Why Does It Take Weeks to Finalize Election Results in California? | Gail Pellerin

Why do California election results take so long? Today we speak with Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin, Chair of the Assembly Elections Committee, to uncover the vote counting process and what's really happening behind the scenes. We have opened up the election and removed barriers to voting where people have lots of options. When you vote by mail using the mail ballot on the envelope and if that signature does not compare to the signature on file in California, we actually contact the voter. Or if you forgot to sign the envelope, we contact the voter and we give you opportunity to cure your signature. Additionally, we'll dive into an issue that's hidden in many Californian families, mental health. Gail will share her own personal story, shedding light on why improving access to mental health services in California is so crucial. Everything I knew or thought I knew about suicide was wrong. Gail, it's great to have you on. Welcome. Thank you so much for having me. We want to talk to you about mental illness, but before we get into that, you are an election expert and you have introduced a lot of bills here in California. People are complaining that it's taking a long time for California election results to be final. Can you tell us more about why and what's the process? Yeah, well, I actually served as the chief elections official in Santa Cruz County for over 27 years. And I bring with me that wealth of experience and knowledge here to Sacramento, where I'm the chair of the Assembly Elections Committee. And the reason why it takes time for us to count and certify the ballots is because we have opened up the election and removed barriers to voting where people have lots of options. They can vote in person. They can vote by mail. They can vote their mail ballot and mail it back or drop it in a drop box or bring it into a polling center. So there's just lots of opportunities for people to vote. And we have laws that allow that ballot that's postmarked on or before election day and if received seven days afterward, to still be qualified and counted in the official tally. Also, if you're going to school in Los Angeles, but you're registered in San Francisco County, but you have your ballot in Los Angeles going to school, you can drop it off at a Los Angeles drop box or a polling center. And then Los Angeles County elections officials will make sure that ballot gets to your correct home county to be processed and counted. So we also have laws regarding, when you vote by mail using the mail ballot on the envelope, there's a place for you to sign your envelope. And if that signature does not compare to the signature on file in California, we actually contact the voter. Or if you forgot to sign the envelope, we contact the voter and we give you opportunity to cure your signature by signing an affidavit that that is indeed my signature and I did vote it. So all these processes take time. For the most part, most of the ballots get counted and tallied probably within a week of the election. And another thing that we have in California is same day voter registration. So a voter wakes up on election morning and says, I really am motivated. I wanna vote in this election or I forgot to re-register when I moved here. They can walk into any voting location and they can register and vote on the same day. And those have to be processed as a new registrant after the election. And we have a statewide voter registration database where we check to verify they didn't vote in another jurisdiction. So I think anyone who has concerns about, why is it takes so long? I would strongly encourage you to actually go and visit and observe the election counting process in your home county, so you can learn and see what they're doing. But for the most part, most of those ballots have gotten processed during that first week of the election, post-election. And right now what they're dealing with is what we call them the onesies, twosies, the ones that needed more research, more verification, more outreach to the voter to verify that it's their ballot. So those ones are the ones that the signature doesn't match or there's something suspicious with them. So those are the ones that they are trying to cure? Yeah, well, I would say signature doesn't compare. So we're not looking for exact matches, but situations that arise is that you could have a couple living together, a husband and wife. The wife takes care of a lot of the stuff for the husband and the ballot comes in. He's like, yeah, you go ahead and vote it for me. And you take care of that for me. And then she signs his name to it. Or maybe they sat down at the kitchen table and talked about the issues and voted together. And he filled out his ballot, she filled out her ballot. And then she's in charge of getting it returned and she sees that he didn't sign it. And she signs his name because she signs his name to so many other things in their lives. And so they're overhelping and that is not permitted. So the ballot envelope has to be signed by the voter and that signature has to compare to the signature on file. And a lot of times people's signature changes. I get sloppy sometimes and you could barely make out a letter in my name. And sometimes I'm very careful about signing my name. And one thing that Californians can do is they can look at their signature on their driver's license. And if they sign close to what that is, then they shouldn't have any problem. But a lot of times people just forget to sign it all together. They vote their ballot, they put it in the envelope, they seal it, they mail it off or they drop it off in a drop box and they totally forgot to sign the envelope. In those cases, do the registrar contacts them? Yes, yes. So we mail them an affidavit that they need to sign and return to the elections officials. Or what I would do, I had a handful of these that were in my bucket to research and to reach out. And I would sometimes call the voter. I would bring ballots back to people's homes and say, hey, we