today on getting answers. can emojis be the answer to the teen mental health crisis? one bay area school district is betting on it. we'll see whether it gets a thumbs up. just three days

until the tax filing deadline, there is help available in the bay area this weekend. we'll tell you where to go and what kind of help they can offer. but first, ahead of another presidential election, there's talk of reforming the way states award electoral votes. but is it easier said than done? you're watching, getting answers. i'm kristen sze. thanks for joining us with the presidential election just seven months away now, debate has heated up over the way we elect our president, state by state and in all but two states, it's winner take all. as in all the electoral votes that the state has goes to the winner of the popular vote in that state. now, two states don't do it that way. maine and nebraska. and in nebraska, republicans are mounting a furious battle to change the rules. democrats are just as furiously fending it off. >> we are going to keep on pushing and keep on pushing and keep on pushing until nebraska gets winner. take all that one

electoral vote, it could possibly be the deciding factor of who's the president of the united states. >> so joining us live now to help us understand why one electoral vote is so critical and why it's so difficult to change our electoral system and rules. alex keyssar, professor of history and social policy at harvard and author of why do we still have the electoral college professor keyssar, thank you so much for joining us. >> it's a pleasure to be here. >> all right. so do you understand why this one electoral vote at stake in nebraska could decide the entire election? we need to understand first how we elect our presidents. now, most of us get that we vote in each state, but it's not the popular vote that determines the winner. otherwise, al gore and hillary clinton would have been president. so explain the general setup and how it works to us. >> the general setup is that we vote by states, and only the state tally really matters. the national popular vote does not matter. each state gets a number

of electoral votes. that's the equal to the number of representatives it has in the house. plus two senators, and it's up to the state legislature to, to determine how those electoral votes are allocated. that's to say there is nothing, sacrosanct about winner take all. winner take all is not in the constitution. and it was not what most of the founding fathers expected would happen. winner take all emerges in the first 30 years of our nation's history as partizan factions jockey to take advantage. i mean, in other words, if you if you were pretty confident, if you were the head of a party in 1820 or in 2024, and you thought that you had a safe 55, majority, you would like winner take all because you'd be guaranteed to get all of the electoral votes. but there have been many protests against that. and many there have been many pieces of legislation and constitutional amendments. fillled to get rid of winner

take all but the basic system is up to the states to decide, how the how those electors are selected. the electors will meet in december and cast their ballots. the ballots will be forwarded to the to the library of congress and to congress, in january. and they will be recorded at that point. it's a very complicated system. >> okay. but we get that 48 states, including california, do winner take all, nebraska. i'm sorry, not nebraska. maine and nebraska, the two of them. sorry. both of them, do it a different way. and in a way you can say that's more proportional or more representative of the popular vote. so explain how they do it. and what is it that nebraska is thinking of changing and why they want to change? >> sure, yes. it is more proportional to the popular vote. and that's why both of these states, adopt it, maine in the 1960s, i think. and

nebraska, in the early 1990s, although, you know, again, going back into our distant history, a number of states at different times have used, district systems in both maine and nebraska. they use, congressional districts, as, as the, as the core basis for, for allocating these district votes. the systems are a little bit different in, in nebraska, which is capturing attention at the moment. the area around omaha, which has tended to lean democratic, has gets one district and one electoral vote. >> okay. so the reason they want to change this is if they became winner take all like california, then that one vote will likely become republican, right? is that what they're exactly? >> this is purely partizan goes to trump or whoever the republican nominee would be right. you know, although the although the governor of nebraska has invoked the

founding fathers and said, we want to go back to this, to the principles of the original electoral college, that's simply not true. this is about pure partizan politics. >> it's all right, now, maybe this is getting a little bit out of your territory, but in this particular presidential election coming up, biden versus trump, could it come down to this one electoral vote from that omaha area? >> yes, it could. i forget the exact configuration. but if there are certain states, in the upper midwest that go for biden and a number of other swing states, including arizona, nevada and one other, were to go for former president, trump. then it is possible, unlikely, but possible that that one electoral vote could matter and that the fact that it could matter is why, the republicans in nebraska are trying to alter the system. >> hum. >> you know, have presidential elections become closer in

