What's Happening with Mail In Voting in MoCo? How to?

Mail-in voting feels like a modern convenience, but the rules behind it are older and more rigorous than most people realize, and one small mistake can create big headaches. We sit down with Dr. Gilberto “Dr. Z” Zelaya from the Montgomery County Board of Elections to make vote by mail in Montgomery County, Maryland feel straightforward, practical, and stress-free.

We talk about how voter outreach has evolved from excuse-required absentee voting to today’s no-excuse mail-in ballots, plus why programs like Future Vote help build lifelong civic engagement by bringing students into the election process early. Then we get into the stuff you actually need: how to request a mail-in ballot (including texting “VBM” to 77788), how to check voter registration (text “VOTE” to 77788), and where to get help if you prefer a phone call or an in-person visit. 

Transcript

Transcript

Superpowers And A Voting Twist

Derrick Kenny 0:00

Superman has laser vision. Spider-Man has webbing. The voters in Montgomery County have mail and voting.

unknown 0:08

What?

Announcer 0:11

Good day and welcome to What's Happening Moco, an authentic, unscripted podcast from your Montgomery County government. Now, here's your host, Derek Kenny.

What Mail-In Voting Really Means

Derrick Kenny 0:25

Good day. Welcome to What's Happening Moco. Today we're talking about mail in ballots, the ability to mail in your vote and have it count. And we're here with the doctor, the good doctor, the doctor voting, Dr. Z. How are you today, Dr. Z?

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Pleasure, good and excited.

Derrick Kenny 0:42

All right. Just to clarify for people that have been living under a shell for the last uh 20 elections in Montgomery County, Maryland, Dr. Z is Dr. Gilberto Zelaya, and he is a real doctor. Dr. Z, can you tell us a little bit? This is like a nice hidden gem in your background, that you are a literal doctor. Because we call you Dr. Z because of all your knowledge about voting, but you are a literal doctor.

SPEAKER_02 1:04

Yeah, my background is a public health. So PhD in public health. So I'm uh, you know, depending on who you talk, I'm not a real doctor, but you know, that's uh that's it's it's all important work. And so I joined the Board of Elections uh in 2003, uh, but I've been a county employee since 2000. So my background's community mobilization, creating campaigns around prevention, HIV AIDS, gang violence, team pregnancy. And then I pivoted in 2003 to uh access to the franchise and voting

Meet Dr. Z And His Path

SPEAKER_02 1:32

rights.

Derrick Kenny 1:32

Wonderful. That's incredible. And so in your role, you're reaching out to the community in different ways. What are some of the great ways or some of the ways that you found uh reaching out to empower voters with that information has changed over the years?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Yeah, so it's been a transition. Uh when I first started, you had two options to vote. You needed a reason uh to vote by mail. It was called absentee voting. So whether it was professional or uh personal reasons. Uh, and then you voted on election day, which was the first Tuesday after the first Monday. Um, as I joined in 2003, I saw an opportunity number one uh to involve younger voters or even individuals who are too young to vote. So I created the Future Vote Program, which is the only program in the nation since 2004, which is very interesting, where we incorporate middle school uh students uh or individuals 15 and under, so between sixth grade to ninth to serve as election day aides so they could observe participatory democracy. And then once those students come of age and they're 16 years of age and they meet the state requirements to uh register to vote, which is 16, live in Maryland, be a US citizen, then we encourage them not only to register to vote, but also serve as poll workers. Um as a couple of years came by and around 2018, um, I saw a need to obtain information quickly, right? Instantaneously. And as you know, we all live not by the sword but by our cell phones, right? So then what happens is uh we created a system of uh texting prompts that are very popular. And I know we'll be talking about some of those prompts. Um, and it was kind of timely before the 2020 uh presidential COVID election when kind of a lot of people got introduced uh to the way of uh the mode of voting that we'll be discussing today, which is mail-in voting. Um, and you know, it's mail-in voting has been in existence since the Civil War. Uh, President Abraham Lincoln wanted his union soldiers or soldiers in general to vote uh during the war. And there are a lot of men, right, uh uh joined the the front or at the front in the trenches, and an election was coming up. So he instituted mail-in voting for military. Um, and then since then it's grown. Um, you know, as I mentioned in the early 2000s and before, you needed a reason to vote by mail or absentee. Uh now there's no excuse mail-in voting, and we'll get into it.

