAC dot gov forward slash vote. Is there anything
else that you would like our listeners to know.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Well, I would just want them to know that, you know,
there's a lot of vitriol about the federal government and
the role that the federal government plays in people's lives,
but I think that, you know, agencies like the Election
Assistance Commission play such a positive aspect for people that
(17:52):
they don't hear about and they don't know about. So
I would, you know, tell folks too if they get
a chance to look at our website and see some
of the things that we're doing. We provide reports on
a number of different things, and you know, I've had
the privilege of talking to Americans in every single state
(18:13):
in our country and going to visit folks in every
one of those states, and everyone wants the same sort
of thing. They want to ensure that their vote is cast,
that those who are eligible to cast their votes can
do so and have those votes counted accurately. The way
that we go about doing it, we might disagree, but
(18:34):
that's what makes our country so great, and that we
can look towards differences but still come up with solutions
that are good for everyone. And that's one of the
pieces of the Help Meerca Vote Act, as I said earlier,
which was a huge piece of bipartisan legislation where no
(18:55):
one party benefited over the other, and it was mostly
done for the benefit of the American people. And that's
what our agencies is here for the benefit for the
American people by helping administrators administer the elections.
Speaker 1 (19:12):
Overall, wonderful, Thank you so much for being here today
and thank you for serving the community.
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Thank you for having me, and you have a wonderful day.
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