Episode Transcript
[00:00:03] Speaker A: Hello, Oregonians and welcome to Life and Legislation with Lucetta. If you've ever wanted to get to know your politicians personally or understand what it is they are actually doing, then you're in the right place. I'm your podcast host, Jessica Campbell.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: I'm your state representative for House District 24, Lucetta Elmer.
[00:00:21] Speaker A: This podcast is a place for you to get to know Representative Elmer both personally and professionally.
[00:00:27] Speaker B: We want Oregonians to feel connected with and educated politics. So we're so glad you've joined us on a fresh new podcast adventure as we cover all things about life and legislation.
[00:00:41] Speaker A: Hi Oregonians. Welcome back to Life and Legislation with Lucetta. It is almost time for the primary elections and maybe some of you got two ballots.
Fun fact. We have so much to talk about on this wonderful episode about the primary election, including what to how to vote, what, what these words all mean, and what you need to be doing in terms of mail in versus drop off ballots. So thank you so much for taking time to go through this.
[00:01:09] Speaker B: You're welcome. And I don't feel awesome that you got two ballots.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Two ballots?
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah. So tell me about that. Are they your name, your address?
[00:01:18] Speaker A: Well, and as I understand, some people have been receiving two ballots because they were initially registered one way and then they changed their registration. Okay. So they could have been maybe up unaffiliated and then they switch to a particular party.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Gotcha.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Or maybe they were one party and then switched to a different party. Or I guess could have been the other way around. Maybe they were with a party and then switched to unaffiliated. And so you get different ballots depending on how you're registered. Correct. So there's this. One of these ballots is a nonpartisan ballot which has the basic things that everybody gets to vote on. And another ballot is specific to a party where you can actually pick people that are running in the primary for a certain, for a certain party. Now, I know some people got two ballots because of that and you're supposed to disregard one of them and only use the other. Hopefully everyone is really wise and reads all the directions on the fine print and does it the right way.
[00:02:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: But if not, but if not, I'd be so curious. Well, what would happen if somebody got two got confused?
Whether it was like honorably confused or maybe ill intentioned and they filled out both, Would they, would it get noticed right away? Do they both get disregarded? Do they both get counted?
[00:02:37] Speaker B: And I think that's, you know, that's why people feel uneasy with our mail in ballots. I mean, My parents love the mail in ballots. They're in their 80s. It's very convenient for them. And they are, you know, they are voters. They are avid voters. Every single election they are going to vote and they value the fact that they get to vote. But it is easy for them with, given their age, to fill it out at home and drop in the mail. I get it. But there are so many other things that is just harder to control when you're not physically going in, you know, to the, to the. I used to go to the school. I remember the very first time that I was allowed to vote. And I went down to the school and there was this little, you know, cardboard booth ish thing. And I felt so accomplished and grown up.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: You get your little sticker.
[00:03:26] Speaker B: I got my sticker and I had to sign the ledger that, you know, and check. They checked my ID and just all of the things and I just felt so official.
And so I do worry that we are.
And we've had so many conversations. We, in my rules committee, we've had the Secretary of State, Tobias Reed in front of us several times talking about all the things to ensure that we are tightening up our voter rolls and to make sure that we are being fair and legal.
But there's. There's been issues with the dmv, Department of Motor Vehicles versus the Secretary of State and who's really in control and how are they working together to ensure that people aren't getting double ballots or signed up for the wrong party or assigned to a party that they didn't even know about?
So many things.
[00:04:16] Speaker A: That's a whole other conversation.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:19] Speaker A: For this primary, would you then recommend for most people to go in person?
[00:04:24] Speaker B: I always recommend going in person then, you know, for sure. Yeah, yeah.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: So listeners vote, but I mean, even
[00:04:33] Speaker B: going in person, you still, you don't know who is picking up your ballot and voting. I mean, could in theory, if you just throw it away and you're not shredding it.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Right. And so for anybody who maybe did get two ballots shredded, the incorrect one correct. That's it. That's a huge piece of the puzzle. And then as much as possible, go in person with your ballot to vote. And again, everybody vote, vote, vote, vote, vote. And this leads us kind of to the next topic because there's so many people that sort of have that misconception that the primaries don't matter that much.
And I mean, the statistics I see sometimes are what, like a third of eligible voters actually vote?
[00:05:16] Speaker B: Historically, yes. The primaries are never as well attended as the jo. But they are so important.
