Parents Push Back. Socialists Push Forward.

This week on Politics for Happy People, Joseph and Ashley unpack the controversy surrounding a Wake County elementary school's hiring decision that has sparked outrage among parents and drawn national attention. They also examine what a Democratic Socialist victory in Michigan's U.S. Senate primary could signal about the future direction of the Democratic Party—and whether those politics can win a general election. Finally, they break down two North Carolina election reform bills headed for Governor Josh Stein's desk, explaining what the legislation actually does and why supporters say it's about protecting both election integrity and every lawful vote. From parental rights to socialism to election security, this episode explores how today's political battles could shape tomorrow's America.

Politics For Happy People is powered by the NC Values Institute!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to Politics for Happy People, where we have fun conversations about serious issues and sometimes issues that aren't that serious. Today we've got a lineup for you. We have an update. We have pictures on a on the trans elementary school music teacher in Apex. I think it's Apex. Is that right? Yep. Am I saying that right? Okay. Update on that story. We also have updates on the Democratic Socialist of America takeover, perhaps, of the Democratic Party from Michigan. The DSA preferred candidate has won the primary there. What does that mean for Michigan, the United States Senate, and the world? And speaking of elections, we have an update on an election bill here in North Carolina. The legislature liked it, but the governor seems not to. We'll tell you more about it today. But Ashley, let's start an Apex. What's going on?

SPEAKER_00 0:58

Let's do it. So this is an update on the story that we reported on last week about a biological male who is living as a woman who was hired. And we didn't have a lot of details confirmed last week about the situation, but this week we do. So we know that this is a man living as a woman who has been hired as an art teacher at Middle Creek Elementary School. Not music? Art.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

Okay. I thought it was music. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Art teacher, yes. Art teacher at Middle Creek Elementary School in Apex, North Carolina, which is in Wake County. So this is a new hire. And this controversy really grew when it drew national attention by uh going on the Libs of TikTok account. Uh the that account posted a picture of the teacher. And so now it has been covered by most of the local media outlets here. And on Tuesday, August 4th, it was brought up as an item of debate at the Wake County School Board meeting with some parents voicing objections to the situation.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

I I know that a lot have, and I think locally it broke right before Lives of TikTok takes local things and makes them national. Um but Erin Peret, who is the representative from that area, she I think was originally contacted by some parents in the district.

SPEAKER_00 2:27

She was, but she did not, in her original post, Joseph, she didn't identify the teacher. She's never identified the the teacher um, you know, by name or anything like that. And I don't think we're going to be commenting. No, we are we are not going to. Um, but she's been commenting on the situation, but I believe because of libs of TikTok, we now have this picture.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Okay. Well, let's um just to prefer to before we do. Do we not want to show the picture yet?

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Yeah, we can do that.

SPEAKER_02 2:55

And for those who are not watching on YouTube, um, that's where you can see the picture. Because of course, if you're just listening to the audio version of this, we do not have a way to give that to you. But the picture, I think, as they say, is worth a thousand words. And you can imagine for yourself uh what you would do, and in and we will try to describe it for you. There is a man in a black skirt, looks very much like a man. And in the it's on in the picture we have here, there are actually two individuals. The one in question is on the right, is and you know, the skirt is interesting because is that like satanic symbolism on the bottom of the skirt? And this is something from his own social media account, so it's something he put out for the world to.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

I wondered that. I I don't know if that's the intent of the symbolism.

SPEAKER_02 3:41

It's everybody's wearing black. The skirt this gentleman has on in this particular picture. I don't know that he wears this to school, but it has like those, you know, star with a circle around it, pentagram kind of thing.

