How Our Election Commission Works with Michele Honeycutt

Join Kosta and his guest: Michele Honeycutt, Election Commission Administrator for Putnam County Election Commission.

In this episode: Generally speaking, across the United States, over the past decade the accuracy and legitimacy of our elections has become a point of concern for many. As someone that sees every aspect of our elections, what’s your message to anyone questioning the outcome of an election? How does voter registration work? Can anyone with a driver’s license vote or is there more to the process? How do we know where our polling location is? What if we go to the wrong polling station? Can we still vote?

🇺🇸 ⚠️🗳️ Important Voting and Election Dates in Putnam County:

Presidential Preference Primary and County Primary
Last Day to Register to Vote in this Election: Monday, February 5, 2024
Early Voting Dates: February 14, 2024- February 27, 2024
🗳️ Primary Election Day: Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Federal and State - General Election
Last Day to Register to Vote in this Election: Monday, October 7, 2024
Early Voting Dates: October 16, 2024—October 31, 2024
🗳️ General Election Day: Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Find  more information about the Putnam County Election Commission:
https://putnamcountytn.gov/election-commission

Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is a product of Morgan Franklin Media and recorded in Cookeville, TN.

This episode of Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev is made possible by our partners at Miss Sallie's Market.

Find out more about Miss Sallie's Market:
https://www.misssallies.com/

Transcript

Kosta Yepifantsev: 0:00

There’s one thing that always brings us together. Something that can make even the hardest days a little easier, and the heaviest hearts a bit lighter - a delicious home cooked meal. When Jessica and I don’t feel like cooking or we just want an easy, fresh option for dinner, Miss Sallie’s Market is always our first choice. Bringing the best locally sourced meals, baked goods, meats and produce straight to your table, Miss Sallie’s Market has something for everyone (including my 4 kids). Open 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday, in the bustling heart of Downtown Gainsboro, Miss Sallie’s Market is serving the highest quality in locally sourced food daily.

Michele Honeycutt: 0:51

There have been many elections that are lost or one by one or two but we've had them here in Putnam County we've had ties and then a provisional ballot changes by one vote. Since I've been here they've been to tears and cities that are no and then some cities you know someone will lose but you know three or four votes that's that's major.

Morgan Franklin: 1:11

Welcome to Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev, a podcast on parenting, business, and living life intentionally. We're here every week to bring you thoughtful conversation on making your own path to success, challenging the status quo and finding all the ways we're better together. Here's your host Kosta Yepifantsev.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 1:30

Hey, y'all, it's Kosta today I'm here with my guest, Michele Honeycutt, Election Commission administrator for Putnam County Election Commission. Michelle, it goes without saying, as we enter into the 2024 election year, the stakes for election Security and Preparedness has never been more important. How is Putnam County preparing for this election cycle,

Michele Honeycutt: 1:52

I guess the first major change we have is we have new voting machines. And it's a voter verifiable paper audit trail. So you'll see it when you go into the machine, it's a little bit different, a whole lot of the machine is the same. So it's pretty easy to vote on. But at the end, after you've finished voting, it's going to print everything you chose on a paper that's behind glass, so you can't get it and take it with you. And then it's going to ask you to verify that that is how you voted. If not, you can go back change something, it voids that, and then print your new ones. So when you accept it, any of that your vote, then you push the casebook button, like always, and it rolls forward. And that your vote it stays in there. That way, if we ever do have like an audit, we can go back to those rolls. Yeah.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 2:41

And the paper ballots. That's something that people have been asking for for some time. Now is paper ballots. Is that a new thing? Or was it there in the past elections?

Michele Honeycutt: 2:49

The voter verified? Yes. Some places have at some places you vote on a big paper ballot marking device. We don't have that system. We chose this one, which is the same system we had only They added that paper and amplified. It is correct. Very

Kosta Yepifantsev: 3:07

nice. That's great. Generally speaking across the United States over the past decade, the accuracy and legitimacy of our elections has become a point of concern for many as someone that sees every aspect of our elections. What's your message to anyone questioning the outcome of an election? Well,

Michele Honeycutt: 3:27

but the second year in a row, Tennessee has been chosen number one in the country for election integrity.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 3:34

Oh, wow. Congratulations. That's great.

