Voted yet? Our KPBS Voter Hub will help simplify the process
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Good Morning, I’m Lawrence K. Jackson….it’s MONDAY, NOVEMBER SECOND>>>> [ HAVE YOU VOTED YET? IF NOT, OUR KPBS VOTER HUB CAN HELP ]More on that next. But first... the headlines….########
WE’VE TOLD YOU ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE’S REQUEST TO SET SIDE WHAT THEY ALLEGE ARE TWENTY-THOUSAND CALIFORNIA BALLOTS FROM NON-CITIZENS
IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY, THAT EQUATES TO ROUGHLY SEVENTEEN HUNDRED VOTERS
ALONGSIDE THAT REQUEST, THE DOJ ALSO ASKED FOR VOTERS’ PERSONAL INFORMATION INCLUDING SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBERS AND COPIES OF STATE ID’S OR DRIVER LICENSES
NBC-7 SAYS SIMILAR LETTERS WENT OUT TO COUNTIES AROUND CALIFORNIA LAST WEEK
WELL, LAST WEEK A FEDERAL JUDGE DECLINED THE REQUEST
DURING THE HEARING JUDGE MARK J BENNETT, WHO WAS APPOINTED BY PRESIDENT TRUMP, SAID THE REQUEST WAS QUOTE ENTIRELY INCONSISTENT WITH THE LAW THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE HAS ADOPTED END QUOTE
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TOMORROW … NOVEMBER THIRD IS ELECTION DAY AND SAN DIEGO COUNTY HAS MORE THAN 200 PLACES TO VOTE IN-PERSON.
AS OF THIS PAST SATURDAY, THERE ARE TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY ONE TOTAL VOTE CENTERS OPEN ACROSS OUR COUNTY
TODAY, THE CENTERS ARE OPEN FROM 8 A-M UNTIL 5 P-M
AND TOMORROW ON ELECTION DAY THEY OPEN BRIGHT AND EARLY AT 7 A-M AND WILL CLOSE AT 8 P-M
THOSE VOTE CENTERS REPRESENT TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY ONE DIFFERENT OPTIONS OF WHERE YOU CAN PLACE YOUR BALLOT
VOTERS CAN REGISTER ON ELECTION DAY BY FILLING OUT A SAME-DAY REGISTRATION FORM. ALL REGISTERED VOTERS CAN CAST A BALLOT IN PERSON, OR DROP OFF A MAIL BALLOT.
AND A REMINDER FOR THOSE MAILING BALLOTS: THEY MUST BE POSTMARKED BY ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER THIRD
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PAID PARKING AT THE SAN DIEGO ZOO WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE END OF THE YEAR … BUT WITH SOME SLIGHT CHANGES STARTING IN 2027.
ON JANUARY FIRST, ZOO PARKING WILL BE FREE FOR SAN DIEGO CITY RESIDENTS, ACTIVE DUTY MILITARY AND ALL ZOO MEMBERS.
VISITORS FROM OUT OF TOWN WILL CONTINUE PAYING A FLAT RATE OF SIXTEEN DOLLARS.
THE ZOO SAYS THAT HALF OF THE REVENUE GENERATED FROM PARKING GOES TO THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO AND HELPS SUPPORT BALBOA PARK’S OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE.
From KPBS, you’re listening to San Diego News Now.Stay with me for more of the local news you need
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ELECTION DAY IS TOMORROW … AND SO WITH THAT BEING TOP OF MIND … FOR MY MOST RECENT INSTALLMENT OF ‘POD BEHIND THE PKG,’ I CAUGHT UP THE BRAINS BEHIND KPBS’S VOTER HUB: DIGITAL EDITOR ELMA GONZALEZ LIMA BRANDAO
WE DISCUSS ELMA’S CAREER TRAJECTORY, THE HISTORY OF THE VOTER HUB AND A NEWLY-LAUNCHED WHATSAPP CHANNEL FOR SPANISH SPEAKERS
HERE’S THAT CONVO
(0:00) Elma, you're a great example of how someone can go from being a fellow here to now being (0:05) at the editor level. (0:06) Can you talk to me and the audience, of course, about your time spent as a Gloria Penner Fellow (0:11) and then becoming an assistant news producer to now being the digital editor? (0:15) Well, I like to joke that when I applied for the Gloria Penner position, I was right out (0:22) of college. (0:23) I came to my interview.
