Full transcript
0:05i
0:06represent the city of lewisville most of
0:09it
0:09uh 55 percent well mound holland village
0:13lake dallas and hickory and tell you a
0:16little bit about
0:17commissioners before i get started on
0:19voting
0:21the county the state
0:24sets up 254 counties in every county
0:28has four commissions and one county
0:30judge
0:31doesn't matter if you have 865 000
0:34people like
0:35then county does or you have 300 000 or
0:393 000
0:40and you still have four commissioners
0:42and one campaign
0:43and we're set up in quadrants for
0:46quadrant
0:47east west north and south so that we
0:50represent all the cities
0:52uh we meet once a week on
0:55tuesday on tuesday and then and just
0:58discuss
0:59county roads county bridges energy
1:01health care
1:03the courts sheriff department a county
1:06clerk where you can
1:08elections where you can register to vote
1:10and you can
1:11i understand they have registration
1:13coins outside so you can register
1:15to vote so if you're not registered to
1:17vote
1:18please make sure you do so it is
1:21important that you register to vote
1:23because your vote counts ever since this
1:27country was
1:28established people have fought for a
1:30right
1:31that is not exercised by a lot of people
1:34today
1:34people died so you would have a right to
1:37vote
1:38that's right that i'm speaking of is to
1:40vote in the beginning
1:42one had to be a white male land owner in
1:45order to receive this right
1:47however through the years and many
1:49battles
1:50all citizens of the united states
1:54are eligible to vote just a little bit
1:57tidbit of history
1:59in the 1800s women in the united states
2:02had viewed legal rights
2:03and did not have the right to vote this
2:06speech that i'm going to talk about a
2:08little bit was given by susan b anthony
2:10after her arrest imagine this for
2:13casting
2:14an illegal vote in the presidential
2:16elections
2:17of 1872. she was tried and then fined
2:22100 but she refused to pay that
2:26so she uh had the speech
2:29friends and fellow citizens i stand
2:32before you tonight
2:33on the indictment for the alleged crime
2:35of having voted
2:36at the last presidential election
2:38without having a lawful right to vote
2:41it shall be it shall be my work this
2:43evening to prove to you
2:46that in thus voting i not
2:49committed no crime but instead i simply
2:52exercised my citizens right
2:54guaranteed to me and all the united
2:56states citizens by the national
2:58constitution beyond the power of any
3:00state to
3:01deny to prohibit the preamble of the
3:04federal constitution
3:05says we the people of the united states
3:07in order to
3:08form a more perfect union establish
3:10justice ensure domestic tranquility
3:13provide for the common defense promote
3:15the general welfare
3:16and secure the blessing of liberty to
3:18ourselves and to our prosperity
3:20do ordain and establish this
3:22constitution for the united
3:31or the black st citizen but we the whole
3:33people
3:34who formed the union we formed it not to
3:37give the blessing of liberty
3:38but to secure them not to the half of
3:41ourselves
3:42and the half of our posterity but to the
3:45whole people
3:46women as well as men and his downright
3:48mockery
3:49to talk to women of their to talk to
3:52women of their enjoyment
3:53of the blessings of liberty she made
3:56that speech
3:57because she knew how important it is it
3:59was to vote
4:01voting this uh described by webster is
4:04an expressional opinion
4:05a preference a concept that should be
4:07known to all men
4:09county because it doesn't matter whether
4:11you're voting for an election
4:13for the president the governor the mayor
4:16the county judge it doesn't matter the
4:19shirt
4:20you still have a right to vote and you
4:23still have opinion
4:24and i believe that everybody should vote
4:26because everyone has an opinion
4:28in america's democracy we value our
4:30ability to choose who includes an office
4:34and when when half the country
4:37is voting we have to ask ourselves
4:41is this really a democracy so you have
4:43to look in the mirror and say
4:44am i voting am i getting out there
4:47voting by somebody else
4:49voting for me and making laws that i
4:52don't like
4:53and i don't want to live under look at
4:56it this way the whole purpose of
4:57democracy is for every person to have a
5:00say in what goes on
5:01and i know a lot of people used to say
5:02well my vote doesn't count
5:04well it does i remember back here in
5:07louisville back
5:08a few years ago
5:11an election was won by one vote so your
5:14vote does count
5:16it doesn't matter who you vote for as
5:19long as you research that candidate
5:21and resist that person and most of their
5:24values
5:25match your values now not every value is
5:28going to match yours
5:29but make sure you focus on match units
5:34if you're only voting if half of you are
5:36voting the rest of us
5:38is running the country and telling you
5:40what you need or what you
5:41don't need a lot of people from 18 to 24
5:45are not voting a lot of people think
5:48well i'm too young i can do it later
5:50but later it's today you have a choice
5:53to
5:53say right now the president is running
5:56for election elections
