Bonus episode! With Election Day fast approaching, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder of the We the Veterans & Military Families, Ben Keiser, speaks with Arizona Secretaries of State Adrian Fontes and Francisco V. Aguilar to discuss the systems and processes in place to ensure safe, accurate, and transparent elections in their states.

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With the 2024 elections fast approaching, were focusing this episode on the people who are working hard to make sure America continues to have the safest, most secure, and most accurate elections on the planet. To begin, Matt Reisinger (1:40), the Director of Elections & General Registrar for Warren County Virginia joins us to talk about how local elections are run, why early voting is important, and why it’s important for citizens to volunteer to help run elections. Next, the chair and vice chair of the Election Assistance Commission Chairman Ben Hoveland and Commissioner Donald Palmer - a Navy veteran- join Ellen and Joe to discuss the challenges facing state and local election officials this year and what the federal government is doing to help – to include voter education and countering foreign malign influence. Lastly, our own Loren Westerfield, deputy director of Vet the Vote, joins us to update our listeners on the latest numbers (we recruited more than 140,000 poll workers!), the latest partners (NASCAR joined the coalition!), and what’s coming down the pike in terms of local events. For more, check out www.VetThe.Vote.

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We're sure it comes as no surprise that this world is filled with people who want to manipulate you - to shape your thoughts and feelings so they can influence your behaviors. This episode is all about how humans construct our realities with our five senses and the information we gather beyond our senses. And this is a garbage-in garbage-out process - when we consume bogus information, we tend to make decisions that aren't aligned with the interests of ourselves, our families, and our nation. Joining us in this episode is Zach Fryer-Biggs (1:33), the managing editor of Military.com - one of the military and veteran community's "hometown newspapers." Zach talks about why our system of self government requires a free, fair, independent, and inquisitive press. Next, we speak with Sasha Havilcek (18:05), the CEO of ISD Global who is an expert on extremism, polarization, and disinformation to help us uncover who is trying to influence you during our elections and why. Lastly, Joe brings former USMC intelligence officer Andrew Borene (1:00:54) aboard to talk about the dirty tricks propagandists use to fool us and how we can detect their attempts and thwart them. Nobody messes with M'erica! Andrew now serves as an open source intelligence expert, and we urge veterans and their family members to treat their news and social media consumption in the same way we'd gather intelligence - confirm the source, verify the information, cross check with other sources, and analyze for motive before deciding. It's up to us to seek good information upon which to make decisions about the future of this country. Now you're armed to do just that.

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For more, check us out at www.wetheveterans.us and at https://linktr.ee/vettedconversations