the primary elections are at hand folks and early voting is already underway.

Get ready because we have all the information you'll need to make sure your voice is heard at the ballot box right now on this PrimeTime special voting edition.

Hello everyone.

Welcome to Prime Time.

I'm your host at Leon.

One of our highest callings as citizens of this country is to vote but all too often primary elections do not get the attention or the voter turnout that general elections do.

Yet primaries dictate who will be running in November along with some other very important local ballot measures.

So on this show we want to do everything we can to help guide you through the process so that you can vote on or before primary election day on May 5th here to help us and do just that, our Karen Eller and Sandy junk from the Dan nonpartizan League of Women Voters of Fort Wayne.

>> Welcome to prime time.

>> Thank you for having us.

Thanks for being here.

So listen, we have a lot to get to but first I want to talk about the primaries.

What why are they so important?

What's going to be on those ballots?

Talk a little bit about the primaries themselves.

>> Yeah, we'd love to.

So we work out in the community a lot tabling events and we find that a lot of people don't really understand what the primary is and why we have it.

>> And one is the reason that we have it is Karen gave me a very good basketball analogy that I've been using this past sports season.

>> So think of the primary as we just got done with the NCAA tournaments and there was selection Sunday and they picked all of the teams that were going to be in the tournament and on those brackets that we all played.

So that's what the primary is.

We are picking our teams or our candidates that are going to be on the ballot in the November elections and they are on May 5th.

>> But voting is already open right now.

Do people understand we'll talk about the early voting process, what you know, what are some of the dates that that that are important for people to understand?

>> Yeah.

So we like to think about May 5th, the primary election is being the last day to vote, right?

That's the end of it.

That's the end.

So you know, I often talk to folks like who's ever had a plan to do something and then it just didn't turn out the way that you thought it would.

So when you plan to vote on Election Day, which you're absolutely welcome to do, it does mean that you have to get there on Election Day.

So there is a great opportunity to get to the polls before May 5th right now if you're in Allen County, Rousso centers open and then about a week before the polls right.

>> We have a slide here for for early voting in Allen County.

And I do want to mention we're here you are from Allen County but you know this the prime time and PBS Fort Wayne is seen all throughout the 11 counties of Northeast Indiana.

So it's important for people to understand that they have access to this information as well from from their county and their voter registrars offices.

>> You advise people to make a voter plan.

What is that?

What what are you talking about when you talk about a voter plan for a voter plan?

>> We've got some pretty specific steps that you want to take.

The very first step is you want to make sure either you're registered to vote or you register to vote.

That time has passed for us Indiana for the primary but it is very important as we're leading up into the general election in the fall to double check your voting status.

>> OK, so there's time to get registered for the general if you miss the primaries.

>> Yes.

Yes there is.

And for the primaries did you have to register for a certain party or can you vote as an independent?

>> That's a great question.

So the interesting thing about elections is that every state gets to choose how their primaries are run here in Indiana you don't have to register with a party in order to vote in the primary.

And so when you walk into your voting booth on whether you vote early or on Election Day, they're going to ask you if you want a Democrat or a Republican ticket and you're going to pick that ticket and that's going to be the one that you vote on in the primary election.

>> OK, and what if I vote if I register as an independent or I don't register for a party?

>> Yeah, that's a great question.

You still have access to the Indiana primaries.

Your choices will still be a Democrat or Republican ticket.

The other political parties have ways that they settle their candidates, their primaries off screen a little bit.

So they do have a process for that.

But when you go and vote in your county's election it will be a Republican and a Democratic ballot.

Those are going to be your two choices.

>> All right.

I want to talk about something that's been much discussed.

By the way, before I ask my question, I want to remind folks that our phone lines are open.

You know, you can participate in this conversation as well or open questions for your questions or you can text us.

So the number for calling in is to six oh (969) 27 two zero and you can also text us a comment or question at two six zero (969) 27 three oh.

We're going to cover a lot of information here.

It can get confusing and so but don't be bashful.

Go ahead and ask and I think every question there'll be a lot of other people out there who have the same question as you and will benefit from from the answers.

So let's talk about something that's much discussed and that's male voting voting by mail or do we have access to that now?

What's the status of vote by mail?

>> Absolutely yes.

Do you wanna cover that?

