November 6, 2024 • 32 mins
Unlock the secrets of the U.S. electoral system with us on the "I'm Not Dumb but Podcast." Ever wondered what truly happens after you cast your vote? We promise to demystify the journey of your ballot, confront the myths of voter fraud, and reveal how technology and security work hand-in-hand to protect your vote.
We explore why trust and technology are becoming uneasy partners. We dive into the Help America Vote Act of 2002, which sought to streamline election processes, while also dissecting controversies like those involving Dominion Voting Systems and Fox News. Tune in for insights that are as enlightening as they are entertaining.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Rob (00:00):
Yeah, what did we learn?
Cesar (00:00):
about today.
So we just had a majorpresidential election.
I knew they would win.
You guys ever wonder whathappens to your ballot after you
guys vote.
Victor (00:09):
I put it in a machine that looks like a huge shredder,
and then it just gets.
Cesar (00:13):
you know, they literally shred it.
Victor (00:15):
That's what they do they make me feel better about
myself that I voted, and thenthey just do whatever they want.
Cesar (00:20):
Right.
They give you the sticker andsay all right.
Victor (00:25):
Thank you for voting.
You voted.
Thank you.
You know what?
Last time I went, though, theyran out of stickers.
Rob (00:28):
I had nothing to post on instagram, so you didn't really
vote, bro, basically you'rewalking home and like everyone
just looking at you, like hedoesn't have a sticker on.
What a fucking asshole.
I voted.
Victor (00:39):
They ran out I walked by a bunch of illegals.
They all had stickers.
You went to like you like, wentby the cemetery and there's a
bunch of illegals.
Rob (00:46):
They all had stickers.
Victor (00:49):
You went by the cemetery and there's a bunch of stickers
.
Cesar (00:54):
Wait.
So what are we talking about?
On this episode of the I'm NotDumb but Podcast, we dive into
the intricacies of the US ballotcounting process.
We'll discuss the roles ofdifferent counting systems,
technology and security measuresto ensure every vote is counted
accurately.
Is there really widespreadvoter fraud?
I'm not dumb, but how arevoting ballots counted in the
United States?
(01:14):
Welcome to the I'm not dumb butpodcast, where we won't claim
to have the answers to life'sdeepest questions but we'll give
you an exciting journey intothe realms of knowledge you
never knew you needed Might bemainstream, but not common
knowledge.
From artificial intelligence toconspiracy theories, no topic is
too taboo for us to explore.
Let's get curious together.
My name is Cesar, joined alwaysby Rob, hey, hello.
(01:38):
I'm Victor, how y'all doing?
And Chris, hey, what's up?
What's going on?
Did you guys vote?
Chris (01:45):
no yes, I did I always vote sam here.
Yes, me too oh you don't vote.
Rob (01:52):
No, it's just easier to complain because you hate
america I think that trueamericans don't know, I don't
know I uh I didn't vote.
Uh, because when I moved and Ijust got lazy and, honestly,
like my wife didn't vote either.
So I moved and I just got lazyand, honestly, like my wife
didn't vote either and I wasjust going to vote against her.
So we just figured.
Victor (02:11):
You were going to cancel each other out.
Yeah, yeah.
Rob (02:14):
We're carbon neutral, we're political neutral.
That's true.
Cesar (02:17):
Should have voted for the Green Party then.
Rob (02:19):
I don't really see the point in voting for any other
party that's not in thetwo-party system.
Victor (02:31):
So the first time I ever voted, I voted for John Kerry,
and I'm convinced that he lostbecause I voted for him If I
want someone to win.
I don't vote for them at all.
Rob (02:37):
You know what I like, though You're using the
superstition to help your guyout.
Thank you.
Yeah, and honestly, that shouldcount as a vote.
Victor (02:44):
But I also have other voting rules.
If you have doctor, you're notgetting my vote.
Why not Really?
Why You're full of yourself.
Oh, I'm going to put doctor onthe ballot no.
Rob (03:00):
You're fucking Mr First name, whoever the fuck, not Dr
So-and-so bullshitstein, okay Ithink you're not getting my
phone, man.
Victor (03:06):
I think you project okay .
So no doctor, no doctor.
If there's like a whole groupof democrats, um, that are
running for like re-election,like they're part of a council,
I will vote for all of them,except I'll add one republican
in there just to spice things up.
Rob (03:18):
Wow, you're like an agent of chaos, do you?
Cesar (03:20):
even know a republican when you do those ballots.
Victor (03:23):
I don't know any local person and I've tried to look up
information.
Rob (03:28):
It's almost impossible to look up any information about
yeah, that was my biggest thingtoo.
I would get on there and look,I'm like who the hell are these
people?
Chris (03:37):
what about those uh proposition?
You have to vote yes or no.
Yeah, but those you just readyeah, but unless you know
exactly what it means, it's likeyou're kind of like guessing
too right.
Cesar (03:47):
Some of them could be confusing.
Chris (03:48):
Yeah, I mean you have 50-50 chances, yes or no?
Cesar (03:51):
Yeah, let me start off by saying for our international
listeners who may not know inmost US states there are four
ways you can vote.
You can do it in person, voteearly or wait for election day.
If you don't go in person, youcan get an absentee ballot and
you can either submit it by mailor drop it off by a designated
drop-off box.
But you know what?
I've never seen one of those.
Victor (04:11):
I've seen them in Oregon on fire.
Cesar (04:14):
Yeah, that's funny because that's one of the
articles I was going to talkabout.
Did you guys hear?
Rob (04:18):
about that, or no?
Cesar (04:18):
No, no, yeah, I don't even know what that looks like
so it's supposed to be like thisbig flame, retardant box where
you drop in your ballots.
And, like victor said, policein in washington and oregon are
trying to find out who set blazeto two of these boxes.
The us department of homelandsecurity is getting on it and
they're thinking that somesocial media users are
(04:39):
discussing and encouragingvarious methods to sabotage
these ballots and to they claimthat they're trying to basically
target the electioninfrastructure.
It looks like I don't know ifit was a bomb or something in
one of the boxes, in a couple ofthe boxes.
Rob (04:54):
They probably just threw a bunch of vapes in there.
Cesar (04:59):
Well, like an e-battery, and usually if you're going in
person, the process is verysimple.
You arrive at a polling place,election officials check for a
name and address to make sureyou're registered to vote.
So these election officialswork in pairs, so you know.
When you go in you see thosetwo old people at the desk, yeah
(05:20):
, and looking for your name.
I've never seen like a, like anangry one.
They're always happy to see me.
Victor (05:25):
Oh, I've seen angry ones have you.
Cesar (05:27):
Yeah, I always get the nice like little grandmas, like
hey, honey, ready to vote.
I'm like yes, I am, and they'relike thanks for coming yeah.
Victor (05:36):
I guess angry people are just drawn to me.
Rob (05:39):
I think you're drawn to angry people.
Victor (05:41):
Well maybe, maybe.
That's what it is.
I'm just gonna fuck myself.
Cesar (05:45):
Fun fact, they have pairs working at these desks.
Both workers can't be from thesame political party, so you
gotta have one from the other.
That's one of the safeguardsthat they implement you know
what it is.
Victor (05:55):
It's because I can find my name faster than they can.
Rob (05:59):
Oh, you're rushing them, r rushing them, rushing them.
These guys.
They've been there for 10 hours.
Yeah, she's been there for 10hours.
It's a day off from the library.
Victor (06:09):
It's the fucking alphabet.
It's the fucking alphabet.
If you can't find an s, I look,I'm looking through.
I'm like it's a stack of papers, please.
It's already split up byaddresses and all this other
stuff.
Rob (06:21):
Looking he's probably looking like how do you spell
that name?
That explains why he didn'tcome he didn't get off the
Mayflower.
Victor (06:28):
I'll just tell you that.
Rob (06:30):
They're eating the dogs, the people that came in.
Cesar (06:33):
So then you know, voters cast their votes by either an
electronic voting machine orpaper ballots, which then get
scanned.
The process for an absenteeballot starts off by either
requesting a ballot by mail.
Rob (06:48):
You fill out your elections and you make sure to provide
all the adequate information andthen submitting them.
