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and abilities are of the
government.

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>> Grant Sovern, thanks
very much.

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>> Thank you.
>> In a move that had state

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election officials sounding
the constitutional alarm,

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President Trump threatened
in an all caps social media

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post to get rid of mail in
ballots and target highly

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inaccurate, very expensive
and seriously controversial

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voting machines. He said he
would sign an executive

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order to do so. The
president went on to post

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that mail in voting results
in massive voter fraud.

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Election experts say this
is not true. The white

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House press office demurred
on Trump's call a day later,

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saying it could be a
subject for Congress to

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take up. But we wanted to
check in with a local

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election clerk for her take.
Rock County Clerk Lisa

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Tollefson joins us now. And
thanks a lot for being here.

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>> Thank you.
>> So what was your

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reaction when you saw the
call to abolish mail in

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voting and voting machines?
>> Just another piece

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that's trying to get some
false information out there

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to get some headlines. It's
not accurate. Those voting

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machines are extremely
accurate that we use. Been

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through nine recounts. And
it's not the machines that

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have issues. There are
highly accurate. It's

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usually somebody didn't
sign the envelope correctly.

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Something small. It's human
error not the machines.

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>> But beside that point,
can such a thing be done by

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presidential executive
order?

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>> I believe Congress has
the authority to change it,

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not the president. So and
each state actually sets

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their own rules for how
they run elections. Not not

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the president.
>> So again, in your

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experience, does absentee
or mail in voting result in

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fraud or massive fraud?
>> So the there's a check

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and balance through our
entire system. Some states

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mail out absentee ballots
Wisconsin we mail. We only

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mail you absentee ballot if
you have requested it. And

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to request it, you have to
be a registered voter. So

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there's lots of steps and
checks and balances that we

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go through in the entire
system. So it's not it's

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not randomly you just mail
in a ballot with nothing to

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back it up. There there's
checks all the way through

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the system.
>> What about voting

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machines or tabulators? How
do they work?

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>> So tabulators are not
connected to the internet.

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They are highly tested
before they can be

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certified at the federal
level and then at the state

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level. We do public tests
to make sure everything's

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working correctly before
the election. And then

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after the election, we do
audits to verify that they

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counted correctly also. And
again, if we need, we do a

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recount. And I've been
through nine. And again

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they don't. It's not the
machines that are the

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errors. It's it's human
error. It's they're highly

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highly accurate.
>> Where does all of this

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leave clerks who maintain
the integrity of elections

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when it comes to assuring
voters once again that

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these things, as you say,
are highly accurate?

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>> So it means we have to
explain again over and over.

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Sometimes the biggest thing
we can do is invite them to

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the public, test or or have
them be poll workers. Once

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they learn the system and
all the checks and balances

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in place, they feel more
comfortable with it and

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they understand all the
work that goes into an

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election.
the roller coaster of

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election conspiracies?
>> Well, I, I don't have a

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boring job that keeps me
very, very entertained.

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Sometimes some of the
things that come in. Yeah,

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it's up and down. Boring.
Might be nice every once in

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a while, but we keep
ourselves very, very. We're

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we're explaining things
constantly over and over.

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And sometimes that keeps us
from doing other things

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we'd like to be doing.
>> Like what?

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>> Getting ready for
another election or

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training more poll workers
or, you know, working right

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now, we're everyone's
working on their budgets

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for next year at all the
municipal levels. There's

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you know, we we a clerk
does not just do elections.

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We are basically in the
towns. They're the

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administrator of those
lot of other jobs that we

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do. We don't just do
elections.

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>> Is there cause, though,
to be highly vigilant when

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it comes to election
security?

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>> We are always highly
vigilant. We are constantly

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doing checks and balances.
We are checking security

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tags and chain of custody.
There's tons of pieces that

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we're always doing. They're
always in place so that

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that never goes away.
That's that's constant.

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>> All right. Well we leave
it there and we wish you

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luck with attending to the
many duties that you have

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on top of all of this. Rock
on top of all of this. Rock