Derrick Kenny 3:56

Wow, something for trivia night. Yep. What president started mail-in voting? Abraham Lincoln. Who knew? That's a great fun fact. It must be interesting for you because of your longevity and service to the county and because of your future vote program to see some of the young people go from kids learning about the voting process to literally coming in to vote. Have you come across any young people after their service to the county through Future Vote coming in to vote and say, hey, I, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

Actually, uh, three days ago, um, I swung by our training center that we have. We newly uh added to our repertoire of services at the Board of Elections, and our offices are in Gathersburg, Maryland. I won uh those uh gentleman, he was probably in his late 20s, and he looked at me and he was like, Oh, you still work here. I was like, Oh, how can I help you? He's like, I did your future vote program uh in eighth grade and I became a poll worker before I went off to college. Now I'm back in town and uh I'm in grad school and I'm like, wow, I'm dating myself. So I was like, okay. So, but it's kind of interesting. And even during the presidential 2020 elections, remember because of COVID, um, we didn't have in-person voting for the 2020 uh primary. Uh, Governor Hogan declared a state of emergency and everyone received a mail-in ballot. Uh for the general elections, you had to actively request a mail-in ballot. Right. So we needed poll workers, and we consolidated our election day polling place to vote centers. And we still needed individuals to be at the polls. But a lot of our poll workers uh at that time they were older, they're in their late 60s with other, you know, you know, health disparities, right? And so individuals were like, I'm gonna sit this one out.

Derrick Kenny 5:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:41

And it was a national call for poll workers. We had a standby list of over 500 people because a lot of young individuals came up the ranks and also individuals that did future vote who happened to move back and back with their parents because of the economy. They, they, you know, they moved back in to save money, et cetera. So future vote has been an excellent resource to our voters. Right. Um, but also the options have expanded to not only melon voting, but also voting

Training Young Voters And Poll Workers

SPEAKER_02 6:10

uh early, uh, during the early voting cycle.

Derrick Kenny 6:13

Incredible, incredible. We started this off talking about superpowers. I guess one superpower is, I guess, the ability to see into the future. And I guess future vote literally um lays the foundation for future um support uh from young people of the uh voter process and being engaged in the voter process. Um and I know this a little bit outside of your wheelhouse in terms of having an opinion about voting, but why is it important for people to vote? Um, some people may, you know, there's a l a certain level of apathy um among some groups and some individuals about voting. Why do I need to vote? Um you're one person out of millions of people. Um why is it important for people to get out and vote?

SPEAKER_02 6:54

You know, if if you look at Montgomery County specifically, we have about 700,000 plus voters. I think it's important, regardless on the political spectrum, your concerns, the issues that are hitting at home, right in your pocketbook or in your neighborhoods. You know, there's a lot of effort that goes into putting an election. Uh, number one, you're paying taxes and those taxes pay for the election. So I think also it behooves you. Um, and then putting together an election is like putting together a uh bar mitzvah, a quinceniera, a wedding for 700,000 uh plus individuals. And we have so many options now since I started the board. So mail-in voting, voting early, which is for the primary, June 11th through the 18th. And then election day would be uh June 23rd. You have a menu of options. So, you know, I think there's more options than excuses. So I hope you would turn out and vote.

Derrick Kenny 7:47

And there you have it. That is wonderful. Very well said. Um, now we talked about voting by bail being a superpower and something that's been around for a while. And of course, there's other options as well. Early voting, um, you can you gotta um you can vote in in person and you have all the technology to help you along the way. Um, why is mail-in voting um so important and and uh what types of scenarios would you see people or do you see people using mail-in voting?

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Really, there's a multitude of reasons why individuals can leverage mail-in voting as an option. It's safe, secure, transparent. Um, what's interesting is we will like for individuals to start formulating their vote plan. Around the first week in May, uh, the first wave of mail-in ballots will start dropping into the US postal stream. Those are the individuals who are um have requested ahead of time or are on the permanent mail-in list. So if you signed up to be on the permanent list, you will receive a mail-in ballot from 2027, 28, 30, etc. Right. So what happens is once you get your mail-in ballot, um, also around that time, early May, uh, the drop boxes will be installed. Uh, they're all under 24 hour surveillance. Montgomery County has 58 drop boxes.