didn't get a signature on this for you. So we really try to do great outreach because you don't want someone to have their ballot disqualified because they forgot to sign or they had bad penmanship that day. It's an important process that we take. Now, some people, because some seats are flipping, some people are concerned about fraud. Can you explain in your experience is there potential for fraud? I do not declare myself a winner until the votes are certified and done. Every vote counts. And just because somebody's ahead on election night, they could be behind by the time the election gets certified because as votes get added to the tally, the numbers change, right? And so we can't predict how that's gonna change. And one trend tends to be that some of those later ballots tend to be more liberal voters, but that's not always the case either. So I've seen situations where the more liberal candidate was ahead on election night and the more conservative one in the end. So I think it's just a matter that we need to make sure that every vote is counted accurately and that the county elections officials do their due diligence. They do all their checks and balances. They do a very thorough audit and they do a manual recount of every contest on the ballot. So every contest on the ballot gets recounted at least once to verify the machine count. And then in the end, they certify the results. And yes, sometimes elections are won by one vote. I've actually had elections that are tied. I had a recreation district where two people were tied for one position and the law allows you to determine who the winner is by lot, by chance. So you might flip a coin or draw straws. I personally have recommended musical chairs and nobody has picked up on that idea, but you know, it's an interesting- There'll be more effort, more competition. Have one seat, play the song when the song ends, whoever's in that seat gets it. So, you know, I think there's just a lot that goes into conducting elections and managing an election and canvassing election results. It's all open and transparent for anyone to come by and watch and observe what's happening. And then in the end, if someone feels like there was inappropriateness that was done or that the ballots weren't counted accurately, they can call for a recount. And that would be a voter-paid-for recount where every ballot is scrutinized, every ballot is manually tallied. And I've been through these recounts and observers can come in and watch the recount take place. And I have never had a situation where it changed the vote. Now, in terms of the verification process in California is the signature, right? There's a lot of effort gone into making sure the signature is matching. Yeah, yeah. And I want to say compare, not match. But I actually did a bill this last year that allows a mail ballot voter. So I got my ballot in the mail and I like to sit down at my kitchen table with my family and talk about the issues and vote my ballot. And I wait to the last minute because I want to hear and see from all the candidates and issues. But I want my ballot to count election night. Well, I did a bill that allows that voter to walk into a voting location, sign an affidavit. They can key you in now as an in-person voter. And that ballot goes right in the ballot box and counted election night. So Placer County is one county that really jumped on this idea and promoted it to their voters. And they had an overwhelming response. And that helps them during their canvas because if they can get those voters who hold that mail ballot till the last day, and instead of mailing it back, which would take time or dropping it in a drop box, you could just, if that voter just walks it into a precinct, they don't have to be issued a new ballot. They can just use that ballot they voted at home and do the check-in procedure. And it goes right in the ballot box and counted election night. So that helps speed things up, definitely. So the idea in California is that you want to get participation as much as possible. Yes. That's why there is a lot of ways of voting. More ways, more days. And yeah, we want to make sure voting is extremely convenient, which I believe it is. And yet I get so frustrated when turnout is 60% or 70% or... Because it's so easy, right? Yeah. If that were great on a test, we'd be failing. So we need to get people to understand the importance of their vote and how every vote matters and encourage people to get registered and cast that ballot for every election. Not just the exciting ones when we have the president on the ballot, but we have local races all the time where school boards and water boards and fire boards and city council are getting elected. And those issues really impact your wallet. They really impact your home and your community. And yet a lot of people don't even pay attention to those contests. So there's a lot of drop-off that we call them down-ballot races where voter turnout just... They get voter fatigue going through the ballot. They just vote the top of the ticket and then... Have you ever seen fraud for those people that really are worried about election fraud here in California? It's minor, minuscule. You have a greater chance of being hit by lightning than having voter fraud. We had one situation where we had a ballot come into us checking the signature on it. The signature did not compare to the signature on file. We reached out to the voter, said, hey, your signature doesn't compare on your ballot. She says, what ballot? We said, well, we received a ballot from you. And she's like, I haven't voted my ballot. In fact, I never received my ballot. Turned out her landlady got the ballot from the mailbox and had voted it and turned it in. So then we referred that case to the district attorney's office and that person was prosecuted. So in my 27 plus years, that was my one case of voter fraud. There has been issues of fraud in other counties in the state. So I think our protection of the vote and our systems in place really make sure that it makes it extremely difficult for anyone to commit voter fraud. And