[Christiana Malacara] Hi, my name is Christiana Malacara, Im your host of so much Hispanos.

In this episode, we're going to dive deep into voting specifically here in Saginaw County.

And I have with us today Miss Karen Lawrence-Webster.

Miss Karen Lawrence Webster is an absolute pillar in the community.

And how I met Karen was actually through the, Michigan League of Women Voters, who, is a pivotal part of Michigan, but also in this Great Lakes Bay region.

Karen is the current president for the Saginaw County chapter.

Hi, Karen.

Thank you for coming on.

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] Thank you for the invite.

I'm excited to share with our audience about voting today.

{Christiana Malacara] Karen can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role in this organization?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] Well, I am the president of the Saginaw County League of Women Voters.

I've been around the league for a number of years, but prior to covid, I was thrust into, this organization.

And we are excited to be a growing chapter in the state of Michigan.

And so our primary goal is to register individuals to vote, educate them, and then mobilize them to get out on Election Day and actually exercise their rightful duty to vote.

[Christiana Malacara] So from my understanding Karen, the league is actually a group of nonpartisan individuals who are coming together to create a spark of knowledge and hopefully gain a voter for the area.

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] So although we all probably are registered as an R or a D, or in some instances we may be an I as independents, but we come together as nonpartisan, women and with one purpose, and that is to move the league forward in getting people to understand their rightful duty to vote.

[Christiana Malacara] Karen, can you tell us when is voting day?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] Voting day is actually on November the 5th.

But in our great state of Michigan, we have early voting and we have absentee voting.

It could be a little confusing, but just know you'll have ample opportunities to vote.

But the last absolute day is Tuesday, November the 5th.

[Christiana Malacara] So let me ask you this.

What's the difference between early voting and absentee voting?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] So absentee voting, for example, I just got my absentee ballot in the mail on yesterday and I'm so excited.

Well, I'm yeah, I was so excited that I figured it out immediately.

And I put it back into the mail, because I historically would have to tell the state of Michigan that I was going to be in town or sick on that particular day.

But now, absentee voting is simply wanting to vote in the comfort of your home, filling out your ballot, putting it in the mail or dropping it off at a drop box, or taking it to your local clerk.

Early voting is approximately nine days before the actual November the 5th vote date.

You can actually go into our center in Saginaw County, and our voting center is located at the old jail, and you can walk in and actually vote.

[Christiana Malacara] What are the benefits for absentee ballots?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] I feel personally, everyone may have a different reason for the benefit of an absentee ballot, but my personal reason is that I actually work volunteer on Election Days, and I may not have the time to actually go and stand in line and vote.

So that's why I vote absentee.

Others vote absentee because they want to take their time and research before they choose someone to vote for.

Or there may be ballot languages on the ballot issues that they may want to research or consult with someone.

And so they can't do that.

You can't really do that if you go on the day and stand in line.

And others want to make sure that their ballot is in, that there's no reason for it to be counted.

So there's some myths going on now that potentially, if you vote absentee, that your ballot may not make it or it may not be counted.

And that's a myth.

And so everyone has their personal reason for why they may want to do absentee ballot.

[Christiana Malacara] So specifically for the Latino Hispanic population., do you see a benefit for that population to vote early?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] I personally think that depending on a person's understanding of the ballot.

So, for example, the League of Women Voters, when we put out literature, it is in English and in Spanish, right.

And so personally, I don't want to assume that all Latinos are, not Spanish speaking and they may be more comfortable in reading a ballot in Spanish.

But if they don't get that back in Spanish, they may need someone to interpret it for them.

So for that reason alone, I think there's definitely a benefit in getting your ballot mailed to you and being able to have someone sit with you and explain exactly what that ballot is saying.

[Christiana Malacara] Now, can people register to vote the day of voting?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] Yes you can.

You can actually and a lot of people don't know that, but you can actually register on Election Day.

You have to bring, of course, your driver's license, and you have to be a U.S. citizen, as you have to be 18 or older and you can't be currently serving in, you know, waiting for a sentencing or anything as far as jail is concerned.

They require you to bring some additional information, like a current utility bill or like a bank statement or pay stub, because they want to make sure that you are a resident in the location that you're trying to vote and that you're, you know, really at the right precinct.

[Christiana Malacara] I'm glad you brought up the right precint.

How do we find out which precinct we're at?

Say, maybe I moved.

How do I figure that out?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] And that's a challenge in Saginaw.

So you go to vote411.org vote 411.org which is is a League of Women Voters sponsored link.

You put in your name, you put in your address, and it's going to tell you not only where you should vote, but it's also so going to tell you all the individuals, the and the, the ballot proposals that you will have to vote on.

It's a great link.

It will also show you what your potential elected officials or the candidates, what they, what how they represented themselves.

