The following is a transcript of an interview with Greene County Clerk Shane Schoeller, conducted by KSMU public affairs reporter Gregory Holman on September 11, 2024. Parts of this interview were used to produce Tuesday's audio features that aired during Morning Edition and All Things Considered, for this week's edition of KSMU Sense of Community. This transcript was edited for length and clarity.
KSMU: Clerk Schoeller, I want to start by borrowing some of the language I've heard out of the business community, out of faith communities, when an individual talks about what their "why” is. So in terms of serving as county clerk, what's your "why"? What made Shane Schoeller decide to pursue this office and get up every day to do this work?
Schoeller: Well, I have a passion for election integrity. I think that's really — when you think about elections, the thing I learned many years ago, you have to have people who are dedicated to being organized, who are dedicated to being open and transparent, and then you had to have all those things and have someone who has a passion for that really commit to rolling up their sleeves, and we are blessed in Greene County — my predecessor Richard Struckhoff was no different. And so I just wanted to be able to continue what he did, continue to do well and look for areas that we could improve.
KSMU: Basic question — in Missouri, what does a county clerk do?
Schoeller: County clerk is essentially an administrator. So we administer the elections, we administer voter registration. We do payroll for the entire county. We do retirement benefits for the county. We also do tax administration, working between the assessor and the collector in terms of the values the assessor gives, we then take those values. We’re secretary of the board of equalization, we then have meetings for the public. If they don't like the value that's been put on the property, they can come appeal that. Then once all those values are set, we then send out those values to every taxing jurisdiction inside Greene County, and then they go forward and set their tax levy. Then we take the tax levy and the assessed valuation for each property, we send that to the collector.
So that's the role that we have as a county [official]. We also do licensing, we do record retention, we do archives. We just do a number of things here in the office for the county. And we really enjoy what we do.
KSMU: A lot of functions in one office there. How do you fit into the roster of the county elected officials? And can you especially talk about your relationship with the Greene County Commission?
Schoeller: Right, well, you know, that's one of the great things about being county clerk, is that we are the official entity that responds to all Sunshine requests on behalf of the commission, and so we also, of course, retain all their records, so anyone that has any questions about any commission meetings, we do that. And so I also, as county clerk, I attest all the signatures on any official documents that the commission signs. And so county clerks and commissions have unique relationship with the county in terms of, we work, we work together, really an integrated way on behalf of the county. It's not just here; it's all the counties across the state.
KSMU: Now, you recently ran for Missouri Secretary of State in the Republican primary. Do you want to talk about that experience, especially in terms of whether you learned anything new about the relationship between the county clerks across Missouri and the Secretary of State office as they administer the elections? [Schoeller also ran for the office in 2012, winning his party’s nomination but narrowly defeated in the general election by Jason Kander.]
Schoeller: Right. Well, and that was one of the reasons I did run, is because I understand the critical role that county clerks across the state have in terms of election administration, that it happens at the local level. We have a number of new county clerks that were elected just a couple of years ago. We'll have more coming up in 2026. I think it's critically important. And one of the reasons that I ran was that we have someone in the secretary of state's office who understands that. But one of the things I really enjoyed about, you know, as I campaigned for it, was a lot of people across the state don't understand elections in terms of all of the work that goes into it, all of the due diligence, all the checks and balances, all of the measures that are in place to make sure we're certifying the election, that that election outcome is accurate, because there's been a lot of interest in elections across our state.
And so it's really an opportunity to be able to educate people: This is what's taking place. This is what your county clerk is doing. And by the way, if you're concerned, volunteer to help your county clerk. Because one of the challenges I see is a lot of people have concerns, but they don't roll up their sleeves and come and offer to help, and so that's one of the things I really try to do, and we were successful in counting, again, some people who had never worked in elections, to sign up and volunteer to do that.
KSMU: I want to get the Shane Scholler definition of “election integrity” and how it's important to you as county clerk.
