District of Columbia Board of Elections

most people don't do that.

Like, in fact, if I remember correctly, in the District of Columbia, you actually have to mail something or go in person to the DC Board of Elections to remove yourself off of the voting rolls.

Um, i- it's not something that you can even do online, and so it's not always convenient, and also it's not what people are thinking about.

Usually they're trying to think about, okay, um, ha- uh, i- have my utilities started at the new place? Is my cable, is my internet on? You know, has my mail been properly forwarded to the new location in which, you know, where I'm moving? And so, like, to the example you used, you did not vote in both Ohio and Pennsylvania for the same election.

You have some, a suit about the National Guard being deployed here.

Brooke Pinto, the council member, is holding a hearing October 14th in Ward 8 about National Guards people hanging, and ICE people hanging out around schools, and there was a, a photo today on social media of National Guardsmen standing around in one of our remote drop boxes for our upcoming election, and the DC Board of Elections has just told me a few moments ago- That it is contacting the National Guard, uh, to c- inquire about this because National Guard's military troops are not supposed to hang around ballot boxes.

What's your status now with challenging the National Guard in the district, which has irritated so many district citizens?

Only about a minute left.

It's part of why things like mail-in voting and the ability to use drop boxes, which I think all four of us live in the District of Columbia, it is a feature of our elections.

Scott mentioned that we all got ballots in the mail because the DC Board of Elections mails them to everyone, and you have lots of ways that you can, you can vote, and that's... that the whole movement towards convenience voting, as it's called in the field, um, is for this very reason.

It's 'cause you wanna lower the barrier to entry for voters as much as possible while still maintaining important principles of election integrity.

And so if we, if people are worried because they think that this is what's gonna happen if they show up to vote, then they don't show up, that's bad for our democracy, even if there is no actual dog that barks on election day.

And, you know, my, my experience with this is that at one point, uh, I showed up twice on the, the DC voter rolls, once as Benjamin Wittes and once as Benjamin Sidis.

They had, Benjamin Sidis had a different party registration than Benjamin Wittes, but otherwise seemed to have a lot in common with him.

A young research assistant at Brookings named Molly Reynolds and I followed the career of Benjamin Sidis, non-voter, for a number of years until I received a menacing letter from the DC Board of Elections and Ethics saying I was suspected of voter fraud and Benjamin Sidis would be stricken from the rolls if he didn't show cause why he shouldn't be.

And so on the one hand, I think you can reasonably say that is a piece of evidence that Hey, mistakes on the voter rolls do happen.

It's part of why things like mail-in voting and the ability to use drop boxes, which I think all four of us live in the District of Columbia, it is a feature of our elections.

Scott mentioned that we all got ballots in the mail because the DC Board of Elections mails them to everyone, and you have lots of ways that you can, you can vote, and that's... that the whole movement towards convenience voting, as it's called in the field, um, is for this very reason.

It's 'cause you wanna lower the barrier to entry for voters as much as possible while still maintaining important principles of election integrity.

And so if we-- if people are worried because they think that this is what's gonna happen if they show up to vote, then they don't show up, that's bad for our democracy, even if there is no actual dog that barks on Election Day.

And, you know, my, my experience with this is that at one point, uh, I showed up twice on the, the DC voter rolls, once as Benjamin Wittes and once as Benjamin Sittes.

They had, Benjamin Sittes had a different party registration than Benjamin Wittes, but otherwise seemed to have a lot in common with him.

A young research assistant at Brookings named Molly Reynolds and I followed the career of Benjamin Sittes, non-voter, for a number of years until I received a menacing letter from the DC Board of Elections and Ethics saying I was suspected of voter fraud and Benjamin Sittes would be stricken from the rolls if he didn't show cause why he shouldn't be.

And so on the one hand, I think you can reasonably say that is a piece of evidence that Hey, mistakes on the voter rolls do happen.

It's part of why things like mail-in voting and the ability to use drop boxes, which I think all four of us live in the District of Columbia, it is a feature of our elections.

Scott mentioned that we all got ballots in the mail because the DC Board of Elections mails them to everyone, and you have lots of ways that you can, you can vote.

And that's-- that the whole movement towards convenience voting, as it's called in the field, um, is for this very reason.

It's 'cause you wanna lower the barrier to entry for voters as much as possible while still maintaining important principles of election integrity.

And, you know, my, my experience with this is that at one point, uh, I showed up twice on the, the DC voter rolls, once as Benjamin Wittes and once as Benjamin Sittes.

They had-- Benjamin Sittes had a different party registration than Benjamin Wittes, but otherwise seemed to have a lot in common with him.

A young research assistant at Brookings named Molly Reynolds and I followed the career of Benjamin Sittes non-voter for a number of years until I received a menacing letter from the DC Board of Elections and Ethics saying I was suspected of voter fraud and Benjamin Sittes would be stricken from the rolls if he didn't show cause why he shouldn't be.

And so on the one hand, I think you can reasonably say that is a piece of evidence that Hey, mistakes on the voter rolls do happen.