(0:24) I didn't think I did well. (0:26) And then that same day, I got the call. (0:28) And I was so shocked that KPBS deemed me worthy of working here, of being part of this team.
(0:37) And so when I got here, I put everything into the work that I was doing every day. (0:42) As a Gloria Penner Fellow, I worked directly with our Evening Edition team. (0:47) That's the daily newscast that we have.
(0:50) And essentially, what I did was a little bit of everything, running tapes from upstairs (0:55) to downstairs, editing video, assisting the producer on whatever they may need, write (1:03) copy, et cetera. (1:04) And from then, I actually entered more the digital space. (1:08) I became a web producer.
(1:09) Then I actually went and did a lot of digital, some software development work right after (1:14) that, and then came back to the newsroom, now as a digital editor. (1:18) And I think I'm in the best spot right now because I just love every day what I do and (1:26) the innovation involved with the type of work that I do. (1:29) So it's been a long journey.
(1:31) I've been zigzagging here at KPBS, but never dull. (1:35) Yeah, absolutely. (1:36) And you're part of a long list, a strong list of journalists.
(1:40) We have quite a few of them at KPBS, actually. (1:42) Exactly. (1:43) Still actively here in the building.
(1:45) It's almost like you're all's little fraternity sorority, in a sense. (1:48) It's like a little club, because whenever it comes up, they're like, oh, well, ask Elma. (1:52) Elma was the last one.
(1:54) Yeah. (1:54) We wear pink on Wednesdays. (1:56) Exactly.
(1:57) No, I love that. (1:58) I love that. (1:59) Transitioning now, of course, to exactly why we're here, Voter Hub.
(2:03) Election Day is tomorrow. (2:05) So maybe this interview can help serve as some sort of last minute prep for anyone out (2:09) there wanting to educate themselves on local issues, not go into that booth blind, have (2:14) an idea. (2:15) But before we get into any of that, let's pull back.
(2:17) Talk to us, Elma, about Voter Hub. (2:19) When did it start, its inception, and how it's grown to what it really is now, like (2:24) a tool, a resource? (2:26) The Voter Hub launched for the primary of 2022. (2:30) We wanted to cover elections in a different way at KPBS.
(2:35) We've always covered elections. (2:36) We've always done a very good job of identifying key races, key measures that the public needs (2:43) to be extra informed about, and doing deep dives on each of those things. (2:49) But we never did it in a way that was as organized and like templated and as comprehensive as (2:57) when we decided to do the Voter Hub.
(2:59) So the Voter Hub, the idea behind that was to have a one-stop shop for voters to find (3:06) quick explainers written by journalists that had interviews with candidates, that had (3:13) maybe interviews with experts about a particular measure, all in one place, in addition to (3:18) maybe some resources like Dropbox locations, Vote Center locations, etc., and to become (3:24) like the ultimate stop for KPBS audience members to essentially get their ballot and kind of (3:31) fill it out with their computers open or laptops open or their phones and get through (3:37) it, sometimes it's multiple pages, with the help of KPBS. (3:40) And so that's kind of like the thinking behind when we launched the Voter Hub. (3:44) And we've continued to do this project ever since.
(3:49) I think we've had an election almost every year since 2022, or at least it feels that (3:53) way. (3:54) And we've just been improving upon the initial concept based on data, just seeing where people (4:01) are clicking, how they're using it, but also based on surveys. (4:04) We've surveyed the audience before on what was useful, what wasn't.
(4:08) At one point, we had a Spotify playlist of like, here's what you can listen to while (4:11) you fill out your ballot. (4:12) Okay, I love that. (4:14) So we've tried a lot of different things to make that space what maybe voters might look (4:23) for as they're filling out their ballot, as they're wondering, why are we voting for judges (4:29) right now? (4:29) What is that? (4:30) And having all those answers there.
