June 11, 2024 • 35 mins
In this episode of "Conversations from the Hill Country," we sit down with Ashlea Allsup, a Trinity University and Baylor School of Law graduate, to discuss her journey from practicing law to becoming a political organizer and volunteer. Ashlea shares her experiences and the pivotal moments that led her to political engagement, including the challenges and triumphs of grassroots organizing.
We delve into the importance of voting, the intricacies of voter registration, and the impact of down-ballot voting. Ashlea offers practical advice on how to stay engaged, the best practices for voting early, and the crucial role of community involvement in shaping our political landscape.
Tune in for a stimulating conversation filled with actionable insights and learn how you can make a difference in the upcoming elections. Whether you're a seasoned voter or new to the process, this episode provides valuable information to help you navigate the voting system and contribute to positive change.
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Episode Transcript
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Music.
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Your future, your vote. Conversations from the Hill Country, the podcast.
On this episode, we talk to Ashley Alsup, a graduate of Trinity University of
San Antonio and the Baylor School of Law.
She's worked professionally as an attorney, a legal research trainer for lawyers and law students.
She's worked as a political organizer and a trainer for Texas Blue Action,
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and she's been a volunteer for local candidates, clubs, and the Democratic Party since 2018.
It was a stimulating conversation.
We learned a lot about voting, and I'm sure you will, too.
Well, hello to Ashley Alsup. How are you? Thanks for being here.
I'm great, Adam. Thanks for having me. Tell me, Ashley.
Now, what is your, I know you've got a background in law. You were a practicing
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attorney. Are you still currently practicing or?
I'm not. I retired in my early 20s or mid-20s. Wow. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I loved law school.
I worked for about two years, but I knew kind of long term that that wasn't
it was a lot of work, a lot of hours. Yeah.
And so I started looking for something else. I went to work for a legal research
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company and worked with law students and lawyers and instructed on legal research
on an online platform before I ended up staying home with my kids. OK, very cool.
And with your background in law, how did you get involved or did it kind of
indirectly lead you into into politics and getting into organizing or what?
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How'd that work? It really didn't. I mean, I after I I really don't think I voted much.
I mean, I think I voted like a little bit in college, a little bit in law school.
And I I tried to be engaged, you know, in the early 2000s when I was having kids. But it is hard.
And I see that with lots of other voters, too.
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You know, when you are busy with your work, you know, with career or family,
it's hard to stay engaged. Oh, yeah.
I was definitely excited in 2008 for that presidential election and I voted then.
But I and I should go back and look, but I can't remember really if I was not
particularly engaged between 2008
and then 2016 when it really flipped the switch for a whole lot of us.
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And I was still really busy with my family at that time, but I knew that I had
to do something. So you you realize you really felt like you had to get involved.
And so what was your first step or first couple of steps in that direction?
Yeah, I think first I just started talking about it. I think I didn't talk a
lot about politics. I definitely leaned left.
But when people talked about politics, I tended to take the middle road or not
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really engaged. So first I just started talking about it.
And talking about my feelings about the presidential election and what I saw
going on in the state of Texas as well.
And then, you know, there's always somebody opened a window and invited me to,
as I started just interacting with more people who were engaged,
I met a candidate, Stephanie Phillips, who invited me to get involved in her campaign.
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And then also at that time, too, we had a 20, it was 2018.
And then I had, I was really excited about Beto's campaign for governor.
And I volunteered for his campaign as well.
So it took me a couple of years between 2016 and 2018 to actually make that
jump and start volunteering, but that's where it first happened.
Okay, cool, very interesting. Once you got involved, what were some of the bigger
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challenges that you ran up against?
Well, it is, there's a lot of work.
It seems like, I think when you first start volunteering, it seems like,
oh my gosh, there is so much to do and it can be overwhelming.
Oh, sure. Yeah. And and there and you were always getting competing messages like, is this safe?
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Is it safe to talk to people about politics? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. We had done some block walking, too. Well, at least on just some
local issues that directly involved our neighborhood.
My wife and I, you kind of you got to wonder who's going to answer the door,
how they're going to react to somebody knocking on their door to talk about
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politics. That's right. Yeah, absolutely.
I can. I know that that can be a big challenge for folks. We we're always asking
for volunteers to to try to knock on doors because we've seen all the studies
have told us that is absolutely the most effective way to get out the vote.
Actually, I'm going to I'm going to walk back that a little bit.
The most effective way to get out the vote is first to talk to people who you already know.
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And I'd love to share some some links on way people can learn how to do that a little bit better.
But the first people that we always want to start with are people that we know,
your friends, your family, though, you're going to be able to persuade those
folks more than anybody else.
And then and then we want to start talking to like, immediate neighbors,
those are also people who you can get to know and, and, and contact quickly, right?
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I have their cell phone number, I can easily text them, they know who I am.
We all know that we've We've gotten super saturated with, you know,
campaigns and organizations getting texts, right?
But when I text my friends or my family, it's different.
So, and what you do, what I've found, you know, it's what we really ask for,
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you know, volunteers to do is to pick an area.
Like, if you don't always have to go and go walk like a block walk in a strange
area, what we'd love for folks to do is to commit to...
A couple of streets in their neighborhood that they can get to know.
Like now I know my Democrats in my neighborhood.
I know the people who I have to contact.
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I know who my voters are. I can also watch for new people moving into the neighborhood
who might I might need to get to know and find out if they need to get registered
or need information about voting.
But that's really the best way to do it is to not, you know,
do reach out to people. You you have some familiarity.
Sure. And I think in some cases, too, if you're not sure which direction they
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lean, maybe just approaching it with, you know, are you registered to vote?
I can help you get registered to vote. And you're kind of you're neutral at
first, right? Until you feel them out a little bit.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and it can go a lot of different ways.
Adam, what what what I'd love to emphasize, if anybody's listening to this hasn't
block blocked and is would consider that are doing something like that is that
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we will give you training.
We're never going to just give you a list and be like, good luck.
We'll give you training, right? We'll give you training. You're kind of like
my boss when I got thrown into my first job. Oh, you're hired.
Oh, by the way, you're on the air tonight.
Yes. Well, I mean, he clearly must have seen something in you talent wise to
do something like that, right?
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Well, you know, I'm sure we've all been thrown into a situation
like that yeah where they're desperate and then
next thing you know it's it's up to you so
you know yeah absolutely well i can tell you if you volunteer for
the democrats and comal county we won't do that to you we we try to yeah absolutely
we try to get to know you know our volunteers and see what they're comfortable
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with you know i definitely at our last you know i just did a black block for
a candidate last weekend and we
talked and we talked there were definitely people who wanted to pair up.
We asked the folks, you know, are you comfortable going by yourself?
I volunteer to go to go with people if they needed help.
So we always try to work through that.
But Adam, I mean, you know that there is a really important election coming
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up. Oh, yes, we all do now. Right. It's it's June.
It seems like November is really far away.
Actually, I'm not even going to say November. I'm going to say October because
that's when I want everybody to go vote in October.
But I know in some of your previous podcasts, you have really touched on,
your guests have really touched on the importance of voting,
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but also that our biggest challenge in getting people to the polls is just them
not understanding what to do.
Or, you know, it's not even, they're just like, when do I do this?
How do I do this? It's confusing.
And that is, by design, that's intentional.
Yeah, it really is. It really is. Yeah, the state of Texas, unfortunately,
has a lot of we're one of the hardest states to vote in in the country.