Michele Honeycutt: 3:37

So the whole state Yeah, I mean, the state has rules we have to follow. And that helps us all.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 3:42

Yeah. So there shouldn't be anybody that's concerned with the legitimacy of an election

Michele Honeycutt: 3:47

outcome. Yes, no, and we audit everything we do. When we have a machine. If we have 100 votes on that machine. We go to the paper, the applications that people complete, and we count those if there's 100. On the machine, there's 100 papers, okay, we verify all that we audit everything we have.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 4:06

And this may be too technical of a question, but what metrics do they use to rank Tennessee? Number one, what are they looking for when they're doing that?

Michele Honeycutt: 4:15

Oh, no, it was the Heritage Foundation. Okay, that gave it to you. And

Kosta Yepifantsev: 4:19

that's a legitimate organization. So it makes perfect sense. Wonderful. Let's talk about the important dates and deadlines for this year's election. Okay, what dates should we know and remember, as voters and what date should we be aware of if we're interested in running for office?

Michele Honeycutt: 4:36

Okay, if you're interested in running for office for this March, you have missed it. Okay. What positions were in March that positions are for the county wide? The assessor of property criminal court judge part three, that's a new position and three school boards. Oh, wow. Okay, great. So that's the county one and then the presidential primary of course that will be on there. So that one is over. But in February the fifth, we started showing petitions for the August election that one has a lot of the state is state and federal primary. So it will be the US Senate, US House, sixth congressional district, the 25th and 42nd. House. Then we have the general all the county that we did. So property assessor, criminal court judge the school boards, we also will have the city so all good has some positions, Baxter and Monterey.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 5:34

And what's the filing deadline if you want to run for president? And now I can't I can't run for president because I wasn't born in America. So I'm not asking for myself, but just in general, if anybody from Cookeville wants to run for president and be on the ballot

Michele Honeycutt: 5:46

for the primary course that's over. Okay. Because today we've received our precinct ballots.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 5:53

Yes, nice. I

Michele Honeycutt: 5:54

believe that you can run as an independent I'm not positive when that deadline is. It may be an August, okay,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 6:01

just a call to action here. So you can't run for school board. You can't run for property assessor. Those deadlines have passed by February 15. You can still run for name those positions off one more time for the primaries. They really

Michele Honeycutt: 6:13

fit. That's where you can pick it up. Yes, that's positions are a state, US Senate, US House which is the sixth congressional, the 25th. And the 42nd. House of Representatives. The city of all good they have two council members, town of Baxter has a mayor and two Council town of Monterey has mayor and four Aldermen.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 6:35

The only reason that I bring it up and I'm not like digging too deep in here, I'm just wanting to make a point. A lot of people have said that they wanted to run and so I was expecting them to file by the deadline and they didn't file. So if y'all are listening in, you're like I want to run for office. Remember, if you don't file by February 5, you ain't run

Michele Honeycutt: 6:56

No, you have to pick up a February 5 When the deadline is April the fourth? Gosh, okay,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 7:03

good. Yeah. So if you don't file by April, the fourth you ain't run, right? That's

Michele Honeycutt: 7:08

right. All right. The only other way you can get on the ballot is to be a write in candidate. And before every election 50 days before the deadline, you have to come in our office, fill out a certificate of bride in and then

Kosta Yepifantsev: 7:20

you can be right and you think we'll see Kanye West on the ballot again,

Michele Honeycutt: 7:24

I haven't seen him yet. Not on this.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 7:28

So what is the actual day that we're going to be voting, okay,

Michele Honeycutt: 7:33

but this coming election, it's March the fifth, and that you would go to your precincts that day. Okay. If you don't know your precinct and you can't find your voter card call our office will tell you. But there is also a look up on the Secretary of State's website. And there's a little button that says Mr. Register to vote, if you click that you put a little bit of your info in and it tells you your address your verify on that. And it tells you your precinct and the address of

Kosta Yepifantsev: 8:02

that website is sos.tn.gov. The website

Michele Honeycutt: 8:05

for the lookup is tn mat.tn.gov/voter lookup nice, but it's a link from Secretary of State's

Kosta Yepifantsev: 8:14

the general election, when is voting day for general? The

Michele Honeycutt: 8:17

November election is November 5, wow. It's gonna be great. We do have early voting, though. And that starts on Valentine's Day. So February 14, through the 27th. And we encourage people to vote early because we have 10 machines in there, we can move people through the line quicker than if you're at your precinct where you're standing in a lot, right? Even if we have lines were moving that fast. So