(4:32) So yeah, 2022, and now it's 2026, and we're still going strong. (4:36) Wow, I love that. (4:36) Because if you ever got my feedback, my anonymous feedback, not anonymously, it would have been (4:41) like, I love the playlist.
(4:45) Adding beats to anything never hurts, in my opinion. (4:48) Maybe it was the beats that we added. (4:49) Maybe it was the music itself.
(4:51) They were like, I like you. (4:52) I like you. (4:53) You got skills, I just don't like this mixtape.
(4:54) I just don't like this exact beat right here. (4:57) Oh, that's amazing. (4:59) Any year-over-year growth that you're able to share from the Voter Hub with us, Elma? (5:04) Yeah.
(5:04) So in the primary in 2022, we got about 70,000, 75,000 users visiting the Voter Hub, and we (5:15) were pretty proud of that. (5:16) We really thought we had hit something there with formatting our content in that way. (5:22) So those numbers were very positive.
(5:24) Just as primary, we actually hit about 420,000 users. (5:29) So you can see that in the last five years, we've grown significantly because we've kept (5:34) iterating and improving. (5:36) To us, that just tells us that there's even more opportunity for us to reach more voters.
(5:42) We've also, one thing that I haven't mentioned is that we do the Voter Hub since 2022 in Spanish (5:46) as well. (5:47) And I think it's only last year that we started doing absolutely every explainer. (5:54) We used to only do some of the explainers that we felt maybe were most relevant to Spanish-speaking (6:00) communities, but now we do all of them.
(6:03) And so those stories that are now going and reaching those audiences are also helping (6:09) grow the overall audience. (6:11) Elma, can you talk to me a little bit about how the Voter Hub is almost treated and goes (6:15) through the same screening process that a report or a story would? (6:19) Can you talk to me about how, you know, if I'm a candidate and I'm saying, I don't take (6:22) any PAC money, but then my campaign website or what you find says differently. (6:27) Can you talk to me about how you fact check it similarly to the way we would a news story? (6:31) So all of the explainers that we put together are, again, put together by the newsroom.
(6:35) And they are written by a reporter. (6:38) They are edited by an editor. (6:41) They essentially go through the exact same workflow that a news story goes through.
(6:50) And so we do look at all of the facts. (6:52) We make sure that what we're putting out there is correct. (6:56) When there's issues with what the candidate is saying or displaying on their website, etc., (7:01) we reached out to all of these candidates, right? (7:03) And we're very transparent in the Voter Hub in the sense that we do have candidates who (7:09) just never got back to us.
(7:11) And so we will say in the Voter Hub something like, based on their website, you know, this (7:15) is what they are putting out there where they stand on X issue or whatever. (7:19) And we're very clear about that because also, you know, if a candidate refuses to speak (7:23) to KPBS, there's not much you can do. (7:26) But where we can, we try to interview those candidates and ask the questions and follow (7:31) up.
(7:31) And again, it goes through the same editorial process that any of our stories go through. (7:36) I love that. (7:36) I absolutely love it.
(7:37) I like to think of the Voter, I mean, the Voter Hub, of course, kpbs.org slash Voter (7:42) Hub, right? (7:43) You can go online and see it. (7:44) But it's not a digital project. (7:46) It's a community project.
(7:48) It's meant to serve the community. (7:49) And so my hope is that we continue growing in all directions, whether digital or not, (7:57) and that it reaches the most people it can. (8:00) Elma, I think another, I think another way you're reaching people is by putting Spanish (8:06) first content out there. (8:07) And you spoke to it. (8:07) You began to speak to it. (8:08) I'm going to ask, you know, another question about it. (8:11) But can you talk to me about the WhatsApp? (8:12) We have a Spanish first WhatsApp, and I believe it can also be utilized to educate people. (8:18) Maybe you link the Voter Hub in that WhatsApp. (8:20) But talk to me about the WhatsApp being Spanish first. (8:23) Talk to me about, I know it's also growing pretty rapidly and how that's kind of become (8:27) like a safe space resource for those that are only Spanish speakers at the moment. (8:32) Yeah. (8:32) So since 2022, we've had the Voter Hub in Spanish as well.(8:38) The hub there is called Guía Electoral, right? (8:42) And since then, we've grown a lot in terms of how much content we've been publishing (8:48) in Spanish. (8:50) But just a few months ago, we launched what we're calling Línea Directa, which translates (8:55) to direct line on WhatsApp. (8:57) And it's meant to be a way for people to send us messages just, you know, like as if they (9:05) were text messages.