See, that's where you got me.
I'm not going to request it bymail, to then submit it by mail,
that's just too many steps.
Yeah, at that point, either youjust skip or yeah, I don't know
who I'm going to vote for tillthe day it happens.
I'll tell you right now.
I don't know who I'm going tovote for till after the day it
(07:09):
happens, and then, at that pointI'm like I'm just too late.
Victor (07:14):
Rob has put more effort into finding supplements and
vitamins than it is to just goto a fucking website, put in
your address, and then theyliterally send it to you.
Yeah, that is very true.
Cesar (07:27):
But you got to be careful because if you don't put the
correct information downcorrectly and your signatures
are not the same, they won'tcount.
Chris (07:35):
Yeah, oh shit, I think I might have changed up to my
signature, actually, you knowwhat Maybe you need to move to.
Cesar (07:43):
there's three states that actually automatically send a
ballot to everyone, allregistered voters.
What states are those?
Colorado, washington and OregonSubsequently the same places
where your ballot is going toget burned.
Burn it.
But there's 27 states where youcan actually request an
(08:04):
absentee ballot for any reasonand then 20 of them require,
like, a valid reason.
Like you're not around, youknow.
So that's for our internationallisteners.
How did the voting machineswork?
They come in various types witha different way of recording
and counting votes.
I get the bubble sheet.
Victor (08:19):
You fill out the bubbles and then you put it in the
machine.
At one time there was switches.
You had to push switches down.
Chris (08:27):
Yes, I do remember that one.
Victor (08:29):
I've done that as well.
Rob (08:30):
Those are the impregnated ballots.
I guess they didn't completelypuncture and they were just
impregnated.
They weren't puncturedcompletely.
Victor (08:39):
Are you talking about for the 2000 election?
Cesar (08:42):
Because then you don't know who you actually voted for
Exactly.
Is that something about for the2000 election?
Because then you don't know whoyou actually voted for Because
they're not going to do it foryou Exactly.
Rob (08:45):
There was a bunch of people that had voted for somebody,
but because they didn't punctureit completely, they may or may
not have counted it correctly.
They didn't remember it growingup.
Cesar (08:55):
We'll talk about that later, but that's an issue that
happened in the 2000 elections.
All the states have alldifferent policies and even
counties have all differentpolicies.
Chris (09:05):
States have all different policies and even counties have
all different policies.
Cesar (09:09):
Really One giant clusterfuck.
Yeah, so the machine thatVictor was talking about are
called optical scan votingmachines, and these are the ones
I think we've only we've goneaccustomed to.
These machines read paperballots that voters mark by
filling in ovals or connectingarrows, then, after marking,
voters feed it into the scannerswhich tally the votes, and then
these ballots are kept as apaper trail.
The other type, it's called thedirect recording electronic
(09:31):
machines, or DRAE for short, andthey call it DRAE because these
machines make beats.
I'll be here all day.
Rob (09:39):
Yikes.
Cesar (09:41):
Tough crowd, tough crowd tough crowd, tough crowd.
Rob (09:48):
Yeah, you guys.
You guys don't know, that wasthat was fine.
Victor (09:50):
You can find that joke out there in the middle of the
ocean as a pile of garbage toosoon bro too soon I don't know
if we can say that yet it's toosoon, let's try it.
Rob (10:01):
Let's just try it.
Cesar (10:02):
Okay, we're getting there voters make selections on a
touch screen or a push buttoninterface and the machine
records their choices directlyinto the memory, and these often
provide a voter-verified paperaudit trail, and states like
Indiana, Texas and Kentucky usethese in the 2020 election.
Victor (10:20):
So these are electronic voting machines.
Cesar (10:22):
Yeah, these are electronic voting machines.
These are actually likemachines, where you vote on top
of the machine.
You press it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and thesehave issues, though Since the
2000s, less and less states havebeen using these.
Victor (10:33):
Are they using them less and less because they're not
working correctly or peopledon't trust them?
Are they like old technology?
Cesar (10:41):
Yeah, it's basically old technology and old pieces of
equipment, so after a certainpoint you're not finding the
same to try to like fix them.
It's leading to issues.
And also, like McDonald's icecream machines, yeah, and even
if they're fixed right, it'salready out there that they're
never working.
So when you go to McDonald's,you already expect it to not
(11:02):
work.
Rob (11:03):
Yeah, you're like oh, the McFlurry's on sale, that doesn't
really matter.
Victor (11:07):
Yeah, oh, the machine's not working.
Yeah, it's kind of like that.
Rob (11:10):
Can I get an ice cream cone ?
We don't have ice cream rightnow.
Cesar (11:13):
And then the last one.
It's called the ballot markingdevices, and these are designed
to assist voters in markingpaper ballots and BMDs, guide
voters through selections on ascreen and then print a marked
paper ballot which can bescanned by an optical scan
machine for counting.
I think I've seen these forpeople who have disabilities.
These machines are supposed toincorporate security features to
(11:36):
ensure accuracy, such asencryption, secure transmission
of data and regular audits.
However, protocols vary bylocation, so exact features and
types can differ.
Chris (11:46):
That's really interesting because you would think as a
system in America, you wouldthink they'll unify the whole
system to keep it fair orwhatever.
Cesar (11:56):
Funny you mentioned that.
Victor (11:57):
So in the 2000s we had issue with the ballots 27,000
ballots were thrown out, eitherunder votes with no one chosen
or over votes where more thanone candidate was selected back
in 2000.
Cesar (12:09):
Congress created legislation and they also did
funding to try to kind ofoverhaul the way we do these
voting systems.
In 2002, the United StatesCongress made sweeping reforms
to the nation's process and theycreated what's called the HAVA,
the Help America Vote Act.
It just created new mandatoryminimum standards for states to
(12:30):
follow in several key areas ofelection administration.
Victor (12:34):
The reason why states have control over this.
It's because it's in theConstitution.
Oh, there you go, Just likethat.
Huh, that's that simple.
I mean, that's usually how itworks.
Rob (12:45):
I got to really get back and read that.
I think I missed that class.
Yeah, I missed that.
Cesar (12:51):
Try reading anything ever .
So election officials testvoting and ballot counting
machines regularly to make surethat they work properly.
So almost all states andterritories perform a logic and
accuracy test on voting andballot counting machines
regularly to make sure that theywork properly.
So almost all states andterritories perform a logic and
accuracy tests on voting andballot counting machines.
Now we want to spread thisinformation that these voting
machines don't actually do whatthey're supposed to.
(13:12):
Well then you might get introuble, and that's what
happened to Fox News A couple ofyears ago.
They got sued because theystarted spreading propaganda.
I think Donald Trump talkedabout that.
The voting machines I think wasit Michigan Partly spread it, I
don't know which state it was.
I think he said that the voterswent in.
They voted for Republicans andthe machines changed.
Victor (13:36):
And then he went on.
Cesar (13:36):
Fox.
News and spread it and all thepundits kept doing the same
thing, so they got sued by theMinion.
Victor (13:42):
And I think the crazy thing about it is because after
they deposed a bunch of them,they stated like yeah, we knew
this was a lie, but we wanted tokeep pushing it.
Cesar (13:50):
Wow you are fake news.
So the Minion voting systemssued Fox for $1.6 billion and
that they argued that the toprated news outlet damaged the
company's reputation by peddlingthese phony conspiracy theories
that claim that its equipmentswitched votes from Donald Trump
to Joe Biden.
And did they win or theysettled?
(14:10):
They got $800 million.
Victor (14:13):
Dominion and this case was partly the reason why Tucker
Carlson got fired from Fox News.
It's got to be a bigmisunderstanding.
Cesar (14:20):
So Dominion set out to prove in a lawsuit that Fox
acted with malice in airing anallegation that it knew to be
false, Just like Victor said,with reckless disregard for the
truth.
It presented volumes ofinternal emails and text
messages that show that Foxexecutives and personalities
saying that they knew that theaccusations were untrue, and
they still aired the falsehoods.
Victor (14:40):
Elon Musk tweeted about it.
Cesar (14:42):
Oh my God, this guy.