Kosta Yepifantsev: 8:44

I love elections. It's almost like a like a sporting event for me, you know, and they have kind of gamified it, you know, so like, if you see the guy like Steve tenakee, you know, he's like super, like hyper charged, like that guy drinks so much coffee, or something, because he is all over the place the entire time. So two questions. Do you love elections? Do you watch him on TV? And also like, do you stay up until you actually hear the results? Or presidential? Not

Michele Honeycutt: 9:13

always because it's a while sometimes before you know it, right? And we are exhausted by the time we leave. It's funny because many times I'll leave that night and my husband's like, why one here? I'm like, I have no idea. I just know it's done. We ballots Do you know, and I have to literally the next day, I'll go in and start looking. You know, unless there's something I'm really interested in then I'm keeping up with that.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 9:38

Yeah, well anyway, on January 15, there's the Iowa caucus. And we've got a special event Morgan and I and some friends called steaks and cakes. So we'll be making some steaks and we're gonna get a cake from Jamie's eatin sweet and we are going to watch the Iowa caucus. It's gonna be really interesting. How does voter registration work? Can anyone with the driver's license vote? Or is there more to the process? How do we know where our polling location is? What if we go to the wrong polling station? Can we still vote, okay? To

Michele Honeycutt: 10:14

be able to register to vote, you need to be at a US citizen, not convicted of a felony. But if you have been convicted, you should at least have your rights restored. Okay. And then you can and also, for us to register, you have to be a Putnam County resident, they can come in our office and do it. The newest thing is the online voter registration, which is so nice, it's go vote tn.gov. And so it's so simple for people to do that. You can also do it at different departments, such as safety, and DHS TennCare. Health Department, a lot of those will do it. If you want to know if you register to vote, I'm gonna send you back to the Secretary of State's page, cuz it's a button that says Mr. registered to vote. And that's the easiest way to look up. And it will tell you you're pressing a lot of people, if they're not doing that, they can call us, we'll tell them if your registered call before the deadline, call before the fifth so that we can get you in and get you register. If you show up at your precinct to vote, you do have to have either a Tennessee driver's license, or a US issued photo ID. Okay. So you can use a passport, any military card, you know, different things like that, as long as it's US government or Tennessee, not a driver's license from another state, right? If you show up at the wrong place, they're going to send you to the correct place. Nice. Yeah, because you have to vote in your precinct.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 11:41

For anyone not familiar with what happens after you cast your vote, I'd like you to explain how the process works, especially for someone that's wondering how their vote is counted and reported in the presidential election, please start at the beginning of the process and walk us through it. Of

Michele Honeycutt: 12:00

course, they would show up at the polls on Election Day and vote. If it's election day, anyone in line by 7pm will get to vote. So if there's 50 people in line at seven, there's going to be an election official that gets at the end of that line, everyone in front of them gets to vote, no one behind them. Okay. So when everyone is finished voting, and it's after seven, the precinct closest down, they start tallying the machines. They put, it's a card that goes in each machine, and it closes that out. And it's putting the votes and totals on that card. They gather all their supplies, pack it all back up like we sent it, then they come into our office right after that. So usually by 730, we'll have one or two precincts just depending on how far where they are. So they start coming in. We have people in the front lobby, checking everything they're bringing it in, because they sign out what they're taking how many machines I'm a polpette, everything. So we're checking everything back in, those tally cards are in an envelope. Jennifer's usually the one that counts those and make sure everything's in there, all the cards we have to account for. Someone brings me the talent cards in the back room. And we have a standalone computer that rates those cards, so it's never connected to the internet. So we read those, we print off the report, then usually Megan, someone else will take that report. And we have to log into the state and type in the totals for all the candidates that they're keeping up with the early voting machines. Those in all the absentee so the male nursing home, everything, those are counted by an absentee counting board that Jennifer will talk about later, okay, and they're locked in the back room all day till at least seven. They're counting the early voting machines. And they're doing all the absentees. So when they're all done, they come out, we enter that into the system to that standalone computer. After we get all our results. And they print the reports are counting IT department comes out for that night. And they help us in case we have any kind of security issue, which we never have, thank goodness, but they are there. And like I said, our stuff is not connected to the internet. But we do have a website. So they have a different computer that's connected to the internet. And we give them the results and they enter it on our website. So if you want results, that's the quickest ways to watch our website because they're doing it they're