(9:06) And for us to also do the same, to have that reciprocal relationship of sharing information, (9:13) asking questions, making sure on our end that whatever it is that we are prioritizing to (9:20) either translate or investigate or whatever is what the community wants and needs. (9:26) So it's kind of like a direct way to do that. (9:29) But yeah, so it's called Línea Directa. (9:31) People can subscribe by going to kpbs.org slash WhatsApp. (9:37) And if you do subscribe, what you can expect from there is every Tuesday we send out a (9:42) video that instead of it just being news or any sort of like updates on politics or anything (9:50) like that, it's a video that will explain to you how to do something that might help (9:56) you make a decision in your life. (9:58) And then every Thursday we send out lists of resources, can be maybe events in the community, (10:04) it can be last one, I think we sent resources on the voter hub, actually, hey, are you voting? (10:11) Here's a way that you can get yourself informed before you cast your ballot.
(10:16) Here's where you can find your vote center, etc. (10:18) And so that's helped us create another avenue for reaching communities through WhatsApp now. (10:25) Yes, so many Spanish speakers, needless to say, so many Spanish speakers in our region, (10:29) and it should never be the reason you aren't informed, have less resources, even hang out.
(10:35) It's even like a safe space. (10:36) Like, you know, I would be the one in there like, what's everyone doing tonight? (10:40) So I just, you know, I commend you. (10:41) I commend your team for creating space for Spanish speakers.
(10:45) Resources like that are super important for them to not feel in any way excluded or secondary, (10:50) which they aren't at all.
ONCE AGAIN THAT WAS OUR DIGITAL EDITOR ELMA GONZALES LIMA BRANDAO. YOU CAN UTILIZE OUR KPBS VOTER HUB FOR ALL YOUR VOTING PREPARATION NEEDS BY VISITING KPBS DOT ORG AND SEARCHING “VOTER HUB” OR “WHATS APP” IN THE SEARCH BAR
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HAVEN’T DECIDED ON HOW TO VOTE FOR MEASURE B?
THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY HALF-CENT SALES TAX WOULD SET ASIDE FOUR-HUNDRED-MILLION DOLLARS ANNUALLY FOR SOCIAL SERVICES AND PUBLIC SAFETY.
REPORTER TAMMY MURGA SAYS SUPPORTERS AND OPPONENTS ARE MAKING THEIR FINAL PUSH BEFORE ELECTION DAY.
MEASUREB 1 trt:48 soq
Supporters say Measure B addresses some of the most pressing needs facing San Diego County families.
That includes $70 million for public safety causes. John Clark is with Cal-Fire Local 2881. He says the funds would help hire more firefighters and upgrade equipment.
MEASUREB 1a 00:11
“The costs have been driving up on fire trucks and ambulances, helicopters, maintenance for fleet services and we want to make sure that we have a sound fleet so that we can respond to those incidents as they come.”
Opponents say without an expiration date, the tax is shortsighted. Mark Kersey is president of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.
MEASUREB 1b 00:09
“Nobody has any way of knowing if the funding priorities that they're locking in today are going to be the same priorities that exist 10 or 20 years from now.”
November 3rd is the last day to vote in this election. Tammy Murga, KPBS News
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SAN DIEGO’S POLICE OVERSIGHT COMMISSION SAYS THE S-D-P-D SHOULD LIMIT ITS USE OF SO-CALLED PRETEXT TRAFFIC STOPS, SAYING THEY ARE DECEPTIVE … BUT PENNER FELLOW EMMY BURRUS SAYS THE DEPARTMENT HAS LARGELY REJECTED THOSE RECOMMENDATIONS
CPP (eb) TRT 1:12 SOQ
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When police officers are on patrol, they sometimes see a minor violation on a vehicle -- like a broken tail light or tinted windows. But they have suspicions that the driver is engaged in criminal activity. So the officers can pull them over and investigate.