Schoeller: Well, my definition of election integrity is that when a voter comes to cast their ballot, they have absolute confidence [in a] secure, accurate, fair election, and that is that it's open, it's transparent, it's accessible, that everyone knows that regardless of their political ideology, what they believe, what they think, that when they come to vote, they're going to have a fair opportunity, just like every voter in the County of Greene.
I think that's critically important that voters have that confidence, and when they see the process that it’ll be transparent, that's where you gain confidence that there's the integrity of elections. And so that's what we want to continue to do here in Greene County, and I have an honor to be able to do that, and want to continue to do that.
KSMU: What are some of the common questions about the election process that you hear from local voters?
Schoeller: So well, I think the main thing is, for example, you'll have a question about, well, [if a] ballot is mailed in, is it counted? And we'll hear that often before elections: “well, mailed-in ballots don't count unless it has an impact on the outcome of a particular race or an issue.” That's not true. Every ballot that's mailed in, that's received by 7 o’clock here on election night, on behalf of the voters — unless they’re military and overseas, then we have until that Friday of the week of the election, at noon, to receive those — all of those are counted and tabulated on behalf of every voter.
I think it's important that people know that we take seriously that counting, the tabulation of every ballot. So that's not uncommon. Of course, when there's questions about the integrity of elections, we then educate them to the process happening before the election, after the election. There's a lot of questions now about the machines: Can you trust the machines? I go through to our election judge training and train our judges to say, “here's the things you may not be aware of that we do to before we go out on the day of the election, what we're doing after the election, after you come back that night with the voted ballots,” and we really do our best to be able to make sure the public goes aware of that in terms of, as I say, I don't trust the machines. I don't give them blind faith, because they could have potentially been programmed in error. We want to know that before we go out on election day and have election race that is on election night called for the wrong winner because there was an error in how the program handled. So we're doing everything we can to educate people to that process and make sure they're familiar with it and that they're allowed to come observe or participate.
KSMU: In terms of common misinformation you might hear locally, is that the main one — the mail-in ballots?
Schoeller: Well, one of the ones that's popped up here in the last handful of years is that if you see an election judge, or poll workers — as some people like to refer to people they meet on the day of the election [who are] working the election at the local polling location — is if you see them mark your ballot, that you should demand to get a new ballot, because a ballot that’s marked is not going to be counted. And so that's a common myth that was out in 2020; it's now recirculated here in 2024. And what I like to tell people is actually, in the chain of custody process, we have our election judges, the bipartisan team, will initial that ballot before they hand it to the voter. And that way, if, for some reason, we find there's more voted ballots than people checked in, we're going to look for those initials on that ballot to make sure that that was issued by the election judges in that polling location. So that's a common misconception that, for some reason, has gotten legs again. And we want to make sure that everyone's listening knows you want your election judges to mark your ballot, because that's how you know if there's ever a question that it’s going to be counted.
KSMU: Now I'm going to do active listening and restate that back a little bit. You're saying sometimes people see that initial, and they think that some kind of mark that means that's a discounted ballot, but the initial is part of the chain of custody to say these election judges, these poll workers, lawfully had that ballot, and handed that to [the voter], so that it's appropriate.
Schoeller: We even instruct our election judges: don't initial that ballot ahead of time. You initial as you hand the ballot to the voter because you don't want any initialed ballots getting away from their possession that could be voted on.
KSMU: If somebody initialed one five minutes before, and the ballot goes walking off, that’s problematic —
Schoeller: Exactly, correct.
KSMU: Okay. Thank you for indulging me there. Recent years, Clerk Schoeller, have included some reforms to voting in Missouri, like state-issued photo ID requirements and no-excuse absentee balloting. Are these good reforms, in your opinion? Are there any of them that are especially helping, or not helping, as you see it?
Schoeller: Well, I think that you know, I’ve always been a proponent of some type of a photo ID on behalf of the voter, whether it's federal or state-issued photo ID. One, people commonly have those with them. You'll find a lot of times, people don't necessarily have their voter ID card with them. And so, number two, it's, you know, I think for the election judges, our equipment we have now, they're able to scan that voter’s information in, it pulls it up quicker. So I think that's really helpful, to be able to help assist the voters.
