Panels focus is going to be on Voter Suppression, Election Integrity and security and maybe even gerrymandering if we can get to it and normally we would know what those things mean because its been a long history but its a different scenario now, we all want fair, secure, timely elections but we have three essential problems that are facing this upcoming president ial election, first the Global Pandemic which none of us have ever seen, live through or voted through before, second the emerging tactics of the white house that is moving very broadly and very clearly to suppress the vote and third, the impact of the white house strategy in the Global Pandemic on march penalize groups that include black, brown or those with different abilities, et cetera, and the passenger this administration were Voter Suppression came out, they be put squarely, how it lies, how it lost the ballot and that sort of thing, having been targeted and disenfranchised by the state and federal policy, its a bit more complicated now and particularly in this moment because this administration tactic is older, it is broader, and some level is extremely transparent and that is to suppress the vote overall by criminalizing mail in an absentee voting by weapon icing the United States Postal Service that would be delivering those ballots and by dangling the specter of a delight and the elections due to a national emergency. Each of those things that i laid out as a constitutional nonstarter, if you add the effect on groups and voters which will be compounded as it all is, becomes broader political expression of white supremacy. So im not sure that the stakes could be any higher for the ability of the country to determine its future with integrity and clarity, this november. But i have good news, we are joined by three people who will navigate all these questions, all of these concerns in real time, they will be facing the high wire challenges that we are all facing including breaking news about what the president is doing, about the United States Postal Service and we hope this panel will be able to provide information about what they learned from the current president ial primary season which happened precovid, some of it is happening post covid or during covid, what the has been, what theyre watching out for, what we can expect to happen in november even if its the only thing we can expect in the unexpected which i think will be the case. Im very, very pleased to introduce to you three secretaries of state, secretary denise who is the secretary of state of connecticut, secretary Jenna Griswold who is the secretary of state of colorado and secretary who is the secretary of state for michigan, it is great to have you all he here, im going to throw out a question that i told you i was going to ask before all of the news broken im interested starting with you secretary griswold, it would be great if you could give us a sense of what were some of the challenges that you are facing precovid, you had a primary that happened before a lot of the lockdown started and what do you think about now and what has emerged since then, i like to ask secretary that in secretary benson, if you could chime in with your pieces and moving to secretary merrill about the president ial primary which i think a day or so ago,. Secretary griswold give us your thoughts on this question. We had our president ial primary on super tuesday, a week before the nation was feeling the shutdown and the fear of covid19, but we actually had her state primary on june 30, the middle of the pandemic, i will say colorado selection model is a great model and it enables us to be in a really good spot when it comes to voting during a pandemic, we have online Voter Registration, sameday Voter Registration, and person early voting and then we mail a ballot to every colorado and, even before the pandemic, that has enabled us to have the highest rate of registered eligible voters in the nation and often we are the leader in election turnout and we say turnout records, i will say we did a lot of work for our statewide primary to make sure was safe and secure, i issued a series of election rules to make thmake sure in person voting is important and when were talking about younger people, workingclass people, people of color, its very important to have mailin ballots and in person voting and ill tell you in our statewide primary on ju e set a voter turnout record, we absolutely did, it is proof of how well the colorado election model works, i want to share with you one of the reasons i am so passionate about expanding boat by mail for all, my mom is a nurse and shes been taking care of covid patients, i believe it is my job as secretary of state to save lives in our democracy, it is 2020 and unlike the president , im not willing to allow americans to potentially die because they forced into crowding Polling Centers, what this nation needs to do is expand vote by mail for all and when were talking about all communities having their voice heard which im really excited to have a conversation, it is a great tool for that, he can save lives, unfortunately the president attacks mail ballots, he attacks the post office, now hes attacking dra p boxes, anything you want to do to make sure americans dont have to risk their health to cast a ballot, the president and the postmaster general are attacking, i think its really important to highlight today that he admitted he is suppressing voters, he pointblank said he is trying to defund the Postal Service to stop mail ballots, he went to force americans to risk their health, it is so undemocratic, its so unamerican and i think every single american regardless of party should be very concerned of where this nation is headed under this administration. Thank you for that extraordinary work, you also have a bagel plus one from colorado and, it is so easy to vote for colorado as a new yorker, im a little jealous. Secretary benson, thank you for joining us and your thoughts on precovid you also had preand what the post covid world looks like, your thoughts about listening and going on with the united state Postal Service. They can probably be on, its great to be back, the last time i was with my current colleague, neither of us were secretary of state, maggie who is the new mexico secretary of state, its great to come back now, ten years later and share with you the perspective of overseeing election and critical swing states, itll have an impact and its been undermined since it took office we had three over four elections one in march, may and one last week thats been able to prepare and develop for what will work best for our voters in michigan in november and not just ensure that our system is accessible and truly accessible to every voter but secure, waving grateful that we dont have to be pioneers in implementing things like vote by mail which citizens voted overwhelmingly in 2018 amending our state constitution to create a right to vote by mail, already for 2020 we knew this would be a cycle because my job was one to be into pointing sameday or election day registration, automatic Voter Registration, statewide postelection audits and the right to vote by mail as well as other reforms including independent citizens and the membership of which will be announced next week, with all of those changes, we were already prepared for an enormous amount on our current infrastructure and need to educate voters about the new ways in which they can boat this year, that was exacerbated or formed by the pin demo which is change so much for so many of us but fortunately we have already been on track to be prepared to ensure every citizen has a right to vote by mail and michigan and develop our state as a model that quickly turned from a state that had only absentee just two years ago to say it is a fully right to vote by mail state and of course the fact that it was citizens who overwhelmingly gave themselves that has enabled us to transition so smoothly and quickly, its also the fact that the amount of attention that we have seen placed on boat by mail this year from all across the country across different corne corners, citizens no more than they might have before, i also did a mailing to every citizen in our state and my republican colleague that are similarly situated positions inviting people to vote by mail, educating them on how to do so with an application, that strangely became politicized the president attached a number of tweets, some of which were inaccurate, of course and has become positive, what we saw in the incidence and what we see in every incidence as far as the truth is on our side, voting by mail can be secure in his demonstrated by which decades it is been all of those things colorado, washington and oregon and in michigan its a right that citizens want and demonstrated by the fact that they voted to give themselves that right and 2018, adjusting to administering the process in a pandemic has been one in which weve been able to successfully do because of all the factors and frankly the federal Government Support for the cares act funding which has enabled us to provide sav safe options to o early, in person or by mail. The last thing i will say in terms of evolving uncertainties and tax on vote by mail, those of us, we have seen this coming said the pandemic hit in march, and michigan and many others, weve been adamant of not postponing our election and we want ontime and on schedule, to ensuring that citizens no about the right to vote by me on how secure that is, we government successfully and weve got Record Numbers from our state more than ever before, finally by being prepared for challenges with the Postal Service, by drop boxes and all around her state and get to doing to do so and citizens have multiple ways, and again, by close partnerships with my colleagues in colorado, washington, oregon and others that have done this work and weve been able to quickly import the security provision and be prepared for november, the last thing i will say in this is our greatest challenge and its where we need a lot of people helping and will talk more about this, the last thing and were doing all this other work with pushback at the National Level and likely from foreign adversaries as well, as we get closer to election day, the work is going to increase educator voters about the accessibility of voting by mail, how safe and secure is, the true opportunity of in person and everything were doing to ensure in the reflection, were on track to have record turnout in michigan just this week internet record in our primary in every election this year for michigan, ohio, pennsylvania, and for Citizens Perception about the accuracy, thats where we need all of you to come in and ensure the truth is told about the accurate reflection of the results that will be out there and enjoy the citizens regardless of how they vote and the results of our elections are an accurate retraction. Thank you so much secretary, its extraordinary that you managed through the voter referendum switch from a system where you did not have a meal and in were not you have absentee, its extraordinary and very interesting to hear the various steps we have to take and backup democratically based shift in the way the people one expressive vote. Before i turn to you, i just want to acknowledge two things, one that secretary griswold, for the pandemic we would all be around her state right now, were sorry we cannot be there in person but the good news is, each week to get all 15 minutes to get prepared and get on this panel as opposed to having to drive any many miles. , thank you for being in a state that was willing to host and i want to acknowledge and secretary vincent in michigan secretary and in colorado and anger in raid that have not developed the level of progressive around voting, i just want to acknowledge there will be questions maybe and about how you might help him move the secretaries of state and in places was republicans and but now get on and doing boh state and president ial about 45 seconds ago and has lived to tell the tale, thank you so much for being with us, what the heck was that experience like and what can we learn from it . Let me take you to a very different place then we just have been visiting, east coast, blue state, you think we would be really good, we are tied for last in access to voting in connecticut and alabama, i think we are the only two states left that have no days of early voting and you have to have an excuse to get an absentee ballot, very tightly controlled, and other ways we are making progress and we have automatic Voter Registration and walk under lots of work on Voter Registration, but we have not been able to crack this, ive been trying for ten years and is embedded in our state constitution and republicans have blocked my efforts to establish more voting by mail, early voting, whatever it was or is now, here we are, i will say that i was warned by my colleagues in colorado, washington and oregon and other places that this is not easy to implement all the sudden, so watching covid there was really no public experience with voting by mail or absentee balloting, traditionally we get 4 of people that vote by absentee ballot most because we are out of town that day, we dont even have the restrictions that other states have like tennessee or texas where if youre over 65 you automatically get an absentee ballot, not in connecticut. So we had to do it from scratch, i been fought every inch of the way by republicans who have sued me several times, we won all the lawsuits but a short version is yes, we just had our primary two days ago on top of covid which frankly the excuse that we had for allowing people to vote by mail, it is wildly popular with the public, theyre on our side, they want this opportunity, they are scared, their feeling like they might get sick if they go to an inperson polling place, connecticut right now is a very good place with covid, one of the lowest rates in the country, that could change as we all know but if that everchanging trajectory of covid is also in real time changing peoples attitudes about going to the polls, we learn from other states lots of things, we learned that we should not be closing polling places particular in cities where theres big numbers of people that come out and could get sick whether standing in line, georgia, milwaukee, other places, we did not do that, we made all our districts, connecticut, they dont call us the land of city for nothing, we dont have no counties, so we do elections by 169 very small towns as election officials, the massive education project that we embarked on was not just of the public to explain to them what was going on but also to local officials and many who were not in favor of this because they have never changed anything in years, with all that we managed, it was an enormous turnout of absentee ballot voters, people did take advantage that we mailed applications to every eligible primary voter and i was sued on that factor alone, they lost, we then mailed the absentee ballot to anyone who requested them, about 300,000 out of one point to million request and then we struck a major storm about a week ago, and knocked out power to 800,000 people in most of the polling places and connectivity was down, they cannot process the ballot and of course the factor in this was a Postal Service, and like elsewhere, we are very compromised and Postal Service, we were compromised before trump started eliminating services by the post office, for example in Fairfield County connecticut, your meal goes to new york and back again if you mail something across the street, we always knew that would be factored in a short timeframe and became a bigger factor, everything was gone, so we had to extend and we decided to extend the time for voting, the real heroes and the thing were the ballot boxes, of course people were already hearing the National News about the compromise of the Postal Service in the statements by president trump, he has been very overtly transparently saying im going to compromise Postal Service or eliminate it because i dont want to voting by mail. Particularly the marty under Minority Community really came to life with the drop boxes, we watched hundreds of people come by and drop the ballot box and i was at cnn the other night they did a threshold on the ballot box and they watched as people came up and said im not quite to trust the Postal Service, im going to make sure my boat gets delivered, people are determined to vote this year, we have never had that kind of turnout in any kind of primary in connecticut for many, many years. So that is the good news, people are fired up, they are going to vote, now it is up to us to manage this incredible situation and in a state like connecticut where we have not done it before, it is a real challenge, i would not kid you, my colleagues were right, it is very difficult to implement, i think we can do it but its going to require a big effort and probably more resources and thank god we had the cares fund to be able to do this, we were able to provide resources for the town to hire more help and we did all the mailing of the ballot without that money we would not have been able to do it this way. , i agree with my challenge, every step of the way republicans have been harshly criticizing through yesterday, first it was the ballot boxes, their insecure, they went to court to try to block them just is going on in pennsylvania right now, then they stopped on that now theyre saying the mail house did not deliver the ballot, it was not a storm, secretary merrill inner mismanagement of the election, bob loblaw. So that pushback makes a difference and its hard, you spend all your time fighting off these challenges to your authority, legislative its involved, very, very difficult atmosphere, i have to say as youre hearing right here in three very different states, who is secretary of state that matters dramatically in these circumstances, we thought we had some Kindred Souls and some of the states like ohio, but now just in the last few days i think franklin is a publican secretary of state and has reversed himself, it really matters and i am so grateful that some of my colleagues who got elected in the last election and places like arizona and michigan and colorado of course, we gained back a lot of seats in the last election and its going to matter dramatically this year. Thank you so much for that and i was preparing for this panel, i was beginning to look at all and not even the political ones, the legal ones and that sort of thing, its elaborate of layered protocol that had to be navigated in tremendous respect for the work that you do, lets drill down on the post office situation, the nation is filled with people that comment on these things that are organizing and when you talk about Voter Education, now its not even just education on who the candidates are, its educated on how do you get your vote in and what the plan b if plan a does not work out, my observation, maybe a few years ago people were beginning to think, the Postal Service, if you were born after 1800 1990s, i dont know what the Postal Service is about, cant we just type it, do we need that when we just have our phones and what were finding out is that things