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And we have to overcome that with education.
So yeah, so I'd love to talk like just to our listeners about that.
What they can start doing now and what they can start thinking about as far
as voting in November, because it's time. Yeah.
What are the timelines? When would somebody need to make sure they're registered
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by in order to vote in November or October?
Yeah. So October 7th is our our deadline to register or update your voter registration.
I know a lot of people think about registering to vote, but also to update your
voter registration if you've moved, especially if you've moved outside or to a different county.
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A voter registration is done by county in Texas.
And so if you move to a different county, you need to update that voter registration by October 7th.
Yeah, having worked the polls, we do know it's important to have that information
all updated. Yeah, absolutely.
And so that's something that I would encourage every voter to go do right now
is to go check their voter registration.
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Even if you're someone who regularly votes, you haven't moved,
go check it out and see what it looks like so that you can help someone else.
We are working really hard in Comal County to make sure that our Democrats of
Comal.org website is up to date with everything you need for voting.
And you can find that link on that website.
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Okay. Okay. Yeah. So that's what I was just going to ask. So that's where they
can go to find out if they're registered. Can you update your information online?
You can. If you are, if you've just moved, you're a registered voter,
but you've moved, there is a link as you are, you know, once you go and you
check your voter registration and you see your address, you see that it's incorrect,
there's a link right below that says change my address.
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So that is one thing that we can do online in the state of Texas.
You can do almost nothing else online, but you can update your address.
Yeah, you can find out if If you're registered and then you can also update. So that's important.
Absolutely. And something else I would encourage everybody to look at when they
when they go and check their voter registration status, you're looking to see
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it. Make sure your address is up to date.
You also want to look and see if you are listed as active.
A lot of voters get put on what's called suspense, which sounds scary,
but you can still go vote.
It's not like not like suspension in school when we were getting in trouble in high school. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. You're not you're not really in trouble.
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However, it does mean that a process has been started that could remove you from the. Yeah. OK. OK.
Seems like voters, if that were the case, they should get notified somehow.
How maybe something in the mail, right?
Something to let them know that it would be great that to my knowledge, that does not happen.
The reason you, yeah, it would be great if that did happen, but it does not.
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No, you're on suspense. You can go vote. And when you go vote, it fixes that.
But when you're listed as suspended, which can happen just generally means that
they have a question about your address and something has happened that makes
the local elections office think that you may not live at your current address.
I mean, so, yeah, which can include like if you put your mail on hold,
you go travel and you do a hold on your mail that can put you on.
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Well, I'm assuming if you do something like that, though, that's just a temporary hold.
And then just some people forget to remove it or something or what? How does that work?
So what happens is if you're put on suspense, but then you go vote,
you will be asked to fill out if it's related to your address,
you're going to be asked to fill out a verification of address form,
then you're off suspense.
You get to vote just like normal. You fill out the short form,
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you're done. And the suspense is removed.
Is that like you also I'm sorry, is that like having having to do a provisional ballot?
No, it's not. It's just updating your address. It's just confirming to your
your elections office that, yes, this is where I live.
This is me. This is where I live. I'm also like and it could happen because
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you actually have changed addresses
and in which case updating your address on, you know, through Democrats of Comal
dot org, which actually technically leads you to VoteTexas.gov.
That's the other website you can go to update when you when you do that online.
It updates your address as well.
Yeah, I know on social media, like on Facebook,
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when it was near time to vote, I would constantly see and I guess it's just
the algorithm that those are the kinds of things that,
you know, a user looks at on their social media, but things would pop up like
that, you know, links to, hey, find out, are you registered, et cetera, et cetera.
Yes. Yeah. And that's it's an important process and something else like people,
a lot of times people will think like, oh, I need to re-register.
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Oh, it's an election. There's another election.
I've got to register again, which you don't have to, you know,
as long as you haven't moved, voter registrations will stay on for,
you know, for years and years without people voting so long as nothing has happened
to make the county think that they've
they've moved. Sure. So if you've and I always tell folks, if you're not sure
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if you've ever voted in the state of Texas, check it out. You're probably still registered.
You may need to do some updating, but you probably can still go vote.
But all of this that we're talking about, you definitely want to do this before
that October 7th deadline to make sure that you're you're all good and that
your voter registration is all up to date.
Yeah, that that's that's the basic. That's That's the most important thing,
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because obviously you can't move forward if you're not registered.
Exactly. Aside from that, what are some of the other things or quirks about
at least voting in the state of Texas that might be people might need to be
aware of or address or whatever?
Well, I think before we like there are a couple of special circumstances that
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that we can talk about that I definitely want to touch on or some misconceptions about voting.
But I also like I think a lot of people don't go vote just because they're not
sure about what they're going to be voting for, what's on the ballot.
And that happens, I think, even with experienced voters.
This election that's coming up, the general election voting,
the actual election day is November 7th. But early voting is from October 21st
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through November 1st. And I am going to just really encourage everybody to go vote early.
We already know what's going to be on our ballot. it. Again,
this is a general election, meaning
that our parties have chosen their representatives in various offices.
And when we go to vote, we're going to see everybody from each party.
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So we're going to see, you know, who's running the top of the ticket,
of course, is going to be the president.
And we're going to see Joe Biden for Democrats. We're going to see Donald Trump for Republicans.
And I'm assuming nothing crazy is going to happen at our at our upcoming I mean,
national convention. But that's what we're at.
I wouldn't think so. As far as I know, as I'm a regular newspaper reader and
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there's always information on what's on ballots, et cetera.
But I know a lot of people don't keep up with local local news,
you know, on a regular basis.
So how can they get information through our Web site?
Can they find, you know, what the ballot's going to look like,
who's on it? You know what I mean? And see the positions from the candidates, et cetera. Absolutely.
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So you can already go and look at our voter guide on Democrats of Plumel dot org.
OK, that's going to have exactly what what's going to be on on the ballot and
what we what we know, at least so far, that's going to be on the ballot.
It's possible there's a you know, with the conventions, there could be a slight chance of a change.
But let's just assume that that's not going to happen. So we're going to have that already out on.
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We already have that out on Democrats of Plumel dot org. But another great place,
because I know folks like to, you know, want to read more information about
the candidates, vote for one one dot org, which is the League of Women Voters. Mm hmm.
Such a great website. And what I love about that website is that not only do
you see what's on your ballot, but they, of course, conduct surveys.
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They send out surveys to all the candidates and they publish their their responses.
And so you can read the answers of those candidates about key questions regarding
their office and their right.
Yeah, that's true. That won't be out. Yeah, that usually doesn't come out until
closer to the election, probably sometime in early October. they'll have that published.
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Okay. Okay. Well, that's, that's really a helpful tool for sure.
It is. It is. And it's, I, I, the other issue that we have with,
you know, this issue of knowing the ballot, feeling comfortable with honor with their ballots.
And this is an issue specifically with Democrats is something called down ballot
roll off where people will vote for what they, you know, know or familiar with.
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They're going to vote for president.
They're going to vote for Senate, it, but then they don't finish the ballot.
And that is a huge problem, especially for Democrats.
I saw a recent study, I think it came out in 2022 by Sister District Project.
And their study, which actually included some races in the state of Texas,
but focused specifically on the study specifically focused on battleground state,
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was that 80% of Democrats do not finish their entire higher ballots. Wow.
So they will start voting, but they won't finish.
