[speaker001:] hum that was twenty minutes
[speaker002:] twenty minutes
[speaker001:] yeah I I thought they gave up after a little while but I'm sure glad you were home I think we're going to discuss why we think uh uh so few people vote in national elections and even fewer in local elections
[speaker002:] that's it yep
[speaker001:] and that's what we're going to talk about okay and uh uh okay where do you work Karen
[speaker002:] I don't work my husband works nope I'm just one of those housewives
[speaker001:] oh okay how did you get how how yeah how did you get in the program
[speaker002:] uh my husband and my father both work at TI in Sherman so yeah
[speaker001:] oh that's neat they both work in Sherman yeah I work in TI in Dallas here how many calls have you been in on this year
[speaker002:] oh goodness um I I can't really say I haven't I haven't listed them or anything
[speaker001:] oh I don't know I haven't been I I hope the computer keeping track of them because I'm not well
[speaker002:] yeah I've enjoyed them so it doesn't really matter
[speaker001:] oh I do too I I just really I I try to get in one a night if somebody doesn't call me I call somebody okay you you about ready
[speaker002:] yeah okay by the way you don't sound like you're from Dallas that's why I didn't think you don't sound you sound like you're from the north that's why I didn't think you were from
[speaker001:] oh okay huh oh well it's funny you should say something like that because uh I'm from Dallas for thirty two years I was from New England originally
[speaker002:] oh really well that's why I picked it up yes you have you have a northern accent
[speaker001:] but I don't have a New England accent oh my parents have a New England accent but I don't
[speaker002:] well not I didn't say New England but I could definitely tell your from the north
[speaker001:] oh it's northern well I've been I've been everywhere I've lived overseas for TI for ten years uh four four years in Malaysia rather seven years and three years in the Philippines and I lived in Pittsburgh before I came here I was raised in New England so it's but I've been here thirty two years so I sort of consider myself a Texan I got a
[speaker002:] yeah well you never I don't think you ever lose that that that which you which you begin with that accent
[speaker001:] no I've got a I've got a Texan wife and three Texan children
[speaker002:] you're still are I myself am a native Texan so you can never as a native Texan you can never become a Texan unless you were born here and have
[speaker001:] right  where where you native Karen
[speaker002:] where was I I was born in Dallas so I've been I've been in this area for most all my life
[speaker001:] yeah yeah where what part of Texas oh okay now I I I ask that because my wife is from the Palestine area in East Texas and you can tell she's native too yeah
[speaker002:] oh yeah they have much more of a twang down in that area okay okay
[speaker001:] right right well I'm going to push one and let them start recording okay  okay Karen uh you know it always has amazed me and in fact I think I wrote a paper on this in college uh that the national elections uh just have so few people voting in them you know uh maybe uh fifty percent or less of the electorate have you ever thought much about it
[speaker002:] well yes I have um I was in the military for a while and it really bothered me to think that people that are affected so you know so closely by you know that it comes so close to home as far as the government you know that because they are so directly connected with it and yet so few of them were registered to vote
[speaker001:] did
[speaker002:] and and it really it really used to bother me and then and then I'd hear complaints about this and that that was you know was happening to those of us in the military the cuts and things like that and I would be like well are you registered to vote have you you know made any uh changes you know as far as your voting habits on you know who who you're voting for and what you're looking for and and uh no they'd say no and I'd be well then shut up you know you don't really have much you don't have much that you can say so
[speaker001:] how do you vote how do you vote in the military do you vote absentee in your own registered state um-hum
[speaker002:] yeah you vote absentee yeah you vote you you still connected to your state legally you still you can you still are responsible for paying those taxes they withdraw taxes
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] for for that state if like in Texas we don't have it so yeah but but if you are they withdraw that from your pay and uh you can be you can
[speaker001:] we don't have a state income tax right
[speaker002:] you can uh be have suits brought against you as if you were from that state yeah so you are attached to that state from which you came from
[speaker001:] from that state um-hum um-hum yeah right I'm going to inject a little side anecdote for you back to the to the uh uh the main topic here because it it you might be interested in this uh you know I I've
[speaker002:] to voting uh-huh
[speaker001:] uh as I mentioned I've had seven years of expatriate expatriate service with TI and uh you vote in the embassy uh uh from whatever country you're in you go to the United States Embassy and vote there