here's the reality. Going in voter by voter and trying to alter an election is extremely difficult and time-consuming. It's so much easier to just spread lies and deceit on social media and change people's minds about issues that way, which is why I partnered with CITED, the California Initiative for Technology and Democracy, to do a bill that would ban deep fakes prior to an election because we want to make sure that whatever people are reading and seeing and hearing is truthful and accurate and not somebody just trying to cause chaos in an election. So like AI made statements that are fake. Yeah, like, don't vote on Tuesday. We're going to reschedule the election. You're going to vote on Friday. You know, or you don't need to sign your mail ballot envelope. Just turn it in without. Or you don't even need the envelope. Just put the, I mean, there's lots of things that people could say and do that would cause chaos in an election. And this has been done for hundreds of years. You know, there was a time where we would get up in the morning at five in the morning and put door hangers on people's doors, telling them where to go vote. You go vote at the local fire station. Well, if you really wanted to mess with the election, you would tell them to go vote at the library. So then that person getting up in the morning and you're in a chaotic morning, you're getting your kids in the car and lunches together. You're getting yourself ready to school for work and you get in the car and you drop off the kids. And then you go to the wrong location to vote. Imagine your frustration. And you just give up and you say, forget it. I got to go to work. I don't have time for this. So, so chaos, there's always been those actors out there that want to create chaos in elections and create uncertainty and put out false information. But the tools now are so good. You can take your image, your voice, and have you say and do something you have not said or done. And imagine if it's an elections official or our secretary of state putting out false, you know, using her image, her voice to put out false statements. That would be really, that would wreak havoc on our elections. Another topic we wanted to talk to you about was mental health. This is an issue that's going on in the community where I'm from and what we are hearing from the public in California. It's one of those family secrets that is spreading and it's there, but nobody talks about. And at the same time, there's not a lot of treatment available. Can you, can you tell us? Yeah, well, I talk about it a lot. My family has been profoundly impacted by mental health. Both my kids have struggled with mental health over the years. And in November of 2018, my husband of 25 years died by suicide. And that rocked our world. Just was shocking. And everything I knew or thought I knew about suicide was wrong. And I went on a journey, education journey. In fact, one of the first things I did is I went and heard a speaker talk about grief and trauma and suicide. And he talked about putting your grief to work. And I thought, wow, that really resonated with me. Instead of sitting here and figuring things out on my own, but actually doing something for my community, putting my grief to work. And so I became very outspoken and talked about suicide, talked about the stigma. My husband, Tom, was a very successful attorney. He has a very loving family. He had a safety net. He had privilege and access. And what I thought at the time, it was a selfish act. I felt like it was something he did to hurt us. And I learned that's not the case at all. But suicide is something that happens when somebody is in a very dark place. They've lost all hope for anything in the future. And they lose their fear of death. And in that split second, they make their final decision that has ripple effects throughout their family, throughout their co-workers, throughout their community. And at first, I was told not to talk about it. I was told, don't tell anybody. That's how he died. And it took many months for my kids to be comfortable with it. And one thing we did was we participated in the overnight walk that the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention does. It was in San Francisco. And we raised money to raise awareness. And we walked the streets of San Francisco from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., 16 miles. Now, those are hours I usually like to be asleep, right? And all night, we walked through the night, which was actually extremely magical. But and you wore beads depending on the situation, whether you lost a spouse or you lost a father or you lost a friend or you yourself had attempted suicide. And there were hundreds of people that gathered and walked through the streets of San Francisco in the darkness. And the connections that we made and the conversations we had, wow. Just thinking about it was extremely powerful. And we just need more of that. We need more talking. We need more communication. We need to remove the stigma. And we need to talk about how critically important it is to be kind to people, to have services available, to make it okay to say, I'm not okay. I'm having a bad day. I'm struggling. I need resources. I need care. I needed to talk to professionals. Thank God we have the 988 emergency mental health number now. So there was a time when if you were having a mental health crisis and you called 911, you would get police officers showing up with vests and guns. And sometimes that ended in horrific tragedy when someone was having a mental health crisis and they thought they were a danger and they were shot and killed. And now we have 988, which is a mobile, and mobile mental health care, where if you're having a crisis and you call 988, you get a trained professional. And hopefully with counties are just starting to get the mobile mental health care going where you can get somebody showing up at your doorstep or wherever you're having a crisis and you have a trained professional who can talk you through and help you navigate through that crisis so it doesn't end in tragedy and then