0:03

Welcome to Why I'm Voting, a production

0:06

of I Heart Radio. Listen.

0:09

You already know this, but it's an election year.

0:12

You might already be tired of hearing about it.

0:14

But here's the thing. Democracy

0:16

doesn't work without you. I'm

0:19

Holly Frying, and I'm sitting down with

0:21

many of my fellow podcasters, from Will

0:23

Ferrell to Stephanie Rule, as well as

0:26

other luminaries, to find out about

0:28

their relationships with the ballot box and

0:30

ultimately just to find out why they

0:32

vote. I hope you're

0:34

exercising your right to vote, and if

0:36

you're not, I hope that their stories inspire

0:39

you. Welcome

0:44

to today's unique and marvelous

0:46

episode of Why I'm Voting. I have the great

0:49

honor of welcoming two guests at

0:51

once to the show, so that is new. Amy

0:53

Lee, of course, is a musician and songwriter.

0:55

She's the co founder and lead vocalist of the band

0:58

of in Essence is one new Umorous

1:00

awards for her work, and the new

1:02

effinescent single Use My Voice

1:05

was just released as a celebration of

1:07

and I quote, the power of speaking out

1:09

in order to promote a more just world.

1:12

And Amy and I are going to be joined today by Andy

1:14

Bernstein, who helped you found the nonpartisan

1:16

voter registration organization head

1:18

Count in two thousand four. If you

1:21

have been listening to this podcast, you hear

1:23

me throw to it at the end of every episode.

1:25

UH. Head Count has helped and

1:27

estimated half million voters get registered

1:30

since it began. So Amy and Andy, thank

1:32

you both so much for joining me today. Thank

1:34

you thanks for having me. It's

1:37

such a delight Alright. So

1:39

the first question I have for you, guys is

1:42

a little bit of a time traveler, because I

1:44

want to know when you first learned

1:46

about what voting was and that you,

1:49

as a citizen were one day going to have a part

1:51

to play in the democratic process. For

1:54

me, I mean it was in school. I

1:56

remember being in high school and having

1:58

a history teacher that I loved,

2:01

Mr Cummings, and it was all about democracy

2:03

and just teaching us how to be independent

2:06

individuals, and you know, encouraging

2:08

us, like from from the vibe and sentiment

2:11

of like the Vietnam War era and

2:14

what it means to stand up for your country

2:16

and how that can look a lot of different ways.

2:19

And I remember being excited to be old enough

2:21

to register to vote when I was in school

2:24

and being on like college campus and

2:26

going and voting for the first time. And what year

2:28

was that. Maybe I shouldn't tell you what year that

2:30

was. I'm not that old, Andy.

2:33

What did you learn about voting? Well, I'll

2:36

date myself here. I

2:38

went into the voting booth with my

2:40

dad when I was nine years

2:42

old, when it was Jimmy

2:44

Carter versus Wrongald Reagan, and

2:47

we went in together, and he looked at me, and

2:49

there's like, go for it, and

2:51

so I I first voted.

2:54

I don't know if this is legal or not, but

2:56

I was an underage voter. No,

2:59

I don't think. Oh no, you're

3:01

exactly the thing everyone's afraid of.

3:04

The leader of headcount just he

3:06

had just outed himself on iHeart Rated

3:09

Children's secretly voting. I asked

3:11

my dad years later, I said, if I had

3:13

voted differently than he wanted, would

3:15

he have changed it? And he said, yes, he would

3:17

have changed it, but he let me. He let

3:19

me make my own choice. So you didn't

3:21

actually cast the ballot, but you got to do like

3:23

a test drive of the whole system. I

3:26

flicked that I

3:28

was trying to make it. I was trying to fix it for you,

3:30

so you weren't illegally. The

3:33

bottom line is my my dad probably pulled

3:35

the lever to make it officially.

3:38

But you know, it's

3:40

it's funny that you ask that, though, because I

3:43

think that when people

3:45

are exposed really matters.

3:47

And I was lucky that, you know,

3:49

in my family and my elementary school,

3:51

I remember we used to have political debates

3:54

and whatnot, and there's

3:56

such a crisis of civics

3:58

in America, and it's

4:00

so important that families and

4:04

schools are introducing

4:06

young people to democracy long before

4:08

they do have the legal right to vote,

4:11

so that when they get the right to vote, they're prepared.