The two weeks of no-excuse voting prior to the election — that, I think, has been a real asset, because there's a lot of people — they know how they're going to vote well before the election. One of those challenges you have during a bigger election [like the one] we have coming up here for the November election is you do everything you can to make sure that when voters show up, they're getting their ballot quickly, that they are able to vote it.
But as you know, November ballots are historically long. This is going to be a very long ballot. I think we have a 17-inch ballot, front and back copy, for the voters in Greene County. Takes a while to vote that ballot. Well, those lines, as they begin to build, some people will come into the polling location like, “I just don't think I can stand that long and be able to vote.”
So the more people [who] could vote prior to the election, I think that's significant in making sure that the ballots are voted on behalf of everyone, so they have that opportunity to be able to do that.
And number two, the other good thing about absentee voting, if there was an error in a ballot in any manner that you didn't catch, you can find that in absentee voting more quickly. You don't want to find out on Election Day, because then it's too late to be able to do anything to adjust for that. So it even gives an opportunity to make sure all the ballots being issued on Election Day are correct and accurate on behalf of the voter, based upon the residents. So there's a lot of of added incentives, and I think voters really appreciate that. Because I've, you know, for years, you know, heard people [ask] “why do I have to give a reason?” And now that for that final two weeks for election, [voters] don't have to give reasons. So they can do it here at the Elections Center (1126 N. Boonville Ave.), or they can go down to the Library Center on South Campbell and vote there from 9 to 4.
KSMU: A lot of people have concern about voting machines. As you know, the voting machine company Dominion won a $787 million settlement from Fox News last year. That's apparently one of the biggest settlements of that type in a defamation case in American history. And basically, it boils down to Fox promoted falsehoods that Dominion voting machines were flipping votes back in 2020, and that's not the case. Can you talk about the machinery used by Greene County to tabulate votes, just some basic facts about what it is, what company it comes from, and that kind of thing?
Schoeller: Well, it's important now to know that back in 2017 and 2018, when we went to purchase election equipment on behalf of the County, we actually put together a broad group of citizens across the county, I think there's about 35 people that represented all different various groups. We had people in the disability community, we had seniors, we had younger students. We had the [political] parties. We had election judges. They came together. We had three certified election equipment vendors in our state, meaning there's only three companies we could purchase from. They actually got to see a presentation. They got to go experience the equipment. They then had an opportunity to be able to rank the equipment in terms of questions we had, and then after that, we had a good discussion. And then we used that information as we went to purchase our equipment. And so it was really helpful.
The equipment that we ended up choosing was Election Systems & Software, called ES & S. And I always tell people, you know, we're really pleased with what we had, especially the people in the disability community, really appreciate the accessible equipment that we purchased. It ranked really high, and other aspects the equipment did as well, that made a difference. But I also tell people, regardless of what election equipment you have in your county — and there's now four certified companies in our state. We only had three at the time — it's all the same in terms of the coding, all the things that take place. You know, that is still a human process that needs to be tested, both before and after the election. And so I don't — even ES & S, there's a potential, there could be an error or something — and that's why we're doing everything we're doing. And so it's not just, I'll hear a lot of people focusing on Dominion, like it could happen to ES & S. That's where we have the things in place that we do before certified elections. So we have that faith and confidence in the certification.
KSMU: I hear you saying the machinery works properly with testing and verification, is that the correct assessment?
Schoeller: And here's the thing is, we all remember taking the standardized tests when we were in elementary school and junior high and high school. That's the exact same technology being used on the ballots that we're voting on. You see the bars on the side of the ballot. You see the oval. As long as that oval is marked and those two bars on the side, that's how the machine is tabulating that ballot. Now we do have optical scan. Now, they're digitally read, so we have a digital copy in that case — if for any reason something happened with the paper copy, we could go back and look at that, too. But there's a number of safeguards in place. But it's the same technology we were using as kids and we took our standardized test. And so I think when a lot of people understand that, they understand we're just checking to make sure that before they vote, that everything has been coded properly, that those bars and the ovals are being read correctly by the machine. And if all of that checks out, you can have faith and confidence that when we certify that election, that it's the correct outcome.
