We thank you for joining us today for our Virtual Program on a potential crisis in the college vote this fall with attorney Thurgood Marshall junior and the founder and president of the campus election engagement project. While covid19 continues its howad across the country, americans vote has become a critical issue as politicians debate the virtues and vices of universal mailin balloting. In theseut Uncertain Times and one constituency that has emerged as a critical block is the college vote. The voting rate among u. S. College students more than doubled from 19 in the 2014 midterm election, to 40 in 2018 according to a National Study of learning, voting and engagement conducted by the institute for democracy and Higher Education at tufts university. In a poll of 4,000 students conducted august 912 and funded by night foundation, 71 of students say they are absolutely certain theyll vote in this years election. Students who identify as democrats are the most likely to be absolutely certain they will vote at 81 followed by republicans at 74 , and independents at 63 . Those optimistic measures assume that college age voters and voters enrolled in our college and universities will be able to vote and that their votes will be counted. Covid19, however, has upended education in general, and has caused disruptions on campuses across the country. Many College Voters are not present physically at the university where is they are enrolled. Instead theyre taking their Classes Online from home or elsewhere. As a result, the usual direct outreach practices from mobilizing student voters such as dorm storm Voter Registration drives, are not happening. This means students will need to make a greater effort to ensure theyre registered in right place and their votes are counted. Those mailing in their ballots are also told to send in ballots much earlier this year than usual, and thats where our two speakers come in. Junior andrshall steven published a piece on the covid pandemic potential impact on College Voters and opt obstacles that could blunt the effect of their votes. The article cited efforts of nonprofit Nonpartisan Organization campus, election, engagement project to muster votes at universities around the country. We are pleased to have mr. Obe with and mr. L us today to discuss those obstacles and potential solutions. Thurgood marshall junior, long time attorney counsel to several democratic senators, including the late ted kennedy. He served as Vice President al gores director of Congressional Affairs then became bill Clinton White house secretary and former chairman of the u. S. Postal service, and currently a board member with the Campaign Legal center. Paul lobe has spent 45 years researching and writing about civil responsibility, and empowerment. His books include of the soul citizen, living with conviction in challenging times. His organization the campus election engagement project in 2018 work with more than 400 colleges and universities and is on track to pass 500 this year. Thank you both very much for joining us today. Great to be. We will accept questions from our audience, ill ask as many of those questions as time permits to submit a question please email, headliners, at press. Org. Lets begin by level setting as we enter the fall sir good marshall jr. Can you describe in general terms key problem that the absence of college create for vote or turnout among americans in this age range . Well, that situating into the motivation and writing the article and steve and i were doing a series of pieces on the president ial primary horse race and democratic party. And dawned on us that as the pandemic was setting in, it would have a significant effect on the way that politicians would be campaigning then quickly became apparent to us since steve son bennett is indeed a College Student who trying to figure out how he would be casting his vote from afar. He lives in singapore he goes to school in colorado. But pretty quickly to the challenges that students, families, and universities are facing and light of this. Any number of barriers already exist in many ways for people who wish to cast their ballots and usual, the host of challenges, some are related to Voter Suppression but others are just trying to certification proper voting practices but all of those challenges are amplified by the pandemic in general and by the challenges that students and universities are facing and were watching that now as campuses open up in various ways. So there are challenges that we face as a society in trying to address this. But there are a number of very pointed challenges facing each student who wants to exercise the right to vote and, of course, can tell you there are a good 20 million individuals enrolled in colleges and universities who were facing these challenges and what we quickly concluded was, the most important piece of this challenge was to provide proper voter education. And to help find sources and ways to educate our polling officials Election Officials and to shore up the process. Paul, thank you. Paul, talk about Voter Registration drives on College Campuses and in that context. Is it possible that Student Governments and campus registration organizations could actually figure out here even in the pandemic how to manage registration this year . Well i think it is possible but i think said it has become a clearly more challenging because you have many campuses that are physically closed and Classes Online. You have some that are hybrid you have so many like in North Carolina that, you know, was put in a bunch. Started parting and now theyre closed because covid was running rampant and so, so it presents i think to understate is it presents significant challenges that were not there a year ago. And im not there at normal times. I think they are surmountable certainly everything that organization does, is to try and work with them and its interesting because our basic approach is