[00:05:23] Speaker A: Well, let's start right there then. What's for anybody who, you know is following along that politics is not their thing.
What's the difference between a primary and a general?
[00:05:32] Speaker B: Yes. Okay, so the primary is where you are deciding which candidate from your party to put forward so that they are being voted on in the general election. So, for example, right now we have a governor's race happening. And for my party, the Republican Party, there are lots of candidates out there, all Republicans, all running because they want to be the one Republican candidate that will be on the ballot in November. So the primary takes all of those people, puts them all on one ballot, and then after May 19, we will have our Republican gubernatorial nominee.
[00:06:11] Speaker A: That's a really big word.
[00:06:12] Speaker B: It is. It took me a bit to say it.
[00:06:14] Speaker A: I see. I keep reading it, but I've never known how to pronounce it, so I'm glad I heard it.
[00:06:18] Speaker B: Gubernatorial.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: Fantastic.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: Say it together. Gubernatorial. Yes.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: And that would be an example of something that is only on a partisan ballot.
[00:06:28] Speaker B: Correct. So you have. Right there, you have two different colored ballots.
So, you know, let's talk about my race. I'm running again. I'm up for reelection every two years.
Ugh.
I have to run for state representative, and I do not have another Republican that filed to run against me. So I am the only name on the ballot.
But I still think it's so important to.
To vote because there are other things on that ballot and, and people can write in. There's. There's. You'll see my name and a box that you can fill in, and then you'll see just a blank line. Well, if everyone thought, oh, you know, she's the only one on there, so we don't need to vote, and enough people wrote in the same name on that line.
I could not get. I could not get passed through to the general, even though I'm the only person that actually had their name on the ballot. So I still think it's important. Besides, besides the gubernatorial nomination, we have county commissioners, and that's going to be on everyone's.
[00:07:30] Speaker A: Right. That was an example of something that's on everybody's ballot is this commissioner race. And there's so many things on here. And that was one of the things I wanted to ask of. What do some of these titles even mean? Because one of the reasons we started this podcast in the first place was for people who don't dive into politics, for people who aren't following all their civic and state government this is why, because twice a year you get this lovely packet with a lot of words and a lot of pictures and a lot of names that most people have never heard of, they've never met, they don't know anything other than these little blurbs. And there are also maybe a lot of words and measures where they're like, wow, that's a lot of text. What does this even mean?
And then they get this and they're asked to vote. And for so many of them there's only one person, right.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: So they're like, what's the point?
[00:08:25] Speaker A: What's the point to what somebody might think? And then there are some where, gosh, there was one thing on one of these where there was 14 different slots of write ins and all these names, all these titles and for many people they might stop and think, what does a commissioner actually do?
And there's all these judges, but there are different types of judges.
What am I actually voting for? So that's what I was hoping we could do today and kind of explain these and what does it even mean? Because it's so nice to actually know somebody.
[00:08:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Whose picture's in here.
[00:08:56] Speaker B: Yeah, no, I get it. And I think that's why as a candidate we try to go through many different avenues to try to let people let our voters, our potential voters know who we are. I mean unless you know me personally, it would just be a picture.
But then candidates will get endorsements and so that's I think helpful because we try to get endorsements from people that like you know, our sheriff or maybe a county commissioner or maybe the principal of the high school or maybe another elected official. Just people that the mass majority may know or may not know. So that's helpful if you can like, you know, it's like on Facebook like someone friend requests you and you're like, well who else are you friends with?
[00:09:43] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:09:43] Speaker B: And you try to see if you line up and then we have all candidates have the opportunity to submit a voters pamphlet statement.
So some do, some don't. But I think it's very important to submit that because obviously then voters have the chance to read a little bit about them, see what their hot topics are or whatever they choose to put in there. So we try to inform obviously I try to host meet and greets and town halls and give my district population a chance to know me.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is amazing. And that's why we get to do things like this or the podcast and let people know you. Right. Because again how different would it be if we actually knew personally all of these leaders.
[00:10:28] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:29] Speaker A: You get to know who they are as humans and what they stand for and their character. And it just, I mean, it makes it so much easier to. As you look in, we're like, oh, are we aligned on maybe policy? But even sometimes if you're not, you might really respect somebody's character and that's a big factor.
[00:10:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:45] Speaker A: Even if you're not maybe in agreement on every single little political detail.
But this is somebody that, you know, is honest and hardworking and actually listens to people and cares and wants to move forward. Then you say, okay, well, we might not agree on everything, but this is somebody I feel like I can trust as a leader.