Derrick Kenny 9:04

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_02 9:05

Okay. But if for some reason um you don't live near a drop box or you want to locate the post office, all you need to do is text the word box and your zip code to 77788, and it'll give you the nearest ballot drop box and post office uh location.

Announcer 9:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:22

That's available once the drop boxes and the mail and ballot start circulating. So they'll run the first week in May, um, all the way through June 23rd. And then uh those drop boxes are available until 8 p.m., June 23rd, which is the primary election date. Then we will store them after the election and we will reinstall them prior to the general elections. Um and the way to request your mail and ballot, just text the three simple letters VBM for vote by mail, VBM to 77788 to receive a mail-in ballot.

Derrick Kenny 9:55

All right. That's incredible. So you can use your cell phones um to receive a mail-in ballot, but are there other ways that uh for people that are older or technology challenged or just in the area, there are other ways to um try voting by mail?

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yeah, to request a mail-in ballot. So, you know, I encourage everyone to follow us on social media Facebook, Instagram, X, and Blue Sky. We're always going to community events. So we could be near your residential neighborhood. Our offices, as I mentioned earlier, is in Gaitherburg, Maryland. So if you live in Tacoma Park, we're kind of a little bit, we're kind of far for you. Right um, but if you live in Up County, you could come in person to uh acquire an application. You could submit your application. And if we have live ballots uh in the office, we could actually hand you your mail and ballot. You could vote it then and there and just submit it. So you're done. Wow, one and done. Or if you're not tech savvy with a cell phone, you could go on our website, which is 777vote.org. You could do an online submission, right? Or you could download the application and you could fax it or mail it to us. Um, so there's a lot of options uh to obtain uh a mail-in ballot. And for whatever reason, we're there to serve, you can call our office at 240-777-8500 240-777-8500, or on our website at 777vote.org.

Derrick Kenny 11:22

All right, all right. And shout out to Montgomery County, Maryland. There's a brand new website uh that's been created that's um supposed to be easier to use and um easier to stay within the county government and get all the things that you need. So be sure to check it out, including your ability to vote within the county, Montgomery County MD.gov. Check out the new website and of course check out the Board of Elections webpage for all the information and resources. Um so you mentioned a few deadlines earlier, and uh there may be some people out there like me that cannot retain that information fairly easily. So repeating it a few times does not hurt us at all. Uh, what are some of the deadlines that people should keep in mind when it comes to um voting by mail?

SPEAKER_02 12:05

Yeah, so the the the big one is the voter registration deadline. You need to make sure that your information is up to date, current. Also, Maryland has closed primaries. Um, and so the deadline for that is June 2nd. We have uh several deadlines. So the 16th of June is one of the vote uh deadlines to request a mail in ballot ballot if you're sending your application via mail or uh uh by fax. The 19th is a deadline if you're submitting your application online. Um and if you need to vote in person, you could come to the office all the way until election day, June 23rd, and vote in person at our office. Uh, but you cannot submit a request at the polling place on election day or joining or at an early voting location. And if you request a mail-in ballot, you need to follow through with

Why Voting Still Matters

SPEAKER_02 12:50

your intention to do so. Oh, if you need to get off the permanent list, call us ASAP. We have a cancellation form online. We can mail it to you. We can email you the attachment. Just call us at 240-777-8500. Because what happens is if you show up to vote in person and you've received a mail-in ballot, you're gonna have to vote either that mail-in ballot or provisionally.

Derrick Kenny 13:15

Oh, wow. Okay. So there's a commitment to mail and voting. Once you decide to mail and vote one year, then it's an ongoing thing. If you're on the permanent level, if you're on the permanent list.

SPEAKER_02 13:24

But if you request, you could request on the application to vote just for the current primary, okay, just for the current general election, let's say you're gonna be on vacation or professional endeavor in California, we can mail your ballot to California. Right. Um, if your children are away in college, by the time college school is over, like my son for the uh spring semester, this should be home, right? So they could vote in person. But if they're doing an internship, if they know where they're gonna physically be, they could request their mail-in ballot. My mom, for example, she lives in El Salvador and she comes back and forth. She's gonna be voting by mail. Um, so she's on that permanent list. Um, but one thing I do want to share is that there's different types of mail-in ballots.