recent years? in recent cycles, yes. >> they presidential elections have become closer to, in recent cycles. and, you know, and in fact, in the last, several elections, the, the, the number of popular votes located in particular states that have determined the election of 2020 and 2016, this was less true in 2012, amounts to far less than 1% of the total vote. the elections are close, the electoral college elections are close. the national popular vote elections have not been that close. >> isn't that a recipe for dissatisfaction? it is a recipe for dissatisfaction. >> and i'm sure there are many supporters of al gore and hillary clinton who are who were overtly dissatisfied, i think. but i think more than more than that. i think it's a recipe for a broader dissatisfaction, a

sense that our electoral system does not guarantee the legitimacy of the person who assumes office, because we all tend to think that in elections, the legitimate outcome is one in which the person who gets the most votes takes office. >> so that leads us to the title of your book. why do we still have the electoral college? what is the answer to that? >> the answer is not it's not quite simple, in the first third or until the civil war, it had a lot there were a lot of attempts to institute districts and not winner take all. and for complicated reasons, large states and small states were not able to cut a deal. the big story for much of the 19th century, and until the late 1960s, is that adopting a national popular vote was prevented by the south, by the white south, where white

southerners gained additional electoral power by having electoral votes on behalf of african americans who could not vote, and it was white southerners who defended the electoral college. all the time. the time we have come closest to getting rid of the electoral colleges, it now seems very distant memory, but it was it was in 1969, 70, the house of representatives approved a constitutional amendment by an 82% vote. i mean, just imagine that in today's house, an 82% vote, got 82% vote in the house. and they had a strong majority in the senate. but it was killed by a filibuster led by southern segregationist senators, and that was why that was why it failed. but other if they had gotten in, if they had 4 or 5 more votes to break the filibuster in 1970, in the senate, we would have a national popular vote. >> well, okay, if they couldn't get it done, then in could that

ever be done? now, given the structural things in place and the way our politics are today, what would it take, i think it would take a minor earthquake, but but it's wiget those here in california. >> that is possible, right? >> i, i guess i shouldn't joke about earthquakes, although we had one here actually about a week ago, but i didn't notice it, for the last 40 years, really, for the first time in our history, the electoral electoral college reform has been blocked on a partizan basis. the republican party thinks that the that the electoral college advantages them. and in fact, in the popular vote, they have lost most of the most recent elections, even when, they elected the president. so the republicans are convinced that the electoral college advantages them and thus they are unsympathetic, completely unsympathetic, unsympathetic to reform even reforms that many republicans advocated not so

long ago. >> right, it is a conundrum. all right. professor alex keyssar, thank you so much. really appreciate your time and insight. >> you're you're welcome. and i think there is some hope for change, but i wouldn't quite bet the ranch on it this this year. >> please put it in your next book. thank you so very much. nice talking with you. >> thank you. >> bye bye. >> all right. we tell kids to get off their phones for their mental health. but one bay area school district is urging kids to use their phones in an app created by a stanford engineer to improve kids mental health. our texts and emojis available 24 seven.

hey. nice to meet you. (♪) you're so amazing. (♪)

with excessive phone and social media use, bad for mental health, right? except maybe they could actually be tools to help with mental health and wellness. that's the hope of one bay area school district. joining us live now to talk about an app they're using, the superintendent of the san mateo foster city school district, diego ochoa. superintendent ochoa, nice of you to join us. >> hey, nice to meet you. and thank you for having me. >> yeah. so this is interesting. your district has just hired a company that has an app called colorful, founded by a woman who graduated from stanford engineering. tell us about it. what does the app do? >> you know, it's part of a design that we have in the district to really make mental health services accessible. and available to all of our students? and what colorful does is it allows our teenagers to connect with an online mentor who they can strike up a coaching, mentoring, mental health relationship with. so if you can think about it this way,

think about a teenager who's sitting in class and feeling anxious or depressed, and if they're going to ask for assistance, they might need to go up to the office to ask for that help. will. that means everyone else in the class will know that they're having these feelings, or that they needed to go see the counselor in a way, it's sort of like announcing to others that you needed help and that it can be hard for teenagers. so what claypool does is it puts the power in the kid's hand for them to be able to strike up that mentorship, counseling relationship, and it's all private and we're implementing it at abbott middle school here in the district. >> okay. so let's look at these messages. i know these are just mockups and not from a real conversation, but, but is this ai generated or powered in some way, or is this actually a human coach there who's texting with a kid? >> these are coaches texting with kids. these are not this is not ai. yeah. >> got it. okay. and your district has a contract then. and i guess you pay per kid,