Victor (14:44):
Sorry, elon Musk, the country's worst immigrant made a
tweet about the guy's a genius,okay?
Rob (14:51):
Did you see that rocket ship catch itself?
Victor (14:53):
He's not a rocket scientist.
He hired rocket scientists.
He's the leader of my book.
He is yeah, exactly oh my God,those rocket scientists.
Rob (14:59):
He's the leader of my book.
He is yeah, exactly.
Oh my God, those rocketscientists would be out of a job
if it wasn't for this immigrantcreating jobs for other
immigrants.
Victor (15:08):
I don't know how that works, but so his tweet was
something along the lines oflike oh, I'm going to hire
Dominion machines so I can pressone thing and get 60.
Cesar (15:19):
He's going to get sued and they're going to get a nice
little paycheck.
Oh my.
Victor (15:23):
God.
He used to be on Trump'sdeportation list, did you guys?
Cesar (15:27):
hear that he's trying to like buy people's votes.
He's doing a lottery.
Rob (15:31):
It's a lottery if you vote it's a million dollars, yeah,
every few weeks.
A million dollars, yeah, if youvote for Trump every week.
Chris (15:42):
I'm Doc Gothic Maga.
Cesar (15:45):
Plus, he owns X, so I heard its algorithms are
starting to push one candidateover the other and start
spreading misinformation.
Victor (15:54):
Twitter because I refuse to call it X.
Twitter is a complete cesspoolof just misinformation.
Now.
Rob (16:02):
Is it really?
Victor (16:03):
It's really bad yeah.
Rob (16:05):
I mean, I just feel like it's impossible to regulate that
.
Victor (16:08):
Follow us on Twitter.
Yeah, yeah, definitely on X orX or X.
Cesar (16:12):
Definitely.
Rob (16:13):
And don't forget to subscribe on your Dominion
voting machine.
Cesar (16:19):
Go fuck yourself.
After the polls close in yourstate and the last voters have
cast their ballots, poll workersbegin to close the precincts
and they start to tabulate thevotes.
Each state has a differentrequirement for the process, but
the steps generally include yougot to secure the voting
machine and then you got toensure that the number of voters
who checked in corresponds withthe number of voters who
(16:40):
checked in corresponds with thenumber of ballots that were cast
.
Each precinct tabulates votes,results and then report those
numbers to a central office inits county or town.
Are they doing this by hand?
The ones that do like theelectronic machine.
They have that ballot, but whatthey do is they have these
actual physical ballots and theykind of compare.
At the very end they do doublecheck.
(17:02):
They do double check, okay, sojust to make sure that the
machine had this amount ofballots counted, the physical
ballots also match that.
Victor (17:12):
Because sometimes when you're counting paper like they
stick to each other.
Yeah, to hell, and you got tolick your fingers.
Cesar (17:17):
But you see those ballot sheets, those things are huge.
I wouldn't lick them, Iwouldn't lick them.
I wouldn't lick them.
Paper cut you get on thosethings.
Probably die you would probablydie.
Chris (17:25):
My goodness, so dramatic.
Cesar (17:26):
Ballots filled in person can start being counted after
the polls close on Election Day.
If the voting center uses paperballots, each ballot is sealed
and delivered to a vote countingcenter and once the ballot
arrives, the election staffstarts the vote counting process
.
And if the digital votingmachines are used, election
officials send over voter datato the counting center and the
voting data can either be sentelectronically or be hand
(17:49):
delivered to the counting centerand once the data arrives,
officials can start processingthe results.
In some states, votes castduring the early voting period
are counted before the electionday, but the results for those
ballots are not published untilafter the polls close on
election day, and in otherstates, early votes are counted
(18:11):
only on the day of the election.
Rob (18:13):
How many people do they have working at these voting
centers to be able to count allthis stuff?
I'm not sure what's the averagetime it takes to count all
these votes.
Victor (18:22):
Well, it depends.
It's not even about countingthem.
It's counting them and makingsure they match the other
numbers, right?
Cesar (18:28):
This is literally not counting yet.
This is just getting theseballots in and processing.
Just looking at making surethat everything is in.
Yeah, making sure everything isSounds like a nightmare.
Yeah, making sure everything isSounds like a nightmare.
Rob (18:40):
Yeah, that's why they got two people one person from every
party working there, becausesomebody's in the back counting
like one, two three.
Cesar (18:53):
We ran out of stickers.
Doesn't matter, you don't wantthem anyway, don't?
Victor (18:56):
even care.
Poor fucking grandmas out there.
My fingers hurt.
Cesar (19:00):
Keep counting grandmamas out there, my fingers hurt.
Chris (19:02):
Keep counting, grandma, now your back's going to hurt
because you just pulledlandscaping duty and then they
asked for a recount and he didFuck.
Victor (19:10):
Oh no, Not a recount.
Cesar (19:14):
Isn't that what happened in Florida when they had to do a
hand count for?
Victor (19:17):
all those.
You just had too many oldpeople voting.
They didn't know what they werevoting for.
I don't know if you saw this,but Joe Biden did some early
voting.
Did anyone check his ballot tomake sure he filled it out
correctly?
Rob (19:31):
Maybe he got that email, it didn't count.
He definitely wouldn't tell me.
Nah, he voted for Trump.
I don't think he likes Kambala.
Cesar (19:38):
You would never know, Unless he gets a letter in the
mail saying damn it, my votedidn't count.
Chris (19:45):
Eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID.
Cesar (19:49):
Fun fact did you guys know that in the election of
1800, voting began in somestates in April and continued
through October?
Victor (19:56):
Wow, it's 1800.
I mean, it takes you three daysjust to get to the, your voting
location.
You gotta take a horse andbuggy and shit.
Cesar (20:04):
That's why in 1845, congress passed legislation that
established the election day aswe know it now I don't see why
we don't get off on this.
Victor (20:13):
Me neither.
We are the beacon of democracy,exactly, and we don't have a
day off to go vote do othercountries?
Cesar (20:22):
we're the beacon of democracy here in switzerland.
Rob (20:29):
Uh, who'd you guys vote for america?
Victor (20:33):
yo, the world watches our election.
Rob (20:36):
Yeah, yeah, because they want to know how it's going to
go.
They watch it more than we do.
Cesar (20:40):
They understand the candidates.
They understand, like, thepolicies more than we do,
because what happens hereaffects them so much more than
it does here and all of thosewho believe in freedom and
democracy.
So how long does each statehave to certify election result?
So the final step in anelection is certifying the
(21:00):
result, and election results arecertified by the chief election
official in each state.
Winners of the elections cannotbe sworn into their positions
until the results of theelection are certified.
First, counties must finishcounting all mail-in and
provisional ballots.
This is also when the ballotcuring process occurs.
Once this process is finished,counties send the total results
(21:22):
for their area to stateofficials.
The deadlines for this part ofthe process differ by state.
The official review and doublecheck each outcome from the
counties.
Once state officials arefinished, that's when the chief
election official for each statecertifies the results.
As I'm going to do this, I'mlike this process is super
tedious.
Rob (21:42):
Yeah, voter fraud allegations, I don't know man no
, it's the illegals bro it is Idon't know, because these I'm
sure there's some errors andstuff like that.
Victor (21:55):
I find yeah, I mean you can't have this many hands in
the pot and not have a problem,even though there's so many
redundancies and recounts so theclaim, as I understand it,
these fucking people are comingup with is that people that are
illegal are somehow registeringto vote Okay, and therefore,
when they go in, it's just hey,that's me, I'm already
(22:19):
registered, here's your ballot.
Rob (22:21):
How can they do that, though, is it?
Chris (22:22):
more like an identity theft.
Rob (22:24):
I don't think they can.
Victor (22:25):
It's funny because every time someone brings this up to
me, they go hey, did you see the, this chinese uh citizen that
was voting?
And it's like okay, since youjust told me it sounds like he
just got caught.
Cesar (22:37):
So yeah, I think the fact that people are getting caught
means that the system isactually working right does that
make sense?
yeah, yeah, I will find you.
I think in pennsylvania, Ithink lancaster, pennsylvania,
they have um a recentinvestigation they found that a
couple of um and they caught itoff the like, off the bat.
