And you find that that's true? People just don't understand what it really means.

I think that's definitely true.

I think people, you know... democracy seems like a big and intimidating thing when you sort of think about it as a whole.

But when you start thinking about it in smaller pieces, it becomes something that is much more approachable for citizens and much easier to understand.

So when I say that, I think about, you know, conversations that i've had with people about sort of how elections work how election processes work but also you know what does your local government do people don't necessarily you know know that and it does the function what is the function exactly what is the role what can you expect from your local government or what should you be asking of your local government how can you engage with them in conversation because ultimately they're there to represent you and You know, an easy step for people to take is obviously to vote.

That is the first step in being an active and democratic citizen.

But then there's lots of other ways that you can engage.

Now, walk us through the steps for this.

But I'm curious, if you don't mind talking about it, Avery, what those conversations looked like at the Carter Center, like what made you all say, it's time to look in the mirror and think about what's going on here and how we can help strengthen the election process so that we don't sort of go farther down this rabbit hole.

Yeah.

So, I mean, 2020, thankfully, in some ways, feels like a long time ago now.

Also, very recent at the same time.

So it's a little confusing.

But when we think back to 2020 from the kind of the perspective of the elections and what was happening, obviously, we were all in a pandemic.

We were all in sort of varying states of life.

What have we learned so far about our own system and about our own approach to elections that you all see yourselves applying to 2026 and beyond?