It's also a problem for Republicans, but it's only 37 percent of people don't finish their ballots.
Wow. That number is shocking, right? Eighty percent.
I can't even imagine not finishing the ballot.
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I mean, that's like like taking a test and leaving questions unanswered, you know?
Absolutely. Or in this case, leaving money on
the table right like these down ballot races are
important you're there you know you're
you're there to vote not just for the president but there are all of these races
are extremely important they specifically like this project was looking at how
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it affected state legislate uh state legislative races and that i mean like
if that will literally that will affect.
Money out of your pocket. That is money left on the table for,
you know, tax dollars and where they're going.
So it is directly money left on the table. It is. Absolutely.
And it is. I mean, it would have changed this. It changes the state,
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the face of not just your state, but also national elections.
I mean, we actually had some really good chances in Texas to capture the state house.
And, you know, I know you we always try to emphasize the importance of voting
and every vote counts. But we really saw it in 2020.
I think the Democratic Party was really focused on like nine different races.
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And ultimately we weren't successful on those.
But the number of votes that we missed it by was like under,
it was like 26,000 votes or something across the state of Texas.
In those key races. And if we had won those, if we had been able to capture
that or get a majority in just the.
The house, the Texas house, we would have been in charge of redistricting.
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We would not be we would not have lost the right for women to choose what happens
to their body in the state of Texas if that happened. Yeah.
Yeah. It would it would have affected us greatly. Yeah. That just goes to show,
you know, a lot of people think that, well, my one vote doesn't count.
Well, your one vote could add up to twenty six thousand pretty quickly. Yeah, exactly.
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Exactly. And so that's why, you know, and I know that folks get nervous about
their ballot and do a little bit of research.
You can go to Democrats have come out or you can go to vote for one one dot
org. But please finish that ballot.
And I would encourage you that one thing that's great about the ballot that
you're going to see in November, it's going to tell you who all the Democrats are.
It's going to be really clear. There's only going to be one person representing
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the Democratic Party in each of these races.
And I can tell you that if you I mean, if if you care about voting rights,
if you care about women's health care access and the right to choose our own
health care, as you care about public education,
you've got to vote for Democrats all the way down the ballot. us. Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. And of course, when you talk about public education,
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that's a big pressing issue in the state, as you know, the campaign by our illustrious
governor and his push for vouchers, you know, that can change the whole ballgame.
Yeah, absolutely. And really, the fact that we that the reason why that did
not pass in the state of Texas is due to the fact that we do to have a stronger
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presence of Democrats in the Texas House.
And it was never going to get, I mean, they never had the votes to get through that.
But that was also due to, I think it was like 20 rural Republicans who also
stood with public education.
But that, yeah. Along with all of them.
I was going to say, yeah, that fight's still not over yet, so.
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Oh, it's not. No, yeah, you're right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's right. Right.
And we I know we know that a lot of those I haven't kept tabs on those 20 Republicans
that I know Greg Abbott was trying to defeat them all in their primary.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
I know it's tough for people. How do you convince people to seek out more information?
And I so I would encourage everybody to to make a plan to vote,
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to just start thinking about it now and to bring a friend.
You know, a lot. I think that you're you're one of your recent guests, Dr. Len Lira.
Well, that was a great episode. And he talked to he shared a story about his
niece, you know, being really intimidated when she went to go vote. Yeah.
And that absolutely happens.
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I know lots of people who are just nervous about it.
And I've, you know, I've met people who, you know, registered them to vote and
I've encouraged them to go vote and give them the information.
And then it comes, they've never voted. And I see, I go back on my check and they haven't voted.
Especially younger people too. Yeah, it can be a little intimidating.
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Fascinating. Absolutely.
Absolutely. And that way, you know, helping them make a plan to vote.
So if you have a young person who, you know, help them, you know,
help them get registered, help them make that plan.
And, and, you know, they're, they're going to think through,
when do I go vote? Where do I go vote?
And what do I need to bring with me? And it's really a lot more simple,
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I think, than we think it is. You know, as far as when I really want to emphasize
to everybody, and this is not even just for our young people,
this is all of our voters.
Go vote early. October 21st is when it starts.
I would encourage you, October 21st, maybe October 22nd. Go as soon as you can. Sure.
Every time every time we voted and we take our our boys, you know,
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and we make it make a special occasion out of it.
You know, we'll go early vote and then we'll go out to lunch and,
you know, make a day of it. So it can be fun.
It can be. And when you go early vote, too.
There are really no lines, you know, you get in and out and it's so much easier.
You can work around your own schedule and not have to worry about missing work
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or whatever. Yeah, absolutely.
And the truth is, is that like in November or in October, you know,
for this fall election, there's likely that there is going to be a line.
A lot of the times you do go, but it's going to be so much better than on Election Day.
I can't even imagine what Election Day is going to be like. Like it's it's that
there you will 100 percent hit a whole lot of lines on Election Day.
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Also, if you're not someone who wants to volunteer, totally fine.
I can tell you that voting early is one of the best things, though,
that you can do to support your candidates and their volunteers,
because we spend a lot of time chasing votes, trying to get people to the polls every day.
Your precinct chair or your candidates are going to be getting lists of who
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voted and they're going to be looking through that.
And maybe, you know, my friend Adam has promised that he's going to go to the
polls and I believe him, but I can see like that first week,
man, Adam didn't go. And now I've got to spend time.
I know, but now I've got to spend time chasing you down when you're probably going to go vote.
But I just want to make sure that you didn't forget when I really need to be
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reaching out to somebody else.
So if you can get your name knocked off the list for your precinct chair for
your candidates as soon as possible.
It saves us a whole lot of time. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point.
Yeah. The other thing is anything can happen, right?
Like you, you know, people get sick.
And if you're going to, if you are, you know, if you are going to encounter
any issues with your voter registration, it's really important to count encounter
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them during early voting.
Cause when you show up on election day, it's a lot harder to do something about
it. But let's say that you did, you know, oh, yes, I totally forgot.
I didn't. I have moved and I moved counties and I didn't update my registration
before October 7th. If you go early, you will still be able to vote in your new county.
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You're going to vote a limited ballot, which means that you're going to you're
only going to see things on your ballot that are similar between your current
county and your last county.
So for sure, president, for sure, Senate. it, but you'll only be able to vote on those things.
Still great, still so great that you got to cast your vote, but it has to be
done during early voting. They can't help you on election day.
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You will miss your chance to vote. That's an important point.
Another thing that I like, I don't know, Adam, if you wanted to go through like
some like a couple of I think some misconceptions that folks have about voting
and like some things like about IDs and things like that. Yeah.
Yeah. As a matter of fact, that that was one issue that there was some confusion
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when we worked polls was IDs. What is required?
It is. That's another confusing thing about voting in the state. Yeah.
And I think a lot of folks think that you can only have a driver's license.
Definitely. If you have a driver's license, that's the easiest,
right? Or, or a passport or a military ID.
Those are the best. And something that I think a lot of folks are not aware
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of, even folks working the polls is you can have a picture of your driver's
license and that will work as well. So that's something that everybody can do right now.
Take a picture of your driver's license, save it somewhere.
You'll you'll know how to get to it in your phone. And let's say you show up
to the polls and you've forgotten your license or you've lost it.
You will be able to use your driver's license, the picture of your driver's license.
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Right. But when you go to the actual to actually vote, you can show your picture
on your phone, but then you'll have to make sure your electronic devices are turned off. Correct?