KSMU: Can you talk about some of the maintenance and security procedures that Greene County has with the voting machines, like who inspects those machines? And the reason I bring this up — state of Pennsylvania, recent controversy that in one county, the county commissioners let in an outside company to inspect the machines that was against a court order in that state. In Colorado, there was a former county clerk recently convicted of tampering with the machines because she didn't think that the vote was counted properly back in 2020. I imagine there's some folks who are very concerned about these news stories around the country and would naturally wonder, you know, what are the procedures in Greene County?
Schoeller: Well, anytime you go with any equipment vendor for election equipment, you sign a contract. That contract, clearly, is not just going to let anyone be able to have access. I had a voter call in one day. They had watched videos on YouTube. They wanted to come and physically begin to inspect the equipment, meaning, open the equipment up and look at it. And I said, our contract's not going to allow you to do that. I think that's critically important, that they may have had the best of intentions, but also, as a county clerk, I have to make sure that I'm being cautious about who has access, because they may say they're trustworthy, but even I don't necessarily know their intentions. That's why we have bipartisan teams, we make sure that everything's being done open and transparently, so that when we're testing that equipment, making sure it's working correctly, that the certification that follows that, by that bipartisan team, says we're certifying this equipment's tabulating correctly. Those are the things that are critical to voter combats in terms of when they come to vote on the date of the election. Did I fully answer that question?
KSMU: I think you fully answered that question. [KSMU later joined four election judges to observe as they tested DS200 tabulation machines on September 20, 2024. We'll have reporting from that session during All Things Considered on Wednesday, September 25, 2024.] Okay, do you perceive any major threats to local systems for early voting, absentee voting, mail-in ballots? Specifically, maybe, because that seems to be, again, an area where there's more concern.
Schoeller: Maybe better define "threats," what do you think?
KSMU: Well, anybody worried about, you know, there's a lapse in procedure. Anybody worried about, oh, the digital copies that you just mentioned — Are those vulnerable to some kind of manipulation? That sort of thing.
Schoeller: Absolutely. Well, for example, one of the things that we really learned from 2020, because we had such an increase in our people that decided to vote by mail because of COVID, it really caused us to look at our chain of custody documentation and our procedures. We went through and simplified some more chain of custody documentation, but also added in additional chain of custody documentation. So, as I tell people, every time that ballot moves, we want documentation, from the time it was received into our warehouse to the time they're issued for absentee voting, they're sent out by mail. We have documentation that follows every step of that process, because we want to make sure that we keep track of every ballot. I heard a story recently where there was a county clerk who, I think it was, a couple years after the election, found 500 ballots that were returned by mail that were not counted for an election. That's what you're wanting to make sure that you avoid, because it was clearly human error. Otherwise, the clerk wouldn't have said, hey, we missed these in this previous election. But that's why you want to know how many ballots you've ordered, how many ballots have been issued, how many ballots have been voted and how many unvoted ballots are left, too, and you want to reconcile all that before you certify.
KSMU: A major conservative think tank called the Heritage Foundation — I'm sure you're familiar with them — they rank Missouri number seven among the 50 states for election integrity. We're tied with Arkansas, as it turns out. So their scorecard rank states positively for embracing conservative priorities like requiring voter ID. It scores states on various ways of checking the accuracy of the voter registration list. For example, they check the state voter roll against the Social Security Administration death rolls, to make sure.
Schoeller: We do that.
KSMU: Would you agree with Heritage as they characterize Missouri as being one of these top states for fair elections? And if you do or don't agree, what's your reasoning?