SPEAKER_01 3:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Um, that caught my attention, Ashley, and this is a kind of a uh a parenthetical, and we can get back to the the Wake County part of this. But as you know, I've worked on uh in the past I'd run some gender campaigns. And I've also ran marriage campaigns in the state of Washington back when I was there. In 2012, when we did the marriage issue, there was a lot of opposition, of course, from just kind of the the the LGBT movement um on marriage, a lot of hostility, frustration, anger, all of those things. But in 2016-17, when it became an issue about gender, I was shocked at the genuinely satanic nature of the opposition that we got. I was on a regular basis, mailed hexes, satanic hexes with curses that they'd put in the mail. The trolls on our social media sites were regularly not just, I saw one once, it became consistent that they had satanic imagery in their own social media profiles as they were fighting this case. And so when I saw this picture with that kind of imagery, that's like, oh, that looks familiar, right? And there is something, I mean, all of this is a spiritual war. There is something uniquely dark and genuinely satanic about the trans movement in my experience. Now, I don't know this person involved. I don't think everybody who struggles with a with this particular form of an identity crisis is overtly satanic. Um, all lies are ultimately satanic, but not everybody is actually on that team on purpose. But a shocking number of people are. And so when I saw this, I was like, wow, that looks familiar. Also, I can see why that would be uh concerning if your eight-year-old had that as their art teacher.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

It sort of makes sense that this has satanic roots because it's kind of uh it's kind of an ultimate attack on, you know, an image bearer of God to uh convince a person to mutilate their own body. Um and and it it seems like exactly, you know, what the devil would want to do as someone who hates God and hates everything good and and hates his creation, which which we are, which humans human beings are. And you know, I'm I'm deeply troubled by this because you know, I in many cases I see the people, the uh the transgender people, the people who believe that they are in the trapped in the wrong body, in many ways also as victims of this. And you know, it's interesting. We had the when we had that forum, we had a forum to discuss uh Charlie Kirk's assassination soon after it happened, and and we had some speakers involved in that, and one of them was Walt Heyer, who uh used to be living as a woman and uh came to Christ, uh, became a believer and loves the Lord now and is is living as a man at peace with his body and has a ministry to to people who have experienced gender dysphoria. And he's he said that after a time of talking with these people, you can start to understand whether they believe that they can come out of it or not. And um, and that would be that's the hope, right? For them to come out of this delusion um and and uh be at peace with their bodies and and and be healed. And so um instead of getting that help and support, now this person is the center of this public controversy and the state, everyone's fighting about him and his picture is all over the place. And you know, uh, we do know Joseph, we have evidence that a lot of people who struggle uh with their bodies and have have gender dysphoria and and have these problems have all sorts of underlying comorbidities in terms of mental health, in terms of past trauma. For sure. And and and so really they are weak and vulnerable in many ways, and then they go down this path and and things only get worse. So it it really is to take it back to your point, it is the whole thing is satanic.

SPEAKER_02 8:32

I think all lies are ultimately satanic, right? And I don't that there are there are there are versions of commitment to that, and that and that's the thing I don't know about the situation. But the fact that you know what he's posting on social media looks dark, has some of that symbolism, that imagery. So maybe has embraced this because once you kind of like declare war on, you know, on the creation order, it that that's kind of a choice that you make. I'm not a man, I'm actually a woman, right? So you are not fighting nature overtly. And so I think it logically kind of leads itself to I'm just gonna fight goodness in in general, because I think I think the idea of uh of goodness, of normal, of healthy, all of those are social constructs, they would say, but that are warring against uh my happiness. So there's like that big picture stuff, but then more practically in this story, and this is kind of kind of why it's a news item here, is you have parents in Wake County whose parent, you know, whose kids are supposed to be in this guy's art class, and they're like, uh, you know, maybe I can be sympathetic, maybe I give his intentions the benefit of the doubt, maybe I don't, but that is not for my eight-year-old to deal with.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

The child cannot be in this class.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

That's not their job.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Uh Turner, can we please uh play that video of the parent at the end of the day?

