1 00:00:00,160 --> 00:00:00,400 Good. 2 00:00:00,400 --> 00:00:01,440 Good to see you again. 3 00:00:01,440 --> 00:00:02,080 Well, thank you. 4 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:03,600 I'm glad you remember me. 5 00:00:03,600 --> 00:00:05,280 My name is Jane Scholes. 6 00:00:05,280 --> 00:00:08,400 I live at 9913 Silverwalk Way in Denton. 7 00:00:08,400 --> 00:00:10,480 This is Robson Ranch. 8 00:00:10,960 --> 00:00:12,240 I'm a voter. 9 00:00:12,240 --> 00:00:15,840 I'm an election worker, and I'm a voter registrar. 10 00:00:15,840 --> 00:00:18,880 And I'm here to talk to you today about countywide 11 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:22,560 Election Day voting, aka vote centers. 12 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:25,360 I'm going to share with you the results of a 13 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:29,200 count of the number of registered voters who were redirected 14 00:00:29,200 --> 00:00:33,200 from polling places during the May 28th primary runoff and 15 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:35,600 the November 5th general election. 16 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:38,560 But first, before I do that, a little history. 17 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:41,600 So I spoke to you about this about almost exactly 18 00:00:41,600 --> 00:00:42,800 a year ago. 19 00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:45,920 And since then I've been educating myself. 20 00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:48,720 I've been going around the county talking to a lot 21 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:51,120 of folks about this all over the county. 22 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:54,320 I've been going to club meetings, church gatherings, and neighborhood 23 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:54,800 events. 24 00:00:54,800 --> 00:00:56,720 And here's what I've learned. 25 00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:00,240 A lot of your voters get turned away from polling 26 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:02,000 places on election day. 27 00:01:02,000 --> 00:01:04,560 Every time I ask at a meeting who this has 28 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:07,040 happened to, a lot of hands go up. 29 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:07,760 Okay? 30 00:01:07,760 --> 00:01:10,240 This is not a rare occurrence. 31 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:13,600 Most of these people don't understand why this happened to 32 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:14,000 them. 33 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:16,880 And when I tell them that this does not happen 34 00:01:16,880 --> 00:01:20,640 in 99 other counties in Texas, they are puzzled. 35 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,240 And when I explain to them that their county commissioners 36 00:01:24,560 --> 00:01:27,600 could fix this problem, could have fixed it for the 37 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:30,720 last four years, but refused to do so, they don't 38 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:31,440 like it. 39 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:33,520 Some of them get angry. 40 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:36,080 But we needed more than just a show of hands. 41 00:01:36,080 --> 00:01:37,600 We needed facts. 42 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,560 So we needed to know how many voters actually get 43 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:43,920 redirected from polling locations on Election Day, and the county 44 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:46,560 up till now has not chosen to count this. 45 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:50,160 So on May 28th and November 5th, election workers and 46 00:01:50,160 --> 00:01:52,160 judges counted them. 47 00:01:52,160 --> 00:01:54,560 Thanks to their work, I can tell you that an 48 00:01:54,560 --> 00:02:00,440 estimated 15%, that's one in every six voters, 49 00:02:00,440 --> 00:02:04,200 in the May primary runoff on election day, were told 50 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,680 they could not vote at the first polling place they 51 00:02:06,680 --> 00:02:07,480 visited. 52 00:02:07,480 --> 00:02:12,120 On November 5th, the biggest election turnout this county had 53 00:02:12,120 --> 00:02:17,320 ever had, has ever had 11%, more than 7,000 54 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:22,440 registered voters were redirected, according to our count and 55 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:24,600 the estimate that comes from that. 56 00:02:24,600 --> 00:02:28,040 This demonstrates the need for you to act to give 57 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:32,120 your voters election day vote centers now. 58 00:02:32,120 --> 00:02:35,880 Now, the people who have done this study would be 59 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:38,440 happy to meet with all of you to answer your 60 00:02:38,440 --> 00:02:41,960 questions individually about how we did the count and why 61 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,360 we think this change is necessary. 62 00:02:44,360 --> 00:02:48,840 I contacted your offices back in January and February and 63 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:51,240 tried to set up meetings for this group. 64 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:53,160 Only one person responded. 65 00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:54,040 That was Mrs. 66 00:02:54,040 --> 00:02:54,680 Mitchell. 67 00:02:54,680 --> 00:02:56,840 And we had a lovely meeting with Mrs. 68 00:02:56,840 --> 00:02:58,600 Mitchell a couple of weeks ago. 69 00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:01,640 She asked questions, we asked questions, we had a wonderful 70 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:03,240 cordial discussion. 71 00:03:03,240 --> 00:03:05,320 It was a very productive meeting. 72 00:03:05,320 --> 00:03:06,840 But we're not giving up. 73 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:09,560 I'm going to contact all of you again, and I'm 74 00:03:09,560 --> 00:03:12,200 going to see if you're willing to meet with us 75 00:03:12,200 --> 00:03:12,760 now. 76 00:03:12,760 --> 00:03:17,800 Cordial, informational, and with that, I'll just add one 77 00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:18,440 last thing. 78 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:18,920 Yes, ma'am. 79 00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:24,520 Assuming that the floor that the Texas legislature doesn't choose 80 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:27,080 to put the rest of Texas in the same mess 81 00:03:27,080 --> 00:03:30,120 that Denton County is in on election day, you're going 82 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:33,160 to hear a lot more from us starting the summer. 83 00:03:33,160 --> 00:03:33,880 Thanks for your time. 84 00:03:34,040 --> 00:03:34,440 Perfect. 85 00:03:34,440 --> 00:03:34,920 Thank you.