Kosta Yepifantsev: 14:39

nice, but you did forget one very important part. Yes, the sticker. Oh, the advert it's ticking. Yes. I mean that I mean honestly, like some years that's the only reason that it goes just to get sticker. You know what I'm saying? Now, that's great. Yeah, everyone, everyone should should vote and you get a sticker. It's like going to the doctor and getting a lolly Pop incentives Having access to fresh food and locally sourced ingredients is something John and Natasha Deane hold close to their heart. Since their first visit 25 years ago, the Deane family has worked tirelessly to revitalize Jackson County as a destination where tourists want to visit and locals want to stay. Opened in Fall of 2023, Miss Sallie’s Market is the newest addition to the continued growth of Gainesboro’s Historic Downtown, offering a wide array of farm to market produce, meat and grains, in addition to homemade, locally sourced meals, breads, baked goods and a fully stocked salad bar. Open Tuesday through

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www.misssallies.com We're also joined today by Jennifer Murphy, Assistant Administrator for the Putnam County Election Commission. Jennifer, a significant part of your role is managing absentee ballots. Will you tell us about these ballots and how they're utilized in Putnam County.

Jennifer Murphy: 16:16

Okay, so anybody could get an absentee ballot if they request it, okay. And they meet one of several reasons which there's many, many reasons, but our most popular reasons are, if you're over 60 years of age, or you're going to be outside the county during all hours of early voting, and on election day, that's two of our most popular, we also have absentee ballots for military voters, Overseas Citizens, there's many, many, many reasons. So to get an application, you can go to our website and print one out, you can call our office, we'll mail it to you, you can come by and pick one up, you have to fill that out. It's just like voting check if you want to primary or not choose your reason sonnet we go through and check these very thoroughly, we will then mail you a ballot. If you meet all the qualifications and we accepted your application, the ballots, we normally start milling those out, it's about 45 days before every election. So with those if you have your request in by seven days before Election Day, which we want you to do it well before that. So as long as you've got your ballot application in, we want you to get all this done well before the seven days, I'm gonna say that again. But everything has to go through the mail when you're with the ballot. So we have to mail the ballot to you you have to mail it back in the ballot has to be in our office by election day for us to count it. If we get it after election day, there's no way we can count it. We also this is a part of absentee two's, we also go to all Lawson's nursing homes, assisted living, and homes for the aged. In Putnam County, we go to these facilities and we vote these people in person just to make it a little easier for them. It's just a courtesy for them. They can still come to our office and vote in person if they want to there. But it's it's just easier to go there and let them do

Kosta Yepifantsev: 18:27

it and talk a little bit about that process. Because we spoke on it earlier. What does that look like?

Jennifer Murphy: 18:33

So when we go we have a set schedule, we try to go the week before usually early voting. But we out myself go with a Republican and a Democrat volunteer, we'll go we set up we take ballot boxes with us. It's the whole process. It's a private area. So we're doing one at a time. We're still checking information. They're choosing what they want. We're putting it in an envelope, we're putting it in a ballot box, and then we bring the locked ballot box back to the office and lock it back up.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 19:07

It's amazing. So one more question real quick. Do other states do it differently than Tennessee? Because, you know, obviously, there was a ton of stuff in the last election cycle about mail in ballots, and I don't want anybody to get confused. So what makes Tennessee different from other states when it comes to mail in ballots?

Jennifer Murphy: 19:29

They all do do it differently. But I do not know how every state does it. I just know that our state there's no way to cheat per se, right. Everything is a checks and balance. Everything's accounted for. Just like we were talking about earlier in balancing. I still have those applications to balance on election day. We count applications, ballots, even the envelopes. We're counting everything Triple Tom's, even when we go into the counting board, and they're reading the cards through our scanner, because that's how we're going to count them, we're still counting them there, we still have a number that they tell us this is this, how many cards you read are not counted, and we check another balance there. So that's just part of it's a checks and balance. Yeah,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 20:22

I will say just like these ballot boxes, I remember like, during the pandemic, like you would just have a ballot box in the middle of the street, you know, and people be walking past and throwing stuff in there, you know, like slices of pizza and mail in ballots. And while we're on the topic of all the things that happened during the pandemic, you know, some people were concerned that you could get a mail in ballot, and you can then go and vote in person and essentially vote twice or double. How does the Putnam County Election Commission prevent that from happening?