(22:59):
It looks like some.
What they're claiming is thatthis group is trying to register
people to vote, but the ballotslike the, when they register
the ballots that they droppedoff, they all were off Kind of
weird.
So the election officials whoreceived the vote kind of caught
wind of it and there's beenlike multiple districts that the
(23:22):
investigations are stillongoing.
But that's what it looks like.
It looks like some group istrying to do this, but they're
not succeeding.
They mentioned that thehandwriting on all of them
looked exactly the same.
Chris (23:32):
It's like a one guy thing , right-handed and left-handed,
going back and forth.
Gee, that's crazy.
Rob (23:40):
though the ones that should be locked up are the ones that
cheat.
I'm sure some of it's gettingthrough, but probably not enough
to make a difference.
Can't be a hundred percent.
Cesar (23:49):
In 2016,.
Russia tried to hack us,literally infiltrated our
machines.
Rob (23:55):
Oh really, the Dominion machines.
Cesar (23:58):
Yeah, so in 2016, cyber actors affiliated with the
Russian government conducted anunprecedented and coordinated
cyber campaign against stateelection infrastructure.
Russian actors scanneddatabases for vulnerabilities,
attempted intrusions and, in asmall number of cases,
successfully penetrated a voterregistration database.
So this was an activity of alarger campaign to prepare and
(24:21):
undermine confidence in thevoting process.
But the committee that was kindof sanctioned to investigate
this found that they were notsuccessful in manipulating any
of the votes or deleting ormodifying or registrations.
But they tried, but they tried.
So if Russia can hack in thereand be unsuccessful, I don't
think Joe Schmoe writing hisname on ballots and submitting
(24:45):
them is going to do anything.
Let me call the Russians tohelp and, like I mentioned, they
are safeguards to protect fromvoter fraud.
Like New York, in particularhas voter ID and registration
checks.
They have electronic poll books, tracking and verification for
absentee ballots.
They have training for pollworkers.
(25:07):
They have poll workers.
Rob (25:09):
What kind of training do these poll?
Victor (25:11):
workers get.
Rob (25:13):
Maybe I should go vote, yeah, maybe.
Victor (25:17):
Oh, not, actually.
They're not actually workingthe poll, they're not working
the poll.
Rob (25:21):
They're working at the poll .
Okay, okay, okay.
Victor (25:24):
So don't grab a bunch of singles before going to vote.
No, no, no but the voterturnout would be a lot higher.
Cesar (25:32):
A high-end stripper for governors or athletes.
So there's a complex system ofchecks and balances in place to
ensure accuracy and electionintegrity.
When ballots are voted, they gointo a locked and sealed ballot
box in every single location.
That ballot box is not openedagain until the tabulation
process begins and as pollsclose, around the country, poll
(25:53):
workers deliver in-personballots to election offices
where mail-in ballots havealready been delivered.
There are a lot of redundanciesand a lot of safeguards.
For this process, like anythingelse, there's a lot of
controversies.
Trump, back in 2020, tried toundermine the faith in the
election results by claimingthat a lot of these ballots were
(26:15):
not counted.
In one particular sense, it'skind of just seeding doubt in
the minds of voters and justwith that doubt, even if it's
not happening, you just might besuccessful at preventing people
from either trying to vote oractually believing in the
outcome of the elections.
That's why a lot of peoplestill say, if you ask them, I
see those YouTube videos like,oh no, the election was false.
(26:37):
Trump won, yeah, but thosepeople are deranged.
But there's a lot of them likethat and I doubt none of those
people because I didn't know allthese safeguards that were put
in place to protect the levels.
Victor (26:47):
That's why they should listen to our podcast.
Chris (26:49):
Yeah, Hit that follow button bitches, do you guys get
nervous when you start to feelthe ovals?
No, no, is it just me?
Rob (26:59):
Aren't you by yourself.
Chris (27:00):
Why are you getting?
Rob (27:00):
nervous You're not doing it with somebody else.
It's not an SATs.
No one's watching.
Chris (27:06):
I think I get like like this anxiety since I get this
paper, I like all the anxietycalm and I feel like I'm taking
a test.
So I'm like literally circling,like there's no right or wrong
answer, right, so I'm circlingit.
I'm like, oh shit, did I dothis?
Right?
It's not to go back and read itlike there's no right or wrong
answer.
Rob (27:22):
Right and I get the fate of the entire world.
I get so nervous.
Chris (27:28):
And I'm like, literally just like picking like my to my
left, to the right, make sure noone's looking and I'm like you
don't have privacy walls theyusually have like privacy walls.
I'm like looking around makingsure no one's looking at me,
chris you need help, you look Iget really nervous with this.
I'm really nervous with this.
You need help, bro.
Like when I'm done, I'm like ohshit, did I do this everything
correctly?
So I go back and then doublecheck everything.
Victor (27:51):
You need to take a Percocet and then, go vote.
Smoke a joint and then fuckinggo vote Chris's vote has never
counted.
Because he's always.
It's like the test scantron.
Cesar (28:06):
Yeah, when it tells you don't do this, don't do that,
Chris does that.
Victor (28:10):
He has it erased five times and fills it in five times
.
Chris (28:14):
There's like a hole.
I admit I eventually ripped it.
Victor (28:18):
He asked for another pencil because he like burned
through this one.
All right, but anyways.
Cesar (28:23):
What did we learn today, Chris?
What did we learn today, man?
Chris (28:27):
I think it's kind of weird that the state doesn't
have one single rule thatgoverns how voting systems or
the counting system work.
It's odd to me, it's really oddto me.
It's like, since they havetheir own rules and one set of
regulations by state or thecounty, I feel like they need to
(28:50):
fix that first, just to havelike continuity among all states
and counties well, they won't,because it's states rights
that's the only thing that getsme like I'm just like that's a
little shady right there.
But otherwise, like I said,there was a lot of information
about voting in county.
I had no idea, so.
Rob (29:09):
Rob, what about you man?
Yeah, I always found thisconfusing and you know the way
you broke it down.
It makes sense.
I get that now, but I stillfind it confusing.
I mean, I get that there's alot of redundancies, I get that
there's different steps and andbecause there's so many
different States and they allhave their own rules on doing it
, like, I mean, I guess the mainthing is that, wherever you are
(29:33):
, get out there and vote.
That's the main, most importantthing.
I really think so.
Um, however, you're gonna do it.
You know if you're gonna do itin person or you're gonna mail
in ballot, uh, just get outthere and from the guy who
doesn't vote did you vote for me?
actually I'll send you my ballotand you can go ahead and do
(29:53):
mine too, while you're at it,chris you do his ballots.
And then both of our ballotswon't even count.
Victor (30:01):
He'll be a fucking nervous wreck.
Rob (30:03):
There's like two holes in these.
Did you fill out two of these?
Yeah, my buddy couldn't make it.
I'm his absentee.
That's not how that works.
Chris (30:16):
Then another article.
Korean man tried to.
Cesar (30:22):
Victor, what about you, man?
Victor (30:24):
Listen, I just feel even more secure that the voting
process has got a lot of safetynets.
I mean, I still think, listen,if your person didn't win this
year, I think it's stillimportant to vote every year,
even if it's not a presidentialelection, and I'm just waiting
for the point where I can justhave Chad GPT vote for me.
Chris (30:47):
So I'll try, maybe next year For the first time after I
vote this year as American, Ifeel like I was, like I did
something for this country.
Cesar (30:57):
That's why.
Chris (30:58):
I felt that's how I felt this year for the first time.
So yeah, please go vote fornext year if you didn't this
year.
Well said.
Cesar (31:10):
As we wrap up today's episode on the ballot counting
process, I hope you've gained adeeper understanding of the
steps and safeguards that gointo ensuring each vote counts.
So the next time you cast yourballot, know that your vote is
secure.
And, if you enjoyed today'sshow, hit that follow button and
spread the word of this amazingpodcast you discovered.
We want you to be an activepart of our community, Whether
(31:32):
you have questions, suggestionsor just want to share your
thoughts on our topic.
We want to hear from you.