We have a list of questions that each candidate has to respond to, and you can find that information out on vote 411.org.

[Christiana Malacara] What if I go to vote411.org and I see an elected official that maybe answered a question, but I have more questions.

What should I do then?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] Most of the elected officials will provide their phone number and their email address on vote411.org And of course, if they provide it, they are welcoming you, you know, giving you the opportunity to call them to get more information.

Now, a couple of weeks ago, we were fortunate to have a Saginaw County Commission candidates forum.

If you missed it, you can still see it on our Facebook page.

Saginaw County, League of Women Voters Facebook page.

We are also having the candidates forum for our City Council on Monday, October the 21st at 6 p.m. in the City Council chamber.

There are other organizations who will be having forums two throughout the county.

Just got a call a couple of minutes ago from someone from Swan Valley wanting to have a school board candidates forum and wanted to, you know, the league's actually moderate their particular forum.

So I can't tell you what one place to go to find out all of the candidates forums.

So you may have to just scroll Facebook to see what's going on in our county.

[Christiana Malacara] It sounds like vote 411.org is a really great resource for the community.

And can you tell us just share a little bit about, the League of Women Voters organization as a whole?

How about would maybe I join?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] It's open to men and women.

Let me say that first of all, and we welcome young people.

Anyone, currently in school, it's free.

If you are out of school.

It's free for college students.

And K-12.

If you're out of school, it's a $60 fee.

And you can join by going to our Facebook page and you will see a link.

We not only have monthly meetings, but we also have educational sessions.

One of the sessions that that's coming up that I'm excited about, and it's going to be right before election.

We're going to be learning about how women, how we receive our right to vote, because what we want women to understand is that we didn't just get this overnight, that it was fought for.

And we have other activities for youth to learn about the electoral process.

We just started a Saginaw County Youth Commission where each commissioner, Saginaw County Commissioner, has a high school student that they are mentoring to learn more about county government.

Our goal is to plant youth organizations to learn about the electoral process at every high school, middle school, elementary school.

That's possible.

So we need people.

We need a diverse group of people to help us, because we want to make sure that our, populous, our residents, they really understand that voting is their responsibility.

It's their right.

But but it's also an obligation to do so.

[Christiana Malacara] From my understanding, there are similar organizations like this across across the county and across the Great Lakes Bay region.

If there's another individual who would be interested in learning more to be part of an organization similar to this?

What are the benefits for that person and where can they look?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] I think I understand your question, so I'm a part of a few organizations that have a similar focus on getting people out to vote, educating people in a nonpartizan way, like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the NAACP, my sorority, Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

We have a social action committee.

So there are a plethora of organizations, and we all need each other.

So it's not just, being a part of one and thinking that you're going to get everything that you need because we can't the league, we can't do it all, but we so we welcome you not to only join the league, but look for other organizations that are doing things to move people forward in, understanding what voting is all about.

So I can't really tell you one place to look, you know.

Unfortunately, back in the day when we had the Saginaw News, we could probably tell you to go to, you know, the editorial page or to what's new page.

But now Facebook is our friend I guess.

[Christiana Malacara] Facebook is essentially an entire search engine itself, right?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] Yes, yes.

[Christiana Malacara] So there's a lot of great resources out for the community to not only learn how to vote, but where to vote and what to bring.

But can you remind us again, when is voting day and what time can we show up if we want to vote in person?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] So voting is on Tuesday, November the 5th, 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.

Depending on your precinct, you want to make sure that you get there before you know, maybe an hour before the closing.

Because we don't want anyone to get discouraged because of the long lines and, turned away.

But just remember, you don't have to wait until November the 5th.

You can always go early.

And it's not too late to sign up to get your absentee ballot.

And that...And even if you get the absentee ballot and you want to walk it into your clerk, you can do that also.

So you can have options.

So just remember, if you aren't registered to vote, October the 7th is the last day technically that you're supposed to be able to register to vote, but you can also register to vote on Election Day.

You just have to bring some more information to prove that you live in the precinct in which you're trying to vote in.

[Christiana Malacara] And so let's kind of set up a scene.

What if I'm going to vote for the first time I walk through my precinct doors, what's the first thing I see?

And can you walk us through that process?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] So the first thing you're going to see is someone asking you for your driver's license.

And I think you should just immediately tell them I'm not registered to vote, so they won't have to go and look and see if your name is on the roll, because obviously your name will not be on the roll and you're going to have to step aside and actually registered to vote.

Now, remember the driver's license, some proof of your residency and utility bill, a, bank statement, a pay stub, some type of government, governmental document, and you have to be at least 18 at that time.

Okay, you can't turn 18 on November the 7th or the eighth or after Election Day.

You have to be 18 at that time.

And be patient because the election workers aren't expecting an overflow of individuals coming there on Election day to register to vote.