4:13

And uh, I feel very grateful. I feel

4:15

like my family and my my education,

4:18

my teachers really encouraged that. So Amy,

4:20

it sounds like you registered right away when you turned

4:22

eighteen, like you were ready to jump on that bandwagon.

4:25

I I was excited about it, yes, and then

4:27

I've just moved around and stuff my whole life.

4:29

So I've constantly had to like, Okay, what do I

4:31

do this time? I gotta figure this out. It's like always

4:33

complicated. I'm always out of the country on tour. It's

4:36

always a deal Um, everybody's life

4:38

doesn't always line up with it being

4:40

easy. That's a big part of why I really like account.

4:43

It makes it something that doesn't have to be overwhelming.

4:45

This whole year has been extra overwhelming.

4:47

I mean that's a putting it lightly for sure.

4:50

So to be able to just have information

4:53

in one place, for me, I've gone to

4:55

the headcount site multiple times this week

4:57

just for myself to go, wait, what is it

5:00

again? Like when when can I go do early voting?

5:02

Do I do that the same place or whatever it is.

5:04

It's just really cool to be able to quickly find that out without

5:06

having to kind of go to one place and

5:08

then they tell you to go somewhere else and it just gets

5:10

complicated, and then you have to make phone calls. And it's

5:13

not that we shouldn't be willing to stand up and do

5:15

all those things, but I really really appreciate

5:17

it being made more concise and simpler.

5:20

Yeah, we're at a time when lives, even

5:22

without the pandemic hanging over

5:24

our heads, are more complicated than ever. We are

5:26

all ridiculously busy and overbooked, and

5:29

having someone aggregate information is like from

5:31

heaven totally, Andy, did you since

5:34

you were already voting before you were eighteen?

5:36

Did you register right away when your Yeah,

5:39

I did. I was in college and I think I

5:42

voted in college, but I can't. I've

5:44

I've tried to remember the first time I registered,

5:46

and I unfortunately can't. I know, I know I did

5:48

vote as soon as I could. But one

5:50

thing that we love is that when people registered

5:52

to vote with the headcount of concerts, remember

5:55

concerts, that they really can remember

5:57

it. That Usually if somebody registers to vote out

5:59

of favorite bands show,

6:02

it's a personal memory that

6:04

goes beyond registering to vote at the d m

6:06

V and things like that. Yeah, I love it. Do

6:09

you guys? Now? Of course, we already know

6:11

that Andy remembers the first time he voted

6:13

because he was not, But

6:16

do you amy remember the first time you voted?

6:18

Like what it felt like to to walk away

6:20

from that polling booth and be like, yep, I did

6:22

my thing. It really good, really

6:25

good. The person I voted for didn't

6:27

win, which sucked, but at least I felt like

6:29

I was part of it, you know. Yeah? Do you

6:31

both make sure that you take part in your local

6:33

elections as well as the big every four year

6:36

affairs. I'm sure you both do. I am in

6:38

a new era of my life where I'm going to be better

6:40

about that. I have not historically been good about

6:42

that. No, I'm ready to change. I think that's

6:44

great. I mean, my thing is, I don't want anybody

6:47

to feel guilty or weird if they're not doing

6:49

it like we're all kind of sharing the experience. So

6:51

I so appreciate your frankness on that.

6:53

Andy. I'm presuming you do because you are

6:55

so involved in the entire process. Well, I

6:58

do, but I'm sure that where

7:00

I was doing headcount, I doubt I did every

7:02

local election, and statistically it's

7:04

a very you know, it's a frightening

7:06

lye small percentage of young people vote in

7:08

local elections. But the local

7:11

elections are the things that really impact your

7:13

life, especially if you live in a smaller

7:15

community. I live in a small town, and

7:18

you know our town local politics are directly

7:21

determining my pocketbook. You know, my

7:23

property taxes and where that money goes. So,

7:26

you know, something that I'd love to see in the future

7:29

is that we can use technology to make

7:33

make voting more make the information

7:35

more accessible. I think the reason that a lot of people

7:38

don't vote, And there's studies on why people

7:40

don't vote. One of the number one reasons is

7:42

they say they don't know enough about the candidates. And

7:45

that's the kind of thing that we should be able to

7:47

solve. Like our phones just

7:49

have so much information at our fingertips.