SPEAKER_03 9:54

The father of three children at Middle Creek Elementary. Uh, Middle Creek began this school year with a personal decision or the personnel decision that's generated substantial controversy and national attention. Elementary age children are now asking questions about sex, gender identity, pronouns, and gender presentation. That creates an educational issue and therefore a parental rights issue. Board members, or board member Lynn Emmons publicly described the situation as an opportunity to learn about and discuss the diverse world that we live in. My question is simple. What exactly are our children expected to learn and discuss? What point does answering a child's question become instruction concerning gender identity? Parents shouldn't have to discover major changes in their children's education through X or national news coverage or big questions brought home by innocent, vulnerable five and six-year-olds. We will discover what actually occurred here and why. I'm not prepared to accept any suggestion that the resulting disruption cannot reasonably have been anticipated when the hiring decision was made. Academic, psychiatric, and medical proponents of gender.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

That's a parent from Wake County kind of describing um his concerns about it. And I think he raises a point that basically ever all the normies in America are like, yeah, that makes sense. It's like, why are we forcing this conversation onto minds that are just really not capable of understanding it? And I think what that requ forces us to understand, because that is such an intuitive position that this dad is is communicating, somebody in the system hired this guy on purpose, understanding what was going on. And they made the choice that this is gonna be good for our children because we want them to have those conversations. We just have to understand the state of the mind of the whether it's the superintendents or the principals or the HR people, probably some combination of all of those who looked at this situation and said, actually, this is gonna be a good thing for our community, a good thing for our school. And to me, that's the real problem. This guy, whatever his issues are, um, you know, Jesus loves him. I hope he finds help and I hope he ultimately finds happiness. I'm not mad at him necessarily, but there were no adults in the room. Well, the adults in the room should have been able to prevent the situation, consciously made the choice not to have created this situation. And that's really the challenge.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Well, Joseph, at this very school board meeting, school board members largely defended the teachers' hire. And they also defended the district's current dress code, uh, saying that they are not going to, quote, discriminate based on sex or gender identity. And they cited federal laws and court decisions that they say require this type of neutrality. And, you know, we discussed last week how Representative Peret had sort of floated the idea that it may be time to pass a law to require teachers to wear clothing appropriate to their sex so that, you know, students aren't uh exposed to these kinds of questions and things like that. Um, but we also discussed last week how that could be legally problematic based on the Bostok versus Clayton County Supreme Court decision, which basically said that uh employees can't be fired because they're gay or transgender.

SPEAKER_02 13:20

Um so trans was specifically the question there in that in this. I think it was that was gendered. I think it was both.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Yeah, yeah. Um, so you know, it it's Peret's sort of um, she's kind of updated since then. On Tuesday, she said, I'm not sure what the legislative solution is at this point, but at the very least, Wake County public schools should accommodate requests by parents to opt out of a class or be uh granted a school reassignment request. Um, she said we need to protect the innocence of elementary school children from adult gender identity topics. Uh, parents' requests need to be accommodated. And so um, you know, that's certainly true. I mean, I I would not allow my child to be in that situation. And and these are these are the public schools that are supposed to, you know, serve, serve the community and serve everyone. And we we contribute to these schools with our tax money.

SPEAKER_02 14:16

And the reports that we're hearing now from those families are that they are being denied the opportunity in some cases to transfer back to their home district, to the their their home school.

SPEAKER_00 14:27

So they're being denied transfer. Yeah. We've heard of that.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Because they want to leave over this situation, and the district is saying, no, you cannot. Um this is an evolving situation, sympathetic for the families.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

We've been in contact with another family that just they took their children out of the school.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

In some cases, they're homeschooling, and they can't obviously stop you from doing that.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

But some more We're not going to meet the teacher. Like they they were, you know, pull the ripcord. We're not going to meet the teacher night. We're we're not doing this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

These are the kind of conflicts culturally that I think are irreconcilable. And so that's why you have to figure out a way. The people who want who think this is a moral good and the people who think this is a moral harm, right? How do they how do you put them in the same classroom?

SPEAKER_00 15:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

And that's why you need school choice and you need very involved parents and you need better school administrators.