[00:11:03] Speaker B: And I think that's, that's perfect. You know, that trust is big.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: Yeah. And that was something you got to talk about recently. Yeah. At a speech. And just real quick, you got a pretty amazing award at Dorchester, right?
[00:11:17] Speaker B: Yeah, the Dorchester Conference Conference. It's like the oldest political conference west of the Mississippi and Bob Packwood started it. And it's just a time for our party to come together and to have debates and maybe we don't see eye to eye and hash it out, but just hear different speakers panels have a whole weekend together.
And this year I was the lucky recipient of the Rising Star Award, which was pretty cool. I was shocked for sure when I found out that I was receiving it. But yeah, I was given the opportunity to speak to the crowd and I did. I talked a lot about the connectivity that's missing in our society, but more importantly in our leadership and people feeling connected to their leaders and trusting of their leadership.
[00:12:11] Speaker A: That's huge. And I think hopefully we can maybe include at least some of that speech maybe in your. In a future podcast episode or link it so people can hear it because it was pretty amazing. And you, you made an interesting point. And this will take us back kind of to the ballot of what would happen if people had to only vote on hearing who the person was and what they wanted to do as a leader, but they didn't know which party they were from?
[00:12:35] Speaker B: Right.
[00:12:35] Speaker A: And what would happen, you know, would you end up voting for somebody outside your party because you didn't realize they were from another party, but you actually aligned on a lot of.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Yeah, I always say vote the person, not the party.
Yes.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Oh, okay. So speaking of that, so this one in particular is the non partisan ballot. So everything on here everybody gets, regardless of all the many parties that there actually are.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: And that this time was probably just the one sheet. I'm assuming.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: So if you are registered in a party, then you would have had a second sheet. Yeah.
[00:13:08] Speaker A: Again, some of these things on here where people might go, what exactly is the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries?
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: What does that mean? There are two people on here and a write in and it's for four years. It seems important.
[00:13:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:13:22] Speaker A: But if so.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: So everything on here, on this is a nonpartisan position.
So not affiliated with a party such as our commissioners, judges.
So Boli, the Bureau of labor and Industries, that is an elected position and that's the person who over oversees that certain segment of business and labor and industries. So think on this one, you know, they're in charge of making sure that laws are followed when it comes to our wages or things like workplace rights, labor laws. I had to make my little list here, civil rights discrimination complaints. And then also one that's been big and growing momentum, apprenticeship and workforce programs.
So obviously that flows through an agency within our state government. But this person who's elected and it's a four year term, they're sort of the mini governor, they're the mini, you know, they're in charge of that specific section of our government to make sure that all things are being followed or you know, fielding through different complaints.
[00:14:29] Speaker A: Right. And this, then the title above, it says statewide nonpartisan. So these two people running are the same two people for the entire state, is that correct? So this isn't like specific to one county. No, this would be for the entire state of Oregon. And then you get this list of all these judges with different positions.
And what's interesting is that it's one person for all of them. There's not multiple people running for all these positions. Is that pretty normal?
[00:14:57] Speaker B: I don't know if that's normal or not. Sorry. I know that we have had ballots where we've had multiples and then you'll see the signs up all over.
It's such a powerful, I think position or a very important position, I would say. And I don't know how much interest we get.
[00:15:15] Speaker A: So it's not, it's not like hundreds of people are vying for this very challenging, I would assume, job.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: You're a judge.
[00:15:23] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, and there are different. There's the judge of the Supreme Court and then there's the court of appeals and then there's the circuit courts. These are all different types of judges.
[00:15:32] Speaker B: Yeah. So you start with the circuit court court and that's your, that's your entry level. Maybe one would say court and then you have. So, like, all of your things are going through. Through there, all of your cases, and then you have the next one, the court of appeals. So if you get a ruling in that circuit court that you don't like, you can elevate it to the court of appeals. And then if you get a ruling you don't like there, you can elevate it to the Supreme Court, which is the highest court in the land in our state. Right, right. This is in the land as well. I mean. I mean, yes, in our state, but like, if you. If you think of it on a national level, the. It's the same. You know, you have the steps in
[00:16:09] Speaker A: the court system, but for somebody who's voting for this judge of the Supreme Court, this is for the Oregon Supreme Court on this ballot. Because, again, if you be a good reader, read all the directions, read all the titles again. Our teacher background, we teach kids thoroughly. Look at the headings, look at the fine print, look at all the details, and you can figure it out.