7:52

And that's sort of my long term

7:54

vision here is I'd really like to get to a point

7:56

where you know, there

7:59

should be a yelp of candidates.

8:02

Because if you can pull out your phone

8:04

and you know how good the diner is on the corner

8:06

in the town you've never been to, because fifty

8:08

people gave it reviews, it should be

8:10

the same you go into the voting booth and get the same

8:12

experience. So that's my dream. But

8:15

I'd say, like right now, you know, to anybody

8:17

who there's no shame and not what you

8:20

haven't done in the past. It's it's all about

8:22

the future and local

8:24

elections, man, Like that's that

8:26

is where the rubber hits the road. That is where

8:29

you know the mayor of Wasilla, Alaska

8:31

most became the vice president of the US.

8:34

Like it's local. You

8:36

know, you want to shop local, you want to eat locally, you want

8:38

to vote local. But it also bubbles

8:40

up to the nationals. So when you can kind of

8:42

get behind people in your

8:44

town, you never know where they're gonna go next. Well.

8:47

Also, like just voting for representatives,

8:49

they're going to be the people that keep

8:52

our presidents in check, like we

8:55

need that. That's how it has to work. Yeah, I mean,

8:57

that's that's the most direct line you have as

8:59

a voter to get your voice involved in municipalities,

9:02

both local and at the big level. Amy,

9:04

I bet for you it's probably a little tricky because

9:06

you are a musician, You're often touring.

9:09

How do you make sure that you keep up with the candidates

9:11

in like a local election for someone like you,

9:14

the research has got to be a little bit daunting

9:16

sometimes for local elections. Yeah, I'm

9:18

I'm just now, like really coming into a time

9:20

where this has become extremely important to me. And

9:24

you know, I can't pretend that I haven't

9:26

kind of had this vibe my whole life that

9:29

I just don't trust politicians in general. It's

9:32

never like I've had somebody like this is the guy.

9:34

I love this guy. I trust him, He's going to make everything

9:37

better. I never feel like that. I always

9:39

feel like it's it's choosing to some

9:41

degree the lesser of two evils, and

9:43

I just the whole process makes me mad. I feel

9:45

like everybody's trying to sell me something and it's really inauthentic

9:48

because they have to just make

9:51

things work somehow, And in order to get

9:53

a whole bunch of people to root for the same

9:55

thing, you gotta like widen the net

9:57

to a place that everything isn't exactly

9:59

how I would want it. Does that make sense? So

10:01

there's always sacrifices to be made

10:04

for me, like the whole thing. When

10:06

when usually when we're ramping

10:09

up, I see commercials on TV for people that are running

10:11

for office, I'm always just like just kind

10:13

of like going, no, I don't believe it. I don't believe

10:15

you, I don't like you. I hate this whole thing. It all sucks.

10:18

So for the first time, I'm looking at and going I can't

10:20

just sit here and think that

10:22

and not get involved and not be

10:24

a part of the conversation. Because

10:27

even if it's never going to be exactly the

10:30

way that I would do it if it was me, I don't

10:32

want to do it. Somebody's got to do it, and I can

10:34

at least help it to be as

10:37

good as possible, and the things

10:39

that are the most important, you know, the things that

10:41

I feel like they're going to make the best

10:44

difference for our country. I

10:47

think that we have to get involved in whatever

10:49

we can and vote on every level

10:51

that we're privileged to be able to do that. Like

10:53

our voices are heard, we

10:56

get to use them. We have to. We have to.