Sure.

OK, a little bit yeah.

So Indiana you can vote by mail.

We call it absentee voting in Indiana but it is essentially the same thing.

But in Indiana you do have to be qualified to vote by mail.

Some states everyone can vote by mail and maybe that's the only way they can vote.

>> But in Indiana you do have to be qualified so you want to check with your election board to make sure that you follow the proper protocol if you're qualified or not and a lot of people can be it's if you're out of town or elderly can't get out things like that.

>> Right.

And we have a slide up.

Let's let's leave the slide up guys.

There's a lot of criteria that you have to meet to get an absentee ballot by the way, one of them and we have a lot of users who are over sixty five years old.

>> That's that's it.

No other you know, absentee sound so you know, like the official and like oh I need to be a real special case.

>> No.

Sixty five you can get an absentee equals vote by mail ballot.

Yes and it's we're coming up on a deadline April twenty third April April twenty third yes.

>> That's the last day to request your absentee application.

OK so if you have if you have visions of voting from the comfort of your own home and just putting it in the mailbox it's you got to get on it.

>> That's right.

And the other important thing to notice about vote by mail is that in Indiana your ballot needs to arrive on election Day by six p.m.

So so get it and get it back and get it right back.

So when you fill your application to vote by mail, the election board will send you a ballot.

You got to fill it out.

Fill out those instructions exactly as they tell you to and get it back in the mail.

>> Karen, what happens if a vote comes in after that?

If it does not count, then fortunately oh OK.

>> Yes, we don't want that.

I will say at least in Allen County I know we have a lot of counties represented here but if an absentee ballot comes back to Allen County and there's some sort of error with it, the count the election board will call the voter and try to get that error corrected.

But if you're getting it there on the deadline, there's no time to make that happen.

>> So the sooner you can get your ballot back in the better.

OK, and let's talk now about now a new wrinkle.

>> This is a new wrinkle in voting and opportunity, a new opportunity whenever there's change, you know, there's a lot of confusion that even if it's a little change we're talking about voting centers.

Yes.

And this is for Allen County specific.

Some of our other northeast Indiana counties may already have voting centers but what our voting centers that is a great question and you're right.

>> Seventy two counties this is new for Allen County but seventy two counties in Indiana have already moved to voting centers.

So what that means is that in Allen County or any place that does have voting centers you can go to any of the fifty three voting centers on Election Day to cast your ballot.

There are fifty three in Illinois, there are fifty three in Allen County and they are spread out all over the county.

>> There was a lot of research that went into first of all we have a map let's just go to the map first and then we'll go to the video we have a map of so people can see just kind of in general those are the voting centers in Allen County.

You can see we got it all south west, north side.

You everywhere Haven yeah.

>> So so those are them now there's a website right to that we can go people can go to how do you find your how do you find your voting center how do you know which voting center you go to.

You can go to any voting center that is oh is that right.

Yes.

So many people especially we're out tabling in the community they say I voted at the same place on Election Day for twenty years and that is going to look very different for most of my is is my old precinct gone Yabe could not know it might not be mine is gone my old precinct is gone so so so some old precincts are now voting centers.

>> Yeah.

Did they get a rebrand and they they did and some have have have gone away so if someone is not watching the show I mean shame on them but if you're not watching the show and they go to their old precinct to vote or their old polling location there will be a sign on the door for this year notifying people that sorry, this is no longer pulling my ballot, inform me of where my voting center is or know the it will not but the election board is in Allen County is sending out postcards to all addresses where there are registered voters to make sure that they are getting notified of this.

>> All right.

Walk me through this Sandy walk me through this voting centers website.

Yeah.

So what I would do is type in Allen County Election Board into your Google search board switch bar and make sure you're going to the Indiana Allen County Election Board.

There's a ton more information on this website that if you have questions about voting elections like go to this website it's really good today we'll talk about vote centers so we can go to the big red box that says vote centers and we're going to pull that up and you have a couple of different ways to pull up the list.

One is a PDF.

I don't love that one because there's a zip codes on it.

>> The other one is an Excel spreadsheet that should come up here and that will have it has all of the building names.

>> It's got the address and it has all the zip codes.

So if you're sitting at home wondering where you can go, you can look for your zip code or it by zip code or if you know you're going to be on the other side of town in the four six eight three five zip code you can do it from there another way I think the better way is this interactive map that they're offering.