Find us on Twitter at I'm NotDumb but, and on YouTube at I'm
Not Dumb but Podcast.
Until next time, stay informed,stay engaged and remember, stay
curious.
God bless, Stay informed, stayengaged and remember, stay
curious.
Chris (31:52):
God bless, god bless.
You think you just fell out ofa coconut tree.
Yeah, what did we learn?
Cesar (00:00):
about today.
So we just had a majorpresidential election.
I knew they would win.
You guys ever wonder whathappens to your ballot after you
guys vote.
Victor (00:09):
I put it in a machine that looks like a huge shredder,
and then it just gets.
Cesar (00:13):
you know, they literally shred it.
Victor (00:15):
That's what they do they make me feel better about
myself that I voted, and thenthey just do whatever they want.
Cesar (00:20):
Right.
They give you the sticker andsay all right.
Victor (00:25):
Thank you for voting.
You voted.
Thank you.
You know what?
Last time I went, though, theyran out of stickers.
Rob (00:28):
I had nothing to post on instagram, so you didn't really
vote, bro, basically you'rewalking home and like everyone
just looking at you, like hedoesn't have a sticker on.
What a fucking asshole.
I voted.
Victor (00:39):
They ran out I walked by a bunch of illegals.
They all had stickers.
You went to like you like, wentby the cemetery and there's a
bunch of illegals.
Rob (00:46):
They all had stickers.
Victor (00:49):
You went by the cemetery and there's a bunch of stickers
.
Cesar (00:54):
Wait.
So what are we talking about?
On this episode of the I'm NotDumb but Podcast, we dive into
the intricacies of the US ballotcounting process.
We'll discuss the roles ofdifferent counting systems,
technology and security measuresto ensure every vote is counted
accurately.
Is there really widespreadvoter fraud?
I'm not dumb, but how arevoting ballots counted in the
United States?
(01:14):
Welcome to the I'm not dumb butpodcast, where we won't claim
to have the answers to life'sdeepest questions but we'll give
you an exciting journey intothe realms of knowledge you
never knew you needed Might bemainstream, but not common
knowledge.
From artificial intelligence toconspiracy theories, no topic is
too taboo for us to explore.
Let's get curious together.
My name is Cesar, joined alwaysby Rob, hey, hello.
(01:38):
I'm Victor, how y'all doing?
And Chris, hey, what's up?
What's going on?
Did you guys vote?
Chris (01:45):
no yes, I did I always vote sam here.
Yes, me too oh you don't vote.
Rob (01:52):
No, it's just easier to complain because you hate
america I think that trueamericans don't know, I don't
know I uh I didn't vote.
Uh, because when I moved and Ijust got lazy and, honestly,
like my wife didn't vote either.
So I moved and I just got lazyand, honestly, like my wife
didn't vote either and I wasjust going to vote against her.
So we just figured.
Victor (02:11):
You were going to cancel each other out.
Yeah, yeah.
Rob (02:14):
We're carbon neutral, we're political neutral.
That's true.
Cesar (02:17):
Should have voted for the Green Party then.
Rob (02:19):
I don't really see the point in voting for any other
party that's not in thetwo-party system.
Victor (02:31):
So the first time I ever voted, I voted for John Kerry,
and I'm convinced that he lostbecause I voted for him If I
want someone to win.
I don't vote for them at all.
Rob (02:37):
You know what I like, though You're using the
superstition to help your guyout.
Thank you.
Yeah, and honestly, that shouldcount as a vote.
Victor (02:44):
But I also have other voting rules.
If you have doctor, you're notgetting my vote.
Why not Really?
Why You're full of yourself.
Oh, I'm going to put doctor onthe ballot no.
Rob (03:00):
You're fucking Mr First name, whoever the fuck, not Dr
So-and-so bullshitstein, okay Ithink you're not getting my
phone, man.
Victor (03:06):
I think you project okay .
So no doctor, no doctor.
If there's like a whole groupof democrats, um, that are
running for like re-election,like they're part of a council,
I will vote for all of them,except I'll add one republican
in there just to spice things up.
Rob (03:18):
Wow, you're like an agent of chaos, do you?
Cesar (03:20):
even know a republican when you do those ballots.
Victor (03:23):
I don't know any local person and I've tried to look up
information.
Rob (03:28):
It's almost impossible to look up any information about
yeah, that was my biggest thingtoo.
I would get on there and look,I'm like who the hell are these
people?
Chris (03:37):
what about those uh proposition?
You have to vote yes or no.
Yeah, but those you just readyeah, but unless you know
exactly what it means, it's likeyou're kind of like guessing
too right.
Cesar (03:47):
Some of them could be confusing.
Chris (03:48):
Yeah, I mean you have 50-50 chances, yes or no?
Cesar (03:51):
Yeah, let me start off by saying for our international
listeners who may not know inmost US states there are four
ways you can vote.
You can do it in person, voteearly or wait for election day.
If you don't go in person, youcan get an absentee ballot and
you can either submit it by mailor drop it off by a designated
drop-off box.
But you know what?
I've never seen one of those.
Victor (04:11):
I've seen them in Oregon on fire.
Cesar (04:14):
Yeah, that's funny because that's one of the
articles I was going to talkabout.
Did you guys hear?
Rob (04:18):
about that, or no?
Cesar (04:18):
No, no, yeah, I don't even know what that looks like
so it's supposed to be like thisbig flame, retardant box where
you drop in your ballots.
And, like victor said, policein in washington and oregon are
trying to find out who set blazeto two of these boxes.
The us department of homelandsecurity is getting on it and
they're thinking that somesocial media users are
(04:39):
discussing and encouragingvarious methods to sabotage
these ballots and to they claimthat they're trying to basically
target the electioninfrastructure.
It looks like I don't know ifit was a bomb or something in
one of the boxes, in a couple ofthe boxes.
Rob (04:54):
They probably just threw a bunch of vapes in there.
Cesar (04:59):
Well, like an e-battery, and usually if you're going in
person, the process is verysimple.
You arrive at a polling place,election officials check for a
name and address to make sureyou're registered to vote.
So these election officialswork in pairs, so you know.
When you go in you see thosetwo old people at the desk, yeah
(05:20):
, and looking for your name.
I've never seen like a, like anangry one.
They're always happy to see me.
Victor (05:25):
Oh, I've seen angry ones have you.
Cesar (05:27):
Yeah, I always get the nice like little grandmas, like
hey, honey, ready to vote.
I'm like yes, I am, and they'relike thanks for coming yeah.
Victor (05:36):
I guess angry people are just drawn to me.
Rob (05:39):
I think you're drawn to angry people.
Victor (05:41):
Well maybe, maybe.
That's what it is.
I'm just gonna fuck myself.
Cesar (05:45):
Fun fact, they have pairs working at these desks.
Both workers can't be from thesame political party, so you
gotta have one from the other.
That's one of the safeguardsthat they implement you know
what it is.
Victor (05:55):
It's because I can find my name faster than they can.
Rob (05:59):
Oh, you're rushing them, r rushing them, rushing them.
These guys.
They've been there for 10 hours.
Yeah, she's been there for 10hours.
It's a day off from the library.
Victor (06:09):
It's the fucking alphabet.
It's the fucking alphabet.
If you can't find an s, I look,I'm looking through.
I'm like it's a stack of papers, please.
It's already split up byaddresses and all this other
stuff.
Rob (06:21):
Looking he's probably looking like how do you spell
that name?
That explains why he didn'tcome he didn't get off the
Mayflower.
Victor (06:28):
I'll just tell you that.
Rob (06:30):
They're eating the dogs, the people that came in.
Cesar (06:33):
So then you know, voters cast their votes by either an
electronic voting machine orpaper ballots, which then get
scanned.
The process for an absenteeballot starts off by either
requesting a ballot by mail.
Rob (06:48):
You fill out your elections and you make sure to provide
all the adequate information andthen submitting them.
See, that's where you got me.
I'm not going to request it bymail, to then submit it by mail,
that's just too many steps.
Yeah, at that point, either youjust skip or yeah, I don't know
who I'm going to vote for tillthe day it happens.
I'll tell you right now.