SPEAKER_00 15:17

Before we move on, real quick, I want to say two other things. And the first is is this, and it you're you're absolutely right. The decision to hire this teacher would just make me question the judgment of all of the people uh from the school to the school board. Um, so it's it, you're right. It doesn't, it's not an issue just about it's it's not even reduced just to this one hire. It's it would make me question the judgment of all of the people in charge of this school and and of this uh county school system. And I would I wouldn't want my child, frankly, there at all anymore. And um, and the second thing is that there is another issue besides just the dress, and the other is that uh evidently what from what I've read, this teacher goes by miss.

SPEAKER_02 16:01

Right. So you're you're requiring students to refer to an obvious man as miss is part of the cognitive dissonance that you're basically retraining a child's mind to lie. You are a man, but I'm obligated to refer to you as a woman, right? And and that is exactly what those who hired him want them to become comfortable doing. And that is exactly what the parents who are involved do not want their children to be. And how do you reconcile that?

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Well, it's just hard to, it's like all in the name of you know, inclusivity and tolerance and love and all of that, which who's who's a who's opposed to treating people kindly and love and and including people appropriately. Um, but children don't need to be exposed to this kind of um these harmful ideas and delusion, delusional ideas in order to learn the things that we want them to learn, like kindness and and compassion.

unknown 16:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:59

So pay attention, mom and dad. It might be happening at a school in the year you probably is, in fact, in some way, maybe not exactly this way. But our next story that we're gonna cover today is another follow-up of the Democratic Socialists and their attempt to basically take over the Democratic Party. That's the um that's the concern. And it seems that they're making progress in Michigan because Abdul Al Sayyid has recently prevailed in their primary, and he defeated what is her name, Representative uh Haley Stevens. And it was a very close primary race. She was framed as the moderate, he as the um, I guess, progressive leftist. He has specifically rejected the communist label. He is definitely the Democratic Socialist preferred candidate, endorsed by Bernie, endorsed by AOC, kind of that wing of the Democratic Party. It's interesting that Haley Stevens, his primary opponent, um who has been described as the moderate in this race, has a 1% lifetime score with heritage action and heritage is the Heritage Foundation, they kind of score members of Congress. She has a 1% out of 100, to be clear, with them. So that one is not good in that particular from their perspective. She has a 94.48 score with progressive punch, which is scoring members of Congress from the left. So 95%, they like her, right? But she is somehow still the moderate in this race, which I think is some indication of where um Abdul al-Sayed is coming from. He has been he's publicly stated that he wants to defund the police. Then he scrubbed those when he was running for office. He has called for abolishing ICE, arguing it's irredeemable, it's a paramilitary force. Uh, he has basically said Israel's efforts in Gaza after October 7th are a genocide against the Palestinian people. So kind of that the the kind of cocktail of left-wing positions we've come to expect from that wing of uh of the left. He's campaigned with a guy named Hassan Piker. And if you don't know who that is, Hassan Piker said that America deserved 9-11. Right after that happened, he's a podcaster on the left. Um, and he Al-Syed has been campaigning with Hassan Piker. He has said, uh, it doesn't mean I agree with everything he ever said, but you know, that's his tribe, so to speak. Um move the needle for you, Ashley. How do you what should we take away from this? Is it our you know, we talked about last week that maybe these people are taking over the Democratic Party? Is that what we see here?

SPEAKER_00 20:05

I don't know if they're gonna take over the Democratic Party, but my overwhelming takeaway from all of this is that this person hates our country. Like you want you're running, you're running for Senate and you hate our country. Like you hate the structures that we have in place. Um you are uh I mean you you hate the foundations that this country was built on. Um and and you you're the last person that I want to be in Senate.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Well, and and and will he be?

SPEAKER_00 20:40

I I you know I really be because because Michigan is a swing state.

SPEAKER_02 20:45

Yeah, I mean it is, and they've had Democrats for a while in in in in the Senate. Here's an interesting thing. Um his name is Abdul al-Sayed, and that's relevant in America, right? I I uh previously in my political history, there was a friend of mine named Sherom Haidian, born Muslim later in his life, and as I knew him, a Protestant evangelical pastor, but his name is Sherram Haidian, ran for the state legislature in the state of Washington in a district where a Republican could actually win. Did very poorly in the primary, not because he wasn't conservative, not because he wasn't a good guy with good positions. I'm skeptical that the that Middle America can vote for somebody named Sherm Hadium or Abdul al Sayyid still. Am I wrong about that?

