Grateful and hardened by those who wanted to join this conversation and lift every voice the urgency of civic duty voting. Thank you to all members one of the best groups i have ever worked with. Its an Extraordinary Group of people that contributed so much. And to the center for democratic governance for their support. Thank you to my dear cochair who is an absolute dynamo and a blessing to work with and then the Vice President of workings release these governance programs. He has been extraordinary also. Things to everyone. I should say nobody can do that better than john lewis and so for us to talk about voting at a moment the whole nation is rightly honoring his life encourage and achievement on behalf of Voting Rights he very nearly gave his life and was willing to give his life. And thats why i want to read a statement he issued on behalf of us all. A towering figure in the history of this Country Representative lewis dedicated his life to fight for the ideals that represented the very best of america, unparalleled moral courage to have tremendous opposition but never a waiver with his commitment to remain encouraged and said do not get lost in the sea of despair be hopeful and optimistic and never be afraid to make noise and necessary travel. We will find a way to make a way out of no way. And let us in the fight for civil rights and while he would never want us to be silent but i would ask that we would in honor of the late john lewis. Thank you. He said voting access is the key to equality and democracy. The number of your zip code in the size of your wallet should not matter. It is hard to find a betters summary with the proposal we are making and the United States a mandatory participation in elections which has worked very well since the 19 twenties more than 2000 have the system and makes it similar to jury duty Voting Rights and democracy advocates and many others to improve ideas and with that policy proposal which you can find in a variety of ways. We go out of our way talking about a Conscientious Objector as in jury duty we see it as an effective way to stop Voter Suppression if everybody is required it is an obligation if they legislate then they will have the task to make it as easy as possible for citizens to do their duty. Then we have a variety of other reforms that are necessary the proposal combines they believe in the obligation of all citizens to join in the task of the future and also to make the system more equal and participatory. We couldnt have a better group of people to discuss this. If i spent my time he would be interested but we would be here all day. I will try to keep them brief. Our associate director of council of the naacp Legal Defense and Educational Fund with the policy teams and served of the Thurgood Marshall institute. And as associate dean for scholarship and associate director for civil rights and Economic Development at st. Johns where she was a professor of law. The founding president and ceo and any nominating contributor to msnbc. She has become a defect or to register over one quarter million voters to influence through viral celebrity campaigns. With the most Creative Minds in business worldwide and im grateful to be a friend. Next we have the Senior Advisor for legal strategy at the most d mls at the Campaign Finance reform redistricting. She has argued two cases before the United StatesSupreme Court and i am hoping if this idea ever becomes a reality we will be there to defend it before the justices. A professor of the practice of nonprofit organizations and public leadership in social justice at Harvard Kennedy school is a wonderful title. As a visiting professor also at the Harvard Divinity School former president and ceo and also as an ordained minister so he will pronounce the benediction. And miles came to me and said lets do this and we did this a one time organizer policy advocate, secretary of state in connecticut also a member of the legislature. Also president of the independent Grassroots Organization and had to be Policies Center dmos as well. I want to start where groups are fighting Voter Suppression every day how does this proposal fit into that . I think universal civic duty voting will change our country . What are the benefits what interest you in this project and thank you for joining us. They give for the question and including me and part of this industrial process thank you for the rest of this working group with the issue of universal voting i became interesting in this issue years ago when i had election law with compulsory voting our civic duty voting in other countries and the incredible test on the democracies of broad from all voices in a country and and nation with the policies and representation and as a Voting Rights advocate i couldnt think of anything more exciting how diversity is coming so we will be a country that would be a majority of the residents of people of color and those who are currently being excluded from widespread Voter Suppression. So its my hope with this concept to make the mandate to ensure it is available and accessible to everyone we can change the direction in the course of this country that we should celebrate. Those that dictate that radical change that we need if we dont engage people in our democracy by striking down many of the barriers so i am thrilled to take this very seriously. I think it is overdue we need to engage seriously to be sure we live up to the ideal to have a democracy for the people. Thank you so much. Talk about how this idea could shift the responsibility to the advocacy groups in a way that is helpful to democracy. And talk about the electorate and who participates and who doesnt and to secure their rights which is the main purpose of the proposal. Welcome. Thank you to brookings ive always been a fan i will leave you try to make our democracy robust. Who wouldve thought this moment in time that you were looking into the future this is a conversation to be having at this moment in time to see our democracy in serious trouble so in the course of my work i looked closely at the Australia Health system and how it functions. Violet close on work closely every single day to engage them in the political process. Most of them, close to 80 percent are the first to be born in the United States of their families. 51 percent occupy schools and k12. Eight out of 50 states require civic education. When people say young people dont vote they say whos talking to them or telling them their vote matters . Often time their government is it working for them. I try to tell them if you participate and join the conversation at the moment you leave your house so the idea of universal voting houston franchise a new generation of young people. And to speak about the diversity of america. The very first time they will be 12 million more young voters and baby boomers. Two thirds are young people of color. 1million are latino. If they are not receiving Voter Registration information from the government or high schools or at home, how can our democracy rise . Its the basic premise that our democracy thrives and to reflect our communities and with that beautiful democratic participating but we do not outsource paying our taxes every year and i give hats off to provide pre registration for 16 yearolds so that when they get the opportunity on election day what are my values instead of trying to navigate a system that technically right now is not meant for the young person. And the fact we guided the Voting Rights act and that you have over 200 voting booths in the 21st Century Black and latino households doesnt teach core values. Universal voting allows the American People to start debating the topics and allows us to identify a solution and it decreases polarization. Everyone is voting not just the left or right. I deeply believe participation to make sure we are moving forward and then to get love and attention from its citizens. Thank you for underscoring those points this is a depolarizing idea because political candidates know they simply cannot appeal to the bas base. They have to appeal to all. And then those that are waiting endless hours to vote i want to shout out president obamas commission on voting headed by a republican and a simple radical reform nobody should have to wait more than a half hour to vote more than 96 percent of people are registered that is part of the report all of us have to evade on debated this idea and that is one of the reasons to work on the section of constitutionality and to give our voters a preview to win mass approval across the country and as a friend of mine once said its important people dont sue. Go ahead and tell us. Mr. Chief justice i would like to start but also to say why and why that such a pro First Amendment and those that of the people think how enriched it will be and think about candidates and Political Parties that are educating the voters about the platform and their issues with the campaigns just to get them on the roles and to the polling places. One of the first things we learned in law school at the First Amendment course a person is thrown out of school and in a famous case said the First Amendment does not allow the government authorities to tell people what to say or speak or believe. So we were very conscious how to implement civic duty voting. One of the things we saw someone who does have a genuineness on genuine Conscientious Objector exception for people. But even beyond that someone is interested maybe they are sick or have childcare responsibilities. But for whatever reason in terms of how this would be enforced if you have a legitimate excuse you cannot have a penalty. And if you think about it asking people to come out for an election and simply show up. Thats were talking about not to choose between candidates but a system that has a clear none of the above option and that would totally satisfy the obligation to show up and those implementation policies that we thought very carefully we dont have any First Amendment problems so to think about what is widely accepted so the time and attention and the requirement to show up for voting so you could be there for a week or several weeks maybe a month and then at the end of all of that you have to cast your vote for guilt or innocence. We accept that as part of necessary apparatus to make sure everyone has access to a fair trial. So in those terms and then to me that the duty is much less onerous and many of the things he already expect citizens to do. I will stop there. Thats a good segue what we wanted to talk about and to underscore its not the point of our proposal the point is to declare that every citizen has a civic duty so we are careful to be decriminalized to have that option to do one hour of Community Service but in australia very few people who dont will have to pay the fine only 15 percent of nonvoters only 15 percent and that paying the fine because the government looks at all the legitimate reasons why you did not vote for still turnout is 80 percent or more because the duty has established in the culture of voting. That talk about our proposal and jeer on dash jury duty with a simple Rights Movement you have given so much of her life. Let me think ej and all the people who have worked extraordinarily hard to put together this report and the people who join the conversatio conversation. Said that the us voting proposal in a Historical Context so even as we gather in this conversation as the country mourns with the life of john lewis those who gave their lives with the right to vote. And have a few years ago i found myself in southern alabama literally standing behind john lewis as he crossed the Edmund Pettis bridge 50 years baptized the bridge with the blood of sacrifice for the Voting Rights act. When i think about that moment that everyone in this meeting that you are walking in the footsteps of john lewis and so many others in this moment. So in terms of universal voting in the arc of history what do we do with that legacy and what do we do next . How does this fit into next week civil right . And the Voting Rights act had been guided and to be disenfranchised from one country street on to the other so when it comes to are imperfectly conceived for public, the right to vote has been stated to native americans and also to be contracted in many people lost their minds and then protect the right to vote when the is universal voting occur . The moment in which we are in the middle of the social Justice Movement george wade protes protest, spanning the globe. We have a new commission that results in the next great civil rights battle. Why . There is no social justice challenge before the country or democracy challenge and we have seen Voting Rights is at the heart of social justice so when we think of africanamericans fighting to get on juries for which they could be subject to a penalty if they fail to serve they fought for the risk of a penalty at the price of freedom so the point is yes we are concerned about fines and incarceration the policymakers have thought about that and these findings are a matter of symbolic incentive and then the last point is having led a largest Civil Rights Organization i cannot tell you the millions of the movement from those that have been sacrifice to protect the right to vote and every person what would happen to protect the rights of those . If those resources were devoted . What would our democracy look like . Think about this historical moment and simply grapple with this question they did with what little they had then why cant we do more with all that we have been given . And with this urgent task and those democratic prospects. I would everybody out there to make it a trending on twitter. I apologize to my friend for scheduling him after cornell. I envy you. We only have some good questions before you come in i will ask you to describe the proposal and why we do what we do we have some Great Questions if you want to send something in on twitter universal voting what do we propose to do . I also want to extend find deep appreciation to the people in the working group to have been an Extraordinary Group to work with. Its been a great Institutional Partnership at the Harvard Kennedy school and the brookings institution. Sometimes these are rare. [laughter] and i hope it has been a total delight to work with you. Its been a great partnership. Starting with a quick personal note that if you go back in my own career serving in the Connecticut Legislature and the Committee Chair secretary of state and working with dmos i have been working on his voting expansion issues 35 years. I believe in them i have worked on same day registration with people with felony convictions and early voting expanded mailin voting. All of those and i think they make a difference and i think its great. But also after 35 years here we are with that abysmal turnout in comparison to other countries and what a fully Representative Democracy would look like. So what do you do to move the needle and a number of conversations discovered that not only in australia but 25 countries around the world they have solved the problem people do come out and vote they dont require that as an imposition. You are just part of the culture serving on a jury. I think its important to learn. The working group takes it as a premise and with all the recommendations there is a lot i hope you read the report which is now available on the booking site but looking at the fundamental elements of the recommendations whose overarching theme is to create full participation in fully reflective participation. We think universal civic duty voting can happen at any level of government obviously we love to see the federal government pass a piece of federal legislation and frankly i would be okay if they would manage to get the Voting Rights act restored. Im not sure we have a high expectation of legislation anytime soon, but absolutely it could be done at the state level states are often called laboratories of democracy. But we would love to see a state or two states and what that would be like to require participation in elections for every citizen. And appropriate enabling legislation a city or town or municipality to do this and frankly to increase the level of representation of the town to do it. So either the federal or state level is a policy that could work. Number two we do support complementary reforms. We have been talking about them but we dont want the civic duty to be imposed in places where it is difficult for you cannot require people to vote and then they just go vote we support all the mechanisms to ease Voter Registration with online registration and pre registration of 16 and 17 yearolds and the like early voting expanded mailin voting in the midst of a major discussion on that question both senators always and we absolutely need to make clear guidelines on how to restore the Voting Rights act your rights are not contingent on your criminal status but the bare minimum is when you come out of prison but anyway all of these are complementary and collateral. And i think these things will help make universal voting successful if it is implemented and on the other side the northstar to have every Single Person vote shows the possibility of these reforms. Careful design of enforcement as everyone has said our focus here is not defined people with enforcement we do feel it is necessary to have an actual civic requirement so in that recommendation which has to be embedded in legislation just the possibility of Community Service instead of paying a fine that should not be subject to interest or penalties and in no way do to a criminal warrant. They should clarify that it is not in violation or a citizenship issue. Those who were not true in the middle of the campaign and if they and also to have a Conscientious Objection provision. Next we see this as a Culture Shift and in many ways to shift the Culture Shift policy, the norm, and the expectation. What does that mean a lot more funding for our elections and democracy fundamental exercise to be properly administered and funded you can imagine municipalities have incentives for people to vote in australia they have a day you can have tax benefits or discounts for civic participation. Imagine a lottery, celebrations of any kind and then Public Education to require a major qualification of the schools and employers and employees and civic organizations of this happen successfully , every institution would have to and also want to change their behavior and their patterns to embrace the idea for orchestration. They all need to be invited with legislation that ultimately we want to begin the conversation. Im happy to say it has begun in one way the American Academy of arts and sciences founded in 1780 with the think tank of the new nation just so im not alone to mention this i think its an appropriate conversation. This is just and we think everybody you say this is a real moment and let the conversation began. Thank you so much you raise a lot of interesting questions i do want to shout out to someone on twitter. There is a whole series of questions for us and noted we did not have anyone here opposing it and she said it looks like an academic commercial. Went to say we are very happy to debate this with anyone and if you do the report we take up a lot of criticism in the idea of the report what i like about the report we dont say there are no objections to this idea. We actually go down the list and pull people to find out what they do like about this but one question that we should be able right away which excuses are acceptable we have a very broad range in the regulation and that would be acceptable without australia experience shows because the bias of the report because the focus is on penalizing people but to create the mandate dad encourages the attitude. And thanks for the intervention what is the level of support and with the scope of the sanctions and Voter Education programming and with that prominent vote by mail system and how do we incorporate that . And with remote voting over the internet, now we work for those with dual citizenship. If anybody wants to hear them ill just take one myself. We are the only thing tank and washington nobody in the majority would not support our idea. And what we found is to support the idea another 49 percent strongly oppose it. Half the country is potentially open and then go into great detail but then 61 percent that believes in the core premise. On how to bring more people to the polls, please take it anywhere you want to go, also responding to whats been said already. I think one of the principles that we should just drive home is the whole purpose of universal voting is to have a cascading effect, if you drive to the reform and changes that we outlined in the report and many of us know offhand automatic Voter Registration, early voting, support for voting in terms of people who need to leave from work and they will have the leniency of their employer to enable them to take the time to do that, universal absentee ballot so no excuse absentee ballot, people for whatever reason cannot make it to the polls in person have an option to cast their ballot and participate in democracy presenter line point of universal voting is to ensure that we broaden access to government and that we broaden the opportunity for every eligible voter to participate in our democracy. There are so many ways in which this will likely improve in our entire election system and that is of course a justest earning point, once you bring into the conversation in the democratic experience, i think we will see transformative change in a way that we never seen it before, this is not easy and we talked about the ways in which we can begin to normalize the concept and try it out in smaller elections and hopefully scale it that it does become true universal voting on a nationwide scale. The impact that this could potentially have and i cannot say it enough on bringing in particular those historically disenfranchised voters into our democracy is just phenomenal. Everyone including john lewis, i will say one of my favorite quotes of his, freedom is not a state, its an act in the act of voting is an act that can really secure our freedom in untold ways, we need to ensure that we are acting on behalf of our own freedom and those most vulnerable communities and individuals in our country now more than ever, this is a way to precipitate that into really make america democracy that it can be. Anyone else want to jump in on any of these points or point that you think we left aside . There was a question about universal voting coming as an idea of introducing mobile voting, i want to highlight two different things, universal voting is people that are automatically registered and part of the polls, the idea of universal mobile voting is something we should caution about because our systems are still vulnerable to thirdparty hacking, we do want to divorce the two, however, i do see pathways for universal voting to become very much accepted into the mainstream because of the vote by Mail Movement that we are seeing right now, it is part of a coalition of march for our lives and were trying to secure a 3. 000000000 in the next heroes act that will allow local states and municipalities for their elections in a portion of that funding goes to universal vote by mail. I do want to make that distinction, what were advocating very strongly for universal, the moment you turned 16 or 18 youre on the movement and were not having a conversation on or around mobile voting just because i think we can be incredibly clear, our government is not immune to foreign interference on the front. Let me ask a question that is inclusive here, how would you bring this about and maybe i want to get this to miles briefly, the point is very clear that while obviously our goal would be to have this adopted at the federal level, what we have in mind might be adopted at the local level and the state level on the Old Laboratory of democracy, just as for example, maine has adopted the runoffs in providing a model. Could you talk about that especially as someone who is involved in election law for a long time . Into really good question, obviously what were doing today is floating or releasing or proposing the idea and as everyone knows, theres a lot of work that goes on between an idea getting generated in coming to be. We see a number of things that will happen as a result of this the idea gets public discussion and currency from journalists and the public conversation on twitter and on tv, we also see, ive been a strong fan of what i call the Democracy Movement and is a combination of people who have been working on Voting Rights and people who have been working on structure reform and campaignfinance issues, but there are lots and lots of organizations that are getting more and more strong in what we hope, this will become part of their agenda that organizations will see in addition to the work that they are doing whether its sameday registration or fighting Voter Suppression that adding this to that agenda would make sense. I think there are a large number of elected officials, this has to be embodied in municipal organisms or state legislation or secretaries of the state, i think you deeply committed to the idea of getting people into the process and much, much larger numbers. I see this at the beginning of radiating out of a discussion and hopefully will take organized and become the fighter for organizing and become the discussion in the statehouse around the country and hopefully that will do it. One quick thing, i saw a, about white people are not as favor of this as they are in favor of jury duty and i will say quickly i think this has yet to be discussed in the same way. I think what we need to do is get this out as a public debate and we have an opportunity to shift that public opinion. One thing i wanted to say and i wanted to ask a question that came up to cornell, the one thing i want to say, this seems like a radical departure and one of the reasons our report includes a significant sanction on the experience of other countries particularly australia which is been a democracy for a long time that is how the system very much along the lines, we suggest for almost 100 years, it is worked extremely well, produces very high turnouts, does not penalize very very many people. And we got the secret ballot that was once a radical idea, we happened to get the idea from australia too, was known as the australian ballot, the idea that this is radical as the secret ballot once was and now we take the secret ballot for granted, one of the questioners expressed worry about voters, we have a whole sanction in our report taking on the very point, i think i object to the content of principal myself because i dont know, we tend to describe voters as ignorant who happened to be the voters that disagree with us and voters who agree with us, but more than that we have political like sam that show regardless of education levels, people know who they are voting for and why in their reasoning voters. Could you talk about the whole idea and the way in which this argument has been used over the years, i think the person who raised it because it is important and on a lot of peoples minds. May be put into context of literacy test in our past that were used to determining. I think its important that when it comes to jury duty, we assume that lawyers have the responsibility to educate jurors of how they carry out their responsibility in terms of rendering, when it comes to universal voting, this would shift responsibility if you wi will, educating voters, informing voters who have the responsibility now but the charge with the responsibility only to inform their votes, that is. 1, the whole notion of ignorant voters, lets be clear, literacy test were used as a way of keeping out people who supposedly are not wellinformed enough to vote which evolved into people being asked, how many bubbles are in a bar of soap, the point being, there is no intellectual threshold in our democracy for participating in the democracy,. 1, point to the very folks that were subject to a literacy test wrote the constitution. In other words the same people were subject to literacy test, all manner to keep them on the periphery of our democracy, as a consequence of the advocacy, created to the 15th amendment and the Voting Rights act, created civil rights laws as we understand them and to every american. The point being, there is no ignorant, there are voters that we have yet engaged, the point being here, this is a marvelous opportunity to expand the electorate, and the whole of our democracy and i want to know this now, were in the midst of a Global SocialJustice Movement, if the activists around the world can communicate the need to protest, actavis can communicate the needs and the mechanics of our democracy. Mainly universal voting. Let me ask, what do we learn from the senses and the laws around the senses that apply to this issue as you suggested in the chat . I think it is so important to underscore when the senses is being taken that senses participation is also required under our constitution, there are many ways in which residents of this country are compelled to participate in this democracy, the idea that we require some form of participation whether that be as what brenda pointed out simply say none of the above or sending in a blink ballot, just engaging in this process is not as onerous as it may sound innocently is not the enforcement of individual liberty that many people make it out to be. We cannot forget that they are the same ones who want to engage in Voter Suppression and key people so eloquently said of our democracy. There are legitimate concerns and one that has been raised that this might disproportionately fall on black and lot next in indigenous people, both who historically have industry just franchise and thats not the goal of this group on the Legal Defense and work expense 80 years ago to fight for inclusion, particular black people and of all people in our democracy, the way to ensure that they will not be disproportionately