I don't know who I'm going tovote for till after the day it
(07:09):
happens, and then, at that pointI'm like I'm just too late.
Victor (07:14):
Rob has put more effort into finding supplements and
vitamins than it is to just goto a fucking website, put in
your address, and then theyliterally send it to you.
Yeah, that is very true.
Cesar (07:27):
But you got to be careful because if you don't put the
correct information downcorrectly and your signatures
are not the same, they won'tcount.
Chris (07:35):
Yeah, oh shit, I think I might have changed up to my
signature, actually, you knowwhat Maybe you need to move to.
Cesar (07:43):
there's three states that actually automatically send a
ballot to everyone, allregistered voters.
What states are those?
Colorado, washington and OregonSubsequently the same places
where your ballot is going toget burned.
Burn it.
But there's 27 states where youcan actually request an
(08:04):
absentee ballot for any reasonand then 20 of them require,
like, a valid reason.
Like you're not around, youknow.
So that's for our internationallisteners.
How did the voting machineswork?
They come in various types witha different way of recording
and counting votes.
I get the bubble sheet.
Victor (08:19):
You fill out the bubbles and then you put it in the
machine.
At one time there was switches.
You had to push switches down.
Chris (08:27):
Yes, I do remember that one.
Victor (08:29):
I've done that as well.
Rob (08:30):
Those are the impregnated ballots.
I guess they didn't completelypuncture and they were just
impregnated.
They weren't puncturedcompletely.
Victor (08:39):
Are you talking about for the 2000 election?
Cesar (08:42):
Because then you don't know who you actually voted for
Exactly.
Is that something about for the2000 election?
Because then you don't know whoyou actually voted for Because
they're not going to do it foryou Exactly.
Rob (08:45):
There was a bunch of people that had voted for somebody,
but because they didn't punctureit completely, they may or may
not have counted it correctly.
They didn't remember it growingup.
Cesar (08:55):
We'll talk about that later, but that's an issue that
happened in the 2000 elections.
All the states have alldifferent policies and even
counties have all differentpolicies.
Chris (09:05):
States have all different policies and even counties have
all different policies.
Cesar (09:09):
Really One giant clusterfuck.
Yeah, so the machine thatVictor was talking about are
called optical scan votingmachines, and these are the ones
I think we've only we've goneaccustomed to.
These machines read paperballots that voters mark by
filling in ovals or connectingarrows, then, after marking,
voters feed it into the scannerswhich tally the votes, and then
these ballots are kept as apaper trail.
The other type, it's called thedirect recording electronic
(09:31):
machines, or DRAE for short, andthey call it DRAE because these
machines make beats.
I'll be here all day.
Rob (09:39):
Yikes.
Cesar (09:41):
Tough crowd, tough crowd tough crowd, tough crowd.
Rob (09:48):
Yeah, you guys.
You guys don't know, that wasthat was fine.
Victor (09:50):
You can find that joke out there in the middle of the
ocean as a pile of garbage toosoon bro too soon I don't know
if we can say that yet it's toosoon, let's try it.
Rob (10:01):
Let's just try it.
Cesar (10:02):
Okay, we're getting there voters make selections on a
touch screen or a push buttoninterface and the machine
records their choices directlyinto the memory, and these often
provide a voter-verified paperaudit trail, and states like
Indiana, Texas and Kentucky usethese in the 2020 election.
Victor (10:20):
So these are electronic voting machines.
Cesar (10:22):
Yeah, these are electronic voting machines.
These are actually likemachines, where you vote on top
of the machine.
You press it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and thesehave issues, though Since the
2000s, less and less states havebeen using these.
Victor (10:33):
Are they using them less and less because they're not
working correctly or peopledon't trust them?
Are they like old technology?
Cesar (10:41):
Yeah, it's basically old technology and old pieces of
equipment, so after a certainpoint you're not finding the
same to try to like fix them.
It's leading to issues.
And also, like McDonald's icecream machines, yeah, and even
if they're fixed right, it'salready out there that they're
never working.
So when you go to McDonald's,you already expect it to not
(11:02):
work.
Rob (11:03):
Yeah, you're like oh, the McFlurry's on sale, that doesn't
really matter.
Victor (11:07):
Yeah, oh, the machine's not working.
Yeah, it's kind of like that.
Rob (11:10):
Can I get an ice cream cone ?
We don't have ice cream rightnow.
Cesar (11:13):
And then the last one.
It's called the ballot markingdevices, and these are designed
to assist voters in markingpaper ballots and BMDs, guide
voters through selections on ascreen and then print a marked
paper ballot which can bescanned by an optical scan
machine for counting.
I think I've seen these forpeople who have disabilities.
These machines are supposed toincorporate security features to
(11:36):
ensure accuracy, such asencryption, secure transmission
of data and regular audits.
However, protocols vary bylocation, so exact features and
types can differ.
Chris (11:46):
That's really interesting because you would think as a
system in America, you wouldthink they'll unify the whole
system to keep it fair orwhatever.
Cesar (11:56):
Funny you mentioned that.
Victor (11:57):
So in the 2000s we had issue with the ballots 27,000
ballots were thrown out, eitherunder votes with no one chosen
or over votes where more thanone candidate was selected back
in 2000.
Cesar (12:09):
Congress created legislation and they also did
funding to try to kind ofoverhaul the way we do these
voting systems.
In 2002, the United StatesCongress made sweeping reforms
to the nation's process and theycreated what's called the HAVA,
the Help America Vote Act.
It just created new mandatoryminimum standards for states to
(12:30):
follow in several key areas ofelection administration.
Victor (12:34):
The reason why states have control over this.
It's because it's in theConstitution.
Oh, there you go, Just likethat.
Huh, that's that simple.
I mean, that's usually how itworks.
Rob (12:45):
I got to really get back and read that.
I think I missed that class.
Yeah, I missed that.
Cesar (12:51):
Try reading anything ever .
So election officials testvoting and ballot counting
machines regularly to make surethat they work properly.
So almost all states andterritories perform a logic and
accuracy test on voting andballot counting machines
regularly to make sure that theywork properly.
So almost all states andterritories perform a logic and
accuracy tests on voting andballot counting machines.
Now we want to spread thisinformation that these voting
machines don't actually do whatthey're supposed to.
(13:12):
Well then you might get introuble, and that's what
happened to Fox News A couple ofyears ago.
They got sued because theystarted spreading propaganda.
I think Donald Trump talkedabout that.
The voting machines I think wasit Michigan Partly spread it, I
don't know which state it was.
I think he said that the voterswent in.
They voted for Republicans andthe machines changed.
Victor (13:36):
And then he went on.
Cesar (13:36):
Fox.
News and spread it and all thepundits kept doing the same
thing, so they got sued by theMinion.
Victor (13:42):
And I think the crazy thing about it is because after
they deposed a bunch of them,they stated like yeah, we knew
this was a lie, but we wanted tokeep pushing it.
Cesar (13:50):
Wow you are fake news.
So the Minion voting systemssued Fox for $1.6 billion and
that they argued that the toprated news outlet damaged the
company's reputation by peddlingthese phony conspiracy theories
that claim that its equipmentswitched votes from Donald Trump
to Joe Biden.
And did they win or theysettled?
(14:10):
They got $800 million.
Victor (14:13):
Dominion and this case was partly the reason why Tucker
Carlson got fired from Fox News.
It's got to be a bigmisunderstanding.
Cesar (14:20):
So Dominion set out to prove in a lawsuit that Fox
acted with malice in airing anallegation that it knew to be
false, Just like Victor said,with reckless disregard for the
truth.
It presented volumes ofinternal emails and text
messages that show that Foxexecutives and personalities
saying that they knew that theaccusations were untrue, and
they still aired the falsehoods.
Victor (14:40):
Elon Musk tweeted about it.
Cesar (14:42):
Oh my God, this guy.
Victor (14:44):
Sorry, elon Musk, the country's worst immigrant made a
tweet about the guy's a genius,okay?
Rob (14:51):
Did you see that rocket ship catch itself?
Victor (14:53):
He's not a rocket scientist.
He hired rocket scientists.
He's the leader of my book.
He is yeah, exactly oh my God,those rocket scientists.