[00:16:29] Speaker B: Did you ever have that test in school where.
Yeah. Where the teacher gives it and it's like, read through all the questions first.
And the very last question is, you do not have to take this test. But most of the kids don't read all of the questions first. They just go in. And I can remember taking that and thinking, why are people putting their pencil down already? There's no way. And then, you know, you're like, oh, because I didn't read all of the directions.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Yep. I knew exactly what you were talking about the moment you said it. Yes. Yes. Because. Yes, I remember I had a. Easier version of that with my first graders. I'm just really practicing, like I told you, to read all the things before you start. And if you followed the directions.
[00:17:08] Speaker B: Yep. Then you had extra recess.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: Then it's amazing.
Follow that directions. Read the directions.
And on that note.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: So then we move into, again, reading your headline, reading your headers, county and local and the precinct. And so now we get into more specific of kind of our area for Yamhill County. And this is where you've got the. The two commissioner races. And for position one and position three. How many positions are there?
[00:17:37] Speaker B: Three.
[00:17:37] Speaker A: There are three. And so position two is not in an election year.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: No, no.
[00:17:42] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:43] Speaker B: Yeah. They were in two years ago.
[00:17:44] Speaker A: Gotcha.
[00:17:45] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: So then in a couple of years, we'll have. We'll be voting on position two, but not positions one and three. Yes. Got it.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: The next election, we will vote on position two.
[00:17:54] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:54] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:17:55] Speaker A: Interesting. And then There are at least two, if not three candidates for each one. But these are nonpartisan in theory. Okay. Yeah, that's what I thought was interesting.
[00:18:04] Speaker B: On this ballot, they are listed as nonpartisan. If you are following local politics, they are very partisan. But on our ballot, that's how they are listed. And if you have more than two, then to have the primary ballot or the primary election be the final say, someone would have to win by more than 50%, 51%. And if one out of the three or more doesn't, then the top two go on to the general ballot.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Oh, interesting.
[00:18:35] Speaker B: And that happened last time. That happened two years ago between Bubba King and Lindsey Burshauer.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: That's why.
See, I didn't. Thank you. Yeah, you always explain everything to me. Yeah.
[00:18:47] Speaker B: So. But we only have two for position
[00:18:50] Speaker A: one, and then for position three. There are three.
[00:18:52] Speaker B: There are three. Yeah.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:18:54] Speaker B: So someone has to win that by 50. They have to get 51, and then it's over. If not, then the top two will
[00:19:01] Speaker A: move on to November. Okay, and what exactly. I mean, again, you see these names, and for some people, they might dig in and try and figure out maybe where they align in terms of party policy and opinions and just pick that person. But what exactly are these commissioners doing? Like, what does a county commissioner do?
[00:19:19] Speaker B: County commissioners really do have a very large job. I mean, they are over the whole county. And Gamhill county is a fairly large county. And so you think of all the cities and towns within that.
So again, fielding any complaints or any issues that arise in the county, they're sort of the top dog. I mean, in the way that our government is structured, yes, we have the federal government, but you don't see. See the president out here in Oregon really doing much. Right. Because we have our governor. So there's the state government, and that was designed on purpose by our founding fathers, because states really are supposed to have their own autonomy. And then from there, you have county government.
And it's sort of the same thought. Counties should have their own autonomy. Yes. State influences. But I had a call the other day from someone down in Lincoln county, which is not part of my district, and they were just had all kinds of complaints and all kinds of questions about something happening within their county. And I said, I will reach out to your state representative for you and connect you to. But honestly, there's not a lot state representatives can do. We can mediate, we can talk, we can start a conversation, but your county commissioner is the one you need to go to. And then from There you have city, so the mayor is really over the specific city. And if there is an issue within a city, the mayor is going to have more say than a commissioner, but the commissioner can weigh in because it is part of their county.
So, you know, it's like it's this fine needle to thread on how you all work together. And as an elected official, I will say we do try to work well together. You know, I have all of my commissioners that I, that I meet with. I have all of my mayors that I meet with.
But back to the commissioners, they also, they do have committees, just like state legislators do. And so things are divided up. Like one of the committees that Bubba King sits on is the Yamhill County Transit Committee. And so when I had a question about our bus system, he's the one that sits on that committee, so I went to him.
But they, they also have to balance the budget and they have to, to. They have the final say of where all of those dollars are going.