That’s called a pretext traffic stop.
Police consider these stops crucial to crimefighting. But research has shown they disproportionately target Black and Latino communities.
San Diego’s citizen oversight board on police practices has taken issue with these stops. In August, it recommended the San Diego Police Department make significant changes. Oversight board Executive Director Roger Smith says the stops are inherently misleading.
“They're done under false pretenses, they are pretending that the purpose is one thing and the real purpose is another. The public has to deal with this deception from the department on a daily basis. ”
But the SDPD has largely rejected the oversight board’s recommendations. Saying in a response letter that implementing them would limit the department’s ability to effectively address crime.
SDPD spokesperson Ashley Nicholes declined KPBS’s request for an interview.
Emmy Burrus, KPBS News
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ADVANCED OPEN A-I MODELS HAVE FOUND A CYBERCURITY FLAW IN A PROGRAMING LANGUAGE THAT SUPPORTS 70 PERCENT OF WEBSITES.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY REPORTER CARLY KAY SAYS THE FLAW IS MAKING BUSINESS OWNERS VULERABLE TO HACKERS.
PHP FOLO TRT: 1:05 SOQ
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P-H-P IS A PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE THAT SUPPORTS MOST WEBSITES ON THE INTERNET.
A SECURITY RESEARCHER RECENTLY USED ADVANCED OPEN A-I MODELS TO FIND A MAJOR CYBERSECURITY FLAW IN THE PROGRAM.
UNIVERSITY OF SAN DIEGO’S NIKOLAS BEHAR (BAY-HAR) SAYS THAT MEANS THAT ANYONE USING A PHP SITE IS AT RISK OF BEING HACKED.
PHP FOLO 1A: (15)
EVERYONE'S AT RISK, BECAUSE IF AN ATTACKER IS ABLE TO EXPLOIT THIS FLAW AND GET INTO A WEBSITE, THEY CAN THEN TAKE PEOPLE'S CREDENTIALS FROM THE WEBSITE AND TRY TO LOG IN TO OTHER WEBSITES AND STEAL THEIR DATA OR PURCHASE THINGS THEY'RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DO.
WORDPRESS IS ONE OF THE SITES MOST IMPACTED. BUT, THERE IS A DIGITAL PATCH AVAILABLE TO FIX THE PROBLEM.
BEHAR (BAY-HAR) SAYS THE AVERAGE PERSON CAN’T APPLY IT THEMSELVES. THEY NEED TO CONTACT THE WEBSITE OPERATOR TO MEND IT FROM THE BACKEND. CARLY KAY, KPBS NEWS.
ANCHOR TAG: SAN DIEGO CYBER CLINIC OFFERS FREE CYBERSECUITY WORKSHOPS TO THE PUBLIC. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT S-D-C-C-O-E-DOT-ORG SLASH CYBER DASH CLINIC
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A LOCAL GUITAR MAKER HAS TRANSFORMED HOW THE INDUSTRY SOURCES ONE TYPE OF WOOD. IT'S AN EFFORT THAT TOOK BOB TAYLOR FROM EL CAJON TO THE FORESTS OF CAMEROON.
ARTS REPORTER JULIA DIXON EVANS SHARES HOW TAYLOR FOUND A SURPRISING PARTNER IN EBONY CONSERVATION.
TAYLORGUITARS (4:01) SOQ
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When you think about where a guitar comes from... you might not think of elephant poop.
We use ebony for the fingerboard and the bridge on nearly every guitar that we make.
That's Bob Taylor, founder and CEO of Taylor Guitars. The company was founded in 1974 and is still headquartered in El Cajon.
Ebony is a hardwood, prized in guitarmaking for its tone, damping and durability. It's also traditionally jet black.
In 2011, Bob Taylor bought an ebony sawmill in Cameroon. It was a risky move -- the mill was in serious disrepair.
But what really shocked Taylor was that more than half the ebony trees cut down were wasted, because the wood couldn't be sold.