Rob (14:59):
He's the leader of my book.
He is yeah, exactly.
Oh my God, those rocketscientists would be out of a job
if it wasn't for this immigrantcreating jobs for other
immigrants.
Victor (15:08):
I don't know how that works, but so his tweet was
something along the lines oflike oh, I'm going to hire
Dominion machines so I can pressone thing and get 60.
Cesar (15:19):
He's going to get sued and they're going to get a nice
little paycheck.
Oh my.
Victor (15:23):
God.
He used to be on Trump'sdeportation list, did you guys?
Cesar (15:27):
hear that he's trying to like buy people's votes.
He's doing a lottery.
Rob (15:31):
It's a lottery if you vote it's a million dollars, yeah,
every few weeks.
A million dollars, yeah, if youvote for Trump every week.
Chris (15:42):
I'm Doc Gothic Maga.
Cesar (15:45):
Plus, he owns X, so I heard its algorithms are
starting to push one candidateover the other and start
spreading misinformation.
Victor (15:54):
Twitter because I refuse to call it X.
Twitter is a complete cesspoolof just misinformation.
Now.
Rob (16:02):
Is it really?
Victor (16:03):
It's really bad yeah.
Rob (16:05):
I mean, I just feel like it's impossible to regulate that
.
Victor (16:08):
Follow us on Twitter.
Yeah, yeah, definitely on X orX or X.
Cesar (16:12):
Definitely.
Rob (16:13):
And don't forget to subscribe on your Dominion
voting machine.
Cesar (16:19):
Go fuck yourself.
After the polls close in yourstate and the last voters have
cast their ballots, poll workersbegin to close the precincts
and they start to tabulate thevotes.
Each state has a differentrequirement for the process, but
the steps generally include yougot to secure the voting
machine and then you got toensure that the number of voters
who checked in corresponds withthe number of voters who
(16:40):
checked in corresponds with thenumber of ballots that were cast
.
Each precinct tabulates votes,results and then report those
numbers to a central office inits county or town.
Are they doing this by hand?
The ones that do like theelectronic machine.
They have that ballot, but whatthey do is they have these
actual physical ballots and theykind of compare.
At the very end they do doublecheck.
(17:02):
They do double check, okay, sojust to make sure that the
machine had this amount ofballots counted, the physical
ballots also match that.
Victor (17:12):
Because sometimes when you're counting paper like they
stick to each other.
Yeah, to hell, and you got tolick your fingers.
Cesar (17:17):
But you see those ballot sheets, those things are huge.
I wouldn't lick them, Iwouldn't lick them.
I wouldn't lick them.
Paper cut you get on thosethings.
Probably die you would probablydie.
Chris (17:25):
My goodness, so dramatic.
Cesar (17:26):
Ballots filled in person can start being counted after
the polls close on Election Day.
If the voting center uses paperballots, each ballot is sealed
and delivered to a vote countingcenter and once the ballot
arrives, the election staffstarts the vote counting process
.
And if the digital votingmachines are used, election
officials send over voter datato the counting center and the
voting data can either be sentelectronically or be hand
(17:49):
delivered to the counting centerand once the data arrives,
officials can start processingthe results.
In some states, votes castduring the early voting period
are counted before the electionday, but the results for those
ballots are not published untilafter the polls close on
election day, and in otherstates, early votes are counted
(18:11):
only on the day of the election.
Rob (18:13):
How many people do they have working at these voting
centers to be able to count allthis stuff?
I'm not sure what's the averagetime it takes to count all
these votes.
Victor (18:22):
Well, it depends.
It's not even about countingthem.
It's counting them and makingsure they match the other
numbers, right?
Cesar (18:28):
This is literally not counting yet.
This is just getting theseballots in and processing.
Just looking at making surethat everything is in.
Yeah, making sure everything isSounds like a nightmare.
Yeah, making sure everything isSounds like a nightmare.
Rob (18:40):
Yeah, that's why they got two people one person from every
party working there, becausesomebody's in the back counting
like one, two three.
Cesar (18:53):
We ran out of stickers.
Doesn't matter, you don't wantthem anyway, don't?
Victor (18:56):
even care.
Poor fucking grandmas out there.
My fingers hurt.
Cesar (19:00):
Keep counting grandmamas out there, my fingers hurt.
Chris (19:02):
Keep counting, grandma, now your back's going to hurt
because you just pulledlandscaping duty and then they
asked for a recount and he didFuck.
Victor (19:10):
Oh no, Not a recount.
Cesar (19:14):
Isn't that what happened in Florida when they had to do a
hand count for?
Victor (19:17):
all those.
You just had too many oldpeople voting.
They didn't know what they werevoting for.
I don't know if you saw this,but Joe Biden did some early
voting.
Did anyone check his ballot tomake sure he filled it out
correctly?
Rob (19:31):
Maybe he got that email, it didn't count.
He definitely wouldn't tell me.
Nah, he voted for Trump.
I don't think he likes Kambala.
Cesar (19:38):
You would never know, Unless he gets a letter in the
mail saying damn it, my votedidn't count.
Chris (19:45):
Eligible for what I've been able to do with the COVID.
Cesar (19:49):
Fun fact did you guys know that in the election of
1800, voting began in somestates in April and continued
through October?
Victor (19:56):
Wow, it's 1800.
I mean, it takes you three daysjust to get to the, your voting
location.
You gotta take a horse andbuggy and shit.
Cesar (20:04):
That's why in 1845, congress passed legislation that
established the election day aswe know it now I don't see why
we don't get off on this.
Victor (20:13):
Me neither.
We are the beacon of democracy,exactly, and we don't have a
day off to go vote do othercountries?
Cesar (20:22):
we're the beacon of democracy here in switzerland.
Rob (20:29):
Uh, who'd you guys vote for america?
Victor (20:33):
yo, the world watches our election.
Rob (20:36):
Yeah, yeah, because they want to know how it's going to
go.
They watch it more than we do.
Cesar (20:40):
They understand the candidates.
They understand, like, thepolicies more than we do,
because what happens hereaffects them so much more than
it does here and all of thosewho believe in freedom and
democracy.
So how long does each statehave to certify election result?
So the final step in anelection is certifying the
(21:00):
result, and election results arecertified by the chief election
official in each state.
Winners of the elections cannotbe sworn into their positions
until the results of theelection are certified.
First, counties must finishcounting all mail-in and
provisional ballots.
This is also when the ballotcuring process occurs.
Once this process is finished,counties send the total results
(21:22):
for their area to stateofficials.
The deadlines for this part ofthe process differ by state.
The official review and doublecheck each outcome from the
counties.
Once state officials arefinished, that's when the chief
election official for each statecertifies the results.
As I'm going to do this, I'mlike this process is super
tedious.
Rob (21:42):
Yeah, voter fraud allegations, I don't know man no
, it's the illegals bro it is Idon't know, because these I'm
sure there's some errors andstuff like that.
Victor (21:55):
I find yeah, I mean you can't have this many hands in
the pot and not have a problem,even though there's so many
redundancies and recounts so theclaim, as I understand it,
these fucking people are comingup with is that people that are
illegal are somehow registeringto vote Okay, and therefore,
when they go in, it's just hey,that's me, I'm already
(22:19):
registered, here's your ballot.
Rob (22:21):
How can they do that, though, is it?
Chris (22:22):
more like an identity theft.
Rob (22:24):
I don't think they can.
Victor (22:25):
It's funny because every time someone brings this up to
me, they go hey, did you see the, this chinese uh citizen that
was voting?
And it's like okay, since youjust told me it sounds like he
just got caught.
Cesar (22:37):
So yeah, I think the fact that people are getting caught
means that the system isactually working right does that
make sense?
yeah, yeah, I will find you.
I think in pennsylvania, Ithink lancaster, pennsylvania,
they have um a recentinvestigation they found that a
couple of um and they caught itoff the like, off the bat.
(22:59):
It looks like some.
What they're claiming is thatthis group is trying to register
people to vote, but the ballotslike the, when they register
the ballots that they droppedoff, they all were off Kind of
weird.