>> So when you open this up you've got you'll see orange dots and green dots.

The orange is like the map we already saw but this is interactive.

>> Yes, this is more interactive.

So orange sites are the early voting sites.

So if you even just hover over and click on one that comes up, it will it will show you all of the hours that it's open.

I think this one even tells you that it's an Election Day vote center as well and then down towards the bottom you can even click on a link and it will give you driving directions to that vote center suite.

Yeah, it's really nice.

So then I think we we went through a couple more here.

I did want to point out with the Rousso Center that should come up in a second that one is early voting you do can do any early voting now it's open now it is not an Election Day vote center though so that is important to keep in mind that that location will not be open on Election Day.

They flipped it on us.

Yeah, I know.

I know.

So I thought well that one's important to include in the video here and then we just kind of popped up a couple of other locations like I picked one those close to my house and then I picked one out that's out by New Haven.

They all look the same.

They're all giving you the information on how to get there the times they're open and where they're located at.

>> OK and again for people that are reviewing us outside of Allen County, do they have recourse?

Do they have a simple easy website that they can go to?

>> They should contact their election board.

Yeah, yeah.

yeah.

>> I would say this is very challenging know right.

And I respect that but it's also important to you know, to be inclusive to everyone else.

Does each county have an election board or is it yeah that's kind of those counties even small some small rural counties.

>> Yeah it might be one person maybe two people.

>> OK, all right good.

So thank you for that.

That was that was really good to see.

>> See it.

OK contextualize it.

What do you need.

People need to to break because we have a text question about real ID a real ID license those are newer some people have older ones by the way.

And also I want to ask you what about people that are not so website savvy, Internet savvy what you know if you're somebody who's doesn't use a computer, you know your vote is as valid as anyone else's.

What should they do?

What do you recommend?

>> So I would say for anyone that's not real computer savvy they might just call the Allen County Election Board and someone might be able to help them there or talk to your neighbor that might be or a family member that's a little bit more computer savvy to help you get there.

I did send out actually in my neighborhood the other day to my association secretary and I let her know that she was working on the community newsletter.

I'm like hey, can you can you let people know about the vote centers and gave them that information and sent them a PDF and let them know it's closed.

So reach out to your neighbors if you're not used to using a computer and stuff and someone can help you or call the election board, they're super helpful.

>> There they are.

And Karen, you said that Indiana's is going to mail you a postcard or something that well, it's that Allen County Election Board will mail the cards for this change because this is such a big change for us.

>> Yeah, it's a new thing so you'll get notified.

All right.

Let's talk about IDs.

>> What's what's a valid ID?

Do you need an I.D.?

You need an idea.

You need an ID, need an I.D.. Absolutely.

And there are four key components to having a valid ID and to answer the tax question does not need to be a real ID in order to vote.

It does need to be state or federal government issued ID.

It needs to have your photo on it.

It needs to have your name your name needs to at least conform to your voter registration record.

>> It does not have to be exact.

It needs to have an expiration date on it and and there's a tricky little hold up there.

It can be expired but it has to be expired since the last election which was November 5th of twenty twenty they can't be super expired.

>> Read recently expired now there was some back and forth and some controversy whether student IDs counted as legal you know for our younger voters, you know, they might be here at Purdue Fort Wayne and they there just have their student ID.

>> They don't drive yet.

What can they use that?

Yes, that that's just it it just like you got to change things for the show but yes, you can use a student ID but the student I.D.

still has to conform to to those items that Karen was just mentioning.

>> So if you're a student yeah.

If you're a student it doesn't have your picture on it and then it will not work if it's not a state school it will not work.

>> It has to be a state issued ID so private university does not.

>> Yeah so so that's something to double check to make sure and it still needs to have an expiration date it still has to have your photo and it still has to have your name on it.

>> OK all right we got some thank you for that.

All right we have some question somebody called in Gale when do we vote on new state senators and representatives is a question about what's on the ballot in the primaries?

What's what is on the ballot for the primaries?

Besides there are besides the candidates from from each party, right?

>> Yeah, there's all there's all sorts of races and I'm glad that she asked that because a lot of us think about the presidential election and they think oh, it's not a presidential election year.