work on getting the care you need so you can live your best life. Now, you mentioned that you were told not to talk about it. Why? I think it's because of stigma. You know, I had family members that felt that they didn't want people to know that their loved one took their own life. And we don't say, commit suicide. So that's one thing as far as language matters. Commit makes it sound like it's a crime. And you don't, it's a health issue. It's a health crisis. You don't commit cancer, you get cancer or you die by cancer. So you die by suicide or you are a person who takes their own life. You know, one movement that started that I love is the Semicolon Project. So semicolon is a punctuation, right? You use it in a sentence. Instead of ending the sentence, you give it a pause. And that's the symbol for people to just, when you're in that crisis, take a deep breath and take a moment and think about an alternative other than making your last and final decision on this world and this earth. But I also am starting to talk about and figure out what kind of communities we're building where people feel they have no other alternative than to kill themselves. I do these community conversations where I get, it's like speed dating with constituents. I get 10 minutes for them to come in and just talk to me about whatever's on their mind. And I had a lovely gentleman come in who talked about living in a beautiful home with his wife. She has Parkinson's. They would love to sell their home and pay for assisted living. He needs a lower level of care than she does, but the cost to sell their home and pay the capital gains and then get into these independent living or these assisted living facilities was just cost prohibitive, like because he was gonna be taxed so much because he bought their house 40 years ago and now it's worth so much money. But if he sells it, he's gonna end up having to pay these huge taxes on it. And he made a comment to me that he was better off dead to his wife than alive. Because if he had died, the property gets transferred without the capital gains. So that really struck me. And it's a federal issue. I've talked to our Congress member, Jimmy Panetta, about it. I think he's working on some legislation, but we need to make laws. We need to make situations where people have options and they don't feel like the best option is for them to just take their own life and vanish from this earth. You know, it's all about building strong communities, making sure that we have access to affordable healthcare, building up our workforce. We have not invested in mental health in this state for decades. And now we are, especially coming out of COVID. I think that really accentuated the need for mental healthcare and how it impacted our psyches being isolated and having this unknown COVID-19 virus infecting our families, and in some cases, you know, taking their lives. And it was scary, scary times. And I think anyone who hadn't had their own personal experience with mental health, I think did after that pandemic and really came out of that feeling like we need to do more. We need to do more to talk about these issues. We need to make sure we have well-qualified, trained workforce. Our emergency rooms cannot handle this influx of mental health folks coming in with crises. Our law enforcement certainly aren't geared up and ready to deal with the mental health crises on our streets. Our unsheltered population of the 170,000 people who are unsheltered in this state, probably two-thirds of them have a mental health condition or a substance abuse issue that needs to be addressed. And those of us that have homes and have families and are living our lives, I think the statistics are like a good, more than half of us do not get the mental health care we need. So we just continue to struggle in silence and continue to deteriorate. And I think that's what happened to my husband, that he just had no one he felt he could talk to. And he lost all sense of hope and made a horrific decision. We are honored to be sponsored by Shen Yun. I've been attending Shen Yun performances every year as they change the choreography and music. Shen Yun takes you back in time to the magical world of ancient China with unique blend of brilliant dancing, beautiful costumes and legends coming to life. Overall, it's a very meaningful performance with a lot more than just entertainment to offer. Make sure to go see it this year. Go to Shenyun.com and book your tickets today. I highly recommend it. People nowadays go to the doctors, the psychiatrists for pills, for antidepressants. This, this is the antidepressant, the best. I knew it was going to be good. It's a billion times better than I even thought it would be. I've heard people say, you don't want to miss this. And I would fully agree. I'm going to tell everyone to come see it. You have to. Definitely going to come back next year. Totally inspirational. You have to go see this. It's a once in a lifetime must see that will change their lives forever. You mentioned community and we need to build our communities. Do you think that's a major factor of the reason behind the rise in the mental health issues we're having? Yeah, I think that people feel very isolated. They feel, people who feel very othered. We have a high propensity of suicide in the LGBTQ plus community. We also have a lot in Native Americans as well. I learned recently that our construction industry where typically mainly men have worked all their lives providing for their family. You basically counting on their bodies and their strength and their muscle to do the work that they need to do. And as they get older and their bodies aren't performing up to the level that they're used to, they feel less than. And the suicide rate among people in the trades is soaring as well. White men tend to be a high number as well. And access to guns is, guns are like the most used reason for why people commit to die by suicide is that they take their own life with a gun. And so we need to make sure our guns are secured in our homes and people don't have access to it. I think everybody