10:58

We can't waste that chance. That kind of needs nicely

11:00

into the next thing I wanted to talk about, because there

11:02

are a couple of different reasons that people will cite

11:05

for why they don't want to make the effort to

11:07

go out and vote or get their mail and registration managed,

11:10

which is like one they either think

11:12

that the outcome is kind of a lock, it's

11:14

foregone conclusion and they don't need to bother or

11:16

two that they can't fully

11:19

like one endorse anybody

11:22

in the mix. So I'm curious what the

11:24

two of you think about, like why it is still

11:26

super important to stay involved and

11:28

cast that vote anyway. Well, I think

11:30

one of the misnomers

11:33

you hear sometimes as people say, well, they're

11:35

all the same and there's just there's

11:39

just a fundamental lack of truth to that there

11:41

are often very very clear policy

11:43

differences, and you

11:46

know, I really respect and here

11:49

the frustration that people have with the quality

11:51

of candidates, with the quality

11:53

of government, with all of it, but

11:56

there are still things that we fundamentally

11:59

as a country people tend to have pretty strong

12:01

opinions on, and usually,

12:04

especially at a national election, you

12:07

can find very clear differences and you're

12:09

not always making a decision about

12:11

the person you're you're kind of making a decision

12:13

about the platform and the overall direction.

12:16

It's always frustrating when you hear people say, oh,

12:18

it's all the same, because there's

12:21

just it just doesn't stand up. I mean, you

12:23

can look at very very very clear differences.

12:25

And when you think about the Supreme Court,

12:27

I mean we're talking about a presidential election.

12:30

When you think about the choices of the Supreme

12:32

Court and how you see how consistently these

12:35

decisions are kind of down the middle, left right,

12:38

and who gets picked with the court

12:41

decides really very very

12:43

very important things. So I think

12:45

that everybody kind of has to stop and say,

12:47

you know, this isn't perfect, and these are humans

12:50

and and and far from perfect humans, but

12:53

there are real decisions to be made. And

12:56

I think when people pull back and look at it that

12:58

way, it's all through a really different lens.

13:01

Yeah, I just agree with with

13:03

what I just said. So obviously, we are in a

13:05

strange time right where many

13:07

people are are going to hopefully be able to

13:09

vote by mail. But normally, if we were

13:12

not smack dab in the middle of the strangest

13:14

year possibly and certainly in the

13:16

history that we have all lived through, would you normally

13:19

opt to do a mail in be

13:21

an early voter or do you like to go day of It

13:23

just depends on my life. I know this is tricky for you, Amy,

13:26

because you are on the road to it. Yeah, I

13:28

think that early voting is going

13:30

to be what we do this year because

13:33

we're here obviously, and anyway

13:35

that we can kind of avoid the biggest crowd possible.

13:38

I think we want to do. But I know

13:40

exactly where to go. I feel like IM comfortable

13:42

with the with the polling place and everything. I don't know. I'm

13:44

just gonna go do it, but I am going to do it early

13:47

because everything is crazy

13:49

and I feel like this year, especially day to

13:51

day, you don't

13:54

know what's going to happen tomorrow really, and

13:56

I just want to know that that got

13:58

done, you

14:01

know. And I think that I was

14:03

talking to Andy yesterday. I called him and I was just

14:05

asking about the whole situation with mail

14:07

in voting and like is it safe, and like will

14:09

it continue to be safe? And what should we do? And

14:12

I actually let you answer the Sandy, because you're the one told

14:14

me. But I think it's consistently

14:16

good advice that it's not that it isn't

14:18

safe. It is still safe to mail

14:20

in, but do it early, Do

14:23

it as as soon as you can, like, just give

14:25

them so much time to get

14:27

it, and make sure that it's right. Have somebody look at it

14:30

for you. Just make sure, yep, like family

14:32

member, that you did it right. You you,

14:34

you signed your name, you did all the crossed

14:36

all the teas and dotted all the eyes. You know, Andy, what

14:38

do you have to add to that in terms of tips for voters?

14:41

You know, it's such an important question right now

14:43

in a way that I think we've never recognized as

14:45

a country that how you vote it

14:48

can impact your health, but it can also impact

14:51

whether your vote counts or not. And it's

14:54

been an interesting progression where just

14:56

to backtrack a little bit, I think in the spring,

14:59

it was very clear need for mail and voting

15:01

increased because you really had lockdown

15:03

situations. You know, the need was obvious.

15:06

And some of the really positive things that

15:08

came out is even though people weren't leaving their

15:11

homes, we saw some record turnout. Nebraska

15:13

had record turned out and this was even after

15:15

the Democratic presidential had been decided.