Schoeller: No, I've had conversations at least one time in the past, in terms of I was out in Washington for some other meetings, and some folks there. And I encourage any entity, because there's both conservative and liberal organizations that are very interested in election integrity. The Brennan Center being another one that, you know, I work with them as well.
KSMU: They're more on the liberal side.
Schoeller: Correct. But one of the things that I try to remind a lot of my people who have varied opinions is that is that there's one thing that our liberals and conservatives and independents can agree on, and that's the integrity of elections. And so when you see the Heritage organization, you know, reviewing this a lot of times, there's gonna be things they'll agree with, with the Brennan Center on. Probably photo ID would not be one of them, but that would probably be the one area where there might be some difference in opinion.
But when it comes to a lot of the checks and balances that are in place, even, you know, Heritage, they appreciate that we're doing everything we can to make sure that our voter registration roster, often referred to as rolls, are accurate. And so do you have an organization you can work with? You know, of course, we're with U.S. Postal Service. That's one of the rules with the Social Security Administration. Of course, we were involved in ERIC [also known as the Electronic Registration Information Center] — Secretary of State Ashcroft decided to withdraw from that, and I support him [on] that, because there were measures that he and some others brought forward that they didn't even get a return phone call on. But I still think we need to have an organization, whether it's through an interstate compact that Congress allows states to come together to work in making sure that if a voter moves from one state to another state, are we able to compare that information? Because there's an example in St. Charles the last couple years where a voter voted in St. Charles and voted in Florida. Well, if we can't compare that information, it's going to be harder to have accurate data in terms of making sure everything is honest in terms of one person voting one ballot once in any federal election.
KSMU: Now you mentioned at St. Charles example, and that dovetails with one of my questions, which is, you know, Heritage, among others, has tracked instances of people voting when they shouldn't have. Or, you know, even in the St. Louis area, there was an election that had to be overturned for a state rep.
Schoeller: 2016, yes. Hubbard-Franks.
KSMU: But when they have their database of these things, there's a handful of instances they can find like in the last 10 years. And I guess my question is, do you see deliberate fraud as a major problem?
Schoeller: It's a problem when you get into close elections. And the best example I can give to is in 2010 there was a legislative race where there was literally a one-vote outcome, where about three years later, the federal authorities prosecuted two relatives of the individual who won who were casting fraudulent ballots. And so because they cast fraudulent ballots, the gentleman that should have won ended up not winning. The person who won fraudulently was already in their second term. And so oftentimes, when you see fraudulent actions by individuals, probably in wider margins, you're not necessarily going to see an impact, but when you get to example like that, you think of the voters who voted for the one gentleman that lost because there were two fraudulent ballots cast. That's where you have to take seriously election integrity and understand that matters regardless of the margin.
KSMU: I hear you. This may be your favorite question. Last Saturday, September 7, former President Trump went on social media, and he made what I would consider threats about the outcome of the election, citing false claims about “skullduggery” in 2020 — that's his word. He wrote that anyone who cheats this round 2024, “will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.” And he cited what he called “legal exposure,” and he listed off a list of people who might face consequences, by his lights: “lawyers, political operatives, donors, illegal voters and corrupt election officials." That's quoting former President Trump. Does language like that concern you as somebody who is overseeing the election? Should politicians be threatening election officials?
Schoeller: I think when you have specific cases where you could say, we know something happened, you know, there's been an investigation. For example, in our state, a sheriff will do an investigation. If they find sufficient evidence, they'll turn that over to prosecutor. Make sure you always have facts. I know we've got one individual that is going across the state during this period of time who is encouraging people to show up their local election official offices, to do whatever you can. You know, essentially a protest, even go to the election official’s home and protest if necessary. And my question is, why? Is there something this elected official’s doing that you know is wrong? Then you need to go the proper authorities, give the evidence and let them do the investigation and then work in concert with the prosecutor. But when you're creating situations where there are narratives out there that can't be proven — that, in my opinion, is not helpful, and we need to avoid that, and we need to use the things that are in place. Because we believe in the rule of law, then let's use a system in place that allows the rule of law to be followed. And if someone has went against the rule of law, then you do the necessary steps to hold them accountable, but without having concrete evidence, I don't think that's a wise thing by anyone to do.
