'Getting This Right Is More Important Than Getting It Fast': Joe Morelle Issues Warning For Voter Rules

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During a House Administration Committee hearing, Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) asked witnesses about vote counting processes in California, and voter protections.

Transcript

00:00questions thank you I'm a chair I just like to ask the witnesses can you raise

00:04your hand if you have information or knowledge that demonstrates the

00:10California election officials wrongly certified a winner in this year's

00:15California congressional elections okay out the record should reflect that none

00:21of the witnesses raised their hand I do want to ask mrs. mrs. no watch it my

00:29I'm sorry if I'm probably killing your last name I apologize if it were easy

00:33like Morelli I would get it but your your testimony discusses how vitally

00:40important it is to our democracy the right to vote for particularly for military

00:45and overseas voters to your knowledge the voter access and election

00:48administration policies in place in states like California and I will say it in my

00:53state of New York which also allows ballots postmarked to be counted up to a

00:57week after election day do these policies enhance the ability of military

01:02and overseas voters to cast a free fair and secure ballot so our position is we

01:10need to take in account the experiences that our families are experiencing and

01:13for those stationed overseas or even in the continental United States when trying

01:19to access the polls we will experience mail delays and so any policy that takes

01:26that into account like the state of California being able to count ballots

01:31seven days after the election makes it easier for our community to participate

01:35absolutely you you mentioned in your testimony and I I don't know this I

01:40didn't have this experience but I think you indicated the number of days

01:45typically that ballot that mail delays can occur let me just I thought there was a

01:52number in here but can you just tell me a little bit you you've had this

01:54experience of the amount of time that it takes just for us mail to get back and

02:00forth from where you happen to be obviously it depends on where you are but if

02:04you're in the Pacific can you talk a little bit about those stories which you

02:10experienced so priority mail for international for for USPS is about six

02:16to ten days others average about seven to fourteen days so from our position you know

02:23two weeks is very friendly to the military voter but we recommend seven

02:28days as the gold standard yeah and so the process is if you're on a base can you

02:33just talk about that I actually don't know how it or if you're let me say this if

02:37you're on an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific how does that how do you

02:40get well I have never been on an aircraft carrier someone in your organization

02:45probably has we do have members of that experience I can I can I can share I can

02:52share when it doesn't go well so we have a member who was stationed because we do

02:57have people who are stationed families who are stationed on installations that

03:00aren't US military installations so in military installation connected United States

03:05we we have access to our mail system but for example we have one member who is

03:10stationed on a Canadian military installation so therefore she did not

03:14have access to US mail and actually ended up having to pay a private courier to then

03:20courier her ballot back to make the deadline extremely expensive and we know the

03:25majority in our community do not have those financial resources to do that and I

03:29share the story for two reasons one to you know hit home really what the mail

03:33delay situation and those barriers can be for us but also really to express how

03:38many people in our community desperately want to participate in this process and

03:42are really looking for policymakers to make it as accessible as possible for us to do

03:46so thank you for that answer and I guess you're right you're a spouse of so you

03:51wouldn't make that make sense it's Tuesday I apologize I'm not really fully

03:56functioning yet the other thing that you mentioned which I hadn't really given

04:01thought to but I guess makes a great deal of sense is that you you may be on a

04:05military base but you may be in a host country and you have to make that

04:09connection somehow and so I appreciate your comments about that I would say this

04:15and I appreciate all the witnesses and your perspective and I just from my

04:23perspective getting this right is made more important than getting it fast and I

04:28like I said in my opening statement I'm certainly willing to look at and

04:33obviously with the Elections Assistance Commission we could all look at ways to

04:37improve this and make this faster for everyone to some degree but we also want to

04:42respect in the notion that California other states want to get it right they

04:47want to afford every single voter in their state the opportunity to vote and look

04:52this isn't it shouldn't be a gotcha I mean the right to vote should be

04:56inalienable it is you know according to our founders inalienable rights that we

05:02have and so the fact that California takes time to get it right and I suspect

05:06from the fact that there were no contest elections that they actually did get it

05:09right so I I don't want to value speed over doing this properly and getting it

05:14right so anyway I think the witness for being here Mr. Chair I yield back

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