5:58we have two senators cruz and uh john
6:01cornyn
6:02so we need to make sure that we vote
6:06our conviction we need to make sure that
6:09we're voting up for the person
6:10that we wanted uh to be in office the
6:14voters
6:15literally had the future of the country
6:17in your hand
6:19so i urge every one of you to be a part
6:22of the democracy
6:23there are citizens around the country
6:25that doesn't have
6:26the liberty to go and vote but the youth
6:29of america
6:30and young america and even older
6:32americans you know most
6:34older people will vote after they get a
6:35certain age but i say don't wait until
6:38you get oh we need
6:39young people to vote we need young
6:42people to run
6:43for office so we can get bigger and
6:45better things
6:46with the power to choose what happened
6:48in the country
6:50we make america stronger we can make
6:53america a strong
6:55country if we all get out and vote
6:57voting is one of the most critical
6:59processes that is instrumental both in
7:02the functioning of society
7:04and this relationship with the
7:05government there are a few
7:07important lessons as to why people
7:09should vote as a part of the system
7:11our president lyndon johnson said the
7:14voters in the
7:15most powerful instrument ever devised by
7:18man
7:18for breaking down injustice and
7:21destroying the terrible walls
7:23which imprisoned men because they're
7:25different from other people and that
7:26means ladies too
7:28if you're one of those people you think
7:30voting is a complete waste of time
7:33but you keep on complaining about the
7:35government
7:36i say it's time for you to realize that
7:39you need to get up
7:41you need to get registered and you need
7:43to go vote
7:44it is the people of the nation who have
7:46the right to put forward
7:48policies that's going to affect their
7:50name when i ran
7:51for a mayor in louisville back in 1993
7:56i won that office about 217 votes
8:00imagine if 217 people has decided that
8:03they were going to stay home that day
8:05and that they were not going to vote so
8:08your vote does count
8:11you have the right to put forward
8:12policies this will affect your town
8:15it affects your job your country your
8:18taxes
8:18and your overall well-being
8:21why should you vote number one is your
8:23fundamental right
8:25this is the basic reason why i want you
8:27to go out there and vote
8:29you have a right and you have a moral
8:32obligation
8:32of choosing the elected members of the
8:34government that you want
8:36not that i want every citizen need to
8:39put in
8:39his or her safe that's who to ask for
8:42who they want
8:43to run the company it is a hard-earned
8:46privilege
8:47that you should not take it for granted
8:49number two
8:50your opinion is value voting ensures
8:54that your opinion is taken
8:55into account while appointing the person
8:58who holds the reign of the battle
9:01we people who are elected have the power
9:03to formulate
9:04educational policies which are
9:06instrumental in
9:08shaping the future of your children of
9:10you
9:11and the future of the nation why should
9:14i vote
9:15i want the right person in office i want
9:18the right person that's going to
9:19uh make laws and enact laws about health
9:22care
9:22about the highways about jobs about
9:25taxes or even about the food
9:27i eat elected representatives have the
9:30power to
9:31make decisions over some of our most
9:33vital issues
9:34it doesn't i mean ask where you go
9:37you have school board members that
9:39decide where you're going to go to
9:41school
9:42you know i vote uh to say what kind of
9:44road that we're going to have
9:45i vote to say if we're going to tow one
9:48i-35
9:49i took the vote to see if we're going to
9:51widen uh 24.99
9:53i voted to see if we're going to pick
9:5524.99 across the lake
9:57so there are lots of issues that you
9:59have that
10:00oh that you can vote on that affect your
10:02life
10:03take over your powers without exercising
10:06your right to vote
10:07you giving somebody else your power and
10:08i know i can look at you young people
10:10and i know y'all like me and you
10:12don't want anyone telling you what you
10:14have to do and how you're going to do it
10:17know i ran for office when i first ran
10:19for office
10:20in lewisville my daughter had gone back
10:24to college
10:25i had started college and my water bill
10:28had gone up and i went down and i
10:30said i want to see what's going on what
10:32are y'all doing
10:34and i got there and i got placed on the
10:36board before i
10:38got elected to a council member
10:41and i liked what i saw and i liked the
10:44fact that i could have some control
10:46over my life here at lewisville and so
10:49you too can have that control because
10:51you elect the right representative that
10:53you want to have
10:54a low volume training
10:57does not represent the actual result
11:01and a lot of times it does not represent
11:03the best person
11:04that was elected for that uh position
11:07it's
11:08all who get their votes out you know
11:11if you don't get your people and you'll
11:12get your vote out you don't get
11:14elected so you can
11:17you got to make sure that you got the
11:20right people out there
11:21and that they're rallying for you we've