SPEAKER_00 21:43

Well, I actually I think that's really sad. People should take some time. It's not, it's not, I mean, someone who's named Abdul or El Sayyed or whatever name you have, that has nothing to do with it. But do you agree with me? Do you think what your beliefs are or what your ideas are? And we need to take people seriously when we hear what their ideas are. Ideas. But do you agree? I want to abolish ICE and I want to defund the police. Um, do I agree that someone with um a Muslim or Middle Eastern sounding name cannot be Is it a political liability? Uh with some, yes. Yes, I would say Well with the general public, right?

SPEAKER_02 22:18

We're talking, we're I'm and I mean individually. I don't think so.

SPEAKER_00 22:20

I don't think so for Democrats.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

You think it's irrelevant?

SPEAKER_00 22:23

I don't think it's totally irrelevant. I don't think it matters as much for Democrats.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

I think it's very relevant. I think it's very relevant. And I think it's going to be very relevant in their upcoming race. Now that he's won the primary, Abdul Al-Sayed is running against Mike Rogers. Can you get more American than Mike Rogers, right? Yeah. And he Mike Rogers ran for the Senate in the open seat in 2024. He lost by 19,000 votes, 0.3 percentage points. Mike Rogers is back at it again. I believe, I don't even need to look at the issues. I believe in America today, whether you like it or you don't, Mike Rogers will beat Abdul al-Sayed irrespective of anything else. That is my belief about the American public. And and in this case, that's the outcome that I would prefer based on what I know these people uh represent. But I just think that is a reality. And I think the Democrats know this, which is why they work so hard to defeat him in the primary. And in a year that the Democrats are hoping to pick up seats, I think they're about to lose one. That's my very just kind of baseline political analysis.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

We'll see. I don't know. I mean, I think that uh the Democrats and people who are who vote Democrat very much value that diversity factor. And and for them, for the reliable Democrat voters, this is not going to be an issue at all.

SPEAKER_02 23:46

Yeah, but that's why you won the primary. But now we're in a general election. And the general elections in a in a swing state like Michigan requires you to get the people in the middle, you know, the guy working in the automobile factory outside of Detroit.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

And like just blue-collar, normy, you know, cores like Americans, right? They're not politically like super interested. They they may or may not vote, but they're going to get their ballot. I just think those people who don't really know much, they're just kind of like RD. What's my mood? Is they good looking? Are they not good looking? Like, you know, did my football team win this weekend? So am I happy? That segment of the American public, which really does tilt swing elections in one direction or another, I just don't think they pull the lever for Abdul al-Sayed over Mike Rogers.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

So now you agree with my point from our last episode that the DSA people and the far left people are not going to be able to win general elections, usually.

SPEAKER_02 24:45

Right now they're going to struggle.

SPEAKER_00 24:46

Well, which means that they can't take over the Democrat Party.

SPEAKER_02 24:49

His name is Abdul Al-Sayed. No, they can't take over the Democrat Party, right? That's different than can you win in the general election? I think if you switch the names and the positions, if Mike Rogers is the, you know, jihadi kind of kami-leaning person, I mean, because you have that, right? Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren is a is uh very sympathetic to this cause that uh and she will be very excited about the Abdul al-Sayed campaign. I mean, this is it, you know, we're we're talking about just the you know the the the the trivialities of of campaigns, but I think these things do make a difference because you know uh we're not a Muslim country and there are uh there's a significant percentage of Americans. Now I have, of course, grave concerns about Islam as an ideology. I think it's inconsistent with the West, right? So in that way, I I'm sympathetic. There are lots of good Americans who are not Muslims or Islamists who have Arabic names, and they should not be judged for or disadvantaged for, right? That's but we also have cultural realities in which that just seems strange. I'm a little bit uncomfortable with it, in large part because I don't know about it. Um, and I think that will be a hurdle that he cannot overcome in an election that is likely to be very, very close.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

So we can return to our debate about whether the DSA candidates have to win elections in order to take over the party.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

They only have to win primaries to take over the party. We can do we'll they do have to win generals to take over America.