So much like us at the state level, where people will come into our committees and they'll make their pitch for we need more money for our schools or we need more money for whatever. They're doing the exact same thing to the commissioners when it's budget week and
[00:21:49] Speaker A: just at a county level.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: At a county level. Yeah. So it's a full time job. You know, they say ours isn't, but you know my schedule.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: I do, I do. It's crazy. And I have seen mayors and commissioners and other leaders at the Capitol in Salem working with other representatives and senators to try and maybe solve problems or get money for something important and work as a team. Hopefully everyone's working as a team. That's the goal. Right, with all government.
[00:22:19] Speaker B: Right. We have talked on other episodes about how the tax structure works and, you know, talking about odot, Oregon Department of Transportation. And there are tax, there are state dollars that fund into it, but then there are county and city, you know, for the specific roads in the respective areas. And it's the same with any other topic. You know, I mean, we try to work to help with projects that the county or the city has, but they're also talking to Congresswoman Salinas or our US Senators to try to get federal dollars. So it's all a big puzzle and working to try to secure dollars to
[00:22:57] Speaker A: do projects and what bucket each of those falls in and where they're all from and so forth. And you just mentioned odot. You mentioned taxes, which of course brings us to the big measure. Yes, the one measure on here, measure 120, which I feel like we have done so many episodes on this topic. Hopefully everyone is well versed and they know what this is. This is a pretty simple one.
Yes or no on yes or no taxes.
[00:23:22] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: That's.
[00:23:23] Speaker B: That is it interesting. I had a call yesterday from the Oregonian and they're getting ready to run a story after election night to see how this turns out. And he said, I think we all assume it's not going to pass.
And so, you know, he was asking me like, well, what if it only passed by this margin or what if it passed by a big margin? And then at the end he goes, and I mean, I have to ask, what if it passes?
And I said, oh my goodness.
I said, I don't think I would have any words. And I said, honestly, I don't think Governor Kotak would have any words because nobody is expecting this to pass. And he said, I agree with you.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: I think then you'd really get skeptical.
[00:24:04] Speaker B: You'd really have to wonder. Yeah, yeah.
[00:24:06] Speaker A: Because at that point you're going, okay, something's off. Because if you've got all these polls, all these write ins, all these call ins, all the percentages that show that 90 plus Oregonians are against this and then somehow it passes, then I feel like everybody's red flag would be raised going, whoa, right.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:26] Speaker A: What mischief was done on this? Correct.
[00:24:28] Speaker B: Correct.
[00:24:29] Speaker A: So we've gone over a non partisan ballot with all of the things on there that are for everybody in the entire state, no matter how they're registered. And then there could be a ballot that is for a specific party. Obviously the two main ones are the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, but there are many other smaller parties and depending on how many people they have registered, then eventually there is the potential that one of those other parties could get
[00:24:56] Speaker B: elevated, be a major party.
[00:24:57] Speaker A: Be a major party if they get a certain number of members.
[00:25:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:03] Speaker A: So who knows? That could be part of, part of Oregon's future.
[00:25:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Goodbye. We do see the independence growing.
[00:25:09] Speaker A: Yeah.
And it was interesting because I, I used to sort of think of independent just being non registered for any party.
[00:25:17] Speaker B: Nav.
[00:25:18] Speaker A: And that's, that's not affiliated voter. And for the longest time I, I just put that as the same. Right, Same thing.
[00:25:25] Speaker B: Right? Yeah.
[00:25:25] Speaker A: But they're different.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: They are different.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Yes. So if you get a primary nominating ballot for a particular party, you are going to have things for the state, but there's also something for the federal on here as well. So there's a US Senator A US Representative and then the state representative. And it's amazing how many times people get that confused. And they will go to you, asking for you to change things at a federal level.
[00:25:49] Speaker B: Right.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: You are not a U.S. representative. You are an Oregon representative.
[00:25:53] Speaker B: And it is confusing because we have the same names, but yes, state representative, state senator, U.S. representative, which we call congressperson, U.S. senator. And a congressman or congresswoman isn't a senator, they're a representative. I didn't know that for a long time. But yes, essentially you have the same structure we have in the state. You have that in at the federal level. So you have the two chambers, the House and the Senate.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: Right.
So if you get one of these partisan ballots, you need to vote. You need to pick your person for all of these different things.
And then you'll have all of the judges, like we talked about, the commissioners like we talked about. And then this is really interesting because if you flip it over, there is a pcp.
And at least on this particular ballot, the Republican ballot, there are two names and then a lot of blank lines. And it says, vote for 14.