right? to subscribe. is this something the kids have to opt into and that their parents have to okay them to use? >> you know, it's available to all the students at our middle school, but it's not required, many students who use it, find it to be that outlet that they need, that partnership that they're looking for, and other students don't use it at all. and we want it to be available to all of our students. and we basically pay $10 a month per student, and for us, it's about offering that that fifth way, that sixth way that we can give kids support services because i want to express and really affirm that at that school, we have four school counselors. we operate something called a peace room. right. we operate something called a wellness center. we have two assistant principals, a printer. we have the butcher, the baker, the candlestick. we have every tool you can think of. >> you've been reading a lot of kids books. superintendent, but i hear what you're saying. >> but we have to be. >> yeah, you've got the support

on site, but you're saying some kids don't want to make that march to the office. the counselor's office where there may be prying eyes or they just don't want to talk about it, but they just have it on their phones. so it's another option. but can i just ask you why the overall need right for this beefing up of, counseling and mental health support either on site or via phone? what have you witnessed in the kids? what have you seen? and is this something that started over the pandemic? >> yeah, it got exacerbated during the pandemic, kids were at home and missing those friendships and missing those opportunities to be with adults who gave them tools and skills. and when kids came back from the pandemic, it was rough for our kids in san mateo, foster city. but honestly, statewide, west ed does a partnership with the california department of ed to put out data on chronic sadness and depression. so statewide, we're talking about more than 30% of kids report feeling chronically sad or depressed. this year in our school district, it's 13. it's what? so we're it's 13, so you've seen

feel really oh, it's incredible improvement. and we just put out a big report to our whole community last night, educating everybody about our california healthy kids survey results. and this is a survey that's given to kids statewide. so it's really useful. and it's been going on for about ten years, so for us, it's the question is if it helps ten kids, should we do it. and in our district the answer is yes. >> can i just ask you if there are any privacy issues or concerns? you know, students i know need an account and they may be sharing very private things on the app, you know, and we hear about hacking and things like that that happen. what are your concerns and protections? >> well, we're very stringent on that end, we have a team here at the district office that implements some of the most cutting edge tools and services that you can find out there to really safeguard the privacy of all of our students and staff. in reality, it's true of our

food service program. it's true of our, attendance program. it's true of our grading program, in 2024, you've got to put cyber security up there, with a top priority, along with everything else, and we certainly do that here in san mateo, foster city. >> okay. before i let you go, let me just ask you what other things are you either undertaking now or thinking of doing in the near future to improve mental health and support services further to pay? >> the biggest thing is think of it this way. think back to when you were in school and when i was in school, and you had a kid who made a mistake, and we all did. none of us is perfect. and when the school found out about that mistake, whether it was an aggression or whether it was, ditching school, instead of sending you home on a suspension , often, imagine if the school was restored. if imagine if the school sat you down in a wellness center and had a one hour counseling session with you to get you to understand why what you did was wrong. and that's what we do here in san

mateo. foster city. we rely exclusively on restorative practices, it's not a new concept, but it is difficult to implement. and we do it extraordinarily well here, it's something we're really committed to, and i hope to be able to talk to you all in the future about it at some point. >> i was just about to say it sounds like the topic of another segment, another time, because i am very interested in that. it can't just be punitive, it needs to teach you something, right? and if you took something, i always tell my kids, if you took something out of someone's bucket, you got to put something else back in to make up for that, right? >> that's what i'm talking about. >> i'm with you. let's talk another time. thank you so much for coming on. superintendent diego ochoa of san mateo foster city. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> all right. it's down to the wire to file your taxes. sorry to be the reminder. and the irs around the bay area thisnters weekend. we'll tell