Derrick Kenny 14:04

Wow. We got props here. We have props. We have props. All right, let's well take us through. Let's give us a quick tour. We just had a tour recently uh at the um recycling facility uh with um the Department of Environmental Protection, and we love tours, they're so educational and informational. Let's try this. Let's see what we have here.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

So, right now we have about 120,000 Montgomery County voters on the permanent list, and we have several thousand that will vote on a particular election, whether the primer or the general, as I mentioned. Now, if you're on that list, you will get the mail-in packet, okay, which will come in something like this. Uh, this is what we used last year. We haven't seen the latest and greatest that the state of Maryland, because everything comes from the state of Maryland, doesn't come from our warehouse. Um, in there, the state or your respective county will provide everything, even the return envelope, all of the instructions in English and Spanish, because under section 203 of the 1975 Voter Rights Act, we must provide both languages on everything that we send sample ballot, ballots itself, information, signage, et cetera. And so all the instructions are here. They're all there, laid out, simple. It also lays out all of the uh 58 ballot drop boxes and the address. It also lays out uh more information about what you need to do to return your mail and ballot. Um, and also we will give you your

Drop Boxes Text Tools And Requests

SPEAKER_02 15:25

actual ballot. This is just a community demonstration ballot. So, you know, we're we're in the process of printing them right now.

Derrick Kenny 15:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

And so once you get your pen and do not use crayons, markers, what have you, a pen, please?

Derrick Kenny 15:37

No crayons, markers. Yes. And no, you say no pens as well. Yeah, you can use a pen. You can use a pencil. Blue or black, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

But but you know, because sometimes a pencil, uh, depending on the weight of the pencil, if it's a number two or number three, you know, sometimes we need to darken and we don't want to touch your ballot. If for some reason we see that it's kind of light, we uh the the bipartisan uh canvas mail-in canvassers, they will raise their hand and they will ask for a staff person or a board member to come from the board of canvassors to show like this is kind of light, can we darken it? And in front of the bipartisan team and the staff member or board of canvaser members, they will fill in that oval, but in front of like individuals, right? It's not it's not done in secrecy. Um to make sure that the scanner could scan this card stock now.

Derrick Kenny 16:27

So, well, before we go on, because it's very interesting. Yeah, um, one, what is the board of canvassers? And then the other question, uh, why do we have this process? I think I have an idea of why we have this process too, of accountability.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

Yes. So once an individual requests a mail in ballot, there's a series of uh barcodes that are put on the envelopes. They're scanned when, okay, so the process we receive, so there's it's dated, then we process that request. There's a date on that voter's record. Then when the state mails the packets, right, that we're talking earlier today, yeah, then it's also date stamped when it went out to the voter. Okay. And then when the voter receives it and fills it out and returns it, when we uh obtain, right, or we we collect whether through our Dropbox or we go to the post office or someone's dropping it off at an early voting location or on election day or even in person at the office, when we receive, we will scan it back in. So it's kind of full circle. Right. We can see the kind of the life cycle of that ballot from request to return to at the Board of Elections. Then we sort and we batch these to be introduced into the mail-in canvas. Our training center that we obtained recently, we will have an open house. You could come in anytime. All of that information will be on our website. So if you want to do a field trip and learn about the mail-in canvas, it's all transparent. And we will have about a hundred tables, 50 to 100 tables of uh bipartisan teams processing any return-timely mail-in ballots, which that means that we're gonna process them and it's a whole process. I think we can maybe do a show about that itself. Yeah, well, we've got but in but in general high level, the the goal is to separate the ballot from the envelope. Okay, because the issue is uh the constitution states that you have the right to vote a secret ballot. All right. So if this is my ballot with the voter oath signed and my name, once you separate them, the envelopes are then stored, then we can scan this ballot and there's no connection from one with the other. Now, remember, there's there's there's a nuance about the traditional official cardstock ballot to what is called the web delivered print at home ballot. Huge difference. And this and if I have some time, I want to get into this. Okay. In the last election, we I think in the primary, we had about 20,000 prints at home web delivered ballot. And in the general, we had about over 35,000. Here's here's the administrative burden that falls on us, but we respect a voter's right to choose how they want to vote.

