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Thank you, fellow Toastmasters.

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Thank you for that very warm introduction.

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My name is Dale Frey, and today I'm going to

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talk to you about the Denton County
Commissioners Court and

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what they do.

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But first, what is a commissioner and what is
it

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that they do?

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I know that you might think to yourself, well,
I

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think of Commissioner Gordon from Batman.

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It's the job to man the bat signal.

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Well, not exactly.

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So let's talk about what the county
commissioner's job is,

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because it's a very wide spectrum.

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It's not just to facilitate the county budget
and tax

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rates and manage the roads and bridges, but
it's also

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to oversee our libraries, our public
buildings, and very much

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importantly, our elect uh our elections is
something they manage

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as well.

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When it comes to health care, right now I want

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to advocate for trying to settle our opioid
settlement fund,

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which is still not allocated even after two
years.

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We also need to stand tall against a lot of

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book banners who have come out and tried to uh

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have funding cut to our libraries.

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Full disclosure, the county commissioners'
court does not have the

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ability to administer over libraries that are
being administered by

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an ISD or a city council already.

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However, if a library is receiving funding
from the county,

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then that could be cut.

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And we've seen some uh advocates on the other
side

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of the aisle advocate for that and past time.

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But when it comes to the county commissioners
court, the

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most important job is overseeing our
elections.

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The county commissioners are the ones who
approve the voting

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locations.

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The county commissioners are the ones who
decide what voting

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equipment that we have and use and don't use
in

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our elections.

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This is really important.

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For example, if you notice that your voting
location seems

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to change constantly all the time or more
frequently than

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you would like, well, then you should be mad
at

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your county commissioner.

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It is their job to manage the voting
locations.

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I will also say, according to Texas Election
Code section

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43.031c, all schools should be able to be

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voting centers or voting location rather,.

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Uh that is according to Texas law

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So when it comes to these primaries where
Democrats and

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Republicans seem to have to vote in different
buildings, that

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is kind of needless because we should be able
to

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put them together, uh, which would be a little
bit

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more efficient.

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But most importantly, I'm going to spend a
good half

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of my time, if not more, talking about voting
centers

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or count county-wide voting here in Texas.

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This is something we do not have right now in

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Denton County, and is at the fault of the
Denton

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County commissioners.

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When I say we do not have voting centers, I

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mean that while you can vote at any voting
location

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throughout the county during early voting, you
cannot vote in

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any voting location on the last day to vote or

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election day itself.

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This is something that is very confusing to
people to

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go to a place and realize that they cannot
vote

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at that location, and then when and when they
get

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uh redirected, they get very mad about that.

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Doesn't matter if you're Democrat or
Republican, no one likes

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being told that you can't vote here and you
have

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to go somewhere else.

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We've seen this happen to 15% of voters on the

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May primary runoff election on that election
day, and we

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saw that happen to 11% of voters on uh the

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following election later.

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But don't just take it from me, take it from

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Jane here.

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She's an election worker, and she has a lot to

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say about this herself.

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Some were sent to precincts as far away as
Sanger

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and Auburn.

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Quite a few of these people came from another
wrong

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prowling precinct before they reached us, and
several had been

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sent to two wrong precincts before they
reached us.

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These people included a man in a wheelchair
with an

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oxygen tank strapped on the back.

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Who had a cannula up his nose.

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He had to be hydraulically lifted out of his
vehicle

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and back into it when we told him go someplace

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else.

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They included two people on walkers who
struggled to stay

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upright as they came in, and we told them,
sorry,

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you can't vote here.

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a And

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they included woman so disabled she could not
get out

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of her car.

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And we had to go help her in her car

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and then say, sorry, you're in the wrong
place.

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Go someplace else.

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This is very frustrating to people, and it's
really not

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fair.

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Uh, this is something that we, the Democratic
Party, have

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been advocating for.

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We've been advocating for voting centers so
that people don't

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get redirected like that.

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Uh, unfortunately, we still don't have voting
centers.

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Unfortunately, it has become partisan.

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Apparently, the current uh commissioners right
now, who are all

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Republican, all four of them, and the judge
are Republican.

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In private, they say they won't vote in favor
of

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voting centers because they're afraid of
getting primaried.

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And I see why, because while we in the
Democratic

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Party have been advocating in favor of voting
centers or

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countywide voting, we have seen the other side
of the

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aisle do the opposite.

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Melinda Preston, for example, has pushed all
sorts of conspiracy

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theories saying it would make things easier it
make it

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cheating easier, uh but yet not giving eviden
evidence as

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to why she says so.

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Charles Lee is another guy who referenced a
whole bunch

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of conspiracy theories by Beverly Fo uh
Beverly Foley.

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Beverly Foley, for those who don't know, is
the owner

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of the secure your vote texas.com website,
where the top

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headline is we need to take back control of
our

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elections from our county commissioners court,
even though they're all

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Republicans.

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What we're seeing right here, right now on
this website,

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among other things, is Republican precinct
chairs being against their

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own Republican county commissioners.

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In fact, not only that, but the RNC itself has

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come out with mandates as well being against
voting centers,

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among other things.

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Republican Party, I'm this morning.

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I'm here as a representative of the Denton
County Republican

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Party.

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I'm precinct chair.

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We passed the resolution. at our last county
executive committee

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meeting and like to read this to you

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Resolution to the Denton County Commissioners
Court regarding the use

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of electronic voting devices, elimination of
voting centers, and placing

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the county clerk in control of elections
again.

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Whereas we represent a minimum of 53.2% of the
electorate,

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whereas we believe voting should be in our
precincts on

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paper, hand marked, hand counted using manual
poll books.

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Therefore, be it resolved that the executive
committee of the

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Denton County Republican Party hereby requests
the Denton County Commissioners'

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Court to turn to handmarked hand-counted paper
ballots and use

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manual poll books and vote in our precincts.

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Further, we ask that the commissioner's court
withdraw from the

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Texas Secretary of State's voting center
program and its required

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use of electronic poll books immediately.

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So in conclusion, because I'm running out of
time, we

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have seen that this unfortunately has become
partisan and it's

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become so partisan.

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I almost kind of think to myself that I might

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not be facing Brandon Faulkner, our current
county commissioner of

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precinct two when I run, because he might get
primaried.

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So we really need to focus on advocating our
county

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commissioners to be in favor of these things
that I

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talked about, especially voting centers.

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And I look forward to trying to advocate for
voting

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centers myself.

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It may be that we we may have to flip

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seats in order to get these voting centers,
but I

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look forward to advocating for it and
continuing to push

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for this.

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Thank you, fellow Toastmasters, for your time.

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Thank you.

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Thank you, Bill.

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That was a wonderful, wonderful dispute, and I
got to

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learn.