KSMU: Sure, and if I'm understanding you correctly, would you say it's accurate to say that calming down the political temperature would involve focusing on the facts, reporting to proper authorities if you have a question of wrongdoing?
Schoeller: Absolutely. Well, for example, you know, we had an example where we had a public records request a couple years ago for the cast vote record. And one of the concerns was brought to me was that, when we give that information, it prints out the order of how voters vote in their polling location. Well, that potentially compromises secrecy of the ballot. Well, that year, I was honored to be recognized as a transparent Sunshine Hero through the Missouri Sunshine Coalition for being transparent. I've got two statutes that are conflicting. One that says, be transparent, provide information; another that says you got to protect the privacy of the voter. So we went to the court to try to get the decision resolved.
I called the lady that sent one of the requests in. I said you've done nothing wrong, but you will get served. I just don't want you to think where there's any issue with you. We're just trying to get the court to determine. Well, within a period of time, Mike Lindell, for example, he went on a program one evening, called me a traitor to the country, and then for the next period of days, we received very hostile emails, phone calls. That's the type of thing where you're like, he never called me, he never talked to me. He never had a conversation. And I didn't live in fear for my life. But my concern is when people use that type of rhetoric, of calling someone a traitor to the country, there might be one individual who might take that seriously, and that's why we got to be very careful how we turn things because innocent people could have their lives threatened or harmed or potentially taken because someone hears that and unfortunately uses that in a hostile way that never would have happened if someone had not used that type of rhetoric.
KSMU: We're on the back half of this. Your time is valuable, and I appreciate it. In recent years, Greene County added the all-precinct voting hubs at Missouri State campus, Library Center, CU Transit station downtown, are some of the main ones. Can you talk about efforts to expand voter access and how that helps or hurts with election integrity concerns, as far as you see it?
Schoeller: Well, that was important in terms of one of the things we found, especially near the Missouri State campus when I first became county clerk, was there's about three other polling locations students, of course, I remember when I was a student at the Southwest Baptist University, you don't necessarily keep track of things, and so they would see a polling location they would go to vote, and it wouldn't end up being their polling location. So we were able to work with university officials, President Smart at the time, he really opened up that opportunity for us to have us in the polling location, if the statutes allow you to have up to five. So that was where we began, just to be able to not only serve the students of the campus, but any voter, because one of the other and the primary reason for central polling locations, in addition, is if someone has trouble accessing the polling location, you have central polling locations where they’re ADA-accessible. It's very easy for voters to be able to enter in that of course, the MSU campus, all the facilities are ADA-accessible, like the Welcome Center or we're going to be at the Great Southern Arena, of course, that's ADA-accessible too — and then actually Cox South hospital had reached out to me. That was one of the places I envisioned — it and Mercy. Because unfortunately, there are people in the medical community who, as you well know, a 13-hour day can end up being just a part of their day. They start before polls open up, I think they’ll be there until after polls open up and expose loved ones who are there with family. It really gives an opportunity to be able to make sure they get their voice heard and then City Utilities bus transit center. First that was, we know there are people who don't have a ride to the polling location. Then, matter of fact, we were over Empower Abilities, doing a forum just this yesterday. And the purpose for that was for anyone who wanted to come, you know, experience it so they could. And I had some people there that thanked me for the CU Western Center, because it's made it a lot easier for them to be able to vote, be able to go there, cast their ballot and return home. And so that was the purpose, to make sure that it's accessible there. So we've really been, I think, proud to be able to see that in terms of the community. And the other benefit is, if someone's running late at the end of the night, they may not be able to get back to their home in Rogersville or Fair Grove. They can go to a central polling location and make sure they cast their ballot there.
KSMU: And these facilities not in tension with election integrity — I don't hear you saying, Oh, we've got more people coming in there. Maybe their paperwork isn’t right.