They're still probably ten or twelve races on your ballot this year in Indiana.

There's no senator US senator races.

There are state senator races.

There is the 3rd District in our area.

So I'm just talking Allen County and I think a little DeKalb the 3rd District congressional races on right out they renew every two years.

OK, so yeah, you and Congress and our state representatives are every two years.

>> So any other are there might there be local you know, some of the other counties and stuff might there be local initiatives?

>> Yes.

Township townships boards like Allen County Council and commissioners are up I'm sure in the other counties they've got their council board members and so forth will be up.

So there will be a lot of yeah, we're a little bit bigger here in Allen County.

So you a ten or twelve races if you're Noble County may have four or five and we like to say they aren't the the biggest races like we know about the presidential ones.

But the closer a candidate is to your home that seat the more important it is to our everyday lives and they're very important for us to pay attention to and some of those are very hotly contested.

If you watch television you're getting a lot of political advertising for some of these races.

The phone numbers are on the screen there folks for you to text us or to call us and we've got a call from Fred.

Fred wants to know what limits are there on political advertising, on TV and at the polling locations.

>> Very, very important question.

>> Man on TV Zero of the scope of this conversation.

But I will say that that they're sorry I was looking at that question again the there are limits to what you can wear to your right if you go in vote in public you are you both have sporting beautiful vote t shirts.

>> Is that is that OK?

That is ok ok so you are nine is your vote matters or you don't want to be racketeering at the polls so there's a distance where you me right so but you don't want to be people can be a certain number of feet distance from what they call the chute so where you go into the poll to vote and that's the place where there's no more political lines, there's no more T-shirts if you have a political T-shirt on they might have you turn it inside out.

>> OK, so there are some rules about that OK and poll watchers or poll the people who work at the poll I don't know what the proper name is.

>> They'll be looking for that in line.

They will.

And you know the poll workers are there to help make the process go smoothly.

>> So there's going to be there is going to be poll clerks and judges.

There's going to be an inspector there.

So all of those people are there to help this run very smoothly.

And if there's an issue you don't need to make it a big issue.

>> Right.

And speaking of running smoothly, that's one of the visions of these voting centers right.

>> That it will go faster.

Yes, we have what's great about these centers there there are a couple of things that I'm excited about and if you talk to some folks in some other counties that have done this, they also have felt like it's gone really well.

>> So we're excited to see how this goes.

They're going to be 10 machines to vote on at all of the polling locations and so that and there are going to be staff there to to help manage all of those in a way that is more than what we've had at various polling locations before.

Like some of them were so small they only had one or two machines on it.

So if there was a big rush you'd get really back to you say machines I'm new to Indiana.

>> This will be my first machine is it is automatic is it a punch?

>> Is it a great question or a fill in the fill in the little circle?

>> This is the other exciting thing about Allen County.

We got new voting machines this year and so these are will this be new to people?

>> The yeah OK.

Describe what what is going to be like.

Yeah.

So it's going to be better.

So the old machines they were sort of the gray black and white are various shades of gray and you couldn't quite see when you push the button which one it aligned with.

And now on the new voting machines when the buttons are on the side and when you push a button it will light up what you chose.

So it's going to be a lot more visually apparent where you made your choice.

>> OK, fantastic.

Yeah.

All right.

We got something in from Sarah what if her last name on her ID doesn't match her birth certificate?

>> That is not in play right now.

>> So that is fine as long as she has an I.D.

they match your ID or your voter registration needs to match your I.D.

Your birth certificate does not need to match your voter ID.

>> Right, right.

Hope that helps.

>> This is from Dolly.

My retired Army Army ID has no expiration date.

Can I use that to vote?

>> Sadly not.

No it has to expiration date.

Yep.

OK, Dolly that's all right.

So you his passport driver's license state issued ID.

>> Yep.

Yep.

OK you you also wanted to talk about vote for one one tell us what vote for one one is.

Yes really pretty spectacular website.

>> Yes I'm a huge proponent of vote for one why and anyone that hangs around with me well will tell you that I talk about it endlessly.

So this is a League of Women Voters website you go to vote for one when dog pull that up and you can do soup to nuts.

Make your voting plan here you can register to vote here.

You can check your registration here.

You can check what's on your ballot here.