Yes, that's right. Yes. When you walk in, you will have it off.
Yeah, yeah. And then you'll say, oh, yes, I did. Yeah, yeah.
That's for sure. Yes. Then you will turn that off. And you can't use a student
ID, which is a big issue for our college students. Really?
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Yes. Yeah. You cannot. A student ID is not one of the acceptable forms of ID.
However, let's say that you have lost your driver's license.
When I was a kid, I don't know about you, I misplaced my driver's license all the time.
You can still go vote. You will bring what's called, it's referred to as a secondary
form of ID, and those can include a current utility bill with your address on it.
(27:36):
It might be a birth certificate.
What about the voter ID card that you get in the mail? Yes, voter ID. Yes, yep.
Your voter ID card, that little colored card that you get from your county elections
office, you can bring that as well.
That can be a secondary form of ID. OK.
And then what's going to happen is you are you can present that and then you
(27:58):
will also have to sign a form called a reasonable impediment form.
And there are there's a pretty wide range of reasons why you can say that you
don't have your ID. One of them is that it was lost or stolen.
So if you cannot find your ID, you can bring that, you know,
one of those secondary forms of IDs.
And you'll sign that form and check that you lost your ID and then you will
(28:19):
still be able to vote a regular ballot. Right.
Assuming, right, that you're registered, you have to be a registered voter.
Of course, of course. Okay. They'll be able to check that.
And it's also important, like, because it also means, you know,
we have folks who are, that is a big issue, right? Some folks can't get driver's license.
You're, if you're older or you have limited transportation, lack of transportation
is a reasonable impediment as well.
(28:41):
Work schedule is a reasonable impediment. So there's just, there's a lot of ways around it.
I don't want people to think like, oh, I've encountered this better.
They don't have a driver's license.
Therefore, they can't vote. You know, something I have encountered a lot when
I'm when I'm block walking, I do have folks who will tell me like, oh, I can't vote.
I'm a felon. And I think that that's another misconception is that in Texas,
if you've had a felony on your record there, you can't ever vote again.
(29:04):
Is there a time period on that, though? How does that work?
It's actually you have to be what's called off book.
You have to have completed your sentencing and and and any probation as well.
And once that's complete, you can vote. Yeah, there was a case was in the news
not too long ago. And I can't remember now if it was the state of Texas or not.
(29:24):
But some woman had been was it was a convicted felon was out and everything
and then went to vote, was told by the poll workers that, yeah,
she's allowed to vote, et cetera.
And then now she's being sued or something or she's. Yeah.
It's actually a criminal charge. Yeah, it's a criminal charge. And it's not her fault.
(29:45):
It's the, you know, the poll workers that told her, yeah, you can go ahead and vote everything. cool.
And, you know, and what's crazy, Adam, this just blows my mind.
Her vote wasn't counted.
Like we have a process to deal with with that situation.
The integrity of the voting system was protected by that process. Right.
Because she filled out a provisional ballot. Yeah. How was that?
(30:06):
And they were able to if they're not going to count the vote, that's not fraud.
And it wasn't through any fault of her own. Yeah, it was. Now,
she is she she did sign a statement swearing basically that she could vote.
And there was something on that, as I'm recalling, you know,
that statement that she signed that was incorrect.
(30:27):
But you and I know that stuff can be confusing, right? And she probably was like the poll worker.
And it's a I think it's a great thing. Our poll workers want people to vote.
And I see this on both sides of
the aisle. Both are Republican and are Democratic poll workers that we do.
They do a great job at trying to get people to vote. And I I I my heart goes
(30:47):
out to that poll worker, too, who just had a woman there.
She wanted to vote. They wanted to help her vote. They had her sign a provisional
ballot, which we know gets checked, that gets reviewed, doesn't get counted automatically.
And that process is exactly what happened. Her vote was not counted.
And then the state of Texas brought charges against her. I think they're somewhere
in the appellate process.
(31:08):
Right. I think they're they're on appeal on that case right now.
So I'm not sure where we where it stands at the moment, but.
It's ridiculous to me that we would try to send someone to jail for something
like that, especially when our process work.
That's not voter fraud. Not not, by the way, people imagine or the way they
depict in some media, you know, what voter fraud is, alleged voter fraud,
(31:32):
I should say. You know, so it's kind of nitpicky, I guess.
Absolutely. And I think the last thing I would love to tell your listeners,
Adam, is, you know, you asked or mentioned earlier, you know,
what is. Are there any, you know, trends in Texas that we can look to,
especially positively right now?
Yeah, yeah. We need all the optimism we can get.
Absolutely. And, you know, I mean, I know there's we're we're filled,
(31:55):
I think, with with dread and just, you know, concern right now.
I don't know what's going to happen in November.
But what I can tell you is that we have this impression, of course, that Texas is so red.
Yeah, I think other folks right have talked about that. We are not a red state.
We are a non-voting state. Exactly right. Yeah, we had less than,
(32:16):
I think the turnout was like 45% in 2022.
And then, you know, with the governor at the top of the ticket. Dr.
Lira mentioned that we had, actually saw our best voter turnout in 2020.
It was at least the best since like the 90s. Although I'd still like to point
out that even though I think we were like somewhere in the low 60s,
we were still in the bottom 10 as far as states, as far as turnout.
(32:40):
It was good for Texas, but compared to the other state, like Minnesota,
I think was top. They had like 80 percent turnout.
We we need to do better. But as far as the trends in Texas and national elections,
Mitt Romney won Texas by 16 point.
Donald Trump won Texas by nine points in 2016.
And in 2020, it was six points. So we are getting I mean, we are we are making
(33:05):
big strides in these national elections every time. And I would expect Democrats
to get closer to winning a statewide seat each time.
And in fact, there are I mean, I've heard analysts say that they already suspect
that we already have the Democratic votes in Texas to win.
We just have to get them to the poll. Yeah, absolutely. Got to start.
(33:26):
Got to start at square one there. All right. Well, so, Ashley,
also, thanks for spending some time.
I wanted to ask you, are you, I imagine you will still be doing some block walking
and there will be other activities that we can find out about on Democrats of
Come All.org and, you know, other things going on that we can get involved in,
right? Right. Absolutely.
We have we have great candidates on the ballot for the Democratic Party in Comal County.
(33:51):
We're going to be block walking for each of them on a regular monthly basis.
There are postcard writing parties.
I think those are going to those will be posted on the Web site and in in our newsletter.
If you haven't before, I'd encourage you to go to Democrats of Comal dot org
and sign up for the countywide newsletter to keep up to date on what's going on.
And of course, follow us on all social media, on Facebook. book. Sure.
(34:13):
And especially. And yeah, you can get to know several of those candidates that
I've had the pleasure of talking to by listening to some of our previous podcast episodes.
Absolutely. Yes. Yes. That's another great way to do it. Thanks so much for
everything you and your team are doing, Adam.
Well, it's our pleasure. Well, thanks for spending some time with me, Ashley.
Also appreciate your time. And as always, hopefully we can talk again soon as
(34:37):
we get closer to the election, and remind people, get up off your seat and go vote.
Absolutely. Yep. You can't complain if you don't vote, right?
Yeah. Ain't that the truth. Great. Thanks, Adam. All right. Well, thanks a lot, Ashley.
(35:01):
Music.
Music.
(00:13):
Your future, your vote. Conversations from the Hill Country, the podcast.