has a role to play in checking in with your family members, checking in, asking the hard questions. How are you doing today? Tell me more than, I'm fine. That's elaborate. Let's have more of a conversation. It's okay to ask somebody, are you thinking about hurting yourself? Are you thinking about taking your own life? That's not planting a seed that's gonna make them do it the next day. I think it really gives them, I'm seeing, they're hearing me, they're seeing that I'm not eating as well and that I've lost my passion for life and I'm not going outdoors anymore and I'm not seeing my friends anymore. So pay attention to what's happening in people's lives that you love. And not only your family, but your workforce. You know, I think that it's important to talk about it at work. And we talk about mental health here a lot and, you know, making sure that we're carving out time for self-care. Self-care is not selfish. We need to all take care of ourselves and, you know, getting outdoors. I mean, look at today, blue sky, a little chilly, but it's just a glorious day with the leaves changing. And, you know, if I'm feeling stress with the workload and just putting things in priority really helps to get a break from the chaos of life, you know, sometimes. So I also work with the State Park Commission and they do RX Trails. So they're considered, you know, flat, easy going trails out in the Redwoods where you can bathe in a forest and help your physical health and your mental health. Getting outdoors is critically important to maintaining good mental health. So it's just all a matter of talking about it, understanding what your limits are, knowing when to take a break and reaching out to people in crisis. You actually had your own personal tragedy and is this why you ran for office? Definitely. This allows me to have an opportunity to speak to people too. I'm hoping to chair the Select Committee on California's Mental Health Crisis and conduct hearings, bringing in stakeholders and people directly impacted by mental health and learn from them that helps, that will help us to formulate the policy we want to see in California. Every year I introduce a resolution to proclaim September Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. The first year I did that and stood up on the floor to speak about it, it was hard, you know, and I get emotional. I get emotional today, you know, six years after his death. But having that raw emotion on the floor of the state assembly, I think just opened up the idea that it's okay to talk about this. And there was actually a colleague of mine, a Republican, that stood up and told his own personal story of being suicidal when he came back from the war. He was in Iran fighting the war and he had never shared that story publicly. And for him to stand on the assembly floor where you could hear, I mean, there was silence. There's never silence on the floor. There was silence. And him telling his story was so powerful. It just was extremely moving. And that's what we need to do. We need to just continue to talk about it. And in this position, I'm given this wonderful gift to be able to be a voice and a face for mental health and wellbeing and suicide prevention awareness. And for the average Californians that are watching this, what recommendations do you have based on what you've experienced and what you've seen and the laws, the situation, the community? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, just be alert, you know, look for signs of family members, loved ones who are changing behavior and talking in different ways that seem concerning. NAMI has a great program, the family to family that does a training for families to recognize and how to deal with mental health issues in your family. There's a peer to peer group and there's also a professional group that works with them. We're all in this lovely life together and we need to be working together and taking care of each other. I talk a lot about kindness. You know, I think that it's so critically important to not jump to conclusions about somebody. And I try to do that in everything in my life. I mean, someone cuts me off when I'm driving and I do a lot of driving in this district and coming back and forth to Sacramento. Yeah, I get irritated. Like, oh, you just cut me off. But I think about what, maybe what is that person doing? Maybe they just got a call that their kid is sick at school and they're just trying to get there as fast as they can. Or maybe they have a parent who is dying in the hospital. And, you know, you just don't know what's going on in people's lives. So how hard is it just to control your own actions and just take a deep breath? I think every day you got to find gratitude in your life. You got to find something that makes you happy, brings you joy. And if you could just focus on that every day and not going to that hateful, divisive, you know, reactionary, emotional response that we're so often quick to do. So just take a break. Use that semicolon. There's been a good number of work. I know some legislators that have been working hard on bringing mental health to the front. Are you working on any laws? There's been incredible members of this body that have done amazing work, you know, from Senator Jim Bell and Susan Eggman, Jackie Irwin, Corey Jackson. You know, I, too, am working in this space and wanting to do policy to really help California become the state that puts mental health first and prioritizes mental health and talks about mental health. I know there's been a lot of changes these last couple of years, and our county behavioral health departments are really struggling trying to figure out their path forward because there's just so much that they are now responsible for doing. And, you know, I think it's just that we got to continue to work together, both at the local, state and federal levels to ensure that we are moving California in the right direction and providing the vital services we need to do. You know, like workforce development is one big piece of that to get more people in the mental health care fields because there's a workforce shortage. 