that we work through colleges institutionally so working with administrator and Student Government working with faculty, and at this point, that is how anything thats going happen is going to happen because you cannot have, i mean, newer model done a bunch of canvassers coming from off campus clipboards, most campuses even if there are students there, theyre not allowing those offcampus folks generally because of the covid risk. So you really are dependent on those internal approaches. And same to work a long time promoting Voter Registration and First Year Student orientation. Orientations are now virtual, and it really is not hard and many of the schools have been doing it which is you put in voter links to, you know, essentially you have a series of webinars and youve got going along and here it is, okay. If youre not registered to vote youre not registered to vote here this is where you do it. So its doable. You can have one weve been working with a michigan secretary of state to get what we put out also language at the bottom around honor codes or Sexual Harassment or you know access to different facilities to put in Voter Registration links at the bottom or in faculty signature. So, the goal is and this is what we would do in our time of election engage in project in a normal time is you create a culture where this support of registration voter education, and getting out of the vote so on campuses. That the students do indeed all end up participating not all of them, 48. Or was 2016 number. But you know many more than if you simply did nothing. Now that becomes commencely more critical because if they dont do it, its not going happen. And their additional complexities about where to register and the possibilities of somebody registering one place and then having to change to another. So essentially one of the things were trying to do is theres a lot of tools out there. We use vote. Org one rock the boat one is and turbo vote but we are trying really hard to get students wind up in online systems, because then one of the things that they will do is theyll get reminders to vote and also get if for example, there are announcements of say voting drop boxes. They will get i just in Washington State, we have a primary couple of weeks ago, my phone texted them actually a couple of different organizations and it said, heres the list of drop boxes and king county find one nearest you if you dont want to mail in that is useful so it will attack a huge amount of institutional effort and going take some technological approach to make it happen but absolutely doable. So lets stay on the technology for a few minutes. Are there significant differences between the the traditional methods and are the parties investing in the differences to move toward the technologies for registration and talk about texting and other forms and what works here now . Im not we dont talk. We work for Young Democrats and republicans and college and were not talking to the parties and nonpartisan group. But what is interesting is when we you know, we have this period in march or april where week by week schools are shutting down and its you know ohio state one week and junior madison in next, and by three weeks later most of them are gone, and we have a lovely video of Miamidade College, it was a parade to get people Early Registration at the library. Theres parade with music and two weeks later miamidade is shut down. So, so were dealing with and sort of looking to assume one of the thing that became very clear is that actually some of the approaches have been using would be useful, and that implementing more of these technological approaches would, in fact, be a general benefit Going Forward after certainly we all hope theres a vaccine for covid. And that particular part that is received. So in terms of the parties im not sure. I suspect from what i read, is that, you know, theyre significant peer to peer texting approaches that theyre doing. Theres phone banking, i mean, all of that has been accelerated because it is pretty hard for them to do in the conventional door knocking but im getting back from secondary sources. Again for us, they all become more important. You know, you one of the fortunate things about dealing with students in this particular crisis is that it is a pretty wired in generation. So if this same crisis happened 20 years i dont know well just having to shut down. I dont think there would have been a choice and not able to do classes on zoom. But they also wouldnt have a generation that is savvy with social media for example in wisconsin with people in wisconsin primarily was a nightmare. Communications director actually did a Washington Post piece about kids experiences of a worker and it was just really did not know until about 5 30 in the morning if it was on or off and yet we have from what we can tell a pretty good turnout in wisconsin schools. Because wisconsin director who was sort of amazed been working with three years just graduated this year most are significantly older. But he basically we have student fellow who is gets to be kind of on the ground at the schools. And now on the ground in virtual, so he and his team i dont know what they have 20 or 30 students and their volunteers were, working with a School Instagram account they were texting people. They basically got the information on these enormously complicated and continually changing lodgist tick milwaukee had i dont know half a dozen voting stations in the entire city of milwaukee. Maybe slightly wrong on that but a logistical challenge but nonetheless they were able to tour Different Networks not only get students to vote but also log with their families, friends, because they are tied into broader networks. So that i would cause a saving grace to the context that is something of a saving grace with a potential if schools only mobilize it for the students to really reach out and engage their peers, and thats a lot of our