Q-tips, generators and a prayer: How to run an election

Post Reports

The Washington Post

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 5.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 October 2020

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What it’s like to run an election in a pandemic. Also, the French president’s crusade to reform Islam.

Chris Anderson is a Florida election official. In the weeks leading up to Nov. 3, he has been trying to administer an election safely, securely and as smoothly as possible. The tools of his trade: 101,000 Q-tips from a local Dollar Tree, a phone constantly pinging with text messages, and an election supervisor’s prayer that begs, “We don’t care who wins — just don’t let it be close.”

Another gruesome terrorist attack in France has intensified anti-Muslim sentiment. Instead of fighting systemic racism, France wants to “reform Islam.”

Our colleagues at The Washington Post podcast “Can He Do That?” have spent the better part of four years reporting on the Trump presidency. They have a new series out this week about the ways that the Trump administration’s policies and rhetoric have contributed to a more sharply divided country.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	From the newsroom of the Washington Post.
0:04.5	Hi, this is Vanessa Williams from the Washington Post.
0:08.5	Hey, it's Philip Rutger at the Washington Post. Do you have a minute?
0:11.7	Hi, this is Dan Zag.
0:13.2	This is Post Reports. I'm Martin Powers.
0:16.5	It's Thursday, October 29th.
0:20.5	Today, what it's like to run an election in a pandemic
0:26.5	and the French President's Crusade to reform Islam.
0:38.5	Thank you for calling the DC Board of Elections.
0:41.5	We are experiencing high-call volumes as we continue to operate
0:45.5	with limited in-office staff during the pandemic.
0:49.5	Hi.
0:51.5	It's a board of elections this was the average.
0:55.5	Hi. I'm calling because I am trying to figure out whether or not I should still wait for a mail-in ballot.
1:04.5	I changed my registration pretty close to the deadline for changing your address to update it to where I live now.
1:14.5	And I haven't gotten a ballot in the mail and I wasn't sure.
1:17.5	But for a lot of people like myself, this is what voting sounds like right now.
1:22.5	Not just breezing into your polling place on Election Day, but a whole process.
1:27.5	Trying to figure out your options, asking where is my ballot, what should I be doing, and seeking out answers from an election official.
1:36.5	Let me say, let me have your name so I can check you out.
1:41.5	Stats in your ballot system.
1:43.5	Yeah. Thank you for your name.
	...

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