On this episode, we talk to Ashley Alsup, a graduate of Trinity University of
San Antonio and the Baylor School of Law.
She's worked professionally as an attorney, a legal research trainer for lawyers and law students.
She's worked as a political organizer and a trainer for Texas Blue Action,
(00:36):
and she's been a volunteer for local candidates, clubs, and the Democratic Party since 2018.
It was a stimulating conversation.
We learned a lot about voting, and I'm sure you will, too.
Well, hello to Ashley Alsup. How are you? Thanks for being here.
I'm great, Adam. Thanks for having me. Tell me, Ashley.
Now, what is your, I know you've got a background in law. You were a practicing
(00:58):
attorney. Are you still currently practicing or?
I'm not. I retired in my early 20s or mid-20s. Wow. Yeah, I enjoyed it. I loved law school.
I worked for about two years, but I knew kind of long term that that wasn't
it was a lot of work, a lot of hours. Yeah.
And so I started looking for something else. I went to work for a legal research
(01:19):
company and worked with law students and lawyers and instructed on legal research
on an online platform before I ended up staying home with my kids. OK, very cool.
And with your background in law, how did you get involved or did it kind of
indirectly lead you into into politics and getting into organizing or what?
(01:41):
How'd that work? It really didn't. I mean, I after I I really don't think I voted much.
I mean, I think I voted like a little bit in college, a little bit in law school.
And I I tried to be engaged, you know, in the early 2000s when I was having kids. But it is hard.
And I see that with lots of other voters, too.
(02:02):
You know, when you are busy with your work, you know, with career or family,
it's hard to stay engaged. Oh, yeah.
I was definitely excited in 2008 for that presidential election and I voted then.
But I and I should go back and look, but I can't remember really if I was not
particularly engaged between 2008
and then 2016 when it really flipped the switch for a whole lot of us.
(02:26):
And I was still really busy with my family at that time, but I knew that I had
to do something. So you you realize you really felt like you had to get involved.
And so what was your first step or first couple of steps in that direction?
Yeah, I think first I just started talking about it. I think I didn't talk a
lot about politics. I definitely leaned left.
But when people talked about politics, I tended to take the middle road or not
(02:50):
really engaged. So first I just started talking about it.
And talking about my feelings about the presidential election and what I saw
going on in the state of Texas as well.
And then, you know, there's always somebody opened a window and invited me to,
as I started just interacting with more people who were engaged,
I met a candidate, Stephanie Phillips, who invited me to get involved in her campaign.
(03:13):
And then also at that time, too, we had a 20, it was 2018.
And then I had, I was really excited about Beto's campaign for governor.
And I volunteered for his campaign as well.
So it took me a couple of years between 2016 and 2018 to actually make that
jump and start volunteering, but that's where it first happened.
Okay, cool, very interesting. Once you got involved, what were some of the bigger
(03:37):
challenges that you ran up against?
Well, it is, there's a lot of work.
It seems like, I think when you first start volunteering, it seems like,
oh my gosh, there is so much to do and it can be overwhelming.
Oh, sure. Yeah. And and there and you were always getting competing messages like, is this safe?
(03:58):
Is it safe to talk to people about politics? Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. We had done some block walking, too. Well, at least on just some
local issues that directly involved our neighborhood.
My wife and I, you kind of you got to wonder who's going to answer the door,
how they're going to react to somebody knocking on their door to talk about
(04:18):
politics. That's right. Yeah, absolutely.
I can. I know that that can be a big challenge for folks. We we're always asking
for volunteers to to try to knock on doors because we've seen all the studies
have told us that is absolutely the most effective way to get out the vote.
Actually, I'm going to I'm going to walk back that a little bit.
The most effective way to get out the vote is first to talk to people who you already know.
(04:42):
And I'd love to share some some links on way people can learn how to do that a little bit better.
But the first people that we always want to start with are people that we know,
your friends, your family, though, you're going to be able to persuade those
folks more than anybody else.
And then and then we want to start talking to like, immediate neighbors,
those are also people who you can get to know and, and, and contact quickly, right?
(05:08):
I have their cell phone number, I can easily text them, they know who I am.
We all know that we've We've gotten super saturated with, you know,
campaigns and organizations getting texts, right?
But when I text my friends or my family, it's different.
So, and what you do, what I've found, you know, it's what we really ask for,
(05:28):
you know, volunteers to do is to pick an area.
Like, if you don't always have to go and go walk like a block walk in a strange
area, what we'd love for folks to do is to commit to...
A couple of streets in their neighborhood that they can get to know.
Like now I know my Democrats in my neighborhood.
I know the people who I have to contact.
(05:50):
I know who my voters are. I can also watch for new people moving into the neighborhood
who might I might need to get to know and find out if they need to get registered
or need information about voting.
But that's really the best way to do it is to not, you know,
do reach out to people. You you have some familiarity.
Sure. And I think in some cases, too, if you're not sure which direction they
(06:14):
lean, maybe just approaching it with, you know, are you registered to vote?
I can help you get registered to vote. And you're kind of you're neutral at
first, right? Until you feel them out a little bit.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and it can go a lot of different ways.
Adam, what what what I'd love to emphasize, if anybody's listening to this hasn't
block blocked and is would consider that are doing something like that is that
(06:36):
we will give you training.
We're never going to just give you a list and be like, good luck.
We'll give you training, right? We'll give you training. You're kind of like
my boss when I got thrown into my first job. Oh, you're hired.
Oh, by the way, you're on the air tonight.
Yes. Well, I mean, he clearly must have seen something in you talent wise to
do something like that, right?
(06:56):
Well, you know, I'm sure we've all been thrown into a situation
like that yeah where they're desperate and then
next thing you know it's it's up to you so
you know yeah absolutely well i can tell you if you volunteer for
the democrats and comal county we won't do that to you we we try to yeah absolutely
we try to get to know you know our volunteers and see what they're comfortable
(07:18):
with you know i definitely at our last you know i just did a black block for
a candidate last weekend and we
talked and we talked there were definitely people who wanted to pair up.
We asked the folks, you know, are you comfortable going by yourself?
I volunteer to go to go with people if they needed help.
So we always try to work through that.
But Adam, I mean, you know that there is a really important election coming
(07:41):
up. Oh, yes, we all do now. Right. It's it's June.
It seems like November is really far away.
Actually, I'm not even going to say November. I'm going to say October because
that's when I want everybody to go vote in October.
But I know in some of your previous podcasts, you have really touched on,
your guests have really touched on the importance of voting,
(08:01):
but also that our biggest challenge in getting people to the polls is just them
not understanding what to do.
Or, you know, it's not even, they're just like, when do I do this?
How do I do this? It's confusing.
And that is, by design, that's intentional.
Yeah, it really is. It really is. Yeah, the state of Texas, unfortunately,
has a lot of we're one of the hardest states to vote in in the country.
(08:25):
And we have to overcome that with education.
So yeah, so I'd love to talk like just to our listeners about that.
What they can start doing now and what they can start thinking about as far
as voting in November, because it's time. Yeah.
What are the timelines? When would somebody need to make sure they're registered
(08:45):
by in order to vote in November or October?
Yeah. So October 7th is our our deadline to register or update your voter registration.
I know a lot of people think about registering to vote, but also to update your
voter registration if you've moved, especially if you've moved outside or to a different county.
(09:08):
A voter registration is done by county in Texas.
And so if you move to a different county, you need to update that voter registration by October 7th.