So the election officials whoreceived the vote kind of caught
wind of it and there's beenlike multiple districts that the
(23:22):
investigations are stillongoing.
But that's what it looks like.
It looks like some group istrying to do this, but they're
not succeeding.
They mentioned that thehandwriting on all of them
looked exactly the same.
Chris (23:32):
It's like a one guy thing , right-handed and left-handed,
going back and forth.
Gee, that's crazy.
Rob (23:40):
though the ones that should be locked up are the ones that
cheat.
I'm sure some of it's gettingthrough, but probably not enough
to make a difference.
Can't be a hundred percent.
Cesar (23:49):
In 2016,.
Russia tried to hack us,literally infiltrated our
machines.
Rob (23:55):
Oh really, the Dominion machines.
Cesar (23:58):
Yeah, so in 2016, cyber actors affiliated with the
Russian government conducted anunprecedented and coordinated
cyber campaign against stateelection infrastructure.
Russian actors scanneddatabases for vulnerabilities,
attempted intrusions and, in asmall number of cases,
successfully penetrated a voterregistration database.
So this was an activity of alarger campaign to prepare and
(24:21):
undermine confidence in thevoting process.
But the committee that was kindof sanctioned to investigate
this found that they were notsuccessful in manipulating any
of the votes or deleting ormodifying or registrations.
But they tried, but they tried.
So if Russia can hack in thereand be unsuccessful, I don't
think Joe Schmoe writing hisname on ballots and submitting
(24:45):
them is going to do anything.
Let me call the Russians tohelp and, like I mentioned, they
are safeguards to protect fromvoter fraud.
Like New York, in particularhas voter ID and registration
checks.
They have electronic poll books, tracking and verification for
absentee ballots.
They have training for pollworkers.
(25:07):
They have poll workers.
Rob (25:09):
What kind of training do these poll?
Victor (25:11):
workers get.
Rob (25:13):
Maybe I should go vote, yeah, maybe.
Victor (25:17):
Oh, not, actually.
They're not actually workingthe poll, they're not working
the poll.
Rob (25:21):
They're working at the poll .
Okay, okay, okay.
Victor (25:24):
So don't grab a bunch of singles before going to vote.
No, no, no but the voterturnout would be a lot higher.
Cesar (25:32):
A high-end stripper for governors or athletes.
So there's a complex system ofchecks and balances in place to
ensure accuracy and electionintegrity.
When ballots are voted, they gointo a locked and sealed ballot
box in every single location.
That ballot box is not openedagain until the tabulation
process begins and as pollsclose, around the country, poll
(25:53):
workers deliver in-personballots to election offices
where mail-in ballots havealready been delivered.
There are a lot of redundanciesand a lot of safeguards.
For this process, like anythingelse, there's a lot of
controversies.
Trump, back in 2020, tried toundermine the faith in the
election results by claimingthat a lot of these ballots were
(26:15):
not counted.
In one particular sense, it'skind of just seeding doubt in
the minds of voters and justwith that doubt, even if it's
not happening, you just might besuccessful at preventing people
from either trying to vote oractually believing in the
outcome of the elections.
That's why a lot of peoplestill say, if you ask them, I
see those YouTube videos like,oh no, the election was false.
(26:37):
Trump won, yeah, but thosepeople are deranged.
But there's a lot of them likethat and I doubt none of those
people because I didn't know allthese safeguards that were put
in place to protect the levels.
Victor (26:47):
That's why they should listen to our podcast.
Chris (26:49):
Yeah, Hit that follow button bitches, do you guys get
nervous when you start to feelthe ovals?
No, no, is it just me?
Rob (26:59):
Aren't you by yourself.
Chris (27:00):
Why are you getting?
Rob (27:00):
nervous You're not doing it with somebody else.
It's not an SATs.
No one's watching.
Chris (27:06):
I think I get like like this anxiety since I get this
paper, I like all the anxietycalm and I feel like I'm taking
a test.
So I'm like literally circling,like there's no right or wrong
answer, right, so I'm circlingit.
I'm like, oh shit, did I dothis?
Right?
It's not to go back and read itlike there's no right or wrong
answer.
Rob (27:22):
Right and I get the fate of the entire world.
I get so nervous.
Chris (27:28):
And I'm like, literally just like picking like my to my
left, to the right, make sure noone's looking and I'm like you
don't have privacy walls theyusually have like privacy walls.
I'm like looking around makingsure no one's looking at me,
chris you need help, you look Iget really nervous with this.
I'm really nervous with this.
You need help, bro.
Like when I'm done, I'm like ohshit, did I do this everything
correctly?
So I go back and then doublecheck everything.
Victor (27:51):
You need to take a Percocet and then, go vote.
Smoke a joint and then fuckinggo vote Chris's vote has never
counted.
Because he's always.
It's like the test scantron.
Cesar (28:06):
Yeah, when it tells you don't do this, don't do that,
Chris does that.
Victor (28:10):
He has it erased five times and fills it in five times
.
Chris (28:14):
There's like a hole.
I admit I eventually ripped it.
Victor (28:18):
He asked for another pencil because he like burned
through this one.
All right, but anyways.
Cesar (28:23):
What did we learn today, Chris?
What did we learn today, man?
Chris (28:27):
I think it's kind of weird that the state doesn't
have one single rule thatgoverns how voting systems or
the counting system work.
It's odd to me, it's really oddto me.
It's like, since they havetheir own rules and one set of
regulations by state or thecounty, I feel like they need to
(28:50):
fix that first, just to havelike continuity among all states
and counties well, they won't,because it's states rights
that's the only thing that getsme like I'm just like that's a
little shady right there.
But otherwise, like I said,there was a lot of information
about voting in county.
I had no idea, so.
Rob (29:09):
Rob, what about you man?
Yeah, I always found thisconfusing and you know the way
you broke it down.
It makes sense.
I get that now, but I stillfind it confusing.
I mean, I get that there's alot of redundancies, I get that
there's different steps and andbecause there's so many
different States and they allhave their own rules on doing it
, like, I mean, I guess the mainthing is that, wherever you are
(29:33):
, get out there and vote.
That's the main, most importantthing.
I really think so.
Um, however, you're gonna do it.
You know if you're gonna do itin person or you're gonna mail
in ballot, uh, just get outthere and from the guy who
doesn't vote did you vote for me?
actually I'll send you my ballotand you can go ahead and do
(29:53):
mine too, while you're at it,chris you do his ballots.
And then both of our ballotswon't even count.
Victor (30:01):
He'll be a fucking nervous wreck.
Rob (30:03):
There's like two holes in these.
Did you fill out two of these?
Yeah, my buddy couldn't make it.
I'm his absentee.
That's not how that works.
Chris (30:16):
Then another article.
Korean man tried to.
Cesar (30:22):
Victor, what about you, man?
Victor (30:24):
Listen, I just feel even more secure that the voting
process has got a lot of safetynets.
I mean, I still think, listen,if your person didn't win this
year, I think it's stillimportant to vote every year,
even if it's not a presidentialelection, and I'm just waiting
for the point where I can justhave Chad GPT vote for me.
Chris (30:47):
So I'll try, maybe next year For the first time after I
vote this year as American, Ifeel like I was, like I did
something for this country.
Cesar (30:57):
That's why.
Chris (30:58):
I felt that's how I felt this year for the first time.
So yeah, please go vote fornext year if you didn't this
year.
Well said.
Cesar (31:10):
As we wrap up today's episode on the ballot counting
process, I hope you've gained adeeper understanding of the
steps and safeguards that gointo ensuring each vote counts.
So the next time you cast yourballot, know that your vote is
secure.
And, if you enjoyed today'sshow, hit that follow button and
spread the word of this amazingpodcast you discovered.
We want you to be an activepart of our community, Whether
(31:32):
you have questions, suggestionsor just want to share your
thoughts on our topic.
We want to hear from you.
Find us on Twitter at I'm NotDumb but, and on YouTube at I'm
Not Dumb but Podcast.
Until next time, stay informed,stay engaged and remember, stay
curious.
God bless, Stay informed, stayengaged and remember, stay
curious.
Chris (31:52):
God bless, god bless.
You think you just fell out ofa coconut tree.
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