SPEAKER_00 26:30

Okay. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Um, but let's talk about does this have any effect on North Carolina? Because we have a very important Senate race here. Uh we've got Roy Cooper, who we've we have discussed on the podcast. He has, I mean, he is running his campaign, has ads that say Roy Cooper does not support defunding the police. Is this part of why he has to do that? Not only because of his own record, but also because, you know, the the messaging coming from the party and the people who are winning around the country kind of puts him a little bit um like he's associated with him, right? Because he's running as a denigration.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

They're in the same party. Right. And and that's the interesting question is how would Roy Cooper respond to questions about Abdul al-Sayed? You know, does he stick to the you know loyal partisan position, or he is gonna run away from everything that defines Abdul al-Sayed? Anti-ICE, you know, anti-plea, you know, defund the police, basically uh, you know, a total socialist system. That messaging will not work here. And Roy Cooper is gonna run as church football, you know, moderate Democrat guy, even if his voting record is different than that. That's who he wants the public to believe he is. So can he buddy up to Abdul Al-Syed? I think the answer to that is no. I think they will the the Roy Cooper campaign will make sure that there is never any connection. And will the the the media in North Carolina, will they ask him uh how he feels about that? Can you work with this guy in your party? Should you be elected to the Senate? And he also be elected to the Senate. Is he an ally of yours? I'm I would be very interested to know what he thinks about that, but I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

It's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

Real quick connection on this. Abdul Asiaed, of course, is in Michigan. Mayor Mam Dani, who really likes Abdul Al-Sayed in New York City. Um I they seem to be like cut from the same cloth, but he's, you know, as they try to implement socialism in New York City, this has just been hilarious to me. Because one of Mam Dani's plans is to have government run grocery stores, and they're going to subsidize the cost of groceries and make them cheaper, right? And he has been asked. They've been, they have been, you know, this is this is a way of, you know, power to the people, take it, you know, stick it to the corporate greedy people who, you know, make groceries so expensive, even though the profit margin on groceries is like one or two percent, right? It's one or two cents on the dollar. So groceries is not where you're like really, really getting rich. But they're gonna go at them anyway. They're gonna subsidize groceries, so the actual grocery stores who are working in the market are gonna have to compete with subsidized grocery prices, which of course is not fair. But people started wondering how are you going to just have this benefit people in New York City? Why can't people from Connecticut come in and buy your government subsidized reduced prices? Do you know what his answer was to that, Ashley? How are they gonna solve this problem?

SPEAKER_00 29:34

Are they going to ask for some sort of proof?

SPEAKER_02 29:38

Why, yes, they are. They are going to. And what kind of proof might they ask for that they are eligible?

SPEAKER_00 29:44

The drive a driver's license, state driver's license.

SPEAKER_02 29:47

And proof of residency, perhaps.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Right? Is any of this sounding familiar? Have you heard about any debates over driver's licenses, proof of residency in any other context?

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Perhaps. It reminds me of elections? Of elections, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:01

Maybe. And and we do know that asking for a driver's license, ask for proof proof of citizenship or residency is racist when you're dealing with a vote. But not apparently when you're dealing with buying groceries. So I mean, it is it meaningful? I don't know, because of course you want to. If this is for people who live in New York City, you're gonna make sure that you know they live in New York City. But this is the crowd who has, and Mom Donnie is one of them specifically. Uh voter ID requirements uh are are racist, misogynist, Jim Crow.

SPEAKER_00 30:41

They're trying to disenfranchise people, etc. Right?

SPEAKER_02 30:43

You're just disenfranchising people. But when it comes to getting our government subsidized groceries, we can ask for it. It's just kind of funny.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

This uh brings us to our third important story.

