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>> At this hour, we are
still waiting to hear if

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the United States Supreme
Court will allow the U.S.

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Postal Service to move
forward with new rules on

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how they will handle
absentee ballots. The rules

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come from the Trump
administration and would

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likely mean millions of
mail in ballots would not

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be processed by the Postal
Service and never make it

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to clerks offices around
the country by Election Day.

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Currently, a U.S. federal
appeals court has upheld a

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lower court that blocked
the rules from moving

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forward. But the final word
will come from the Supreme

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Court. Meanwhile, clerks in
Wisconsin are moving

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forward with their election
plans, and that includes

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Dunn County Clerk Andrew
Mercil, president of the

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Wisconsin County Clerks
Association. Thanks for

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>> Thanks for having me.
>> So while we await this

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ruling from the Supreme
Court, is this decision

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hanging over your head or
do you have too much else

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going on to worry about it
for right now?

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>> Well, there's quite a
bit going on in Wisconsin

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as it relates to getting
ready for the elections

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this fall, as are all the
72 county clerks. But we

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are keeping a close watch
on what the Supreme Court

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might decide to do as it
relates to this ruling now,

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in the state of Wisconsin,
there are already 260,000

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absentee ballot requests
that have been made. And of

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those, around 75,000
ballots have already been

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mailed out. So they're
already in the process in

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the system. And we want to
ensure that voters feel

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comfortable making sure
that their absentee ballot

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as of now, will still be
processed the normal way it

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would through the mail
system.

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>> So what advice have you
been given by the Wisconsin

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Elections Commission on
what you would do in case

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the Supreme Court says, no,
these rules can go forward?

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>> Yeah, so we have several
opportunities in the state

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of Wisconsin if that were
to happen. So if they want

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to try to present a portal
that the US Postal Service

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would have to make sure
that all the ballots would

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be processed through that
portal, Steil doesn't exist.

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So we've gotten indications
from the United States

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Postal Service that even if
they still wanted to

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implement this rule,
there's not the resources

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or ability in which to do
what the executive order

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from this past spring would
put in place. So for now,

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our Postal service
individuals in the state of

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Wisconsin have assured us
that all absentee ballots

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will still be processed the
normal way that they have.

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>> So these rules were born
out of conspiracy theories

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that came from the 2020
election. Despite the where

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these ideas came from, if
there was time to implement

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it properly, would some of
these rules make sense if

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they were done for future
elections?

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>> I'm going to say no. The
state of Wisconsin has a

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really strict system in
which that we use to

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process absentee ballots
for individuals. However,

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now there's opportunities
because the United States

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Postal Service has changed
from local processing to

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more centralized processing.
Here in western Wisconsin,

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all of our absentee ballots
are actually sent into

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Minneapolis Saint Paul for
processing before they're

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processed back. So there's
already been a little bit

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of a delay in making sure
that people can get their

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absentee ballots returned
in a timely manner. So

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we've encouraged
individuals to make sure

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that they get their
absentee ballots. They have

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to be mailed out by
September 17th, right? 47

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days before the election.
And when they received them,

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to get them back in the
mail as soon as possible.

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The other options are that
a person could take their

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absentee ballot that
they've received in the

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mail back to their
municipal clerk at their

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town, village or city hall.
They could also return them

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during what we call
in-person absentee voting,

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which is starting on
October 20th. It's a good

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opportunity for a person to
bring back their absentee

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ballot to the clerk at that
time, or they can always

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take their absentee ballot
and return it to the

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polling location on
Election Day. So there are

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many outlets in which
individuals and voters can

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still cast their ballot and
make sure that their voice

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is heard.
>> I know since 2020, drop

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boxes became
unconstitutional or now

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constitutional again, there
were controversial in some

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areas. Would you encourage
along the same lines of

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what we were just talking
about, clerks to have more

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drop boxes available as
another option?

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>> Absolutely. The most
recent court ruling says

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it's up to the discretion
of the municipal clerk on

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whether they want to use a
drop box, but we've seen

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00:04:06,146 --> 00:04:08,582
several municipal clerks
across the state of

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Wisconsin. There's over 150
of them, right, that are

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trying to make sure that
there's a drop box

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available. Some of them had
them from before that. They

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have been implemented in
usage. Some are ordering

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new drop boxes here in Dunn
County. We've tried to make

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sure that if a clerk wants
a drop box, that we're

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00:04:25,365 --> 00:04:28,468
helping provide that
can feel safe, that their

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ballot is going to be cast
in this election and all

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future elections.
to the elections, the

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Department of Homeland
Security recently announced

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Wisconsin is one of a
handful of states where

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they're pursuing
investigations into

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noncitizen voting. Have you
heard of any clerks in

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Wisconsin being contacted
as part of these

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00:04:44,751 --> 00:04:48,355
investigations?
>> We have not yet. We are

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mostly anticipating that
they will be targeting

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00:04:51,058 --> 00:04:53,694
larger urban areas such as
Madison, Milwaukee, but we

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00:04:53,760 --> 00:04:56,730
have not heard of any
federal investigators

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contacting any of the 72
county clerks or municipal

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clerks as of yet. Now, I
don't know what's going to

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00:05:02,803 --> 00:05:04,938
happen in the next coming
weeks, but we're wanting to

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make sure that everybody is
prepared as well as they

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can be to know their legal
rights of what they should

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00:05:09,877 --> 00:05:12,579
be doing. If an
investigator tries to

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contact them. And so we're
trying to train as best we

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can across the state of
Wisconsin.

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>> All right. Dunn County
Clerk Andrew Marshall,

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thanks for your time today.
>> Thanks for having me.

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>> One of the elections
that often goes overlooked

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in Wisconsin is the race
in Wisconsin is the race