988, like I said, has been in a tremendous program. Rebecca Bauer-Cahan was the person who carried that bill, and that has made a huge difference in people's lives. And our legislative package, we're just now working on all those different pieces. And what I hope to do this next year is have some really good, substantial hearings in the mental health space, hearing from people who have had their own experiences in mental health and how it worked for them and talk to the professionals out there as well to figure out how we can move California forward. Because, you know, it's really hard. There's not parity. If I'm diagnosed with cancer, I have a treatment plan. I've got oncologists. I've got a way to take care of my physical health. But if I'm having a mental health crisis, I could hear, oh, we can't see you for three months. And then we don't take that insurance. So you're going to have to private pay. And then our mental health professionals, when they're trying to get coverage and get qualified to be covered by the different insurance plans, they have to apply to each one individually. I think there should be like a common app where you just apply once and all the insurance carriers get it and you can get multiple coverage. So while California, you know, we have a lot of work to do to really get mental health up to the same level of care as our physical health. And have that parity across the board. How did you end up getting into the assembly? How did you end up getting to get into the politics side of it? Good, good question, because I was working as the county clerk registrar of voters. And in that capacity, I often did trainings on how to run for office. And we looked at who was running for offices. And we found we had a lot of women running for school boards, but not so many women running for fire and water boards. And we had a lot of women running for city council. But at the time, we had only men on our county board of supervisors. And we realized we had never elected a woman from Santa Cruz County to any office higher than countywide. So I worked with a number of different groups and organizations. Close the Gap is one of them that has worked on having parity by 2028. And I'm thrilled to announce that of the 120 state legislators we have, we're at 58 women right now. And actually, I think 59. And but we're very close to parity of getting as an equal number of 60 women in our state legislature. So that's a goal that we have. And we really wanted to focus on getting more women and more people of diversity in all levels of civic engagement, whether it be serving on a board or commission or working with the neighborhood watch group or a firewise community or running for office. And one of our targets was we're going to elect a woman from Santa Cruz County to a state office. I set out with others trying to recruit a woman to do this. And I would speak to a woman about, hey, you want to run for state assembly? And she'd be like, oh, I can't do it right now, but why don't you do it? And then I'd go talk to another woman about her running for state assembly. And she's like, oh, I can't do it. But how about you? And for me, it really is full circle because I had my first job out of college was I was a journalism major and I worked in newspapers and worked for a local South County newspaper here in Sacramento with the idea of wanting to be at the Sacramento Bee and cover the legislature and cover the neighborhood watch groups and city councils and the board. And I found myself working as a reporter, sitting, listening to a proceeding and just want to stand up and shout out, why don't you just do this? You know, because I just had an idea on how they can solve this problem. So I realized I needed to be on the other side. So I took a job actually with a assembly member working in their district office as a field rep and then came up and worked in the speaker's office of Majority Services when Willie Brown was speaker, which was incredible training, learning from the most knowledgeable, skilled legislator I've ever met. I covered the assembly floor. I covered the committees. I covered budget. So I had that level of experience and then I got married, moved to the mountains of Santa Cruz and took the job as the county clerk, registrar voters in Santa Cruz, the chief elections official. And so for me, it's full circle coming back up here. And that was in the late 80s that I was here in Sacramento. Early 90s, I left in 92. And just yesterday being sworn in, it is so incredible and such an honor to be a part of this esteemed body that really is so diverse, you know, that really does represent our state. And when I was here in the late 80s or 90s, you know, we didn't have a lot of women. We didn't have a lot of people of color. We didn't have a lot of people that were out as an LGBTQ person. And so we have that now. We have these caucuses, these identity caucuses that that exist and promote issues and concerns that directly impact them, either the Black Caucus or the Latino Caucus or Native American Caucus. So and then just having so many women there on the assembly floor is just an incredible experience. And do you recommend others to get into public service? Absolutely. Well, you know, first, you know, make sure you're registered and make sure you're voting at every election that you're eligible for. And I think there's no greater calling than serving your community. One mentor of mine is Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. And I hear her talk about holding her constituents in the palm of her hands. That really resonated with me because I do feel that when I'm casting a vote, I'm looking at how is this going to impact my community? How is this going to impact our most vulnerable? Am I making a vote that's going to send somebody further into crisis? You know, I don't want to do that. I want to make sure I'm lifting up my community, that I'm listening to their needs and I'm voting accordingly. Assembly member Gail Pellerin, it was great to have you on California Insider. Thank you. I appreciate it.