focus with the students engaging with peers, and then faculty, of course, are the master connectors because everybody is still taking classes. And so with our fellows, for example, instead of a classroom visit which is what they were doing back 2018 theyll have a virtual classroom visit and theyll take five minutes and theyll say look this is where you register and heres the link, and heres the get out the vote materials, and all of that is doable it just has to be done differently. Okay, thank you, and so that covers a lot of mechanics so marshall jr. , talk to the students who maybe listening today. Talk to the students who are saying, oh, my gosh. I cant go back to campus. I have to be home with my family. I dont necessarily want to be here. I feel like theres, you know, an hanging over me here. I have a, so much to do and anticipate doing, why in the world should i take the extra time and register and go through these processes to vote this year . Right. Theres nothing more important than to our democracy than the right to vote, and its a shame to let that wither on vine a for a individual and one of the things that paul alluded to is that voting is habitual behavior and personally it would pain me to hear students to have that opinion although with all of the challenges that they face, i do understand where it comes from but statistics indicate that once an individual cast a vote they are highly more likely to continue to participate in the voting process. And indeed, the significant number of individuals cast that first vote. While theyre in college, usually during that president ial cycle that overlaps their four years in college. So theres an important piece to that. But underexpanding and everything is related to rights that are protected in our constitution. And most preservative aspect of the rights is right to vote. You place all of the additional rights that are so essential to living in this country that risk when you fail to exercise that first and foremost opportunity to participate but theres that general aspect to that. But i think to add to dark cloud hanging over these students, it is especially important this year to take into account not only the physical challenges posed by the virus, the challenges posed by what is happening on campus and what could happen because one of the things that that steve and i have focused on with our piece, couple of months ago was theyre continued to be unknowns not only the locations, but possible lockdowns if theres a flareup in familiar regions. For example, flareup late october and november. So all of these things need to be taken into account. And this just as i and my comfortable world i dont have to worry about showing up requests as much as i miss the learning process. I have come to the conclusion that i need sort of a threestep plan on how im going to cast my vote i need a preferred plan and backup probably another backup and that is particularly the case with each of these students across the country. Theyve got to make sure that theyre registered. Theyve got to have a sense of how they can vote and have a backup plan and keep in mind that there are other challenges in a normal situation. Now many people are familiar with kansas city mayor lucas situation he showed new his polling Police Station indeed where he had previously voted for himself as mayor. And a poll worker said he was not properly registered to vote there. And it was a mistake it was an honest mistake. He showed up with one form of identification. But to be honest, i may sound like worry wart but i think lesson there is we all better show up with not just the one form but if we have any backup forms, bring them, verify that youre following all of your steps, if youre going to vote absentee or by mail or vote early. These are all important things to take into consideration. I do recognize that ive gone far from initial question which is why should they deal request these headaches . But i think those students far more than me have a lot at stake in this election it is their future, and were counting on them to not only step up and participate this time. But to build on that participation, so that they can be well informed participants in the future and indeed many of them will be influencing policy like this in the future. And actually ive got to put a plug for my coarts son who has come up with a wonderful suggestion and i know paul was also onboard with this idea and with his efforts. But hes suggesting that college and universities look at providing an opportunity for dayoff on election day so that students cannot only exercise their rights to vote. But help participate in this very important sifng obligation. We know a lot of poll workers tend to be Senior Citizens and retirees. We know that that portion of our society is for very good reasons being extremely careful and may not feel comfortable showing up for a day at the polls to work. And for the students to step up in the way that suggesting is a wonderful solution not only for those students to be engaged. But for american society. And yours is good guidance for everybody, of course, not just not just for students. So we dont mind at all your string and going more general there. Paul im wondering if theres we talk about the cloud lets talk about Silver Lining here. Is it possible that students who are living at home might be more motivated by their parents to vote in ways that might not have been possible at college so might participates go up as a result of the influence of parents this fall . Well its possible. I think you know again we have multiple scenarios for example Michigan State a bunch of students sign off campus leases, theyre locked in physically closed. So then schools now trying to reach them. So theyre neither, you know, literally on campus, nor are they at home so a lot of in between and also pick up on something before i get into this. Said i often want to talk to students who