We were just having a little meeting, and I said, "Well, how's it going?" "Oh, not so good, sir." "it's really hard to get the high quality wood." "Well, the black wood." "Okay. Uh, how much of it is not black?" Six out of 10 trees, eight out of 10 trees."
The market has always demanded pure black wood, but loggers don't know if the ebony is black until they cut down the tree.
"You're kidding me. What do you do with that wood?" "Well, you can't sell it, you know. Um, so we cut it, we see what color it is, we leave it in the forest." "So you cut it down, you walk away?" "Yep, that's what we do."
The ebony that's not black has a striped, variegated color pattern. It's actually beautiful.
The color of the ebony doesn't change how the instrument sounds or its structural durability.
So Taylor decided to do something radical: put that discarded wood on its nicest guitars. People kept buying them, and other guitar makers followed suit..
Taylor didn't stop with reducing ebony waste. He joined forces with UCLA biologist Tom Smith to support forest conservation and research.
We wanted to plant some trees // the goal at first, he said, give me a half a million dollars, and we'll plant 15,000 trees over the next two years, and we'll give you back the research."
They soon found that planting trees isn't as simple as throwing seeds in the ground. They needed to understand more about how the whole ecosystem supports ebony forest growth.
Eventually, they had a breakthrough. One key, they found, is elephants. Ebony seeds that pass through an elephant's digestive system are more likely to thrive.
"It's the main seed disperser. So imagine it's a big fruit. An ebony, an ebony tree is the persimmon family. // And they're sweet. And so elephants eat these big things. They walk along and they poop it out. And when we find pieces of their dung out in the forest, that tree sprouts and lives because it's protected from the predators. that seed has everything in it that it needs to become an ebony tree, and now it's protected by elephant dung"
As of 2025, the project had planted nearly 50,000 ebony trees -- and helped local villages manage their own forests.
The effort also includes planting tens of thousands of fruit trees like bush mango and avocado -- diversity that improves forest soil health and provides food for local communities
These are all things we wanna save, the elephant, the forest,
...All because of a piece of wood on a guitar.
Julia Dixon Evans, KPBS News
TAG: TO LEARN MORE ABOUT TAYLOR'S CONSERVATION EFFORTS, LISTEN TO THE FULL PODCAST EPISODE ON THE FINEST.
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BIRCH AQUARIUM IS HIGHLIGHTING THE IMPORTANCE OF AXOLOTL (ak-suh-laa-tl) CONSERVATION THROUGH ITS NEW EXHIBITION, THE AXOLOTL’S GARDEN
ARTS REPORTER AUDY MCAFEE SPEAKS WITH TWO LOCAL ARTISTS WHOSE WORK IS FEATURED IN THE EXHIBIT.
AXOLOTL 1 (1:21) SOQ
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Illustrator Itzel Islas (EAT-zel EASE-las) painted a mural of axolotls for Birch Aquarium’s The Axolotl’s Garden exhibition. The exhibition highlights these critically endangered salamanders native to Mexico.
Islas says she's used to drawing axolotls doing everyday things.
ISLAS: we were making them look cute, but we had to stick to the reality of what this animal is. So, it was illustrating it in its own environment, which I've never done before and just try to translate that into an illustration that people can grasp.
Maricruz Alvarado’s work is also featured in The Axolotyl’s Garden. She created two ofrendas, or altars – one honoring deceased pets and another highlighting endangered species.
Her work draws on the Mexican tradition of alebrijes (ah-leh-BREE-hes), brightly colored figures that combine real and fantastical animals. She hopes her work will encourage people to think differently about animals and conservation.
ALVARDO: “When someone creates it’s important but you also have to create awareness with your creations for people to be able to hear your message.”
Alvarado says creating is important but artists should also use their work to raise awareness and share a message.
The Axolotl’s Garden is currently on view at Birch Aquarium.
Audy McAfee, KPBS News
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That’s it for today’s podcast. The podcast today was edited by Erica Peterson and is hosted and produced by myself, Lawrence K. Jackson. As always you can find more San Diego news online at KPBS dot org.Thanks for listening and have a great day.
