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The On the Hill: Breaking Down DC podcast is a collection of sharing more about what’s happening in DC without the bias, ways for you to get involved with the US government, and interviews with friends, colleagues who can help pull back the proverbial curtain of Washington, DC. Katherine Getty, host of the OTH podcast, is a 10-year Washingtonian who lives and breathes politics.
Katherine Getty 0:01
Captain, Hi and welcome to the on the Hill podcast with me, your host, Katherine Getty, each Thursday, I'll peel back the curtain of what happens in Washington, from breaking down current events without the bias, to interviews with fellow political nerds and even and maybe most importantly, ways for you to get involved with our US government.
Welcome back to a new season of the on the Hill podcast. Took a little bit of a summer break, and boy, did a lot of things happen in American politics when I left you in July, President Biden and President Trump are the expected nominees for the Democratic and Republican parties. Respectively, President Trump had not been nearly assassinated. RFK Jr was still a third party candidate, and that's barely scratching the surface of some of the events that happened in the presidential election, but there has been so much in American politics over the last few months. I'm so excited to be back to share more about what's happening on the hill or how you can get involved with this thing called the US government. It's been seriously one heck of a year, so we are less than 50 days to election days. We are truly in the thick of it, and I wanted to refresh a topic I covered last season, voting. Check out Episode Four if you haven't already. But today I want to give you a quick landscape of voting in the US, how to register, how to check your registration status, and what ways you can vote, because if you're informed on those topics, you'll be able to vote much easier. Now, in future episodes, I am going to cover how do you research a candidate beyond just their own website? How do you research ballot initiatives? Because let me say ballot initiatives are very difficult to read and to understand, and you don't know which way you're voting on sometimes. So that's going to happen in future episodes. But today we are talking about voting, all right, so let's cover the landscape, the history, so to speak, of voting in the US, the basis of voting in the United States is in the Constitution, federal laws and state regulations that together, creates the framework for eligible citizens to participate in the process. And here's some of the key things that are associated one constitutional amendment. So 15th Amendment in 1870 prohibits denying the right to vote based on race color or previous conditions of servitude. 19th, 19th Amendment grants women the right to vote. 1920 we could talk about that later. 24th, Amendment prohibits poll taxes in federal elections. That's 1964 can't believe it was 1964 but that's a thing. The 26th amendment, 1971 lowers the voting age to 18 years old. So that kind of gives you some of the constitutional amendments, some of the federal voting laws, very well known, the voting rights act of 1964 which is a landmark law outlawing discriminatory voting practices, literacy tests that were widespread, particularly in the south, and it required certain jurisdictions with a history of discrimination to get federal approval before changing their voting laws. That is a very common thing when it comes to voting, is ensuring, if there are any issues in the past, that the federal government kind of steps in to ensure that voting isn't impinged in any way. So we've talked about constitutional amendments, some federal law. There are other federal laws, but that's that's a biggie, and then there's state specific. So state specific is where things start to get a little confusing. Some states require there's automatic voter registration, which some states don't have voter ID loss. Some states have that you have to show your your driver's license or your your license in the state if you don't have the real ID. Some don't early voting and absentee voting, and we'll talk about more about this later, particularly how felon voting rights. Different states have varying laws on whether felons can vote, either restoring voting rights automatically after serving a sentence or requiring additional steps. So I want to help you understand getting registered to vote, because in many states there are deadlines coming up, and it's the first kind of step to letting your voice be heard. So can ivote.org? Is an awesome resource. I found. This is a new resource that I didn't find last year, but I'm really excited. I found it this year. It's run by the National Association of State secretaries, who in most states have jurisdiction over running elections. And on the homepage, there is a tab on the right side that says related links. One of them is register to vote. So then you scroll down find your state and or the District of Columbia. To my friends that live in DC. And I just recently did this because I moved to Virginia. So I scrolled down to Virginia and I registered on.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