feel like they feel like theres 7 pits of alligators this is precovid with complexity of the voting laws and 7 pits of alligators between them an voting booth and they have to be convinced that it is indeed worthwhile to participate. Because otherwise alligators have big teeth look hungry and it is too much whats l and i dont like canvas nag. So part of those picking up on last question. Part of the challenge is you want to convince students even if theyre cynical about politics and as a generation, they are. That nonetheless it matters, and it may get that from their parents and may get encouragement or may get citizen and cut either way. I think that challenge is and, of course, we cant really assess what their parents do or dont do to encourage them. But we can effect their own perception one of the things that we do is engage project puts together nonpartisan candidate guides written by veteran journalist and i think team has what l. A. Times, time business week, ap, encyclopedia whereby britain ka says heres a list of the issues, you know, Campaign Finance climate change, taxes, abortion, immigration, whatever it is, and giving candidates stands with links to credible mainstream sources not partisan sources, and the schools say that they find these guides tremendously useful and originally we sort of thought they were about helping the students decide who to vote for which they absolutely are. And then the school said yes. But there are also determining whether they did because one of the barriers and this is comic this is ongoing precovid. And will be post covid, is theyre saying we dont know enough about the candidates or we dont trust them, or they are all the same why should i show up . And thats cynicism is just to me its as critical and aspects to address logistics and both are enormously challenging. So i think thats part of thats part of the encouragement is again, on that parallel front recognizing, you know, that theyre sufficient significant choices to be made. And this is true no matter what side students will be voting for. That they cant sit it out. But that is part of the past so we have to have to actually context few years ago i was at a school in minnesota that they were giving me a map class to talk to. And stem field voted lowest rates in this class 50 did not vote even, though, minnesota has very easier to vote laws. When i asked why they said they didnt know who to trust. They didnt trust ads or speeches if they just could have a list to see where the candidates stood and theyre all enthusiastic, and then next speaking to school in wisconsin 95 of the students in this class had voted and i asked them why and they said theres a list. And they said yeah that was your list we printed 4,000 copies and in everybodys mailbox and student said we could see where the candidates actually stood. And that allowed us to vote. So i think the the pushing them towards the issues because theyre fundamental differences on issues certainly and president ial race but down really to every level. That that is tremendously important. We have some questions coming in and speaking of trust, and mistrust. This is a question from edward colin. And im compressing a couple of questions that have come in we talk about Voter Suppression aimed at minority voters. Is there evidence of misinformation aimed at the youth vote as well . And if so is it coming from state actors such as russia and what can be done about it . Thats a lot of questions in one. Let me turn to you first. On that one im glad were going to let paul clean up on that because im guessing hoping hes beaters informed on those sorts of external threats to system and individual voters. There is ive got a slightly different perspective on the same question. Which is it follows on previous discussion that is that there are within the United States individuals in position to power who are seeking to limit the opportunity students to volt. And its rei suppose in some ways thats another answer to the question about student voter apathy throw down trying to prevent them from voting theyre trying to make it harder. Michael wrote before the pandemic in the new york too too manies with specific examples in several states florida, texas, and New Hampshire of just some examples of blatant efforts to make considerably more difficult for students to vote that will should tell students something about how much power they have over the future of the country. Now, in the midst of this i will say that there is also some good news available in the pharma for example, efforts that paul and similar groups are pushing very hard with students. And other available information recently the Washington Monthly ran a very persuasive piecing importance of each school providing careful guidance to students being vote or friendly. Their list of the 150 or so schools which meant their high standards on the quality of information to provide being provided to students to transparency of those efforts is sthng that you give us hope. It is something that every school to become a part of. And so there are efforts underway to try to address these challenges and as we know efforts to stem the spread of cyberintroduces to voters earn in terms of the election process. But we have got to be vigilant and students have got to be very seriously aware of these risks that cant just assume that think that drop into their boxes. But really their mailbox or electronically or as described. They have to be and ask right questions, question authority make sure theyve got the right information and i know that is an ask for people who are already very busy with their studies and activities. But this is every bit of important. Paul you want to also attack that one on and two parts. Theres suppression. And theres misinformation. Yeah. And they kind of can join and to me it is really we dont particularly were not an Advocacy Group so were not our role in ecosystem is not to take stands on issues. But it is disturbing when people make it more difficult to vote. And theres no question that in the country much of that is happening, and certainly for our students who are more mobile, theyre so for example, you have the state that says, you require licenses. Drivers license for an idea to vote well that sounds straightforward if you have a car. But if youre in an urban city and take public transfer, or if youre in a campus where allow cars there may not have a drivers license and so i think that theres a continuum responses that governments can make that make vote easier harder, and some states are making it easier recently had is great like online registration and one tiebl take up that. But some are making it significantly harder, and im just for our response what we have to do is simply say to schools look an example being this is ohio which is in the midpoint of the challenging level of its lodge. And it requires if you live on campus, and you want to register to dorm, then you need a letter from your chancellor or your president certifying you do live on campus, and at the point, first year that that law went in schools didnt even know that that was the case. So we then work them and said look you have to provide that. Sometimes you can cease the opportunity in wisconsin with one of our students fellows was with convince their chancellor to do a video as of last year in 2018 rather call joe goes to vote joe being chancellor and it was a bumbling chancellor who got everything wrong oh im going to the library to vote no joe he was in the Student Union heres my visa card no joe it wont work for id cards and by the way you need to sign on to mine to get a letter from yourself to certify that youre living on campus, and there you sent it out to students and use as a template. So you can respond creatively but nonetheless it is frustrating that those laws may get more difficult and that they, you know, each time, you know, again i go back to alligator kit. Maybe one of them you walk around gingerly by time you great to fix a lot of students are tempghted to drop out. That is then reenforced by all attempts foreign and domestic. We did a guide to disinformation. And just theres some good resources mostly on secondary resources various libraries and Journalism Schools and there was this if you go to guides. Vote where all of our nonpartisan guides live, its there on the page. And one of the things that we discovered is that in the top 10 shared sort of actively engaged on facebook in 2018 three of the top 10 all were from a remain 24yearold from rough romania happened to be a trump supporter he was explaining how the pope endorsed trump and something about chivalry and isis and one with support trump thats not the issue but nonetheless in terms of facebook traffic between 40yearolds who never been to this country, manage to have a very Significant Impact with things that simply were not true. And that certainly is going to continue. And and its a problem. I think the anecdote to it because, you know, if you pose a problem and you want an anecdote. The anecdote to me is credible information. And again like our nonapartment disan guide theyre linking back to journalist who are actually at a press conference asking questions of the candidate and candidate answers, and you have a response with the video of a cant and seeking endorsement for a primary and theyre talking about an issue. Because theres a certain not just going over candidate websites because sometimes they have been known to lie instead. So if, in fact, you have credible sources, it make it is much more likely that you wont be taken in. But you know, unfortunately this was the world we live in where people trust what somebody passes on facebook and sometimes it is true, and sometimes it isnt true. Lets talk a little bit about speaking of what is true and isnt true about the u. S. Postal service. Paul, you, your group produced a Public Service announcement on covid. And the importance of mailin voting sometime before the controversy exploded over president trumps opposition to increased mailin voting and all of the various challenges that were seeing now. How long ago did you see this coming with with mailin or did you feel you did see it coming . Well, we saw mailin, i happen to live in Washington State. And Washington State has had universal mail voting i cant remember but it is eight or ten years we have a republican secretary of state who is a big backer of it and to us its this, we can see our voter turnout has increased we can see there have been no problems with fraud that you know, that have surfaced. I have terrible hand writing so sometimes it is true that somebody calls me and said do you need to sending a ballot in because you put your phone number and in there to be able to check and i said yes ive got in handwriting and never got any better. And it works. And so when covid was kick off, it seemed very clear that theres a choice between greater physical risk or this option of voting by mail, and we did not see it. And to be honest we dont see it as something that should be controversial. You had it. There are republican state that worked very well there, and it doesnt you know from the survey it actually doesnt seem to benefit one party or another. But what we want to do is to basically make it easy so that student who then has to relocate from their campus they can get the ballot mail. They dont have to go down to posting, polling station right, the thousand miles away. Or 300 miles away. It seems to me that logical way to do it so if you go to mail vote. Org weve got these three videos up, and try to put a little bit of humor into it called covid yes. Im sorry mail vote yes covid no. And yeah it is a struggle but it is a video and mail voting versus the virus. You know, you dont see it as mail voting versus any particular party and virus and everybody all agree is something of our enemy. And theres one on how to do it, and facts. But you know, just again because perhaps because ive experienced it. It should not be controversial, and so we very much promoting it combined with putting mail ballot from drop boxes taking it to Early Voting Centers depending on law of your particular state. Thank you. Marshall you served as chair of the u. S. Postal Service Board of governors tell us more about that board and jurisdiction over what we have witnessed with removal of some of the sorting machines and the mailboxes, and communities seemingly at the very moment in time when concerns are mounting about the ability of the Postal Service to deliver mailin ballots. Well, it has been ace astonishing to watch this issue evolve. Initially during the pandemic, i was slated that as unfortunate as the circumstances are, i was excited that this would provide an opportunity to expand the mailin voting option around country because it certainly in my view the smartest safest way for people who are concerned about their health and safety if they go to the polls. To cast a vote, and it is time tested process. I felt that in the spring, there was still some time left for states that had not opted fully into the process or even official end of the process to prepare to do that because, of course, it requires paramount of due time not only for implementation but in terms of voter education, and for Election Officials to be properly trained. It never dawned on me i was confident that Postal Service could handle additional load and would perform admirably. But it never dawned on me to be honest that with a month or so of me seeing that as a one small Silver Lining to the awful months during the pandemic, that an individual with a huge bully pulpit could throw that whole thing into question. And indeed he has the president had to step back from part of those criticisms of the Postal Service written large. But with discussions have now served to undermine the credibility of the organization and minds of the number of vote ergs and very disturbing to me. When i was on the board like any good board of directors our focus was the authority we could exercise which was derived from our responsibility to select the ceo of the postmaster general. The thing that is astonishing to me right now is, you know, the specific items that you discussed, the machines, the boxes, those questions that have been arisen that have arisen and been under investigation by oversight committees on the congress in the congress. Those issues have been revealed. But i dont know if you view better data on it i dont think that oversight committees have a clear sense of what happened how it happened, why it happened and whether it persists. There were promises made. Promises that appear to have been made with no basis, in fact. There are insurances provided that im not sure should be taken at face value at this point so all very disturbing to me because where i started with these issues was based upon any experience from having work there and seeing the individuals who work at the Postal Service, seeing the Superb Technology that they have in their ability to make those deliveries and their commitment. I had no doubt that this could be handled. There are to be sure important questions and challenges that the Postal Service faces in terms of Financial Sustainability and those recently built into their system and those need to be addressed. But that had nothing to do with their ability both in terms of Human Resources and technology to meet the challenge that was coming with the eapghted increase in mailin ballots and if anything they might have needed some additional help. But last thing you want to do is try to rebuild an airplane in flight which is been effect what postmaster general is trying to do when arriving on scene. Are we still on position to full this off where the post office can do it . Theres a certain amount of mistrust thats now being built up over last couple of months about this. But you still feel with the with the removal of some of the sorting machines and mailboxes which appear not to be going back in. We still in okay shape to deliver the mail . Well, im no longer in the system. But i have, i continue to have confidence and no doubt that there ups task. But other piece that you mention is what concern me far more whether people will be deterred from using this important valuable resource which is contested and thats a terrible consequence of theetdz problems. But it does not shake my confidence in their ability to dli one step up in delivery. Paul how do you combat this then . The install into misinformation . Ic ting does. You combat in a different way. I guess i have faith there is theres something known as the holiday, that is slower. But nonetheless, it certainly dwarfs number of pieces of mail then compared to simply ballots. So post office does a admirable job even under, you know, fairly difficult circumstances. So i think that way you combat it is with information and Accurate Information again these videos that we produced are not all end all experts on mail voting but we took basic information and put it in accessible form for audience or any other mail vote. Org and want to check them out. And i think you then say, and you really do stress and this is something that were trying to stress is do the mail voting, if that make sense to you. But you really do have to get it in early. And if you wait until three day or week before the election, even into this legal repermit in the your state youre seriously at risk of the ballot not being count sod get in early and also most states there are then several alternatives about having to sending it back. You know that again there are drop boxes. And many places, there are the Early Voting Centers, and the laws vary state by state. But our position is when somebody does have a ballot, theyre much more likely to be able to return it than if they have to then go to their, you know, the what do we see in primaries . 12hour line 14hour lines. Particularly with the shutdowns of polling stations. So we are also i think as mentioned trying to get students to sign up as poll workers because they are in a less vulnerable population and you really dont want a bunch of 75 to 80yearold poll workers putting themselves at huge physical risk and then if they dont show up you have to be able toll write them so i think its a problem that has multiple intersecting parts, and you need to convey the information to address all of them. Going back to our schools, because when youre talking about campuses primarily. In a normal year, we are trying to create a culture of volting where from every single angle and every single perspective you pump into an encouragement to vote of information how to votes. There are shuttle it is to the polls. There are we take our guides and we put a up at two foot by three vote banners they stick on stakes for union with approval of the student you know. So students can pass bis and read them and sending them out by all campus and mail. Social media, so all of those things have to be done to encourage to pass what is indeed a higher threshold for action which work on campus influencers like athletes and coaches to say this is, you know, you use your team spirit go vote, or go rams vote or whatever happens to be. And i think, again you can with all of that surmount the obstacles significantly whether you can completely eliminate them probably not. You mentioned earlier, credible sources that people can turn to. We have a quote at the top of the home page. Here at the National Press club, that says reporters are witnesses to silence the press is to silence the people to silence accountability to silence the truth. I like to know if ill ask this of both of you are you concerned at all with these constant attacks on the press coming from no less than the president of the United States on a daily hourly basis and the impact that this could be having in the minds of young people on the credibility of the press . Sir good. Ill ask you first. Well, im terribly discouraged by it. But im admittedly bias as lifelong democrat. Short answer for me is i view considering whether the criticism is coming from i view it as a badge of honor for the press. So i am grateful for all that they do but thing that disturbs me most about this turn of events is that it its not innocent criticism so much what it seems to trigger in the people who then angt act on this and threaten individuals for doing their job which afterall is something which is at the core of our democratic institution. It is something which we as a people have relied upon to understand not just what is working but what is not working and to understand when people are trying to slide on by, so to speak, so its not on Invaluable Service it is more valuable now, anding there werent such severe personal consequences for members of the press i would view it as badge of honor to be dealing with this but i find behavior to be inexcusable. You want to comment on that as well . Yeah. I think its its misguided because whether, i mean, who you know if youre in power whether it be the president or mayor or anybody in between or you may not like what the press is reporting on. But if you take the press away, famous jefferson quote probably going to mangle about but choosing newspaper and no government and no newspapers go with newspapers something to that effect. That if you have no people tarveg to say okay, im here on the scene this is what i actually am, and everybody out there. No way to completely eliminate that. But you have actually folks willing to say look youre in power. Lets move it away from the president. Lets go to something, you know, less controversial like a mayor or governor or city council person. And say if i am having something that really should not go on going on in my city. How am i going to know about it . Theres a contract. And its a bad contract and sweet heart contract. How am i going to know about it and unless somebody reports it . I as a citizen am not going to be able to be everywhere. So i have to be a certain amount of trust that my local newspaper and you know, youve built up a built up your credibility over time. And in newspaper doesnt agree with their reporting. But you know, yeah. They have somebody on the ground trying to do the best job they can this was going on, and as a citizen better informed for that. And if im going to take that and hold it up against say what my friend post on facebook, well, my friend post on facebook maybe another newspaper story and thats fine. But they dont you know maybe also something from the 24yearold romanian kid, and thats not so fine. So i think its its critical and part of what again i like our guides, its a project we develop initially at the of the schools and then to external groups have been using it as well. Talking Voters Service america, and its a guide stop vote and what they do is they steer people to beginning to understand, perhaps, whether credible source is is and i thik thats really important and again theres nothing wrong with partisanship. With, you know, advocate city for your beliefs. But as a certain point you also have to say, were simply trying to report what is happening and so that thats valuable. Theres another quote on our home page. And it comes from the late congressman john lewis who said if not for the press, the Civil Rights Movement would have been like a bird without wings. Sir good you have a son of a u. S. Supreme Court Justice good march whocial served on that bench from 1967 to 1971 and successfully arranged land mark brown versus education brown case before the supreme court. Whats your sense of what your father might tell us today in response to the current outcry for racial equality and streets across america . Well, i always love to try to channel him in situations but i i have found it to be