11:24had some
11:25crazy people as i say you know them
11:27names
11:28they'll go into office because we say
11:32or we think that i voted up i vote
11:34doesn't count
11:35well it does count and we gotta get out
11:37get out there and do that
11:39well i'll vote you on the correct
11:40message out there in a democratic system
11:44voting simply translate to sending out
11:47the right message to the government
11:49it's only fair that a non-performing
11:52government
11:52should be punished we see people stay in
11:54office for years and i've been there for
11:56a while
11:57but if i'm not doing my job then i
12:00should be replaced
12:02as well as anyone else and you know and
12:05this is an effortless task all you got
12:06to do is sign up
12:08so all those who say i feel that voting
12:10is a big task think again
12:12there are many things that we do every
12:13day that take up so much and more of our
12:15efforts
12:16voting is the very least that you can do
12:19it takes about 10 minutes
12:21and we have early voting right now that
12:22started march 3rd for the primary
12:24election
12:25you can vote anywhere in den county on
12:28voting day you have to vote in the
12:29precinct that you're in
12:31and your precinct is on your voters
12:33registration card
12:34that you can look at and then you can go
12:36online and i know y'all know how to go
12:38online
12:41and you can see which precinct that
12:43you're in and you can go there and vote
12:45and even then on as i said on election
12:48day you can vote anywhere
12:49i mean uh primary you can vote anywhere
12:52early voting
12:53then on election day if you decide that
12:55well i want to go to my
12:56voted precinct then you can go there but
12:59you can take the opportunity and you
13:00don't have to stand in line
13:02if you do earn a vote and uh
13:05so next time there's an election in the
13:07country of town and we have one coming
13:09up march third
13:10third not only and you know you know
13:12something a lot of times
13:13we don't want to run for office but you
13:16need to find somebody else
13:18that you think that would be good for
13:20that office and then you need to
13:22encourage them and then work for them
13:24to make sure that they get in office and
13:26do the things that you want to do
13:28and if they don't do it the next time
13:32you don't vote for him voting
13:35is a fundamental right as i said and
13:38every one of us
13:40should make sure that we vote the next
13:42time there's an election in the country
13:44thank the
13:44people that are living outside of the
13:46country that there are curfews
13:48that they can't worship where they want
13:50to they can't go where they want to
13:52we have all these rights in the united
13:54states of america
13:55and it's because that we the citizens
13:58not we the government
13:59we just sent citizens excuse me
14:03tell our government what we want even
14:05like us
14:06the city council when uh curfews
14:10we used to have a liaison
14:14between our council and his
14:18students would let us know what the
14:20students would like
14:22believe it or not people are open to
14:25your opinion
14:26but you got to get up and you got to
14:28give that opinion and if you don't want
14:29to give that opinion somebody else
14:31will give that opinion for you and then
14:33you'll be left out in the code
14:35government has no power of power other
14:37than what
14:38it derives from the consent of the
14:41government
14:42of us to them that government
14:46is not a democracy it's not a republic
14:49it's a
14:50uh uh
14:53i mean present oppressive government if
14:56we don't get out and vote
14:58like we want to there are a lot of
15:00things that are going around in the
15:01country right now that we don't like
15:03and we have the opportunity to vote
15:07we've got a whole slate beginning with
15:09the president
15:10of new people that are going into office
15:13or being re-elected
15:14and you have the opportunity to go out
15:17and decide who you won't be in office
15:21but the first step starts with
15:25your voters registration you got to make
15:27sure you
15:28you've got to close your restorations
15:30over and then all you're going to
15:32do is go down there and check some boxes
15:34put it in the machine and let go
15:36and as i said you can vote anywhere in
15:38benton county
15:40beginning february 18th which is early
15:42voting started hearing voting
15:44march 3rd is the voter's day voting day
15:47but february 13th you can go anywhere in
15:49denton county
15:50that means if you own a job and then
15:54and you say oh shoot i forgot to go run
15:56by the election office
15:57run by one of the holy place and vote so
16:00there is no excuse for not voting right
16:02now
16:02you all have an opportunity to vote used
16:05to you could say something i don't have
16:06anybody to take me
16:08we all have cause
16:11you all have friends there's no excuse
16:14and you know what we need the
16:17opinion of young people amen when you're
16:19governed people you need their opinion
16:22i'm always my door's always open to say
16:24okay come in and tell me what you think
16:26we may not do everything you say dude
16:28but we
16:29we need your opinion and you vote on