They are there with the expectation that the individuals that are showing up are already registered on their roll at the right precinct.

[Christiana Malacara] Now I'm registered to vote.

What's the first thing they hand me, and what do I do with it?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] So this is going to be, like a card that's going to have a number on it, you to sign it.

And what they're going to do is to make sure that that card matches the actual the number on that card actually matches the number on the ballot that they give you.

Depending on your precinct, you're going to go to, a place that is secluded, hopefully in a booth.

And I'm assuming that all of our Saginaw County locations have privacy booths.

You will not be able to take anyone necessarily to that booth with you.

If you're having problems interpreting what's on the ballot.

One of the workers may be able to assist you in like reading the ballot to you.

If you have any physical disabilities, they should have a booth where you can actually sit down and take your time and, complete your ballot.

And so you'll see a non you'll see first a partizan section and it'll have, you know, do you want to vote Democrat, Republican or some other party.

If you choose one of those you don't have to go line by line and select the person that you want to vote for.

So you can choose Partisan, or you can go line by line and choose who you want to vote for.

Then you'll see a nonpartisan section.

And it's really important that if you don't see that word nonpartisan on the front page of your ballot, that you flip it over and you'll see the nonpartisan section on the back.

And so that's where you may vote for school board, city councilperson, and ballot proposals.

So of course, our school boards and our city council individuals in like Delta College, they're nonpartisan.

So they all be under that section and you have to actually go through.

And then this year, you may have potential to do right in because there are individuals who are running as write ins.

So just know you want to make sure if it tells you to only choose two out of the five that you only choose two.

But if you see blank lines, you can write in a person's name and vote for them.

[Christiana Malacara] So now I filled out the form exactly to my liking, put it back in the folder, what do I do with it next?

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] So you're going to take it there's going to be someone waiting for you to stick your folder into the machine.

Because they don't want to touch your ballot.

They don't want to look at your ballot.

And so sometimes, you know, you can take it out of your folder yourself and push it into the machine.

And you want to make sure that it registers.

Because sometimes it spits it back out.

And it's a spoiler ballot.

And that means maybe you voted for to many people, or you chose, you know, Democrat or Republican, just a number of reasons that your ballot could be spoiled.

And if it's spoiled, unfortunately, you got to go through that process again.

But if it goes to the machine and, yeah... And you see that clicker, you know, counter ballot, you're all good.

So just know also you don't have to vote for every section in your ballot.

So if you get to city council and you say, hey, I don't know any of these people, you can pass that, but you just can't over vote if they tell you only vote for three out of the five, you have to only vote for three, but you don't have to vote for everybody.

So your ballot isn't spoiled if you under vote.

[Christiana Malacara] So my ballot now went through the machine through the tabulator.

It's click it and clunk and the number goes up and I'm registered voter number one two three.

I walk out and we can't forget that sticker right.

That's what I was going to tell you, right.

You want to get your sticker to say I voted.

So when you go to the grocery store or you go back to work or you go home, someone can say, hey, where did you get that sticker from?

Right?

And that will put you in the position to say, hey, did you get my vote?

So it's very important to walk around Saginaw.

It's important that we walk around Saginaw with I voted I voted sticker on.

[Christiana Malacara] For the League of Women Voters, are there other chapters in the Great Lakes Bay region that our viewers could kind of connect with them if they're not from Saginaw County, [Karen Lawrence-Webster] For sure, so we have a chapter, our closest chapter is in Midland, and we have a chapter in Flint.

Unfortunately, we don't have a chapter yet in Bay City, but I understand that they're working on them.

And believe it or not, some of our stronger, stronger chapters are north of Saginaw.

Our Mount Pleasant chapter is like a really, really strong, solid league chapter.

I talk to them often and get mentorship from their leadership in Mount Pleasant.

And we all have monthly the presidents.

We have monthly meetings.

And so we all are singing from the same sheet of music.

Some chapters do more than others, but that's, you know, with any organization.

And in Saginaw we're just kind of catching up.

We are looking for some younger, members.

If anyone's out there that wants to hold a leadership role, I am open, right.

And so join us and we will put you to work immediately.

[Christiana Malacara] Can you share again the two websites you mentioned, one for the League of Women Voters and one to learn more about voting.

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] Vote411.org We'll give you everything you want to know about voting.

If you want to find out any information about the league in general, you can go to www.lwv.org Or if you just want to know more about what's going on at our local league in Saginaw County, you can go to our Facebook page and we post, events out there frequently.

[Christiana Malacara] Well thank you, Karen, I really appreciate you taking the time to educate our community on something that you said yourself is not only a privilege, but kind of a duty to.

Voting day is right around the corner.

And like Karen just said, we have a few websites that we can explore to learn more before voting day.

Thank you.

Karen.

[Karen Lawrence-Webster] Thank you and you guys have a great day.

Thanks.