SPEAKER_02 30:57

This More elections, yes.

SPEAKER_00 31:00

The North Carolina elections bill, yes bills. It's two bills, actually, uh, that were passed by the House earlier this week.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

And it looks like we are going to, yeah, I mean, among other things, it was gonna authorize audits of election processes, it was gonna reduce early voting time. That was that was something of a controversy. Um, but basically there were an entire week of the early voting period in which essentially no one would come, and so you were staffing all these polling places with nobody there. And there are people who think that's inefficient.

SPEAKER_00 31:34

Um, the bill leaves 17 days of early voting intact for general elections, but shortens uh early voting periods for primaries uh to 10 days. That's right. That's right. So and a lot, uh unfortunately, uh many fewer people vote in primaries than in general elections. And it just is, it really isn't practical to be keeping them open for that long.

SPEAKER_02 31:58

It would also, this bill also would require the Board of Elections to confirm that a voter is a U.S. citizen, like they're going to do for groceries in Manhattan now. Um the bill passed purely on partisan lines, had no Republicans, had no Democrat support, all the Republicans support it. Um, and uh the governor, Governor Stein, has indicated that he will be vetoing this bill. And in order for anything to become law, you need at least one non-Republican to vote to override a veto. Will that exist? Um who knows? That's an interesting question. The legislature will be back in November, December after the elections to do some business. Is this going to be something that they take up? Maybe, but the bill was passed. It's gonna be vetoed. Will it be law? We'll see.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

The governor has pledged to veto at least one of the bills, House Bill 958, and he said, quote, because it makes it harder for you to vote, introduces unnecessary chaos into our elections, and invites sore losers to try and overturn an election they lost. But many of the provisions in these bills were actually designed to ensure that the law gives every eligible voter the right and the ability to cast a ballot, and to also ensure that all the votes that are cast are counted accurately. So we want to include this bill was specifically designed to make sure that every uh these two bills, uh HB 958 and HB 834, in case you want the references, but they were specifically designed to make sure that all votes are counted that need to be counted. Um, things like extending the time period by two business days for boards of election to provide the final vote count of provisional and cured ballots to ensure that all valid ballots are counted accurately, um, allowing extended time for voters to cure their registration forms, um, provisional ballots and absentee ballots by adding missing signatures to affidavits or whatever documentation is needed for those ballots to be counted. So it's not just that we're trying to ensure that uh illegal votes aren't counted. We also are these bills are are designed to make sure that all lawful uh votes are counted. Um so, anyways, that's I mean, I guess that's the governor's messaging on why he's vetoed this, but it's it really is a mischaracteration of what the bill actually does.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Aaron Powell Well, that and and that was the debate in in the legislature, and the governor obviously took the side of the the rest of the Democrats in the in the uh in the state government who said, Oh, any kind of accountability and safeguards and those things are seen as discouragement from voting, eligibility requirements, things like that. That that is the framing, of course, a lot of us don't agree and think that accountability for voting is just as good as accountability for groceries.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

Before we close out this episode, I do want to give a shout out to our general counsel, Mary Suma, who worked tirelessly on this bill uh to make sure that um election laws ensure that only eligible voters are able to vote and the accuracy of our election results are protected. Uh, this is something she has great expertise in. Um she she really did a lot, and we're also really, really thankful to all the legislators that stood behind this bill. Uh uh Representative Hugh Blackwell, um, and Senators Overcash, Heiss, and Daniel. Um, we it took a lot to get these bills over the finish line and and onto the governor's desk, and um we're grateful for that.

SPEAKER_02 35:50

If people do not trust the outcome of the election process, you got big, big problems in a you know Republican democracy. Friends, thanks for joining us today on Politics for Happy People. Reminder that there are new episodes every Tuesday and Friday, so make sure you look for the next one. Like and subscribe where you have found us. And if you've learned something, share it with a friend. They probably will too. So glad you're with us today. We'll see you next time.