Jennifer Murphy: 20:52

So if I'll mail you a ballot, you're marked in our computer, you you've got a flag per se on our computer. So if you come into early voting, and you try to fill out your application, and they pull you up, they see that flag and they come and get me basically, and I go out, and I'll just say, Hey, we've mailed you a ballot, and they'll give me their reason that they're there. And if they still want to continue to vote, they vote a provisional ballot. Okay, so provisional ballots are not counted until the day after Election Day. And when people are mailed a ballot and they vote a provisional ballot, that's to ensure that they don't try to do the provisional ballot, and then also mail their ballot back, and we counted Election Day. So even if they did a provisional and mail their ballot, we're still only counting one. That's the catch.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 21:47

So last question, I promise. And you may not know this, because it's kind of technical. So of all of the votes, so there was 33,000 people that voted. What percentage of that is mail in and absentee?

Jennifer Murphy: 22:01

Oh, my goodness, I do not know the percentage of that one. November 2020. was by far the biggest one ever. But I do not know the percentage of

Kosta Yepifantsev: 22:12

that it's under 10%. Like you guys aren't processing 3000 mail in and absentee ballots, right?

Jennifer Murphy: 22:19

We did probably 24 2600 in November of that year. 22. Barely, okay. It was like maybe 400. Nice.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 22:30

Very cool. Let's look at some data from Putnam County in 2020. There were 47,956 registered voters of which 33,817 voted in the presidential election. That's a voter turnout of 70.5%, ranking higher than the national turnout of 2020, which was 66.7%. I want to commend your team for such an incredible turnout. And your opinion, how do we get as close as possible to 100% voter turnout and 2024 always shot? No.

Michele Honeycutt: 23:07

The you know, we try to get people registered. Every year we go to all the high schools in the county, we register 18 year olds, if they're close to 18, they can fill out the form will hold it till their date of birth. We do that we get on the radios and tell them about the registration deadline. We put stuff in the paper. We're doing this. We try to get people to register. And of course, getting them there to vote. I don't know. I feel like it's a duty early. I know it's a broad range. But I don't think it's a duty that affects everything. Well. I

Kosta Yepifantsev: 23:41

think people don't recognize there's a couple of things that I want to ask you. But I want to say something first. They don't realize like when I talked to my parents, I grew up in the Soviet Union. Granted, they voted just like they vote now in Russia. But you know, if you didn't vote for the, for the current candidate, you were gonna get a knock on the door by the KGB, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah, like the fact that we have an opportunity as Americans to dictate who our leader is, is huge. Yes. You know, and you shouldn't take it for granted. And I think it's important to point out that people give their lives for us to be able to have that privilege as well. Yes, I do. What I am curious about Tennessee, when I look at the national statistics, it ranks pretty low on voter participation relative to the other states, but these stats are gangbusters. So two questions. Is this normal? These 70% voter turnout, and you've been doing this for a while. When did you start with the election commission? 98. Okay, so you've been doing it since 1998. What trend Have you seen? Have you seen a consistent increase or a stagnation and an increase or where are the inflection points since You've been involved.

Michele Honeycutt: 25:01

I do think we've had an increase. But I do think that's because our population has grown. Okay. We always are more busy on November elections, there are people that we have registered that will not vote in a primary interested in so they don't vote in my room or they don't vote and I don't know. They'll just vote in November. And I will say November 2020, we were so high, but most of the counties in Tennessee were okay. I think it was just the presidential candidate. Right. And it drew a lot of people out.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 25:34

Are you are you excited for the 2024? election year? Excited? Anxious?

Michele Honeycutt: 25:40

I'm excited, ready to go. We're gonna be slammed in November.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 25:44

I'm sure you will be I'm sure I'm sure you'll probably break another record. Before we wrap up, I want to talk about the importance and significance of free and fair elections. Voting is a privilege. One I personally never take for granted. What's your message to anyone that still doubts the power of their vote?

Michele Honeycutt: 26:05

Well, there have been many elections that are lost or one by one or two, but we've had them here in Putnam County, we've had ties, and then a provisional ballot changes by one vote. Since I've been here, there have been two tasks and cities that are newer, and then some cities, you know, someone will lose, but, you know, three or four votes, that's that's major.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 26:25

Yeah, even like the city council, this most recent city council election, the difference between somebody getting in and not was only like, you know, I think 117 votes or something like that. Sometimes it's much less. Yeah, please, please, please, if you take anything away from this episode, please go and vote, please be civically engaged. And make sure that you are a part of the process. Otherwise, just don't complain. Right. At the age old adage, yeah. So Michelle, does your voter registration ever expire? And what are the early voting dates for the November election? Okay,

Michele Honeycutt: 27:06

November, early voting dates are October 16. Through October 31 outlines last day, and I'm telling you they need to vote early. Yeah. Because if you wait for election day, you're gonna have much longer long, and they're slower. Yeah. I mean, not that the workers are slower, but they don't have the number of machines.