But what I like the most about Vote for one is we work at the League of Women Voters.

We send out candidate surveys to everyone that's running for election and we ask them questions about where they stand on issues three or four questions.

Well, this is where we keep all that information for your viewers to to see.

>> So by the way, important to to mention that League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan yes.

>> Right.

So you're surveying both sides of the aisle everything.

Yeah.

That's really great to to mention.

>> We are a nonpartisan organization and our questions are nonpartisan.

We spend at least four to six weeks working on these questions to send we have four or five of us get together.

We talk about and we kind of think about what we want to say and then we kind of go back and make sure that it's coming across in a nonpartizan I don't know if we've seen it any shots we got a little donkey and a little little little elephant on the desk here.

>> All right.

Well, listen, I'm taking the attention away from the website so so you can by the way I used it I checked my check my read my registration.

>> I saw that I'm ready to go so that's great.

>> That's great.

I'm ready.

And I also saw the deadline for vote by mail and so it's fantastic.

>> What other information is on there on the website?

Yeah.

So if viewers are looking at their TV right now they can see this is where we sent the candidates questions.

So this part here is kind of their biographical information and some candidates reply and some don't.

Yeah, Mr.

Stutsman has not replied so if he's watching tonight he can still fill out his registration questions and upload us.

But you can see their responses.

This is a biographical information.

It goes down a little bit farther, just kind of keep scrolling down the screen and it will get to all the questions we asked and your viewers can read them on their own time.

>> We certainly won't go through all of that today.

Yeah, so you can you can get a lot of information and get it prepare yourself to to go vote right?

>> Yes.

So looking you know what is it trying to put in wrapping up what what advice do you have people how can they encourage the voting process.

You guys do this as volunteers and you know you're doing so much so much good here with delivering this information.

You know the primaries are so important.

This election cycle is so important.

What can people do to encourage voting because the turnout for these these are usually not so good.

>> It's not great and in Indiana it's pretty bad in another county it's really out of the pretty bad.

>> So in twenty twenty for our presidential primary we had a thirteen percent turnout Allen County which is really not the best.

>> So I think one of the great things about the vote centers is that you are not resigned to your precinct and you can vote as a group.

So if you want to bring your friends with you you can actually go as a group and vote together, make it fun.

>> Yes, you can have a little voting party so that's really great.

>> I think a lot of people don't want to vote because they don't want to vote for the wrong thing.

They don't know who they're voting for .

So we try to provide tools to say like look, here's your ballot before you get in there you can take it these comments and you can take your phone into the voting booth with you.

That's fine.

So you can look at the candidates in advance and not feel the pressure of making a wrong decision.

>> Right.

And I think that's a lot that voting can feel scary to people sometimes and I think everything that's been done it seems to me that it's trying to alleviate that.

Yes, but any final advice for people besides besides those things?

>> Well, when we say make a voting plan, be really specific about it.

Let's put it on your calendar if you're going to go on Election Day, what time are you going?

>> Yeah.

Which location are you going to like carve out the plan in your mind?

There's actually data around this that says that if you make a voting plan you're actually going to get to the polls frequently.

>> But if you don't and we're putting up some some deadlines here.

So the last day to request your absentee ballot is coming up on the on the twenty third and then you an early vote.

>> All right.

Up to Election Day.

Right.

And then it's no longer you know like you said some some some places not precincts.

>> I can't use that word anymore so some voting centers shut down and then you on Election Day you can go to the to the to the big voting centers in Allen County.

>> OK, listen, we're running out of time running for the general election.

>> Will most of this information apply except for maybe new deadlines?

Yes, Yes.

And looking ahead yeah.

For the general election, absolutely.

We will have a vote for one one for you with candidate surveys.

Yeah they'll be new deadlines but there will be deadlines so we want to be prepared for that and we encourage all of our viewers and your friends and family to follow us on Facebook or Instagram.

Yeah, we're not super flashy but we do provide a lot of good information or go to our website all of this information that came up on your screens that might have come up too fast.

>> We'll be on our website right.

My thanks to Karen L'A and Sandy junk from the League of Women Voters of Fort Wayne.

I'm Ed Leon.

Thank you for watching prime time please please vote.

>> Thank you guys.

That was fantastic.

Thank you.

You did a great job