15:18

So people really embraced early voting, and

15:21

then it became very politicized. As

15:23

we all know now, we look at it from

15:25

a headcount standpoint. Our job is to get

15:28

information out there, and early

15:30

voting and absentee voting and mail

15:32

and voting is just like until

15:34

a few months ago, this was a very boring, dry

15:36

thing. It was a

15:38

bureaucratic thing almost. But we

15:40

look at the stats, like Americans

15:43

were already voting by mail. You had five

15:45

states that did pretty much all vote by mail

15:48

and it was problem free. So it was

15:50

very clear that voting by mail is extremely

15:52

legit. It's how the military votes.

15:55

There's no partisan advantage. There are studies

15:57

that show that. So kind of first step

15:59

was setting fact straight and trying to get beyond

16:01

the politics and just basically

16:04

say, hey, this is not a new thing. This has

16:06

been around a long time, but

16:08

now we get to we get

16:10

through that, and what's coming

16:12

out, I think is a lot more awareness about

16:16

some of the undercounts that have

16:18

happened with with absentee

16:20

voting, and all

16:23

the reasons that absentee ballots have been

16:25

rejected in the past, and

16:27

some of the real risks of your vote

16:29

not being counted if you don't get your ballot

16:32

in on time and correctly. And so

16:34

the things that everybody should know is

16:37

one, if your ballot in most states,

16:39

the ballot needs to arrive on time. It

16:42

does, it's not the postmark, and

16:44

there are certain situations where you won't even get a postmark.

16:47

So it's got to be there on time.

16:49

So to Amy's point, get it

16:51

in early. Get it in at least two weeks early.

16:54

With all the stuff going on with the post office.

16:56

You can't leave that to the last minute. It's

16:58

just not a your way to vote at

17:00

the last minute. Then the other things

17:02

are that ballots can be rejected because

17:05

of stray marks, because of a missing

17:07

signature on an envelope, or because

17:10

your signature doesn't match what's on file. Now,

17:12

when it comes to like filling it out, correctly. We recommend

17:15

is have a family member look at it, just

17:17

kind of have a proofreader. Make sure you

17:19

get a second set of eyes on it. Make

17:22

sure you're doing everything correctly. Now,

17:24

the signature match this thing is a doozy.

17:27

There are some states where they're pulling your signature

17:29

from the d m V where you may have filled it out with a

17:31

stylus and it's not Nobody does

17:34

their real perfect signature on a stylus.

17:36

The good news is there a lot of states where you can go online

17:39

and look at your signature and make

17:41

sure it's the same. There's also

17:43

a lot of states where you can track your ballot

17:45

almost like you track a Domino's pizza

17:47

delivery on an app, and it will tell

17:50

you when your ballot is properly received. And

17:52

there's something called a cure period where

17:54

you can fix it if it's not okay. This

17:57

varies by every state. You can go to the headcount

17:59

web site and get information on this. We have a

18:01

page called head Count Doubt or work Slash,

18:04

Vote from Home, or just go to our

18:06

main page and you'll find it there. But

18:09

I think we're at a point now where the education

18:12

that's needed for an individual voter to

18:14

know exactly what happens in their state and

18:16

how to make sure voting by

18:18

mail is done where there's a hundred percent

18:20

chance your vote is gonna get counted, it takes

18:22

a little bit extra. The nice thing, though, is

18:25

you can do it from your home. You do it on your phone or on

18:27

your computer. So we

18:29

don't say to anybody this is the way

18:31

you should vote, this is the way you shouldn't. It's an individual

18:34

choice. But it's very important

18:36

to be informed about what's going on in your state

18:38

because there is a real possibility that

18:40

millions and millions of votes could not be counted

18:43

this year because of crazy things

18:45

like your signature didn't match what you scrawled

18:47

one day on a style of using a stylus

18:50

at the DMV. So very

18:52

very important to be educated and don't get caught

18:54

up in the politics like this has become a right

18:57

left thing. That is garbage, that

18:59

is a made up thing. This is your

19:01

right to vote whoever you're voting for, do

19:04

it in a way where it is secure,

19:07

and don't listen to any politician

19:11

talking about the meaning of different

19:13

kinds of voting. Get

19:15

the information for yourself. Know

19:18

that your vote is secure and vote the way that

19:20

you are most comfortable doing it. An

19:22

early in person voting is a very very

19:24

good option. I will add this tip.