Schoeller: No, they still have to check in. They have to be on the voter roster to be able to cast their ballot. And so and then we go throughout the day, and we make sure that we're keeping we're, you know, periodically updating our roster here centrally as well. So as people are checking in, we're keeping that updated as well.
KSMU: Are there common issues that —surely things occasionally go wrong, right? Are there common issues that come up during this absentee ballot season that's going to come up, [or] that come up on Election Day itself? What are some of those common issues? And I assume you're doing some troubleshooting during that season, during Election Day itself, and what does that look like?
Schoeller: Well, the biggest common issue on Election Day is there may be a challenge with the tabulator not reading the ballot. For example, sometimes with transportation, something gets jarred [and] the scanner’s, not, you know, reading the ballots. That'll happen. That's a common one. And so what will happen a lot of times is somebody will see that. And what's interesting is sometimes they'll reach out to the media first before they do the [Clerk’s] office. And so we get a phone call, and we'll be alerted to that. We then respond to that quickly. That's a common Election Day one, for people that absentee vote, especially by mail, sometimes they don't receive their ballot for whatever reason. It just never gets to them. And so those are challenging situations. When those happen, we do our best to be able to resolve that, when we find that out on behalf of a voter, but that's something that's not necessarily in common during higher-volume elections.
KSMU: Now on Election Night itself, you have an unofficial results web page. And I wondered if you could unpack a little bit like what goes into making that happen? There's, you know, local journalists like me, but also, like, politics aficionados watching that. How does all that work?
Schoeller: Well, again, at the end of the night, 7 o'clock at every polling location, anyone who's there by 7 gets to vote. And if there's a line, we make sure those people vote. Then afterwards, our election judges reconcile the number of people checked in with the number of ballots there in the DS200s — which is the tabulators — they then, once all of that work is done, they pack everything up. They will bring back as a bipartisan team, or supervisory judge team. They'll bring back, in a sealed container, all of those voted ballots for that poll location, as well as the information that we call the media stick that has the tabulated results. We then have a receiving team, a bipartisan team, that receives all of that in. All of those voted ballots are then boxed and they are sealed that night. And then 5% of the polling locations that night will be drawn, and they will be set aside for a recount after the election to make sure everything was tabulated correctly. But there's a lot of work that goes in Election Night in terms of all of the packing, the sealing, and then taking those results and uploading them and putting an official result out to the public. All that takes place, as you know, within a matter of three or four hours, and hopefully that much more than four after the polls close.
KSMU: And what I hear you saying is every step of the way, if there's a Republican there, there's a Democrat there, and they're supervised by your office, so it's a checks and balances mentality.
Schoeller: Correct.
KSMU: If people see something on Election Day or before that concerns them, how can they report that? And you know, is there [information] on the intake for that, what [voters] can expect?
Schoeller: Absolutely. I mean, they can always call the office, 417-868-4060, we'll be happy to visit with them. They can also email at CountyClerk@GreeneCountyMO.gov, but always feel free to reach out to the office and let us know any concern you have, and we'll try to work with you. And I always tell people, don't assume the worst first. Some people immediately when they see something are assuming. For example, even on election day, we take a lot of time to train our election judges, but they don't do elections every day. They make mistakes, too. And so let's give the opportunity that could be a moment we need to educate an election judge or a polling location to an issue, and usually once we do that, the issues get resolved. And so, just be patient and know that there's a lot of people working together, and that's the best part, and the most challenging part of our elections is that they are people centric. They are people driven. And that's what we want, is I tell people I don't want to be North Korea, I don't want to be China. I want to be where we're at, where we all get to be part of how elections are — you know, administered in terms of it has to be all of us working together, Republicans, Democrats, independents, and then our office, working with and to make sure that when people come to vote, they have that faith and competence, that it was a secure, aggregate, fair election, as we talked about earlier.
KSMU: Shane Schoeller, thank you so much for inviting us to your office for KSMU Sense of Community.
Schoeller: Thank you.