Yeah, having worked the polls, we do know it's important to have that information
all updated. Yeah, absolutely.
And so that's something that I would encourage every voter to go do right now
is to go check their voter registration.
(09:29):
Even if you're someone who regularly votes, you haven't moved,
go check it out and see what it looks like so that you can help someone else.
We are working really hard in Comal County to make sure that our Democrats of
Comal.org website is up to date with everything you need for voting.
And you can find that link on that website.
(09:50):
Okay. Okay. Yeah. So that's what I was just going to ask. So that's where they
can go to find out if they're registered. Can you update your information online?
You can. If you are, if you've just moved, you're a registered voter,
but you've moved, there is a link as you are, you know, once you go and you
check your voter registration and you see your address, you see that it's incorrect,
there's a link right below that says change my address.
(10:13):
So that is one thing that we can do online in the state of Texas.
You can do almost nothing else online, but you can update your address.
Yeah, you can find out if If you're registered and then you can also update. So that's important.
Absolutely. And something else I would encourage everybody to look at when they
when they go and check their voter registration status, you're looking to see
(10:33):
it. Make sure your address is up to date.
You also want to look and see if you are listed as active.
A lot of voters get put on what's called suspense, which sounds scary,
but you can still go vote.
It's not like not like suspension in school when we were getting in trouble in high school. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. You're not you're not really in trouble.
(10:54):
However, it does mean that a process has been started that could remove you from the. Yeah. OK. OK.
Seems like voters, if that were the case, they should get notified somehow.
How maybe something in the mail, right?
Something to let them know that it would be great that to my knowledge, that does not happen.
The reason you, yeah, it would be great if that did happen, but it does not.
(11:16):
No, you're on suspense. You can go vote. And when you go vote, it fixes that.
But when you're listed as suspended, which can happen just generally means that
they have a question about your address and something has happened that makes
the local elections office think that you may not live at your current address.
I mean, so, yeah, which can include like if you put your mail on hold,
you go travel and you do a hold on your mail that can put you on.
(11:40):
Well, I'm assuming if you do something like that, though, that's just a temporary hold.
And then just some people forget to remove it or something or what? How does that work?
So what happens is if you're put on suspense, but then you go vote,
you will be asked to fill out if it's related to your address,
you're going to be asked to fill out a verification of address form,
then you're off suspense.
You get to vote just like normal. You fill out the short form,
(12:02):
you're done. And the suspense is removed.
Is that like you also I'm sorry, is that like having having to do a provisional ballot?
No, it's not. It's just updating your address. It's just confirming to your
your elections office that, yes, this is where I live.
This is me. This is where I live. I'm also like and it could happen because
(12:23):
you actually have changed addresses
and in which case updating your address on, you know, through Democrats of Comal
dot org, which actually technically leads you to VoteTexas.gov.
That's the other website you can go to update when you when you do that online.
It updates your address as well.
Yeah, I know on social media, like on Facebook,
(12:43):
when it was near time to vote, I would constantly see and I guess it's just
the algorithm that those are the kinds of things that,
you know, a user looks at on their social media, but things would pop up like
that, you know, links to, hey, find out, are you registered, et cetera, et cetera.
Yes. Yeah. And that's it's an important process and something else like people,
a lot of times people will think like, oh, I need to re-register.
(13:06):
Oh, it's an election. There's another election.
I've got to register again, which you don't have to, you know,
as long as you haven't moved, voter registrations will stay on for,
you know, for years and years without people voting so long as nothing has happened
to make the county think that they've
they've moved. Sure. So if you've and I always tell folks, if you're not sure
(13:27):
if you've ever voted in the state of Texas, check it out. You're probably still registered.
You may need to do some updating, but you probably can still go vote.
But all of this that we're talking about, you definitely want to do this before
that October 7th deadline to make sure that you're you're all good and that
your voter registration is all up to date.
Yeah, that that's that's the basic. That's That's the most important thing,
(13:49):
because obviously you can't move forward if you're not registered.
Exactly. Aside from that, what are some of the other things or quirks about
at least voting in the state of Texas that might be people might need to be
aware of or address or whatever?
Well, I think before we like there are a couple of special circumstances that
(14:10):
that we can talk about that I definitely want to touch on or some misconceptions about voting.
But I also like I think a lot of people don't go vote just because they're not
sure about what they're going to be voting for, what's on the ballot.
And that happens, I think, even with experienced voters.
This election that's coming up, the general election voting,
the actual election day is November 7th. But early voting is from October 21st
(14:35):
through November 1st. And I am going to just really encourage everybody to go vote early.
We already know what's going to be on our ballot. it. Again,
this is a general election, meaning
that our parties have chosen their representatives in various offices.
And when we go to vote, we're going to see everybody from each party.
(14:58):
So we're going to see, you know, who's running the top of the ticket,
of course, is going to be the president.
And we're going to see Joe Biden for Democrats. We're going to see Donald Trump for Republicans.
And I'm assuming nothing crazy is going to happen at our at our upcoming I mean,
national convention. But that's what we're at.
I wouldn't think so. As far as I know, as I'm a regular newspaper reader and
(15:19):
there's always information on what's on ballots, et cetera.
But I know a lot of people don't keep up with local local news,
you know, on a regular basis.
So how can they get information through our Web site?
Can they find, you know, what the ballot's going to look like,
who's on it? You know what I mean? And see the positions from the candidates, et cetera. Absolutely.
(15:41):
So you can already go and look at our voter guide on Democrats of Plumel dot org.
OK, that's going to have exactly what what's going to be on on the ballot and
what we what we know, at least so far, that's going to be on the ballot.
It's possible there's a you know, with the conventions, there could be a slight chance of a change.
But let's just assume that that's not going to happen. So we're going to have that already out on.
(16:04):
We already have that out on Democrats of Plumel dot org. But another great place,
because I know folks like to, you know, want to read more information about
the candidates, vote for one one dot org, which is the League of Women Voters. Mm hmm.
Such a great website. And what I love about that website is that not only do
you see what's on your ballot, but they, of course, conduct surveys.
(16:25):
They send out surveys to all the candidates and they publish their their responses.
And so you can read the answers of those candidates about key questions regarding
their office and their right.
Yeah, that's true. That won't be out. Yeah, that usually doesn't come out until
closer to the election, probably sometime in early October. they'll have that published.
(16:47):
Okay. Okay. Well, that's, that's really a helpful tool for sure.
It is. It is. And it's, I, I, the other issue that we have with,
you know, this issue of knowing the ballot, feeling comfortable with honor with their ballots.
And this is an issue specifically with Democrats is something called down ballot
roll off where people will vote for what they, you know, know or familiar with.
(17:11):
They're going to vote for president.
They're going to vote for Senate, it, but then they don't finish the ballot.
And that is a huge problem, especially for Democrats.
I saw a recent study, I think it came out in 2022 by Sister District Project.
And their study, which actually included some races in the state of Texas,
but focused specifically on the study specifically focused on battleground state,
(17:36):
was that 80% of Democrats do not finish their entire higher ballots. Wow.
So they will start voting, but they won't finish.
It's also a problem for Republicans, but it's only 37 percent of people don't finish their ballots.
Wow. That number is shocking, right? Eighty percent.
I can't even imagine not finishing the ballot.
(17:58):
I mean, that's like like taking a test and leaving questions unanswered, you know?