Derrick Kenny 19:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 19:05

Official card stock, official packet, everything will be provided. Return envelope, the oath. If you put in a mailbox, paid postage, everything's it's ready for you. Okay. Now, the print at home, right? Uh, web delivered, what happens is you request a web delivered or by email ballot. You will get a password and a login from the Maryland State Board of Elections. You jump on a secure uh portal, you will then print your ballot, okay? Your corresponding ballot, which is tied to your party andor your residential address. Oh, wow. Okay. Now, once you print your ballot, you're going to print not only the ballot, also all of the instructions, the voter, all the oath, et cetera. Once you fill the instructions and fill it with a pen, you have to provide your postage. You will have to find an envelope. I was trying to find one at home for today's demo. I couldn't find one. Okay. You will need to use, as one of the high schoolers call it, a sticker, which is really a stamp, right? Yeah. Yeah, they call it sticker, but a stamp, you have to pay postage.

Derrick Kenny 20:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:08

And then you're going to make sure that in that envelope, you need to fold this, right? And then also put in certain bits of information that the instructions will ask. And in addition, the voter oath. The challenge is once it goes through cannabis and we open this envelope and there's no voter oath, we have to cure this. We have to call the voter.

Derrick Kenny 20:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Hey, you forgot to put in the oath. While on the packet, it's already part of the envelope.

Derrick Kenny 20:34

Oh, wow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:35

Okay. Then once we get your uh print at home mail and ballot, we will sort, we will scan it into all the bells and whistles, we'll incorporate into the canvas. However, when the bipartisan teams opens all of these prints at home ballots, guess what's going to happen? Let's make believe you and I are a

Deadlines Permanent List And Provisional Votes

SPEAKER_02 20:55

bipartisan team.

Derrick Kenny 20:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:56

I'm going to give you the same ballot style that the voter voted, and you're going to get the card stock version, and I'm going to read. So this is kind of the outreach ballot. So favorite Maryland symbol, I'm going to say make hypothetical Oriel, and you will fill in the bubble Oriole. Then the next question, the next contest, right? And then what happens is after we're done, we're going to swap. And then I'm going to read what you filled in, and you're going to verify that you actually filled in the bubbles. Once that's done, we will put them aside. We document this chain of custody. And we had to do that over 35,000 times. Oh wow. Most of the prints at home ballots were inside Montgomery County. The whole premise of the program was for military overseas. So if you're doing research on that on the Himalayas, then it's quicker to upload and download your ballot princess, send it back, as opposed to waiting weeks for that ballot to make it to you, that packet. This kind of facilitates getting access to your ballot timely so you could postmark and send it back. Um But most of our voters voting uh prints at home are local or inside the continental U.S. So you have every right. Right. But I we just wanted to make sure that voters understand if you print it at home, we're gonna touch it before we could scan it because the scanners can't scan this.

Derrick Kenny 22:15

They can scan this. And it's done by in a bipartisan way. Bipartisan team, which means that there's a Democrat and a Republican present.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

Democrat or Republican or Democrat and other. And other. Yes. Okay.

Derrick Kenny 22:26

So it's never two of the same party. And that's meant to ensure an above board and fair process that's been vetted, very transparent. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Yes, exactly. And one thing that's also I want to share um there was notification from the postal service that they do not uh confirm or promise that any deposited mail will be date stamped that day. So what that means is if you're voting by mail, whether the prints at home or the traditional um packet, and you are not within within Montgomery County, right? You're not using the ballot drop box, you're using the postal service. I say a good kind of you know safeguard for your vote is that week of early voting. So around the 9th, that week when it starts, because it starts on Thursday, the 11th. And if you happen to be in California, overseas, I say walk your ballot, whichever format, and you make sure that the clerk franks it or date stamps it that day. That's for that day. Don't just deposit in a mailbox and assume that the postal ferries are gonna stamp it that particular day. Um, sometimes it could take a day or two. And why it's important is if you wait until election day, the 23rd, and I just deposit it in some random uh post office, say overseas or within the Continental US, the post office is not guaranteeing that's gonna be postmarked that day with that date. So if it's the 23rd and you put it inside, even if the you go walking into the post office, but it's closed and you just threw it throw through the slot, they may date the date it the 24th. So when we get it, we're not gonna introduce it to the canvas because it's considered not timely. Oh wow.

Derrick Kenny 24:03

Yeah. And the canvas again means what?