tax assistance centers in the bay area will be open tomorrow and you don't need an appointment. joining us live now to tell us more about it is raphael tulino, spokesperson for the california irs. hey, raphael . >> hi. thanks for having me. >> yeah, great to have you. it's crunch time. of course. so good of the irs to offer help. is this something you do every year with these assistance centers? >> yeah, the special saturday hours. we did it last year, for saturdays. so february, march, april and another one in may, actually, that, basically just, in several offices around the country, including nine here in california from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m, so no appointment needed for the help tomorrow or on a saturday if you happen to come next month. normally monday through friday, you do need an appointment, but this is help at an irs office. san jose, oakland, san francisco the screen. >> let's go ahead and show the location since you're talking about it. yeah of course here

they are. >> and basically, no appointment needed, but and also no tax preparation either. so if you want to get tax preparation, you don't want to go there because they're going to turn you away to other, resources for tax prep. but certainly if you need tax help, any one of a number of services you would get at an irs office, you want that face to face help, then saturday is, where you want to go and, come on in without an appointment and get the help you need. >> okay. so usually when i think i need help, it's with preparations, doing the forms. so what kind of help are you talking about that's available then what are some of these other things? >> account services. you have to make a payment. you have a letter that you've let sit. you want answers about with a letter or whatever the letter says that came to you for irs, things along those lines, you need to renew something or, whatever the case might be, where you just feel like, man, i need to get face to face help. i've tried calling on the phone. i don't know what's going on, then you can show up there and get the help you need. if it's tax return preparation, then

obviously we encourage you to get to a computer and use any number of services, tax software, free, that kind of thing. there's still volunteer income tax assistance or vita sites that are up and running. and you can you can go to one of those of courses or physical sites for low to moderate income taxpayers. but the bottom line is the offices are open for any kind of service you can think of. for taxes. bring all your tax paperwork and financial paperwork that kind of thing you're going to bring to the office. if you're going to come but don't plan on tax preparation at the office, okay. >> so let's go ahead and show that because we have a screen as well of what you're talking about, what to bring, how to come prepared to the assistance center. so tell us what you need to bring. >> yeah. so your id obviously, any sorts of irs letters or notices, past year's tax return or something, if that's the question you have about previous returns or, if the letter you get from the irs has instructions on what to do and where to go and what to bring, that kind of thing, those are the kinds of things you want to think about. if you're coming to an irs office, just to make it easier on us and you, because you have all your paperwork with

you. >> all right, rafael, since i've got you here, i also want to talk to you a little bit about what are some of the major tax code or changes, the biggest ones, the most common ones that people need to know about. >> we didn't see too much last year in terms of major tax code changes. we did get a law that came along in 2022, the inflation reduction act and that definitely has the irs, in better position to answer phones and provide service in terms of hiring a lot more people, that kind of thing. there were some ev credits that came along, so if you're looking to buy a new electric vehicle, you're going to want to know about all the credits and some of the nuances and the ins and outs of that kind of a thing, but generally speaking, and then some energy efficient things around your home as well, that came from that law. but generally speaking, nothing major other than normal statutory inflation changes and that kind of thing. as we make our way from 23 tax year into 24, of course, we're filing for 24 and or filing for 23. in 24. and so, yeah, that's kind of a longer answer to your short question. >> no, that's good, that's good. and what are some of the biggest mistakes that you see not using a computer or hitting enter. >> because the computer really

holds your hand all the way through it, eliminates math errors, that kind of thing. overlooking a tax benefit or filing a return out of haste because you're trying to get to the deadline and missing out on something. which leads me to the extension, which you can take through october 15th, gives you the extension of time to file, but not necessarily to pay. so if you owe or you think you owe, then the april 15th deadline is still for you. otherwise you miss risk penalties, interest that can accrue on your account. and one final thing, if you have that requirement to file and you can't full pay a balance due, do file the return and pay something because the penalties and interest for not filing with a balance due are much greater than filing and not full paying. right? >> okay, how quickly are people getting their refunds, paperless returns three weeks or less for most. that's the short answer. yes. and paper returns will take a little longer. >> okay. fabulous information. raphael tulino, spokesman for the irs. thank you so much for your time. >> anytime. thanks for having me . >> and remember, abc7 news is streaming 24 over seven. get the

abc7 bay area app and join us whenever you want. wherever you are, we'll take

david muir is next, and i'll see you back here at four. tonight, the deadly crash. a stolen truck intentionally plowing into a texas building. powerful storms slamming northeast at this hour. israel bracing for an imminent attack from iran that could come at any minute. the images