Kosta Yepifantsev: 27:27

So And does your voter registration ever expire?

Michele Honeycutt: 27:29

No, it does not expire. The only thing is, if you move, you need to let us know and update your address. Because what we do if you've not voted and you've not asked for a new card, we've not heard from you. No contact in four years. That will be you know, two federal elections. We are going to send a mailer out that is not affordable. So we're sending it to the address we have on file. If you're not there, the post office returns it to us sign it's undeliverable. Once we get that by law, we make your status inactive. Okay. Now, if you're inactive to more federal elections, so we've not heard from you in eight years or more. At that point, we can purge you. Okay. Okay. So just keep your address up today. Yeah. Well,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 28:16

most likely, if you haven't voted in eight years, you probably live in like Costa Rica or something. And you probably have moved. Right? You probably are a different country. Yeah. So when we talk about poll workers, you know, how do you apply to become a poll worker and help out with elections? Do they get paid? What are the hours? Is it a fun job, stuff like that,

Michele Honeycutt: 28:44

of course, it's a fun job. We have a form, they can complain. So they can come in our office and do it, we'll email it to them, we'll mail it to them whatever they want. And it is on our website, so they can pull it off of there. That way, we have your info. Right now, we do not need a lot of workers. But you know, this is just the beginning. So by the time election day comes, a lot of people make it sick, something comes up, so they have to cancel. So at that point, we do need those spare workers. So we need them. We have different positions, they do get paid a little not a lot. I guess the lowest position is 120. For the day, the highest is probably the officer who's in charge of the preset who's 150 plus 15. For every machine they have,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 29:29

but it's a labor of love. Yeah, it was a long time to hearing how long is the

Michele Honeycutt: 29:35

pulse up in at nine but they'll gonna be their boss seven to get these these new machines are big, they're heavy. So we are going to have to have some people deliver it to some of the precincts. So we ask that they're going to be there by seven and if the last person votes at seven, then you know they might be back at our office at eight. Okay,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 29:55

nice. But I mean, it's important and it matters. And if you haven't signed up to be a poll worker, you totally should. As of right now, it seems like you guys are

Michele Honeycutt: 30:06

worried that that will change any day. Yeah. Okay. Well,

Kosta Yepifantsev: 30:09

Morgan and I will gladly volunteer. And I'm sure Jessica will too, and that you have to be over the age of 18. Right? Oh, no. 16 years. 16. Okay, great. Yes. Good. Very good. So we always like to end the show on a high note. Who is someone that makes you better when you're together?

Michele Honeycutt: 30:30

It's gonna be my family. They know what I do. They support me and they know it's important. That's who makes me better all my family. Also, I do feel like when I'm around election officials, because they know what's important. They are

Kosta Yepifantsev: 30:57

Thank you to our partners Miss Sallie’s pretty much volunteering. I mean, you know, they get paid a Market for presenting this episode. I hope it’s no secret by now, I don’t know my way around the kitchen. However, I do know my way to the kitchen. That’s where Miss Sallie’s little and they're excited about the job they want to do. Yeah. Market comes in. With fresh, locally sourced to-go meals made daily, I don’t have to worry about my cooking skills getting in the way of our eating skills. Open 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday, Miss Sallie’s Market is located in the heart of Downtown Gainesboro with free community tastings every Thursday from 4-6. Find out more about vendors, offerings and weekly specials at: www.misssallies.com

Morgan Franklin: 31:36

Thank you for joining us on this episode of Better Together with Kosta Yepifantsev. If you've enjoyed listening and you want to hear more, make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you find your podcasts. Leave us a review or better yet, share this episode with a friend. Today's episode was written and produced by Morgan Franklin post production mixing and editing by Mike Franklin. Want to know more about Kosta visit us at kostayepifantsev.com. We're better together. We'd like to remind our listeners that the views and opinions expressed during this episode are those of the individual speakers and do not necessarily represent or reflect the official policy or position of this show its producers or any related entities or advertisers. While our discussions may touch on various topics of interest, please note that the content is intended to inspire thought provoking dialogue and should not be used for a substitute for professional advice. Specifically, nothing heard on this podcast should be construed as financial, legal, medical or any other kind of professional advice. We encourage our listeners to consult with a professional in these areas for guidance tailored to their specific circumstances.