16:31everything sometimes in your house you
16:32know
16:32there's a well do we do this and then we
16:34do that so it's not nothing new
16:36to you it's just that you've got to get
16:38out and do it
16:40and you've got to be motivated and think
16:42i can make a difference
16:44voting makes a difference how does it
16:46make a difference well
16:47it helps choose the correct person that
16:50goes in that office
16:51and we all know that some people that
16:53are in office are not to break people
16:55the only way we get them out of there is
16:57we go and vote now don't try to vote me
17:02out
17:04but you do have the opportunity to do
17:06that if you decide that
17:07mr mitchell has been there too long but
17:09she's not doing her job you have an
17:11opportunity to go back
17:12talk to me first
17:15but then you have voting right and
17:18please take advantage of that there are
17:20people in other countries that cannot
17:21vote
17:22because and you know the black person
17:24couldn't vote for a long time the women
17:26couldn't go
17:26to 1920. so you have the opportunity to
17:30vote right now
17:31so i would urge you and encourage you if
17:34you don't do anything
17:35else this year go and vote
17:38it isn't part of the election you know
17:41every year is important
17:43but when the president of the company of
17:45the country is running
17:47you and the governors the president's
17:49running this year four years ago
17:52you need to make sure that you're going
17:54to vote because you want to make sure
17:56the head of the
17:57uh the country is doing the right thing
18:00but i say don't forget also that your
18:03mayor's
18:04in your commissions you know we've
18:06determined that
18:07the county determines a lot of laws here
18:10at uh denton county what goes here and
18:13what goes there and what road's going to
18:15go in
18:15what road is not going to go in you
18:17school the school board does the same
18:19what school you're going to go to is it
18:20going to be
18:21redistributed to this redistricting so
18:24you
18:24have the power the people have a family
18:26i have one vote
18:28and i say i've got my husband
18:32and then my two children live in this
18:34county but i may better not make them
18:36mad
18:36because but you the people
18:40have a right to go vote so i urge you
18:43get involved in the process you will be
18:46so surprised i never
18:47intended to go into politics hey
18:51no intention until i want to be a
18:55when my winner bill went up i said i'm
18:57going to see what's going on
18:59and from that time on i got a taste of
19:02me
19:02telling somebody else what to do i'm the
19:03baby in my family and i love doing it
19:06and i am nosy and
19:10i want to know what effect did you have
19:12on my life and the only way i can do
19:14that is i'll be a part of the process
19:16because i can sit here and complain all
19:18day long and nothing's going to happen
19:20people are waiting for you to come and
19:21say hey why don't you do this hey what
19:23about this
19:25so i tell you today if you are not
19:27registered to vote register
19:29to vote be ready on february 18th
19:33so that you can go and vote and vote the
19:36people that you want
19:37to take care of you the people that you
19:39want to make laws that you can live up
19:41to
19:41because sometimes i may not know what
19:43you want and i'm voting
19:45uh when i make a vote it's what i want
19:47or what i think is best for you the only
19:49way i know what you want is you let me
19:50know
19:51and you have a right to contact every
19:54one of your elected officials
19:56and they should listen now i'm not going
19:59to tell you i'm going to do everything
20:00you say
20:02but i'm certainly going to listen if
20:04it's a good idea we're gonna work with
20:06it so i say to you today go vote
20:10let your vote be counted don't let it be
20:12said
20:13that i make decisions for eighty percent
20:16of precinct three of them county make
20:19sure that you get in there
20:21and tell me what you want and not what
20:23and i don't have to make a decision
20:25based on my experience because that's
20:27what we're making the
20:29decision on based on the experience that
20:30we have and what we've done and what
20:32we've seen
20:33we may not have seen what you said so
20:35you need to let us know
20:37what happens if we don't know who's on
20:40the ballot
20:41where can we get that information if you
20:43go to our election department
20:45then countyelection.com that in
20:48and that will show you a list of the
20:50people that's on the ballot
20:52that would every one of us from the
20:54democratic party
20:56the republican party independent
20:57department
20:59everybody listed from the president all
21:02the way down
21:02to my own that you are you're on that
21:05ballot
21:06it may it's when you'll have your city
21:08election for your
21:09mayor and uh council members but
21:13right now you have county elections and
21:15you can go to
21:17dentoncountyelection.com yes so that's a
21:20great resource too
21:21and then also i've given you some
21:23handouts
21:24there's some more information about
21:26places where you can go to find
21:28out about candidates that are on the
21:30ballot
21:31and then of course you can always do