Line. The State of Virginia requires a driving driver's license, ID number, my social security number, typical identifiable information. So my name, my address, what party I wanted to be affiliated with. Then you click on, do you want to be a poll worker? Do you want to help with elections? The total process took me less than five minutes. So think about it. You're scrolling on Instagram or other social media platforms. You spend five minutes doing that. It is so easy to register to vote, there are no excuses do it. So let's say you just registered to vote. You're good to go, no worries. Well, say you're in a different boat. You think you're registered to vote, but you're not quite sure. So let's go back to can I vote.org
Unknown Speaker 5:47
and that same area where you register to vote. There is another link that says, Check registration or voter registration status. Again, for Virginia, I filled out my name, so security number, date of birth and locality, so like city or county and I was once I populated all that information, it came back to me and told me the State House, the State Senate, congressional. It was really, really helpful information where I would be voting at if I wanted to vote in person, which I am a total nerd, and I love going on election day, but that's not what we're here to talk about. But it's very easy to check your registration status. If you're not sure if you're registered to vote in that state, and if you're not, then you can go back to the aforementioned register to vote link and register to vote. So we kind of understand the background on voting in the US. We understand how to register to vote and checking your registration status by checking out, can I vote.org? Which is run by the National Association of State secretaries, so it's a very nonpartisan organization. How can you vote? How can you vote in this current election? So there's a bunch of different ways, and it's getting so much easier. I will say that covid changed the game a little bit when it came to voting. And, you know, there had always been absentee ballots. In my mind, absentee ballots were really mostly for military or if you're ex like, you're serving in the State Department and you're not in the country. But absentee voting has really changed, because there can be no, like, no excuse needed, absentee, voted or excuse required. So some states have different rules and regulations around it. I encourage you to check out your you know, go to, can I vote.org? And it will link to that states that web page, and you can click around and figure out what are the requirements. It's going to take a little bit of time. But again, if you're scrolling on social media, or you're doing something on your phone, take five minutes and do this it you will thank yourself later. So there's absentee voting. And absentee voting basically means you can fill out a ballot by mail. You could do a drop box, you can do an in person delivery. There's a lot of continued debate about ensuring that drop boxes are safe, but drop boxes basically by cuts out the Postal Service. Now that we don't love USBs, we really do, but it provides you another opportunity to be able to vote. Why? I tell you about how to vote, particularly in this you know, the early voting, the absentee the mail in, is that it's becoming so much easier to let your voice be heard. Those are all pre election things that you can do. And some states allow you to submit your absentee ballot after the election, and they'll count them. I will caution you, in some states, absentee ballots are not counted until it gets really close. So if it's something that you're really passionate about, in person voting is always something to think about. And in person voting, there is nothing more American than standing in that little cube, filling out your form, submit it through the little thing. It's like the standardized testing and getting that I Voted sticker. You can probably hear my voice. I am a total nerd. I get so excited about it. I think every poll worker, but there's so many options for you to be able to vote. And I want you to feel like, okay, I can easily go know how to register to vote, then do it, or check my registration status, or check how I can vote in my state very easily. Can ivote.org? Is a really great resource. There's also vote.gov
Unknown Speaker 9:31
and I'll include those resources in the show notes. So I spend so much time refreshing content on registering to vote, checking your voter registration status, understanding how you can vote in your state, absentee mail in daily or early voting. Day of voting, because every election matters, from the local school board that has jurisdiction over school policy to that attorneys general that has policy that has implication.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
Depends on how state regulations are
Unknown Speaker 10:03
created to the President of the United States that obviously has much more impact of our day to day living. Every election matters, and I want you to feel really secure in understanding how to check your registration status or registering to vote and not missing the opportunity to let your voice be heard. Because, like I said, some deadlines are coming up in some states in subsequent episodes, like I said, I want to delve into how to research candidates in a nonpartisan way, how to check out ballot initiatives, read them, understand them, know them, so that you are ensuring you're voting in the way you want to. I'm so grateful to be back for another season of on the Hill podcast. As always, you can find me on Instagram. My handle is at Katherine Getty. The podcast handle is on the Hill DC podcast. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Like and Subscribe. Share this with a friend, and if you ever have any ideas of what you want to hear about, let me know. Thanks so much. See you next week. You.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai