Transcripts For CSPAN2 Election Assistance Commission Summit - Panel On Election Accessibility ... 20180112

I want to thank you all for coming back to the exciting panel of accessibility. Im tom hicks, vice chair of the Business Commission and you will see two people on my panel today. The third is coming and the fourth is also coming. I will introduce the folks who are here. To my left virginia atkinson is the senior accessibility and inclusion specialist at the International Foundation for electoral systems. She is more than a decade of experience working on disability rights and government issues. She provides Technical Assistance and training to Civil Society organizations and election management bodies. She is also the lead author of the equal access how to include persons with disabilities and elections and political processes. On my right is stafford ward. Hes secretary of the board of the overseas Vote Foundation as well as the technology and Voting Systems advisor. The foundation provides us citizens with Voting Services and election data central to the mission. You are over here. [inaudible conversations] and elections we roll with it. Central to that mission is the foundations work to provide online tools to assist americans living anywhere in the world, including those living abroad and serving in the military. To register the vote and request their absentee ballot stafford plays a lead role in shaping the Foundation Strategies so Technology Initiatives and works to ensure voters have easy access to information they need to participate in democracy from all corners of the world. Michelle bishop is the voting right specialist with the National Disability Rights Network. Of position she has held for nearly five years. She will provide training and Technical Assistance regarding Voting Rights and accessible for voters with disabilities. She also coordinates the burning work group and manages the surf but last but not least i will introduce him because hes on his way. Cameron [inaudible]. Director of the office of elections and general register for county the largest county in virginia. Its a state [inaudible]. He oversees the operations to coordinate voting registration, election initiatives for the counties and three quarters of a million voters and 243 election precincts. During his time as director cameron has expanded the countys election Language Access and successful story he shared with us last summer at our language summit here in dc. We look forward to his continued conversation today when he arrives. With that we will start with michelle to talk about disability access. Absolutely. Am i good . Okay. Hello, i Michelle Bishop and i like to make an entrance so i am always fashionably late but id also like to thank cameron for being later than i today. [laughter] something that i will basically never live down. Thank you for having me this afternoon first and foremost. Im happy to be here to talk about disability voter access and what we are looking in the 2018 election cycle and with National Disability Rights Network or we are a National Network of disability rights organizations. There is an organization of ours at every state district wherever you are we are there and we are mandated by [inaudible] to access people with disabilities. Now that we got that out of the way of look at what we came to hear. What really sums up over looking at in terms of access to the vote with people with disabilities is the most recent report coming out of the us government, the office. They have surveyed polling place access in 2000, 2008 and 2016 and thats our best . As to where we are at. I think this most recent report from 2016 is telling because what we found is at the polling place itself, half travel from parking to the voting booth, has consistently improved in terms of accessibility. The first time this was studied in 2000 only 16 , less than 20 , of polling places were fully accessible. In 2008 when up to 27 . In 2016, 40 were fully accessible. That sounds bad and that sounds that less than half of the polling places are fully accessible and the sad thing is when i read that number i was excited so that tells you where our expectations are at right now because if less than half but i thought the number is still going in the right direction and i will take that wind right now. I will say, although progress has been slow, for many reasons, least of which is lack of funding, progress has been slow but we are moving in the right direction. The number that is more telling is that since 2008, weve looked at the accessibility of the voting booth itself and in 2008 they found that 46 of them were not fully accessible. 46 of voting stations himself had to some type of impediment for people with disabilities. In 2016 that number went up, 65 were in some way inaccessible and we are going in the wrong direction when it comes to our actually casting our ballots and the scenes that they were less likely to be wiltshire accessible, less likely to be set up to ensure the privacy, less likely to have readily. Audio cant read a page or screen and interestingly enough less likely to even be powered on. Setting out Voting Machines that were not even bothering to john. There are two in my mind main reasons for that. What changed between 2008 and 2016 . I will say the first thing that we talk about today is the funding issue. When it passed they were willing to put money into the state to get this equipment to make it happen and that money has not been replaced and in states and local jurisdictions desperately need funding to maintain or update that equipment and it solely needs to be updated because the machines were using were invented for ipads and iphones and so they themselves are severely out of date but the funding is not there to make those changes so we are working with a payment that is less than ideal. The other major thing that has been a focal point today is the security issue. I think its important and i think we need elections that are secure and accurate and i think that we all know that but the main solution to the security issue has been returning to the unmarked paper ballot. This is been the primary solution has been offered for all of our Cyber Security concerns. It means we went back to polling places mostly setting up folding tables with a stack of ballots and append. We have one piece of successful agreement for anyone who cant do that and were not even bothering to power it on because for some reason we talk about putting security we all get very, very quotable segregation. Anyone can hand marked this paper ballot will do that and anyone else can go use the special machine over here in the corner that the special people use and anytime we segregate out how to cast their ballots we see inequality. There is one lesson we learned in this country it should be that separate is not equal. We are seeing a decline in the accessibility of the voting booth itself and i think will continue to see that until we start proposing resolutions that are both secure and accessible and until were willing to fund them. And particularly some of the funds that we need to make as possible because that technology did not exist when we first went through this 15 years ago and were having the same argument that technology exist today we need to learn how to leverage it in a way that will be efficient and affordable. I think there are Real Solutions we are not really talking about them and were not working together to find them. The last thing i think is that what were looking at in 2018 is changing how we vote. All of a sudden people are registering to vote online or maybe your mail to ballot and you have options for how you want to turn it in that is amazing. I think voters expect those options and it makes it easier for Election Officials to manage and makes it easier for the voters to manage the process but those options only to be accessible. They are to varying degrees but with elections we all do it differently, every state, every locality does it differently and the extent to which were talking to people with disabilities throughout the process to make sure that it is accessible determines how accessible the systems really become. Are we talking to people with disabilities were thinking about this and how we develop it and how we roll it out or recruiting new voting permit and acting and asking people what they think about it after we never asked them will this work for you in the first place and i think the solution to all those things are rather simple. We have to be collaborating and working together. We talked a lot today about all the expectations of our election authorities and its not enough to be an expert in elections. Now you have to understand cueing theory and how to shorten the lie and to be an it expert in a Cyber Security expert to know park team came up because no one assigned it right and i bet half the people dont know what block chain is and you have to be an expert in all these things and thats unrealistic and unfair. The good news is a faulty logic logic. You dont have to be an expert but know how to talk to those. There are organizations in every state and district in territory that are federally mandated to work on this weather were talking to them or not we might as well Work Together and i think we can solve a lot of these issues but that is a lot of what we are working at in 2018. Thank you. We appreciate that. One of the questions i have later on is how can groups like yours work with Election Officials to move the ball forward so with that, cameron, we are going to go to you and the premise is that we are giving fiveminute presentations and then will be asking questions. Considering my tardiness i will try to limit that so i have to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to be the award winner for the fashionably late entry but being the moderator i thank you have that privilege but i can tell you its wonderful experience being literally trapped in an onramp on i 66 and for those of you out of town or you will be visiting dc in the future avoid 66 as much as possible. Thats the one place where as you are talking about lines for elections i think we could build pretty fantastic lines out there. In terms of the local administration for elections i couldnt agree more with a lot of what she said in regards to looking holistically at the approach for our voters. Here in virginia one of the things we had a fantastic opportunity and probably you all may have seen on the news around the country is that we had very close elections and those close elections goes to recount and recount revealed a lot of paper ballots in which you get to finally see how voters are actually interacting and not in a simulated environment, not in a test environment but in a real world, real election environment it comes down to did the person solve the problem right and for those of you done recount and those of you have done audits and looked at all your ballots you know that its not as simple as fill in the bubble and that direction they follow. I get to think what happens when someone who may not be able to hold a pen correctly and that person does not have an ability to understand fill in the bubble and what options do they have and are they that willing to go over to ask that one machine that might be there in a few years back i was really offended when i walked into a polling place and they had put up a handicap line on the device and i explained to them its not for someone who is physically disabled necessarily but someone who might have a visual disability or have a cognitive disability and allow them to interact and thats the approach that we try and take here in Fairfax County is that making our officers understand that is the way that it needs to be in it is not necessarily someone rolling up in a wheelchair or who might be using a cane. Getting that idea into 5000 election had is that they do need more than just pull it out but they need to turn it on. The need to understand that it needs to have all the accessories able and ready to go with it so that every voter who walks and has the ability to. One of the things that i want to look towards is leveling the voting experience for everybody. As new equipment comes out is more reminiscent of the dre style that prevents things like over vote to make sure that voters who have language barriers have that opportunity to matter what their language is and getting and using those devices as actual full pulling devices for everyone so that regardless of what the voters disabilities or limitations might be there voting the exact same way and the exact gets a valid and at the end of the day they wind up with the exact same type of ballot so that were not sitting here debating back and forth about having a threejudge panel decide if an extra line that someone through through a name constitutes i wanted that voter or i wanted that candidate or not. I think those are the past we can go down towards and those are decisions we have to make it i have to be drumming at the assembly saying we need more money otherwise we will end up seeing situations like this. If we dont have the resources for the voters we continue to have essentially what amounts to contested elections because we will have ink all over these paper ballots and so i think minimizing that in getting those resources is one of the things i look at locally especially as a little bit ago our General Assembly in virginia again. Stafford. Thank you, tom, for inviting me to this panel. Want to make a special announcement to my wife, happy anniversary. I have a different take on disability, different from what the other panelists here have today. Our goal is to change the narrative about those voting and what do i mean by that. Gone are the days that we had ballot issue that were prior to the uniform as of 1986 where the ballot was difficult to be reached for voters overseas and they werent received on time and students have the inability to vote overseas and the foundation sees itself in an election point in terms of regard to policy challenges that we see for overseas voters. One is being oversee voters who may have lived overseas for 20 plus years fill an absentee ballot every year and they have those living overseas depending on the state in which they live have that hurdle to overcome and states have american citizens born overseas may not have the ability to vote overseas and if you look at the overall overseas voting turnout rate is at 4 and i think my colleague here with a report to congress in 2016 is its a 4 rate and this morning they mentioned your Supreme Court where it was taking a ruling on how the National Voter registration act and in that case there is an example of a military voter who served 15 years in iraq in four years in afghanistan and he was thrown off the rolls in 2011 simply because he didnt elect consecutive election cycles and that was the reason why he was taken off the rolls. These are part of a narrative talking about that is changing and that we are focused on the foundation. I wanted to get to the point that i want to identify and might remark here. One is that i want to explain the foundation and i want to address accessibility and technology that we are utilizing and talk about the participation we have across the country. [inaudible] we are no longer known is that the uso foundation and in 2004 we were known as the overseas Vote Foundation that was established by our ceo and president at the time. She saw a need for the time for having greater access for those living overseas consistent with the [inaudible] act so we are not an Advocacy Group and we are a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization that serves us citizens living domestically and abroad to access the ballot and register the vote. In 2004 we were the First Federal right and the section we were these elements were in place so that us citizens the matter where they lived had access to the ballot. Part of our mission and vision is that everyone is a voter and what that means is ensuring that every citizen has access to voter information and as part of their democracy as voting essential actions so the uso foundation uses the Place Technology to make terms for the voting process and officers across the country. How do we go about doing that my next point leading to accessibility is some of the reforms we have seen with the 28 act and that helped us facilitate the voter rights overseas for your citizens and that enabled us to leverage that act and we can increase accessibility living overseas. Again this is part of the narrative that we are changing to discard the old notions of what it means overseas and what it is now and how we use specific technology to address accessibility issues overseas. We use standard industry standards in terms of technology with notation and python and some of the things that are out there to develop our backend databases so they are available to our state official, local officials and thirdparty organizations and some of the services we provide to harness accessibility and develop custom websites and host System Solutions for state. We have election official data reflect data from all electoral officials across the country we have specific data interface and that helps push the information we collect to our users and to our licensees so they can best use the information at their leisure. Because we are a specific technology we are serious about providing high quality data and data that is protected. Were very much and very serious about data privacy and noted in the Previous Panel about it of securing voter information. I think that was what doug mentioned in his remarks earlier. That leaves to our partnerships and relationships with Election Officials across the country. With state Election Officials and local Election Officials, as mentioned earlier was to System Solutions and election official data from the curating and keep in mind the information we get from the Election Officials they control that information, they control the information that they send us an accurate and uptodate information that every us citizen domestically and overseas connectors so they are aware of the state voter requirements and aware of election dates and deadlines aware of Voter Registration deadlines and the balance request policies. Every state is different. I went through every review 50 state us state and territory and they range from they have a legitimate straight forward standard form or basically you have to email a county jurisdiction from where you vote. I say that because it is nice to have which it hears and automated tools they are but its about the human interactions in the trust we build with Election Officials, right . You can leave me hanging back. [inaudible conversations] we are here to provide the best Information Available to our us voters here in overseas and everyone most of these people in the room while no that election is a yearround effort. Its not a place a year or three times a year thing comments every year and i noted that there are 170,000 voting precincts. We have a team of us vote that comes every single election across the country and tries to get as much information about that postings and when they have their election dates and deadlines and that type of thing and we harness the information and collected and provided for our years today and thirdparty organizations and relicense them out as part of our service. I will close up by saying we use technology as an example of addressing accessibility for us citizens overseas and the technology is not expensive and available and reliable and is proven to work and given that we have a quite a number of clients that are using our services to make sure that every citizen that wants to vote desires to vote can vote the matter where they are in the world. Thank you, stafford. I apologize for calling it the overseas Vote Foundation because i know susan is emailing me right now but i worked with susan for a number of years and its been called the uso foundation for a while now. Lastly, virginia, we wanted to have a perspective of listening to the domestic part of this and you and steph are coming in and how it affects overseas. You are mostly focused in on organizations overseas and their processes so can you tell us more about that. Definitely. My name is virginia im from the International Foundation for electoral foundations and we are usbased Nonprofit Organization and we work with democracy and governance in every region of the world. Probably during our have been there recently. As part of that domain Election Commission so i will talk about the four main barriers that and i was able here in the us and from my role in isis is that all of the you work with Civil Society groups is inclusive of peoples disabilities. The first thing to start off to say is being american were in international, neutral Nonprofit Organization but being american of course and being based here in dc one of the first questions im asked is the us process what happens here is interest abroad it does have an impact on Election Commissioners in terms of trying to persuade them in the work that they are doing. To that end they are still numerous barriers that people disability and even more so abroad. There is four main areas that those fall into and the first one is the most obvious physical barriers and next is related to information so people do not usually receive it in an accessible format about where to go to vote and how to the ballot or even to vote for. For the candidates that are running and how do they differ from each other. The third barrier is related to stigma and its particular in many countries around the world where we are working theres a huge stigma with having a disability and a big part of that is discrimination but a lot of it is also historical police in the country of maybe your ancestor did something wrong and this is why your child is born with a disability. Theres misplaced myths and stereotypes around disability in areas we are working. We also encounter legal and policy barriers. Election commissions are responsible for changing the laws but theres a lot they can do that is within policy form that is in their purview. Under the guise of those forming barriers the first one being physical as michelle mentioned there is a lot of progress here in the us on that issue. I would say that in many countries where we work everyone looks to us as the Gold Standard and poor terms of physical access. That said there are innovative and unique things happening in other countries that is of interest here and one in particular in the philippines so they are like here held in schools however many schools majority there are not fully accessible so that Ability Community along with when were working with their president ial election they had a great idea they suggested why cant we vote in the shopping malls, shopping malls are some of the most successful buildings in most countries and Companies Want to make sure they get their money from everyone so what the Election Commission did was they find and m ou with one of the biggest chains in the mall there and they did a pilot in manila in the capital and people with disabilities were registering to vote outside the burger king and this was something that was really popular in the now expanded across the whole country so people with disabilities are able to register in shopping malls nationwide and as you can imagine the general public is like i also would like to register and this is much more convenient and they are now expanding it in there doing pilots of voting in the shopping malls as well right now that is something specifically for citizens with disabilities. Another area i mentioned is information so its something that i think one of the most marginalized groups within the Discipline Committee are those with intellectual disabilities and they are often left out in terms of being included in a political process or thinking they would want to participate when many are very interested in the have jobs and pay taxes and theyd also like to vote. Something that the new zealand Election Commission that is produced a dvd specifically targeting people with intellectual disabilities that have people with intellectual disabilities telling the story of how to go to vote what to do if you a question and its all in very simple easy to understand language. This was again something that came about through partnership with the Election Commission working directly with the disAbility Community there. One of the other barriers is related to the attitude and stigma and something that happened in the Dominican Republic the Election Commissioner has their own tv channel and this was developed three months before the election and theres an entire tv channel that is all they elections and everything related to the electoral process. They Work Together with the disAbility Community to produce a video that was specifically targeting this stigma and it showed people with disabilities and their jobs and those pledging to the flag and singing the National Anthem and dominicans like americans are patriotic and so these images of the National Anthem and the flag in the background appealed to the public there and this was something that the disAbility Community asked the commission to do because they were getting pushback from their family members and they said to their family they like to go out and vote and can you help me get to the polling stations and many times their family members were saying why do you wanted to that or why are you interested and it doesnt concern you so some of the partners to specifically address this issue that was raised by the disAbility Community there than the last barrier i mentioned was legal and policy barriers. Policy is something in the Election Commission and something they can change and in guatemala i have the poll worker training manual here and in their poll worker training manual they have how to do the alphabet in sign language as well as how to say hello, goodbye and thank you in sign language so all of the poll workers in guatemala for the past two National Level cycles have learned basic filing which in this is something that people with intellectuals and psychosocial disabilities is incredibly marginalized in terms of receiving information and feeling welcome at the polls. This is something that made a big impact there. The last thing id like to briefly talk about is we find that people with disabilities that also have identified with a different marginalized group say youre like a women with this disability or from an ethnic or religious minority or a religious the disability the barriers are compounded for people that have these multiple forms of identity and identify with these different groups. A lot of the work that we do is working with groups representing different parts of society to develop Information Campaign that are inclusive. I have a little mini poster here that was made in kenya for their elections last summer, last august and the Election Commission developed a campaign specifically targeting youth called y vote and as part of that campaign they integrated images of young people with disabilities so this one shows a young man who is blind at the polling station casting his ballot. Something else we recently have done his work with liberian Election Officials and they also had elections of the last year developing a guide for their poll workers specifically targeting the unique barriers that women with disabilities encounter. That was an issue that was raised both from the gender movement in the country as well as the disAbility Community. I will leave it there but the main Lesson Learned i promised i did not coordinate on this is you really need to coordinate with peoples disabilities themselves. Same as here they are disability organizations are everywhere and theres a National Group and groups working at sub levels and a Group Representing types of disabilities and some that represent all types of disabilities and theres no reason we cant or cant find people with disabilities to consult in the work that we are doing. The last thing is i will make a quick plug the us has looked at in terms of Good Practice examples and the one thing i do often here is related to we have now have a treaty and its been ratified by 90 of the un member and its a bit difficult when i am asked well, the us hasnt ratified this treaty and why should we change our laws if you havent done it so we do at least have the ada which you when disability treatment is quite frankly copy and pasted from that to look at and use as a model but casting our International Leadership by ratifying the treaty would be helpful. Great. I want to thank you all for being a part of this. I will open it up for a couple of questions and have brenda signal me when we will do audience questions. So, first question i have basically been listening to some of the panels earlier today to talk about how things are improving. One of the ways that things are improving is the use of the internet and i want to have each of you talk how you feel that the internet can improve the process. We heard about internet voting and i want to talk more about that but Voter Registration and getting balance out and things like that, as well. You can talk more about those sorts of things and using the internet to improve access to the ballot i would appreciate that. Cameron. The number one is the internet has a fantastic tool when you think of information and getting information you are no longer thinking of print automatically or even i remember gone are the days of getting an update set of the cyclopedias. It street is the internet. Whether you are looking for the closest restaurant or what a candidate might stand for that is where you go and i think the use of the internet and figuring out ways that an election administrator can interface with whatever information candidates might be paying out as a way to get it to voters not necessarily advocating for it but if there is someone who has registered as a candidate the voters themselves the clear way to know they are registered as a candidate and how to get the information about that person so taking those resources such as my customized newsfeed and using it for the voters advantage so they understand what each candidate is saying as theyre saying it real time in the news is a huge benefit that can be done but in terms of right now we have seen a lot of Voter Registration a couple years and it is helped tremendously it was an on expected surge because certain places were registered and now everywhere is registered. Now weve gotten over that hump and it smooth out the process quite a bit and automated it and incorporated things such as absentee ballot request and weve incorporated the [inaudible] request and it was interesting thinking about these different processes and looking at it as an electronic process and goes through question by question and it will wind up in what you think of as a standard type of form but its asking it incompletely userfriendly ways and that has been interesting to watch and play around with because the voters experience and to get the standard custom form which you need to have notarize into this and do that and its the turbotax style method where it is simple questions going through and yes, sir no. Does it apply to you or not. You dont really need a manual to understand what that is. I think that alone has been a huge help in the last few years and more and more states come online with online registration that will help election demonstrators on the road because it really puts instantaneously the ability for voters and just about anybody to access the registration and more importantly i think its more toward the future is voters themselves who might have some sort of disability in terms of visual disability that they might have the tools built in to allow them to navigate those questions on the screens for their registration process and again looking toward the future we need to make sure that whatever is offered out there has an official piece is done so with an eye on the disAbility Community so that its fully interactive and not just i can move and click and do this. You know, increasing registration possibly increasing accuracy and hopefully will get to the point where i have moved and still have an might change of address and it automatically pops up and says hello, go through this again. I wish we couldve had ten other groups on this panel. It is that important. You are saying things that are popping into my head are things like talking to the manufacturers and talking about using your own device to cast your ballot and been able to put that out and move forward with that as well. There are so many aspects that i would love to cover with this panel but we just dont have enough time. Stafford, any this may seem trite but the internet obviously is the great equalizer and its provided access to everyone who has Internet Connection anywhere in the world. Information that you go to www. Usl foundation. Org you will find information to access their ballot registered to vote in their state or jurisdiction and the internet has allowed individuals to use their smart phones, laptops, ipads or anything they use to act as the internet they can get what they need to get what theyre looking for. Obviously theres a dark side to the internet that we all know that sometimes omits information and that we have to be careful about what we read and process and adjust that information. When we get data we have to be mindful of what the data is telling us what it means and that information we get and its true for understanding when your Voter Registration and election dates are and when you submit that balance the request then we look and the collective harness and put it in one place so anyone who has any inclination of when the next vote and when the next county clerk or when do i like my next sheriff or senator for my state or for might representative for my territory. That has information has brought us and asked the information internet has brought us to make things more accessible. As i mentioned earlier in 2004 the overseas Vote Foundation at the time was first automated the flop of absentee ballot and as you see the transition from the old ways of county Voter Registration absentee ballots shifted online. Thats one example of how the internet that citizens were living overseas in our case dont have to fill out a piece of paper and mail it back and wait for the time lag to get back and send it back and he can easily determining your state of residence, location, getting the forms processed and voter registry to a patient getting your absentee ballot request and setting them into your local election official. Michelle back i think cameron given a answer to that question actually. Technology is drastically changing the lives of people with disabilities and is making things infinitely more accessible than they have ever been. We have to leverage that and i think people been able to register online is amazing. Electronic balance delivery is amazing. I know online voting is not available but the fact that they can access it and completed and thats a game changer for people with disabilities. The caveat is that it has to be done in a way that is accessible and i can use my insider knowledge and they have to be aa compliant and thats a web accessibility compartment. I have my own little tech jargon. Excuse me. And they are not always. Those type things need to be happening and when you talk to people with disabilities about what actually works for you. I think that it is changing the way people with disabilities and people who are overseas are interacting with the auction process and will change it for all voters eventually. I think that is coming whether we feel ready for it we need to be we need to be ready to make it secure and accessible simultaneously. Two things. One is the internet cannot be used for voters with disabilities can look up hopefully their Election Commissions website and see if their polling station is accessible. This is something the Election Commission in canada does. Voter can go online and the website is fully accessible matter what type of disability have you can see if your polling station is accessible and if it is not it will tell you what the issue is. Is it is a physically accessible to get into the building once you get in there is not accessible toilet or whatever the issue is that you can make a determination like this is fine for me or this is not fine for me. Then it doesnt just stop there but also says you are polling station reregister to vote is not accessible and gives you the option to go to the centralized hub so they have helped polling stations are always fully accessible and if you want you can say where im supposed to register to vote and can find out is not accessible and you can online go to one of these hubs instead. Then we are seeing the internet been used effectively in terms of Disability Inclusion is education. Many disabilities and in the countries where we dont have computer laptop but most people have smart phones. Information is disseminated that way is much more accessible in terms of it comes right to you and to the vice you are always using and its much easier to risk make it possible that you can have captions under video if youre doing that might have an audio version of a poster that you made, its much easier to make the content of your message accessible to the internet. One quick follow up on as much access and, i think, it has been beneficial we always have to keep an eye on making sure that it is accurate. We begin automating processes too much and we can find ourselves in situations where it might not be what the voter had actually updated to put on something so we get to the point about the marketing device or at home and it doesnt mark accurately for the voter we have to be very well aware that thats not an actual tabulator but its something that goes to plan to and if that was a resource that we used for voters with a visual disability and they will never have a way to possibly verify that was the correct indication of their choice so i think its important as much as you want to get information and resources out there that they are absolutely one 100 correct and a safe and secure. One thing i would advocate for is make sure people know the website on eac. Gov. We have links to each individual state website so they can get information on best information for them to register to vote and, you know, other aspects to funnel that down as well. I know there are Large Organizations that deal with that and theres a term out there of we dont go to the encyclopedia anymore and we google it. In terms of trying to find out information i would definitely recommend our own website to move forward with that as well. That being said, cameron, we werent able we were restricted on the size of our panels but one of the big aspects of eac has focused on the leadership of all three commissioners has been Language Access and so how can and weve held a number of summits unlimited access and you participated in it last summer, as well. How can jurisdictions and anticipate what they need to do to serve these voters with limited English Proficiency . In terms of anticipating is that you need to look at data. Any data that you have available out there while your jurisdiction may not have been included in the 2015 or 2016 Community Survey as been included for a new language, if you go back and look at that data you can see where your populations are at and where the nearest is for the population in those languages. I think that is important because that will, in comparison to previous years and other surveys it will tell you what sort of trend you are on and most likely will see, 2020 or just generally what the meaning of your community is. One of the things that we were caught off guard was the designation of [inaudible]. We have a much more active Korean Community in Fairfax County but the fact that the Vietnamese Community was the one that triggered the press old did catch us offguard. An untrained fortunately, we were in a position that we decided that we could take on both of those languages so we could serve those communities with one we had to serve the Vietnamese Community but two we had a community and that looking at the data itself was just shy of the threshold. When we started going back and looking at some of the other localities in virginia we pointed out places that hey, you might want to be on the lookout because five years from now you might trigger that threshold and i think that is one of the things that i dont want to say necessarily i anticipate but acknowledge that data is there that can help you make that determination. Its using it and deciding if that is the trend you are going on because you might even see a lowering trend as you go back and look through some of the us census information. Then if you have any contacts with local groups that are advocating for these different Language Access to the ballot see what the needs are on their end. You might not be required to put anything actually such as bilingual ballot but it might be beneficial to understand where exactly their biggest need is because start recruiting bilingual election officers and putting them in those places where you might not be necessary to put one in every polling place but polling places that need it. In one minute, michelle, we have a lot of Election Officials here and how can they work with organizations like yours because a lot of Election Officials worried about being sued for information so how can they work with groups like yours to increase access . The good news is it is easy because we are everywhere. You dont have to know the disability organizations are in your state or locality, even just asked me and i will connect you to them. If you dont know me because asked tom, and then tom will connect you to me and i will connect you to them. It is easy to find them. 99. 9 of the time those fears are not wellfounded. I think that lawsuits are timeconsuming and expensive and a last resort for organizations who have not been able to build partnerships with our Election Officials. I think that you invite disability advocate organizations in the door the start of the process and you work collaboratively throughout get a much better to work better with lawsuits. They are costly and everyone loses. So why not build some strong relationships that use that enforcement and see if we can make that work for us next if you need a polling place it will not be accessible because somebody teaches a lesson. One of my good friend said if you live long enough you will have a disability at some point in your life. That is something to think of as we all age to get older when we go to vote as well. I want to offer two solutions that here in the district there are accessible schools in the principles will not let the board of elections use the school. Working with the City Election Office just got a commitment from the meter that starting next year inservice teacher training days will coincide with election day and the schools will therefore be available and that was done in a partnership with the board of elections. But i want to speak the annoying points that the michelle brought up the machine is not plugged in or the worker doesnt know how to use it or it isnt turned on. So to come up with a simple and beautiful way to fix that problem. It is very hard to train poll workers and make them understand it is important. When you sign your name you ask the voter do you want to vote on the machine or by paper . 20 will choose to vote on the machine. If the poll workers know they have to ask every voter then they will be darn sure they know how to turn it on. It doesnt cost any money but it takes away the excuses and problems makes it clear to the poll worker they have to know how to run the machine because they will ask everybody if they want to use it. Great. We only have five minutes left. Any other questions . With all the talk of accessible Voting Machines, do you have any thoughts about the accessibility of the checkin process . Where i work there is still a big portion that has manual sign in and even with curbside voting when you bring the unit out you still have to show your identification or something. To verify that is the person and in my experience that is inaccessible. That is such a good question. We heard this morning there is a rise of the epull books that is only if they do well we have Voting System guidelines that dont say anything about the e epull books. That is a mistake and i thought very hard to see that change. We need standards because that checkin process is something that i would hope would be more moving with the friends in the Elections Community that they can never find enough poll workers. One out of five have a disability is probably one out of four so one quarter of the population has a disability and all the tools they need are not accessible. You have instantly ruled out one quarter of the population for a job that is not accessible. That is probably a mistake. All parts to be fully accessible and Leverage Technology but talk about that and have standards and guidelines with the two and process for the voter. One more question. On that note i will put in a plug for people to service pool workers i have worked elections and one of the things i got my greatest knowledge from was serving as a poll worker. But anyone in this room it is an enlightening experience to give you knowledge from the other aspect of what it is like to be an election official. With that i will turn this over for the last panel of the day. Also thanks to the panelist. I wish we could have more discussion but this is the first but not the last we will discuss these issues 17. [applause] [inaudible conversations] i am the executive director we are starting this a little bit later than on your program. But on the front page it would suggest 330 so we will open for questions so i thought i would give the first question the chairman as we have had a very good day today so far and looking at 2018, what is the biggest tech away long take away from the meeting so far today . Thanks for sticking it out. I thought i was done at 3 00 oclock. I was ready to leave. So that is the need for a coordinated response it cannot be just governmental or advice given that needs to be a coordinated effort to identify the resources are available and getting those down to those who run the election. So those that are taking advantage of the resources and then to make available to them whatever is out there to help them secure their systems so for me the take away there is a joint responsibility with that national response. Lawsuits should be used as a last resort but that means talking to each individual to gather so that starts the process. It is not them versus us but how can we work to improve the process. The other thing that i took away was things are improving we are not where we should be but things are improving so as we forward we should be there to help improve that process with all stakeholders. Those are the two things i took away. And looking at the data to make your Voter Experience more efficient and work on the integrity of your election most would like to do that most dont have the resources but it is important to look at the data to make the elections better. Without communications with voters or how they actually wor work. The first time i ever walked into the election warehouse how overwhelmed i was what a huge job this is and most people dont understand take the machine out of the closet and roll that back so there is a fundamental need for communication and transparency. Let them know when you are doing with just ask and accuracy if they can participate in the audit the more the general public is involved the more they are trusted. We have eac Staff Members ready for the commissioners. One of my takeaways doing with the educational process Building Trust that the threat to our elections in part was Citizens Trust in the process so in terms of educating and Building Confidence in the system if you have any plans for example to take this summit on the road and to expand some of those issues into the areas trust is lacking like in the recant recount process and other processes that are extensive so you can educate citizens in every state because clearly the interest is growing i have been in this movement for many years and i have never seen such growth it is incredible we could beyond alert for jeff one of the largest civil rights movements with the election process that i have seen. I agree the Election Officials that i have talked to one of those encouraging arts was a level of interest that folks were digging into their practice taking a great deal of pride to show how they work so to your suggestion working very hard to explore ways to bring the process to people to educate just like Arapahoe County colorado they did such an amazing job not just showing the audit but allowing us to participate and learn. The more of those experiences we can share with the public also talking about ohio how do we reach voters and Election Officials across the country to better educate . The more ways we engage whether videos or training that is our role and we push forward on that suggestion. We will celebrate being at the agency together three years we have gone around this world collectively with the Airline Miles together several times. So for anyone who wants to listen to us we are on the road we have spoken at many state conferences or disability groups we go anywhere and everywhere that we can. We dont have a huge budget but a small travel budget about how we have responsibilities but not a lot of authority. But Congress Also made it so we serve as a clearinghouse so folks know about these resources to better improve the election process. We have a lot of those resources on there but also we are doing all we can to serve the bully pulpit so that no votes were changed during the election process. People said why should i vote if it will be changed . But if you dont vote it will not count. So get out there and cast your ballot and serve as a poll worker. We are doing our best to get the information out there. But that is an excellent question. Thank you. City of falls Church Director of elections in virginia. Right across the river we have the benefit to come to these because we are so close. One of the issues i have been noticing about elections Election Administrators know that elections are complex but voters however expect elections to be simple. It is the foundation that you show up and raise your hand and get counted and you are done. It is supposed to be simple but it is very complex and the conversation may move to do we need to make it easier and simpler or change the expectation of the voter to understand it is complex that in 50 states there are 50 different ways to cast a vote just because they are more transient as a nation people are moving more cities and new places were elections are different and we are questioned every time a california voter comes to my office to say how come you didnt mail that ballot to me . I have to say that virginia doesnt have that budget that california does. So the expectation of voters is where these conversations need to begin. Thanks for this summit it has been educational. Former california voter now in virginia. We have to educate voters. One of the things from being in baghdad serving alongside those from every state in the country when it came to voting everybody had a different process. Some say i cant do that. But we need to work on in franchising people to make sure they dont vote because they are confused by the process but that there are 55 separate elections jurisdictions and we do have different rules we have to do whatever we can to educate to have confidence. From Boulder County colorado. Thanks for making it possible for us to do so. I know we have only been in about one year with Homeland Security but as a local election official what are the top three tips someone that is not going to those committees and has a day job how do i get that information where do we plug in the most effective and efficien efficient . An awesome and important question because the Information Services did not get that. There are a variety of ways. We will give it to you. We have that information and i will followup with you after this conference and we will share how you can plug into that information. Second, from Homeland Security people in your state as the deputy undersecretary was talking about will work with you at the county as well they were focused on the states initially but they accept you want to look at the menu of services and take advantage of those they will happily talk to about that. So i think we will talk after this and there is information on our website as well to make sure that you have it that goes for anybody in the audience and at the core of what the Government Coordinating Council is doing right now to set up protocols as far as threats or risk folks may see that the locals can receive it. That is former information sharing protocols to make sure you do get that information and can act on it. With respect to the Airline Miles i was wondering in terms of cybersecurity we are not the only nation under threat. Our nato allies are in just as much danger as we are and responding in different ways going to paper to shut down internet voting. What have you learned in your world travels in other countries as well . I attended a conference in the hague this summer there were a number of democracies they are talking about the threats that they face but none of them were focused that they want to say we can look at security features but what sort of things can we do sure the citizens can still cast their ballots . They have more resources than the United States puts into the election but for the most part it is a continuing threat but i think of that as things change the security measures need to change as well. We are not going towards internet voting anytime soon but we are looking at redoing the security measures that have been put in place to talk about what things manufacturer should look at as they go to be certified. Looking back on 2000 the election is run differently now than it was 15 or 20 years ago so Going Forward it will be run differently so as elections evolve security features should evolve as well. We have a much different system run by the local registrars and directors we dont have a centralized federal system making our challenges quite different so that is something we have to look at gear our response certainly we can learn from each other but we have to keep in mind our system is completely different. I am the director of elections in denver. This is fantastic i think taking it on the road further is fantastic. My question talks about the theme of people moving into it from all parts of the country like ballot delivery. We are getting thank you notes from voters coming from other places but what has highlighted for me we also have election day and same day registration but that interconnectedness and that transient nature highlights the huge disparities and confusing policies and practices across the board that are solvable through data driven policy changes. So from what eric has done to highlight much of our issues has to do with varying deadlines wherewith that eligibility varies greatly from the next state over. Maybe talk about your thoughts because that is most obvious way to look at the challenges that voters face because if they dont get registered successfully it doesnt matter once we get to that voting process. That seems to be the bedrock of what we do. You are the first one to bring that up today but the ease and exchange of data within jurisdictions is critical and it has gotten a lot better over the last decade when we first started to collecting data within the jurisdiction getting that complete or consistent was almost impossible so now to develop that common data format to encourage that ability those folks within your state so the trend is already heading that direction to analyze those jurisdictions to educate voters to improve the overall information allowing them to look up where they can vote that has gotten so much better and you will see that grow as technology improves. Michael said he sees different voters behaving in different ways every election is different for every jurisdiction and election. But this underscores the importance of sharing information with the National Clearinghouse with best practices so folks can update their process but what is sorely needed is a review of all state election laws and procedures. Some are Old Technology has made them obsolete and we need a real review. I dont know how we do that but the states need to tackle that issue. I dont know how to introduce myself but. [laughter] we are reminded today about those changes that came from the funding that came with being public in those Security Issues we face last year and those Amazing Things to come up with a glossary of truth with cybersecurity experts with sharing of information. For their merits we try hard to make sure they put out those great positive things that are happening with all of those improvements may be to guide us or help us pull back the curtain on those issues we face collectively making those public that could help drive further change to secure those pulling occasions that are big enough or accessible have you given any thought to the next big issue you would like to tackle or help us help you to bring the stories to the public to get the funding that we need . All hands on deck process. Researchers are good bringing up the problems and that he ac is looking at those with the interaction of state and local officials we are in an interesting position to see what is happening throughout the country i think our staff is looking at that the big thing right now is cybersecurity. We just have to keep chipping away at each you and how we can respond. But you are right we should probably do more. Part of what your question suggests the need to identify we are focused on complex problems but how do we help you deal with the simple problems that are larger issues like polling places that is a challenge to find and identify places you can use how do we get in touch with county commissioners or legislators to ease that burden on a National Level. So the answer is yes. You have to help us identify those challenges than it is incumbent on us to help you. Looking at auditing it is an expected product practice so now how can we work with the community to identify efficient auditing practices then share what is working or not and why to allow you to make the decision that works best for your operation . So now we do need to audit but what is the best way . Somebody said 170,000 and 70000 polling places on election day the odds of all of them not having one incident is minor. In 2000 and we talked about hanging chads, 2004 was long lines and 2008 was long lines 2012 Hurricane Sandy in 2016 would be russians we dont have a crystal ball but as we move forward as long as the public works together to facilitate that votes are not being changed that is a positive aspect. We have the survey out that says make sure you get a copy. We dont have many left. Look through the data and as problems come up we will come up with solutions. Using that as a perspective as a former election official we try very hard this year with our initiative to make our information public to make sure what we were doing spoke to you. We hope that it has and todays event is indicative of that we would like to get you back to get you focused we are running towards the end but may be have one more question. One shout out to our staff they have done a terrific job. [applause] thanks to all of you for attending now i turn to the chairman for a final word. Thanks to the fellow commissioners and you for being here the comment was made with the engagement of the people here so the challenge for us as a member of the public and activists to remain engaged with each other Work Together to solve these problems there are great people working to solve these challenges so now you have been in a room together to Work Together to tackle these challenges so that is the message i hope you leave here today to find a way i feel like Election Officials showed raise your hand. Go out and conquer to take on the challenges headon. We will be be ready 2018. Stop. Stop. [applause] [inaudible conversations] a number of states have workarounds with that 10000 deduction will you do anything to stop that . The best idea i have heard of millionaires and billionaires with their donations . I cannot imagine the treasury or irs will even let that happen. It is beyond reason to think regulation would allow that to happen. But i do so because the environment is that the American People are looking for stability and focus on the issues they care about with education and healthcare and environment and national security. For the democrats to provide stability and also a proper checks and balances in the system and received president who has trouble creating stability in the white house much less within the government. Today as the market u. S. Produced natural gas and Cell Technology on Carbon Capture to use coal in a responsible way to other countries, the department of Energy National labs, those 17 labs are probably some of the best investment the taxpayer made over the course of the years because of the basic Research Done there and the commercialization of that research to change peoples lives. We now go to the rotunda on the senate side of the capital , john bowes enjoins us from arkansas the Budget Committee talking to members all morning what are your priorities . When it comes to budgeting and spending what are yours before the shutdown in ten days . Nobody wants to shut down the government but now the situation is