poignant and inspiring at the same time to see all thats going on an to have us lose congressman lewis in the midst this have. He have honorary as a pallbearer and specifically because of my fathers work although i had spent time working with the congressman when i was at the white house. But what struck me about that symbolism on the congressmans apartment and what happened and the parallels to the Civil Rights Movement and 50s and 60s was that there were so many people coming together from different facets of american lives for common cause. And the other parallel is the unfortunate presence in recent weeks of violence in the midst of this. And just as in the 60s, when you had southern Law Enforcement officials southern governors referring to, quote, agitators from up north. There is an effort now to use these violent incidents to as an attempt to discredit the entire message. And it is an unfortunate turn of events. I think the vast majority of us i certainly hope the vast majority of us condemn that violence. But that does not that should not be a comment about the black lives matter message, the mission, and the importance of carrying those lessons into the important decisions that go into the votes that are being cast, and coming 60 or 70 days, and policy making Going Forward. So there have been the fascinating parallels for me and the question its right at one of the most important inspirations that i took from the early movement. And the inspiration that i know i take from the efforts of people going out and unfortunately being at risk when they peaceful protest and i certainly hope that we can build on that positive effort of people to come together for better future. And thats all the more reason that students hopefully will be out voting in significant numbers this fall. They can certainly turn down ballot races, and as my coauthor and i noted, theres a significant reason to think that they can effect outcomes and a number of the Battle Ground states to the president ial race. This hour has moved too fast. We only have about three minutes left. Paul let me ask you, during this time of movement for social justice and black lives matter. Is your organization working with historically black colleges and universities who want to have an imangt on this years elections . Yeah. We are. And i mean i would say what were working with, you know, they have to be in state where were at, and that varies. But where theres an hbc in other states were fen gauged with them and also engaged with schools that are Miamidade College has 65,000 students a 92 minority population that reflects, well i dont know about globe but reflects the reflection other Southern Hemisphere theres south america or caribbean, and so we absolutely are working and, you know, part of that is bringing in folks who have been disenfranchised. One note amplifying, you know, really thoughtful was saying is apartment of our struggle is to get students and speaks to cynicism to understand how social change occurs that they cant be purist and candidates may not be those that were preferred but one is present and one is senator in the state and one is a governor or mayor. That you know, theres a tremendous power and if they have to get back but saying i dont like them. Thats not really the issue. The issue is who will, you know, power. And the other is understanding how change occurs and i would certainly concur with the assessment of the movement that you know at the point that is looting perhaps windows that he absolutely defuses the message, and shifted. So you have students qhor who are young angry and they want change and maybe want change about important things. The more knowledge of history the more effective theyll be including understanding traps, and the less knowledge the more theyre going tonged up potentially being reactive and selfdestructive. For their causes. So thats tied into voting as well. Okay, thank you. We have about a minute left. College now living at loam but i want to merge that with final question. If young people or anyone needs information about how to register, where to register, and their rights as voters, where should they turn . Well, i mean our site mail vote. Org is easiest win and it is not our choice to vote. But it has the state by state form and information, and you know theyre well thought out and useful but other platforms and league is also very filled with voters so a number of platforms but i would probably go to one of those sites because what they do is they try to take the process of their states and make it easier to access even the state quarters are less user friendly. Along with our sincere hope that you can join us again at the National Press club again in the near future. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. Our thanks to our coordinator of todays event. Lori russo, producer Lindsay Underwood and our terrific National Press club team behindthescenes here in the broadcast operations center. We think our members and our guests and our viewers for good questions and for joining us. Be well, stay safe and have a good day. Cspans washington journal. Every day we are taking here, on the news and the day and to discuss policy issues that impact you. The host of cnns reliable source to about his newest book. Historian crying surely talks about campaign 2020 and the history of both campaigns. Watch cspans washington journal, made tuesday morning. Be sure to join the discussion with your phone call, facebook comments, Text Messages and tweets. On tuesday, treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies before the Reform Committee on the need for additional Economic Relief for children, workers and families and the implementation of key stimulus programs approved earlier this year. Onch beginning at 1 00 p. M. Cspan, ondemand at cspan. Org or the sin they have on the cspan radio app. Governor thomas ow
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