harmed by any requirement to vote is to make the requirement easy to satisfy, to ensure all of those are open before it comes into play and that is why there is a symbiotic relationship between the idea of universal voting and eliminating Voter Suppression and opening up our democracy portals to everyone. Were extremely excited about the potential that this concept has even just to open up the conversation about who gets to participate in our democracy. Thank you so much, one question, what election would this apply to, we say major elections, we understand there are jurisdictions that my have three elections, this would obviously be debated, we would like to see begun at the state and local level, but we certainly see a major federal election and major state elections but that is something that we talk about in the report but it would be debatable. I would like to ask brenda to offer some closing thoughts and i will offer one before we go, among other things, i think it might be useful to talk about places where there is particular potential to experiment with this because some states give enormous authority and localities to in their state constitution to experiment, one reason i love that part of the report that brenda and her colleagues work so hard, and points out how this presents itself in different ways in different places. Brenda go ahead. It was very interesting in looking at states were menace apologies have a home row power to make their own laws around elections and procedures because in many ways we see experimenting at them and us up a level and very promising way to open this up. And we have a lot of assistant shout out to josh douglas from the university of kentucky, he did a lot of this work to see exactly which one, theres 12 words or so of them, he likes to say just estates can be laboratory democracy, menace apologies can be the test tube of democracy. I want try to list all the states but theres about a dozen states were menace apologies like they have the authority to go ahead and experiment with their policy. We have laboratory, what comes next after that . Maria, did you want to come in, one of the things that we stress in the report are the reforms besides universal voting, what we need to do for 2022 create a Fair Election this time and how that might allow us to take the next step towards universal voting. First of all, to your point, there is a lot of processes estates are doing to capture the enfranchisement of their citizens. And how that can trickle up to the federal government would be a dream for all of us into that point, everything from universal vote by mail is something that will protect people in the covid moment in in wisconsin with the Supreme Court voter right making the election until june, 50 people standing in the line and have covid and sadly one person or coworker passed away as a result. Its how do we make sure we are today so we can have a conversation tomorrow. Then also wisconsin fans are happy. Is early voting, sameday voting, colorado, california and oregon would be examples of what we aspire to be. That is ensuring that everybody can safely cast their ballot who wants to in a way that allows us and sameday voting in making that your ballot is cast and counted as a postmark versus as the elections committee, making sure the same time, this is something that were working off separately but working on that we also do not expect signature matches because it may very from time to time and these are things and some states that are recognized as universal and other states, sadly the ones that are quickly experiencing and changing demographics whether its latin the or sometimes its both, they are creating different barriers to these parts in the universal task force allows my son is yelling grandpa. He can come and say hello to everyone. Do you want to say hello . The essence in universal working group. As a roadmap and aspiration for something we can use today impracticality because you do provide solutions on what can happen in the interim between here and that aspiration. Thank you so much, god bless him for being there. Miles, a quick word before we close. Actually on timing, again i been at this for 35 years, ive never been in to the discussion about the idea of universal civic duty voting until now, but i think it is the right moment, i think were in a moment where the old ways of doing business have clearly not seceded and were big ideas can be put on the table, can be discussed and gain traction. , thats what im here to do and i hope that we can do it and i appreciate the opportunity and people joining us. I want to think everyone for joining us, please read the report, please feel free to be in touch with us about it, if you are moved feel free to become active around these ide ideas, i just want to close by noting this, once upon a time it was radical to say anyone but property white men could vote, then it was radical to say that africanamericans can vote, then it was radical to say that women could vote, it was radical to say that people under 21, 18. None of these ideas is radical, it would not be radical and reactionary at the same time if we go back to a country where only property white man can vote. I think we have to keep our minds open to the idea that seemed like a real departure, quickly become part of the landscape because they work. This is an idea that has worked well in more than a dozen countries, we believe it can serve as a protective american democracy, it can make good the delight creation of independent assertion that legitimate government depends on the consent of the governed, we will all of the governed to consent to or elections and it could make those great opening words of our constitution, we the people extend to all of us, the american struggle is making that word reapply to all americans, that is what were trying to do in this report, thank you to our participants, thanks to all the folks, thanks to the center in brookings and thank you all for joining this discussion, lets stay in touch