Hey there, serial listeners. It's Sarah Koenig. I want to tell you about our newest show from the team here at serial productions. It's called The Improvement Association. Zoe Chase is the reporter. You might know Zoe's voice from this American life. She's the one telling political stories that are so entertaining you forget their political stories, which I guess tells you what I think of most political stories. But Zoe's stories, always a lot of fighting, a lot of strong, specific personalities. They're fun. This one's no different. It deals with election fraud, or really accusations of election fraud. The whole story takes place in this rural county in North Carolina, Bladen County.

And not to get grandiose, but for me, watching what unfolded there over the past 10 years,

it was like a portal to understanding our current situation as a country.

You can listen to all five episodes of the Improvement Association right now.

They're right here on your serial feed.

So convenient. Here's Zoe with a trailer.

If you know Blading County, North Carolina, it's probably for its high profile election-related

corruption. So you were filling in the ovals and voting for other people, right?

Yes, sir. You were voting other people's ballots.

Yes, sir.

Right.

I assume you knew that it was not legal to vote other people's ballots.

Right.

We were paid to do.

I understand you, but you were paid to do something that you knew was wrong.

Yes, sir.

In 2018, Republican Mark Harris beat out his Democratic opponent for a congressional seat,

only to have the victory reversed after his campaign was investigated for absentee ballot fraud.

Democrats like to talk about this scandal because it's Republicans who did it.

Republicans like to talk about this scandal without talking about Republicans who did it. Republicans like to talk about

this scandal without talking about who did it because it proves election fraud is real.

It can happen. I like talking about this scandal because there's a story behind it that most

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