But you're supposed to choose 12 other people randomly to vote for and write their names in.
[00:26:59] Speaker B: Right.
[00:27:00] Speaker A: This confused me very much. I was like, okay, what is a pcp and why are they. There's so many blank lines.
[00:27:06] Speaker B: So PCPs are precinct committee persons.
And essentially, my knowledge, and remember, I didn't go to school for political science, but the amount of PCPs one gets is sort of based on where you live. You get just like how we have two US Senators in Oregon, and it's based on our population. So I believe it's similar.
So there are only two. So then you can just write in people you trust.
And, you know, one of the things that PCPs do, and this is where I've seen them, I guess this is where it matters the most to me.
If you have a representative or a senator that at the state level that no longer can finish out their term for whatever reason, then the PCPs for that person's elected district, they are the ones that nominate people that potentially get appointed to finish that person's term.
So the last one that I saw, the PCPs submitted five names, and that goes to the commissioners, the county commissioners, and the county commissioners are the ultimate people who choose.
So that's what I know about that.
[00:28:32] Speaker A: And so then immediately I'm thinking, okay, are there supposed to be 14 PCPs for a particular area? And if only two are running and you write in all these other names, but maybe you Write in people's names who are like, I wasn't planning on
[00:28:47] Speaker B: running for that they can deny. You know, what we should do is we should have my deputy chief of staff, Jessica Snook on here sometime and
[00:28:54] Speaker A: really go into PCP's.
[00:28:56] Speaker B: This is her wheelhouse. Yes. She's very much involved with the Marion County Republicans and she might even be the leader of the pcps for all I know.
[00:29:05] Speaker A: I just thought, well, what happens if you need 14 and there are only two?
[00:29:08] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: You just hope that some of these people that got written in accept. And I mean, I'm just assuming a lot of people see the value of it, but maybe they just don't have the free time to take the ship. So I just thought that was interesting. I was like, that's a lot of write in.
[00:29:24] Speaker B: It's a lot of people.
[00:29:25] Speaker A: Yeah, Well, I think we have covered.
[00:29:28] Speaker B: I think also it goes to show, like, don't be afraid to get involved in your local government.
I mean, only seeing so many that just have one name on there or blank lines and it is, it is service.
It takes away from your time for sure. But your voice is so valuable and we're so incredibly fortunate to live in a country where we can, sure. We can just say, hey, I'd like to have my voice be elevated or I'd like to have my opinion at the table.
[00:29:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
And I think our generations today are so far removed from a time in history where you couldn't vote. There were all these limits to having your voice heard that today in America we have so much of that. I think so many people very easily take it for granted because they've never known anything different or experienced maybe a different type of government in another country or experienced what it would be like to not be allowed to vote. And what does that look like?
[00:30:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:30:33] Speaker A: Yeah, agreed. Hopefully, even though it's a primary, hopefully everyone will get out and vote and maybe this time Oregon can see a big surge and it'll be a whole lot more than the 30 something percent that would be cool that shows up. So get your ballot, fill it out correctly, read the directions and if you can deliver it in person.
[00:30:56] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: Yes. Vote.
[00:30:58] Speaker A: Vote.
Happy primary. Happy may primary time. Is there anything else that you wanted to cover before we wrap up this particular primary conversation?
[00:31:09] Speaker B: We did it. We hit on it. I mean, it is so incredibly important to vote. It really is. I just heard last week of an election that came down to five votes.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:31:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:21] Speaker A: So it does it really. And even, even for those of you who are local to our area. Not that long ago there was a measure on a ballot that I think came down to 13 or 30. Whatever it was, it was very, very, very small. And you realize how much your vote actually does matter because it's easy to think, gosh, with hundreds of thousands of millions of people, my vote doesn't matter and that that is just false.
Oregonians, thank you for tuning into this episode of Life and Legislation with Lucetta. If you were at all confused on primaries or the ballot or had any questions, hopefully some of that got cleared up for you. You and as always, if you have more questions and you want to understand anything at all a bit better, you can reach out to us. Rep. Elmer would love to hear from you, would love to talk with you, hear your questions. That is her job to be here for you. You are her constituents and we would like to be able to get you as connected as possible, not only with your leaders, but just with how state government works in general. So thank you so much again for tuning in. We hope you come back and join us next time for Life and Legend Legislation with Lucetta, because our next episode, Fun Fact, is going to be all about artificial intelligence and what, if anything, the government should be doing about that. So we'll see you then.