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and uh I was in the Phillipines uh in Portugal not stationed there but I was I was there on business and visiting a family that I knew very well in fact the guy had been my boss when we were in Malaysia and uh it was with with TI and I went to his house for dinner and they had a young son who was probably about in the seventh grade and was attending a British school in uh uh in Portugal and this was in uh this was just nineteen eighty four just uh prior maybe in the summer prior to the eighty four election and I went home for dinner to dinner with this fellow and they were they were Texans and uh they lived there in Portugal and his wife said gee the darndest thing happened today she said I'm so embarrassed she said I was over at Reed's school and Margaret Thatcher came and spoke to the to the uh the parents it was a British school so she was there visiting in Portugal and she visited this British school and spoke to parents and after it was over she said I went up to her and I said Mrs Thatcher I'm a great admirer of yours
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and she said what I wanted to uh uh I've always wanted to meet you and I've enjoyed this opportunity to meet you and uh Margaret Thatcher said oh you're you're an American yes she said well something I want to ask you about she said when you're American and away from home in an election year like this how do you vote and and my friend said oh if nothing changes I'll vote for Reagan and she said oh my goodness no I didn't mean that and poor Janet realized immediately she didn't mean that she meant what was the process of voting and Margaret Thatcher was embarrassed that Janet would think that she was going to ask her how she was going to vote and it was so funny and her husband kept looking at her and said I can't believe you could be so dumb but uh I it's it's interesting though people that do we've had noticed we had been in Malaysia during one election year and the Philippines in another that there seems to be a higher percent of the expatriate population I mean well over fifty percent that do bother to register with the embassy and go vote you'd almost think that you think you're more important when you're out of the country and you're exposed to some things
[speaker002:] um-hum I think I think sometimes that you um you pick you become more aware of what you have
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and how important it is to you you become more loyal so to speak to to the things that you don't have at that time and you realize hey my you know we really have a good thing there so I think you hold more dear the things like democracy and your rights
[speaker001:] yeah true
[speaker002:] you know as an American citizen but I think uh the people that I've talked to as far as voting because I've worked you know in in trying to get people to vote when I was in the military I was a uh represented you know I represented people as far as voting and um from what I spoke speaking with people it was mainly that um they felt frustrated that their one vote wasn't going to do any good you know that um and and it was really hard to get across to them that it didn't matter you know it's a matter of that's your right you should go and do it you know and that your one vote can count when you get a whole lot of people if everybody says oh well my vote doesn't count you know then then what do you have you know
[speaker001:] that's exactly right and they don't realize that that it's it's all onesies and the onesies all add up
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know the thing that that I surprised me even more you know if we got a good contest going we do manage to get fifty percent out in national elections and uh but what's even worse is the off year congressional elections uh when there's not a presidential election uh and the local election and it bothers me and I I think that's even more important to vote in those because uh oh sure and
[speaker002:] yeah well you can make a big difference in those and it's more more to home a lot of the time
[speaker001:] yeah and it's it's like a school board election you know those of us with children in school are very concerned about what goes on uh in the school system yet school board members are elected with sometimes ten to fifteen percent of the electorate turning out
[speaker002:] yeah isn't that ridiculous
[speaker001:] and yeah and and you know the one of the things that I can still remember a college professor standing up pointing his pipe at a class one day while he was lecturing and he said the problem of the vote is that the American uh public is sometimes asked to go to the polls too often and to make too many and too difficult decisions and I think of that every time I go find one of these ballots and you not only get it in the presidential year uh where where you go down through eight or nine judgeships and uh uh
[speaker002:] yeah but don't you think in a way that's kind of a cop out I mean it still is your responsibility and and and and nowadays they do have more information that you can become aware of and there are things like the League of Women Voters or some of the other groups
[speaker001:] what oh yeah it it still is your responsibility
[speaker002:] that you know put give out uh nonbiased information just general information on how the candidates stand on certain issues that you know you can make a decision on how you feel about certain issues and who you want
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] to represent you and so I really don't I don't agree that you have too many choices that you know it's it's too hard and I think that people are just lazy I think they don't want to get out
[speaker001:] yeah I yeah I I I think you're right there and I'm glad you mentioned the League of Women Voters I've I don't know how long they've been around maybe a long time but it's only in my more mature years that I have become aware of them
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] and and I make a real effort to go out and read all and particularly read their things about the candidates for lesser offices that you don't you can't read their view in the paper uh and I I think that is tremendously important and
[speaker002:] yeah yeah