21:33your own research you can look on
21:35those candidates webpages to find out
21:37more
21:38information about them the things that
21:40they they stand for
21:42their stances on different things too
21:44and we have um
21:45election places that we that you so
21:48you'll know where to go
21:50and that's all online and you you all
21:53are the king
21:54and the team i'm just learning
21:58but you can go online and find out
22:00anything you want to i have a website
22:02bobby mitchell vote commissioner
22:03mitchell 2019
22:06and gmail.com but right now
22:09you know if you want to know anything
22:10about me you can go
22:12then county website and you can just say
22:14commissioner precinct three
22:15and they'll pull it up mommy mitchell
22:18dot com yes sir what would you say is
22:20worse a no vote or an uneducated
22:30[Music]
22:38uh if you're voting for a bad candidate
22:41probably
22:43an educated public surprise but it
22:46depends on the cancer you got
22:47to look at it i mean
22:51but the key is is that there's somebody
22:54on that boundary
22:55there okay let's say man you may not
22:57vote for
22:58xyz because you can move abc
23:03but i want to say something so there's
23:04no reason to be an uneducated voter
23:06though
23:07because you have all of this information
23:09the league of women voters plus the vote
23:11texas i mean there's so many resources
23:12so you can't cop out
23:14and say i'm an uneducated i don't want
23:16to vote because i don't know
23:18when there's so many resources so that
23:20you can be educated i don't want to hear
23:22any of my students say that
23:28years ago that's what people say yes
23:30because
23:31none of them
23:36you have the opportunity you have any
23:38kind of jews that you want to go in and
23:40see
23:40who's doing what and if all of us will
23:43call that person
23:45i mean hey you know i'm getting ready to
23:48vote and i want to know something about
23:49you why should i vote for you
23:53and people want people want to be asked
23:56questions
23:57we'd love to tell you why you should
23:58vote for us
23:59[Laughter]
24:00yes sir how much did your wardrobe
24:06[Music]
24:15but you know i think that was just my
24:17opportunity to get involved
24:20and we all you know we all need to get
24:22involved because there are many things
24:23that you can do
24:24and i served on a board of adjustment
24:27and then planning and zoning
24:28before i ran for office so i had a
24:30chance to know about the city and what
24:32they were doing
24:33i went to leadership lewisville i looked
24:35through the citizen police academy
24:37which you certainly do and you can learn
24:39what the police is doing
24:40you need to learn about your city
24:43through the
24:44leadership of louisville a leadership
24:46flour bound leadership death of
24:48any of the cities that you have you can
24:50go through those classes and finally
24:51find out a lot we have the leadership
24:53louisville class that came through the
24:55county
24:56on yesterday they came to the county
24:57they watched our commissioner's court
25:00then they went to the jail they went to
25:04the information services emergency
25:06management
25:07they came back to our office and then
25:09we've got several people dps and the
25:11judges
25:12and tax assessors collector and all them
25:14and veteran service
25:15that got in the office and talked about
25:17what happens in the county
25:20so you have every opportunity to do that
25:22you can pick up the phone and you can
25:23call
25:24any elected official you want to counter
25:27and if they say something tell them
25:29bobby mitchell said i don't know
25:35but they won't they're glad to have
25:37somebody asking questions
25:40there any other questions yes ma'am
25:44i heard a rumor that you were an nctc
25:46graduate
25:47no no i i attended the class
25:56i love this college i'm glad that you're
25:59here i'm glad you've expanded and
26:01you know we need a place for our kids
26:04that haven't made up their mind or maybe
26:06need to take
26:06some time before they go on four i wish
26:10my grandkids put down
26:11that and i wish my kids would have done
26:14that but they didn't think you know they
26:15decided
26:16here at a university and he spent five
26:20or six years
26:25the money wasn't that much but when you
26:28pay 30 or 40
26:29000 a year for your kids to go to
26:31college
26:32you should take advantage of every one
26:34of these
26:36and i call them junior college you don't
26:37call them
26:39but you need to take advantage of uh
26:41close to home where you can drive
26:43and then get all the basics done and
26:45then go to university and i'm preaching
26:47to the choir
26:48[Laughter]
26:50but i think it's excellent that we and
26:52you don't like for older adults to come
26:54back
26:54and get some training i think that's
26:56wonderful one of these days when i get
26:57some time i'm gonna do that
27:00you know i think that's excellent and
27:02you know there's no excuse i'm right
27:04down the road
27:0515 minutes away from this college so
27:08i'm so glad that we're here
27:11and that you're inviting kids and you
27:14patrick's family
27:15because of all the kids and those who
27:17are coming
27:18so please go over thank you