Packet Versus Print At Home Ballots

SPEAKER_02 24:05

So the canvas is the processing of all received mail and ballots and any provisional ballots received uh during early voting or on the election day. And provisional balloting is a safeguard. One simple example, I request to vote by mail, I change my mind, I show up. Well, you're gonna have to vote provisionally if you don't have your ballot with you on hand, or you left that at home, um, or you're in the wrong polling place on election day. You will vote a provisional ballot, and then we will do this research why you voted as such, and we'll do everything in our power to accept and to recommend to our board of canvassers to accept your your provisional ballot.

Derrick Kenny 24:39

Oh wow. Um one few uh last questions as we wrap this thing up. Uh what are the what are the requirements for voters? Are there any requirements for voters to be able to uh mail and vote? I think you mentioned it already. And then um what are some of the mistakes people make? And you mentioned a few of those, but just some of the most common that people can look out for.

SPEAKER_02 25:01

So the requirement is you must be a registered motor and a voter in the state of Maryland. Okay. Um those individuals who are actually 17 for the primary that will turn 18 by November 3rd or before, they could vote as 17-year-olds, but as long as they turn 18 in November, right? Or before. Okay, so that's a little nuance. Um, and you need to be registered to vote. So it's important that you update your voter registration, um, that you're registered to vote. All you need to do is text the word vote to 77788. You do need to have a driver's license, learner's permit, or MVA ID, and you will be uh asked to provide the last four digits of your Social Security on the web portal. But you could also download uh the application from our website, 777vote.org, or give us a call, we'll mail you one uh at 240 777 8500. Um, one of the common mistakes, um, and then you could request your mail and ballot, and we talked about other different ways of doing so. But one of the common mistakes, as we noted, using markers, you know, a permanent marker to kind of a lot of people like to play bingo, and so they do the little marker and they mark the the you know the ovals perfectly, but then it bleeds on the back. So you don't think about that. So once you use a permanent marker, you turn it around, it's all marked up, right? And so it confuses the scanner. Okay, and then that way you will call, and we could send you another ballot if you make an error, just give us a call, make the request, etc. Um, using pencil, uh, being very light, and it says here clearly fill in the oval to the left of the name of your choice.

Derrick Kenny 26:36

Right.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

We see X's, people circle, we've seen highlighters, we've seen smiley faces and then sad faces.

Derrick Kenny 26:43

We can't use smiley faces to elect our officials.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Okay, that's yeah, we've got we've seen so we've seen people black out all the candidates they don't want and circle the one they want. Like, and what's gonna happen is guess what? We're gonna have to duplicate it. And our bipartisan team will raise their hand and like, well, this one get an A for effort for being creative, yeah, and so we'll look at the corresponding ballot style, we'll give them the correct ballot, and then the bipartisan team will do what I kind of mentioned, you know, explain about going back and forth and selecting the appropriate choices because the scanner will not scan it. Also, coffee stains. Now, if we're we've seen everything, you know. Uh, you know, so just take your time, read the instructions, do your research. Uh, there's a lot of information online. Um, the League of Women Voters has good information on the candidates. We do not provide that. And one really neat difference between the prints at home ballot and our official packet, yeah, is that you get the very important I voted sticker.

Derrick Kenny 27:46

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

You cannot print the same, you can print the sticker, but it's not the same. So you'll get the official limited edition 2026 primary

Common Ballot Mistakes To Avoid

SPEAKER_02 27:55

election, and you'll get the I voted sticker in the packet. So that's all right. That was one of the nuances a lot of our voters called upset. But how are you gonna get a sticker if you're printing your ballot? Right. So, yeah.

Derrick Kenny 28:06

And did you really vote if you don't have the sticker? You know, yeah, you can't brag. You can't take the selfie and put that on Instagram. Exactly. Did you really vote? Exactly. Um, and and that's what's happening, Moco. Uh, all the information you need, you have the power, the superpower to use mail-in voting, not leave your house and participate in the voting process. Um, get out there, be sure to vote. Your vote is your voice. You have all the resources available to make sure that you're well informed, and you have Dr. Z and his team and his pool of resources, text messaging, websites, all the things that you need to be part of this process, this very important process. If you like this episode, please like, subscribe, and share. If you didn't like this episode, please like, subscribe, and share. And send me an email, Derek.kenny at Montgomery CountyMD.gov.

Announcer 28:57

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