Absolutely. Or in this case, leaving money on
the table right like these down ballot races are
important you're there you know you're
you're there to vote not just for the president but there are all of these races
are extremely important they specifically like this project was looking at how
(18:21):
it affected state legislate uh state legislative races and that i mean like
if that will literally that will affect.
Money out of your pocket. That is money left on the table for,
you know, tax dollars and where they're going.
So it is directly money left on the table. It is. Absolutely.
And it is. I mean, it would have changed this. It changes the state,
(18:45):
the face of not just your state, but also national elections.
I mean, we actually had some really good chances in Texas to capture the state house.
And, you know, I know you we always try to emphasize the importance of voting
and every vote counts. But we really saw it in 2020.
I think the Democratic Party was really focused on like nine different races.
(19:08):
And ultimately we weren't successful on those.
But the number of votes that we missed it by was like under,
it was like 26,000 votes or something across the state of Texas.
In those key races. And if we had won those, if we had been able to capture
that or get a majority in just the.
The house, the Texas house, we would have been in charge of redistricting.
(19:33):
We would not be we would not have lost the right for women to choose what happens
to their body in the state of Texas if that happened. Yeah.
Yeah. It would it would have affected us greatly. Yeah. That just goes to show,
you know, a lot of people think that, well, my one vote doesn't count.
Well, your one vote could add up to twenty six thousand pretty quickly. Yeah, exactly.
(19:54):
Exactly. And so that's why, you know, and I know that folks get nervous about
their ballot and do a little bit of research.
You can go to Democrats have come out or you can go to vote for one one dot
org. But please finish that ballot.
And I would encourage you that one thing that's great about the ballot that
you're going to see in November, it's going to tell you who all the Democrats are.
It's going to be really clear. There's only going to be one person representing
(20:16):
the Democratic Party in each of these races.
And I can tell you that if you I mean, if if you care about voting rights,
if you care about women's health care access and the right to choose our own
health care, as you care about public education,
you've got to vote for Democrats all the way down the ballot. us. Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. And of course, when you talk about public education,
(20:37):
that's a big pressing issue in the state, as you know, the campaign by our illustrious
governor and his push for vouchers, you know, that can change the whole ballgame.
Yeah, absolutely. And really, the fact that we that the reason why that did
not pass in the state of Texas is due to the fact that we do to have a stronger
(20:59):
presence of Democrats in the Texas House.
And it was never going to get, I mean, they never had the votes to get through that.
But that was also due to, I think it was like 20 rural Republicans who also
stood with public education.
But that, yeah. Along with all of them.
I was going to say, yeah, that fight's still not over yet, so.
(21:19):
Oh, it's not. No, yeah, you're right. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that's right. Right.
And we I know we know that a lot of those I haven't kept tabs on those 20 Republicans
that I know Greg Abbott was trying to defeat them all in their primary.
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
I know it's tough for people. How do you convince people to seek out more information?
And I so I would encourage everybody to to make a plan to vote,
(21:43):
to just start thinking about it now and to bring a friend.
You know, a lot. I think that you're you're one of your recent guests, Dr. Len Lira.
Well, that was a great episode. And he talked to he shared a story about his
niece, you know, being really intimidated when she went to go vote. Yeah.
And that absolutely happens.
(22:04):
I know lots of people who are just nervous about it.
And I've, you know, I've met people who, you know, registered them to vote and
I've encouraged them to go vote and give them the information.
And then it comes, they've never voted. And I see, I go back on my check and they haven't voted.
Especially younger people too. Yeah, it can be a little intimidating.
(22:24):
Fascinating. Absolutely.
Absolutely. And that way, you know, helping them make a plan to vote.
So if you have a young person who, you know, help them, you know,
help them get registered, help them make that plan.
And, and, you know, they're, they're going to think through,
when do I go vote? Where do I go vote?
And what do I need to bring with me? And it's really a lot more simple,
(22:47):
I think, than we think it is. You know, as far as when I really want to emphasize
to everybody, and this is not even just for our young people,
this is all of our voters.
Go vote early. October 21st is when it starts.
I would encourage you, October 21st, maybe October 22nd. Go as soon as you can. Sure.
Every time every time we voted and we take our our boys, you know,
(23:11):
and we make it make a special occasion out of it.
You know, we'll go early vote and then we'll go out to lunch and,
you know, make a day of it. So it can be fun.
It can be. And when you go early vote, too.
There are really no lines, you know, you get in and out and it's so much easier.
You can work around your own schedule and not have to worry about missing work
(23:32):
or whatever. Yeah, absolutely.
And the truth is, is that like in November or in October, you know,
for this fall election, there's likely that there is going to be a line.
A lot of the times you do go, but it's going to be so much better than on Election Day.
I can't even imagine what Election Day is going to be like. Like it's it's that
there you will 100 percent hit a whole lot of lines on Election Day.
(23:56):
Also, if you're not someone who wants to volunteer, totally fine.
I can tell you that voting early is one of the best things, though,
that you can do to support your candidates and their volunteers,
because we spend a lot of time chasing votes, trying to get people to the polls every day.
Your precinct chair or your candidates are going to be getting lists of who
(24:19):
voted and they're going to be looking through that.
And maybe, you know, my friend Adam has promised that he's going to go to the
polls and I believe him, but I can see like that first week,
man, Adam didn't go. And now I've got to spend time.
I know, but now I've got to spend time chasing you down when you're probably going to go vote.
But I just want to make sure that you didn't forget when I really need to be
(24:39):
reaching out to somebody else.
So if you can get your name knocked off the list for your precinct chair for
your candidates as soon as possible.
It saves us a whole lot of time. Yeah, that's a good point. That's a good point.
Yeah. The other thing is anything can happen, right?
Like you, you know, people get sick.
And if you're going to, if you are, you know, if you are going to encounter
any issues with your voter registration, it's really important to count encounter
(25:03):
them during early voting.
Cause when you show up on election day, it's a lot harder to do something about
it. But let's say that you did, you know, oh, yes, I totally forgot.
I didn't. I have moved and I moved counties and I didn't update my registration
before October 7th. If you go early, you will still be able to vote in your new county.
(25:23):
You're going to vote a limited ballot, which means that you're going to you're
only going to see things on your ballot that are similar between your current
county and your last county.
So for sure, president, for sure, Senate. it, but you'll only be able to vote on those things.
Still great, still so great that you got to cast your vote, but it has to be
done during early voting. They can't help you on election day.
(25:44):
You will miss your chance to vote. That's an important point.
Another thing that I like, I don't know, Adam, if you wanted to go through like
some like a couple of I think some misconceptions that folks have about voting
and like some things like about IDs and things like that. Yeah.
Yeah. As a matter of fact, that that was one issue that there was some confusion
(26:06):
when we worked polls was IDs. What is required?
It is. That's another confusing thing about voting in the state. Yeah.
And I think a lot of folks think that you can only have a driver's license.
Definitely. If you have a driver's license, that's the easiest,
right? Or, or a passport or a military ID.
Those are the best. And something that I think a lot of folks are not aware
(26:29):
of, even folks working the polls is you can have a picture of your driver's
license and that will work as well. So that's something that everybody can do right now.
Take a picture of your driver's license, save it somewhere.
You'll you'll know how to get to it in your phone. And let's say you show up
to the polls and you've forgotten your license or you've lost it.
You will be able to use your driver's license, the picture of your driver's license.