19:27

If you're a person that maybe lives by yourself

19:29

and you don't have someone handy to look

19:31

over your ballot, take a picture of it.

19:33

We have all the technology in our pocket to get through

19:36

these problems. Take a picture and text it

19:38

to your best friend or someone in your family. Totally

19:40

every phone has a really good quality camera almost

19:42

at this point, so make sure that you double check.

19:45

We want to make sure nothing makes your

19:47

vote not be counted. Now onto a

19:49

slightly more fun question. So presumably

19:52

you have both voted, either early or by mail,

19:55

and you're ready, and it is election day,

19:57

and I wonder how that day normally plays

19:59

out for you. Do you like to watch all of

20:01

the information as it's being kind

20:03

of constantly spat at you by

20:05

every form of media. Do you like to get away from

20:07

it? Do you like to just go have a quiet day?

20:09

What? How how do you deal with

20:12

the election on the day of when

20:14

it can be very stressful? It can be stressful.

20:16

Last time for the big one, we were

20:19

on tour and it went, you know, late

20:21

into the night, remember, and it was kind

20:24

of close, but it didn't go the way I thought

20:26

it was going to go. And I totally

20:29

had a show the next day and I had to get up early, and I was

20:31

like, Okay, we know what's gonna happen here. I'm going to bed, like

20:33

we've been watching it. My husband and I had just been sitting there like watching

20:36

it a while, kind of hanging out, having popcorn. Yeah,

20:38

sort of like that, sort of like, oh, let's see what happens. I hope

20:40

we went. And then I went to

20:42

bed and woke up and I was like, you're kidding.

20:45

I did not think that was going to happen at

20:47

all. I feel like that's

20:49

another another point about why

20:51

it's so important to vote. You really never

20:54

know how close it might be. Well,

20:56

you do the same thing this year, or were you just like go

20:58

to bed and pretend it's not happening, deal with it when

21:00

it shakes out. I care a lot this

21:02

year. I'm going to be watching how

21:05

about you? Well in head

21:08

Count put on a show. We put on

21:10

a show called Soundtrack to History where

21:13

we had a band play at the

21:15

Brooklyn Bowl in Brooklyn, New York, and

21:18

they were basically improvising

21:21

to the election returns. We had a huge

21:24

video screen behind them. They

21:26

basically interpreted the energy of the room and

21:29

what was happening and made

21:32

hours of incredible music. And the music

21:34

it was a journey. Um we had

21:37

Robert Randolph, the incredible steel

21:39

pedal guitar player, and um

21:42

several other just really virtuous of

21:44

musicians. A guy named Matt Butler was

21:47

called the Everyone Orchestra. He basically conducted

21:50

this improvisational show and

21:52

it's on YouTube and I went and watched it one

21:54

year later, and it was really crazy,

21:57

like the vibe started one

21:59

way and they're interpreting this is a New York

22:01

City, so you can guess what the vibe of the

22:03

room is. And it

22:06

was musically and artistically truly

22:08

incredible. The musicians did it, just a great

22:10

job of taking this this historic

22:13

moment and laying down a live soundtrack.

22:15

Now we're not planning on that again. Obviously

22:18

concerts are not happening right now, but

22:22

I think we may come up with something like that because

22:24

we just feel like art, you know, art

22:26

always has a place. And when

22:29

I went back and watched that music, I was like,

22:31

Wow, they this was an artistic accomplishment

22:34

to take this moment and put a live soundtrack

22:36

to it so we'll see that is so creative,

22:39

beautiful, and that's a big ask. It

22:42

was for musicians, Oh my god,

22:45

the musicians it was. It was

22:47

a really really hard night because

22:49

the energy. You know, normally a musician

22:52

looks like there's this relationship

22:55

just between the musician and the crowd, and the

22:57

crowd is watching what's going on behind them,

23:00

and you know, watching it unfold in a

23:02

way that people didn't expect, and

23:04

the musicians just were able to stay with it and

23:07

kind of keep the crowd together. There

23:10

were a lot of musicians at night, and I can't name them

23:12

all, but like, um Ma Holli

23:14

was guitar player in a band named

23:16

Twittle, and Marco Benevento

23:19

of Jay Rad and Mark Brownstein are founder

23:21

from a band called the Disco Biscuits. What these

23:23

guys pulled off it was special.

23:26

And I don't know if we'll ever do

23:28

anything like that again, because I think it was so hard

23:30

on them. But but

23:32

I remember saying that night, I said, I'll

23:36

process the politics tomorrow. Tonight.

23:39

I was just wanting to celebrate the artistic

23:41

success of this crazy hair brained scheme.

23:44

And I remember that part fondly,

23:47

but people have come up to me since

23:49

then and told me, well, people

23:51

had a variety of experiences that night. Let's

23:54

just put it that way, right. That's amazing,

23:56

though I can't imagine the pressure as a performer

23:58

to like blow at the shifting

24:01

winds of that evening and still

24:03

come through it. Like That's impressive

24:05

on a multitude of levels. All Right. My last

24:07

question is kind of your elevator pitch

24:09

for voting. So if you meet someone who

24:12

is like, no, I'm I have the right to vote,

24:14

I'm even registered, but I'm I'm probably not going to

24:16

do it, what is the one thing that you tell them

24:18

to make sure that they understand

24:21

how important it is. Nobody can speak

24:23

for you. Nobody can speak for

24:25

you, but you you have to speak for

24:27

yourself. Don't let somebody take that from

24:29

you. Use your voice, you know. I

24:31

want to echo that. And can I just talk a little

24:33

bit about some of the really fun stuff we're doing with Evanescence,

24:37

Yes? Absolutely. You know, Amy has

24:39

this really truly tremendous anthemic

24:42

song that I hope the whole world gets to know. And

24:44

I hope it becomes a true anthem of this election.

24:47

But we work together with her awesome

24:49

team to create a whole little thing where

24:52

anybody who checks their voter registration

24:54

status, which is also a really important thing

24:56

to do, is to check your status. Well,

24:59

if you do that, you can get to see a private

25:01

show with Evanescence that will happen in October.

25:04

You can go to use my voice

25:06

dot org and check

25:09

it out, and it takes like thirty seconds to check

25:11

your registration status. And you know, millions

25:13

of people get knocked off the voter rolls

25:15

every year for various reasons, so

25:18

it's just one of those things that everyone should do.

25:20

It's so fast. Go to use my

25:22

voice dot org and it'll take you thirty

25:25

sexons to check your registration status and

25:27

then you'll automatically when

25:29

Amy and the band put on the show, you'll

25:32

get a free e ticket for it. Pretty pretty

25:34

good deal. I gotta I gotta figure out how we're gonna do that. We're

25:36

gonna do like a from home thing, because we're not you

25:38

call it a show, and I'm instantly intimidated. It's

25:40

going to be something we're going to do a performance.

25:43

But we're gonna figure out how exactly we're gonna do that. I

25:45

think it's going to be some kind of a like split

25:48

screen deal where you know, there's

25:50

been a lot of that lately. It's been an

25:52

interesting ride during this time, you know, making

25:54

music and finding a way to connect with the fans that we've

25:57

never done before, just because it's

25:59

just so different. You haven't had to. So we

26:01

haven't decided exactly what we're gonna do yet, but the

26:03

whole band's excited to create something so

26:06

cool. In my head now, I want everybody

26:08

to not only take part in this,

26:10

but also to think of use

26:12

your voice as their walk up music for the ballot,

26:15

like that's their entrance theme. It's awesome. Absolutely,

26:18

Yes, Amy and Andy, thank you both so much

26:20

for spending this time with me today. I can't

26:22

tell you how much I appreciate it and hearing

26:24

the passion that both of you have clearly for

26:27

this important topic, and how just frank

26:29

and honest you are about the whole process and your

26:31

place in it. It means the world. So thank

26:33

you so much, Thank you, Thanks for taking the time.

26:36

Really fun. Good luck vote. Hey

26:42

are you not registered to vote yet? But you

26:44

think it's something you want to do, you may

26:46

still have time. Voter registration

26:49

deadlines vary by state, so to find

26:51

out the scoop for where you are, check out

26:53

a nonpartisan registration voting site

26:55

like head count dot org or fair

26:58

vote dot org. Why I'm Voting

27:00

is an I Heart Radio production. For more podcasts

27:03

from I Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio

27:05

app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever it

27:07

is you listen to your favorite shows