(26:51):
Right. But when you go to the actual to actually vote, you can show your picture
on your phone, but then you'll have to make sure your electronic devices are turned off. Correct?
Yes, that's right. Yes. When you walk in, you will have it off.
Yeah, yeah. And then you'll say, oh, yes, I did. Yeah, yeah.
That's for sure. Yes. Then you will turn that off. And you can't use a student
ID, which is a big issue for our college students. Really?
(27:13):
Yes. Yeah. You cannot. A student ID is not one of the acceptable forms of ID.
However, let's say that you have lost your driver's license.
When I was a kid, I don't know about you, I misplaced my driver's license all the time.
You can still go vote. You will bring what's called, it's referred to as a secondary
form of ID, and those can include a current utility bill with your address on it.
(27:36):
It might be a birth certificate.
What about the voter ID card that you get in the mail? Yes, voter ID. Yes, yep.
Your voter ID card, that little colored card that you get from your county elections
office, you can bring that as well.
That can be a secondary form of ID. OK.
And then what's going to happen is you are you can present that and then you
(27:58):
will also have to sign a form called a reasonable impediment form.
And there are there's a pretty wide range of reasons why you can say that you
don't have your ID. One of them is that it was lost or stolen.
So if you cannot find your ID, you can bring that, you know,
one of those secondary forms of IDs.
And you'll sign that form and check that you lost your ID and then you will
(28:19):
still be able to vote a regular ballot. Right.
Assuming, right, that you're registered, you have to be a registered voter.
Of course, of course. Okay. They'll be able to check that.
And it's also important, like, because it also means, you know,
we have folks who are, that is a big issue, right? Some folks can't get driver's license.
You're, if you're older or you have limited transportation, lack of transportation
is a reasonable impediment as well.
(28:41):
Work schedule is a reasonable impediment. So there's just, there's a lot of ways around it.
I don't want people to think like, oh, I've encountered this better.
They don't have a driver's license.
Therefore, they can't vote. You know, something I have encountered a lot when
I'm when I'm block walking, I do have folks who will tell me like, oh, I can't vote.
I'm a felon. And I think that that's another misconception is that in Texas,
if you've had a felony on your record there, you can't ever vote again.
(29:04):
Is there a time period on that, though? How does that work?
It's actually you have to be what's called off book.
You have to have completed your sentencing and and and any probation as well.
And once that's complete, you can vote. Yeah, there was a case was in the news
not too long ago. And I can't remember now if it was the state of Texas or not.
(29:24):
But some woman had been was it was a convicted felon was out and everything
and then went to vote, was told by the poll workers that, yeah,
she's allowed to vote, et cetera.
And then now she's being sued or something or she's. Yeah.
It's actually a criminal charge. Yeah, it's a criminal charge. And it's not her fault.
(29:45):
It's the, you know, the poll workers that told her, yeah, you can go ahead and vote everything. cool.
And, you know, and what's crazy, Adam, this just blows my mind.
Her vote wasn't counted.
Like we have a process to deal with with that situation.
The integrity of the voting system was protected by that process. Right.
Because she filled out a provisional ballot. Yeah. How was that?
(30:06):
And they were able to if they're not going to count the vote, that's not fraud.
And it wasn't through any fault of her own. Yeah, it was. Now,
she is she she did sign a statement swearing basically that she could vote.
And there was something on that, as I'm recalling, you know,
that statement that she signed that was incorrect.
(30:27):
But you and I know that stuff can be confusing, right? And she probably was like the poll worker.
And it's a I think it's a great thing. Our poll workers want people to vote.
And I see this on both sides of
the aisle. Both are Republican and are Democratic poll workers that we do.
They do a great job at trying to get people to vote. And I I I my heart goes
(30:47):
out to that poll worker, too, who just had a woman there.
She wanted to vote. They wanted to help her vote. They had her sign a provisional
ballot, which we know gets checked, that gets reviewed, doesn't get counted automatically.
And that process is exactly what happened. Her vote was not counted.
And then the state of Texas brought charges against her. I think they're somewhere
in the appellate process.
(31:08):
Right. I think they're they're on appeal on that case right now.
So I'm not sure where we where it stands at the moment, but.
It's ridiculous to me that we would try to send someone to jail for something
like that, especially when our process work.
That's not voter fraud. Not not, by the way, people imagine or the way they
depict in some media, you know, what voter fraud is, alleged voter fraud,
(31:32):
I should say. You know, so it's kind of nitpicky, I guess.
Absolutely. And I think the last thing I would love to tell your listeners,
Adam, is, you know, you asked or mentioned earlier, you know,
what is. Are there any, you know, trends in Texas that we can look to,
especially positively right now?
Yeah, yeah. We need all the optimism we can get.
Absolutely. And, you know, I mean, I know there's we're we're filled,
(31:55):
I think, with with dread and just, you know, concern right now.
I don't know what's going to happen in November.
But what I can tell you is that we have this impression, of course, that Texas is so red.
Yeah, I think other folks right have talked about that. We are not a red state.
We are a non-voting state. Exactly right. Yeah, we had less than,
(32:16):
I think the turnout was like 45% in 2022.
And then, you know, with the governor at the top of the ticket. Dr.
Lira mentioned that we had, actually saw our best voter turnout in 2020.
It was at least the best since like the 90s. Although I'd still like to point
out that even though I think we were like somewhere in the low 60s,
we were still in the bottom 10 as far as states, as far as turnout.
(32:40):
It was good for Texas, but compared to the other state, like Minnesota,
I think was top. They had like 80 percent turnout.
We we need to do better. But as far as the trends in Texas and national elections,
Mitt Romney won Texas by 16 point.
Donald Trump won Texas by nine points in 2016.
And in 2020, it was six points. So we are getting I mean, we are we are making
(33:05):
big strides in these national elections every time. And I would expect Democrats
to get closer to winning a statewide seat each time.
And in fact, there are I mean, I've heard analysts say that they already suspect
that we already have the Democratic votes in Texas to win.
We just have to get them to the poll. Yeah, absolutely. Got to start.
(33:26):
Got to start at square one there. All right. Well, so, Ashley,
also, thanks for spending some time.
I wanted to ask you, are you, I imagine you will still be doing some block walking
and there will be other activities that we can find out about on Democrats of
Come All.org and, you know, other things going on that we can get involved in,
right? Right. Absolutely.
We have we have great candidates on the ballot for the Democratic Party in Comal County.
(33:51):
We're going to be block walking for each of them on a regular monthly basis.
There are postcard writing parties.
I think those are going to those will be posted on the Web site and in in our newsletter.
If you haven't before, I'd encourage you to go to Democrats of Comal dot org
and sign up for the countywide newsletter to keep up to date on what's going on.
And of course, follow us on all social media, on Facebook. book. Sure.
(34:13):
And especially. And yeah, you can get to know several of those candidates that
I've had the pleasure of talking to by listening to some of our previous podcast episodes.
Absolutely. Yes. Yes. That's another great way to do it. Thanks so much for
everything you and your team are doing, Adam.
Well, it's our pleasure. Well, thanks for spending some time with me, Ashley.
Also appreciate your time. And as always, hopefully we can talk again soon as
(34:37):
we get closer to the election, and remind people, get up off your seat and go vote.
Absolutely. Yep. You can't complain if you don't vote, right?
Yeah. Ain't that the truth. Great. Thanks, Adam. All right. Well, thanks a lot, Ashley.
(35:01):
Music.
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