like the Postal Service, things like super oldschool stuff like drop boxes become really, really key mechanisms to ensure boats get placed in boats get counted. Im going to ask the hard question, what the heck do we do when the only way to get rid of an administration that is trying to dismantle the Postal Service i state office is to vote that person out, at some level and interesting catch22, not a vicious cycle, that you cannot vote to get the person out of the office because the person that was in office that youre trying to get out will not let the Postal Service deliver your ballot, something along those lines, what is it that we do, what do you think about doing, what are the scenarios, how will it play out where they say were going to count the ballot from the time and the date it was done and the date it was mailed and postmarked from the date it was received, starting with you secretary griswold, what are you thinking about and what will this mean for us. Talking first about being born before 1990, i do want to tell everybody i was born before 1990 and im also the youngest secretary of state in the nation and you guys know, throwback is popular, what is really popular is voting by mail and the administration is trying to create not a catch22 for them, but a corruption of our democracy for them, he is trying to stop vote by mail by defunding the post office, that is Voter Suppression plain and simple, it does not come more straight forward than that i think well have to fight because you are right there trying to take away any access to change our future they lie about mailin ballots, okay lets make sure lets make sure any issue with the post office installed, lets go to drop boxes to get around the post office situation, they mitigate drop boxes, this is administration trying to take the boys away from americans and its hard, this fight is hard but we cannot allow them to win, we cannot, and colorado we are going to do everything we can to stop the president , the postmaster general is corrupt, it just came out that he had interest that are in direct conflict with the post office, they just broke in there trying to slow down voting equipment that sorts are ballots and letters, this is corruption, the president is using Voter Suppression, it is very clear, the quiet part that we all assume in the past of the history of Voter Suppression is being yelled loudly to us, we need to make sure every elected official democrat and republican no that Voter Suppression is not going to be okay, so there is something they can do right away, nevada, they just pass mailed ballot two weeks ago, its the best way to vote during a pandemic, we can be adding drop boxes, drop boxes are secure, they are assessable in colorado uses them, weve been able by mail state since 2014 and by the way, more republicans have used mail ballots in two out of the three last general election, and our primary we used mail ballots the democrats, that is to let everybody know it doesnt quite make sense, i really think were fighting for the soul of our nation and were not fighting for democrats to win, were fighting for voters to win, i do want to share that we adopted vote by mail, petition patient rates increase by 9 including 8 among democrats, 8 among democrats and republicans. I do think its really important that as secretary of state, fighting for the right to vote that Voter Suppression is systemic racism and vote by mail for all is an option to increase access, we increased access with participation rates among black voters among 13 and 10 and 11 , young voters by 16 , so we can have more access, we can have a healthy democracy but that means voting by boat for mail fo by all, we need everyboy to lean in, write letters, demand your legislators do better if theyre not, put pressure under secretary of state, if we need to follow what is going on in a straightforward way, follow me on twitter, im trying to push back on the lies that the president is saying, he has the biggest in the nation, we have to push back against this information, i will say last thing, i will get off my soapbox, i know it looks hard, i know it looks bad, we are winning, we are winning, the president is doing everything that he can to stop voting in november, we have a ready one, in 2016, 23 of americans use vote by mail, the Washington Post is seen over 70 are going to have the access, that does not it will go without any issue in november, but we have already increased access, now we have to keep on going. Thank you for that and we have many, many more minutes of soapbox time for all of you, lets get to secretary benson, a lot of people dont know your Voting Rights expert and just as props to you, ive heard that you were civil rights legend, in the event the you are actually not going to be personally able to File Lawsuits against donald trump, what do you think the responses to the Postal Service attacks in the attacks the secretary griswold has also talked about on every plan b that there is out there. I think 2020 is one big plan b, in so many ways, we have been anticipating and since i took office into beginning of the year and we have been for example, im looking at how to 70 get there ballot and how do we intern know that the county, everyone will answer that differently and one might be more challenging than the other and certainly with the Postal Service, in michigan we are working number one to get everyone there ballot, however, they choose to get them, michigan we picked them up in person from your local store and you can request to have them sent to you or get them on election day with your local precinct, we are educating proactively on how you get your ballot and how you return your ballot, you can return in person in the local dropbox weve been them looking to install since the beginning of the year and that works with the mail and you can make sure its counted and theres a lot of Voter Education that we are doing around that to ensure people have the envelope and all of that. And all of that notwithstanding, the every effort to expand our democracy in access to our democracy is developed in a war and a battle among those with voices that are people and part of our countrys history and what gives me the most hope, im very optimistic about this year, i believe we need to of course tell the truth about whats happening in regards to our Postal Service but we cannot neglect the fact that secretary griswold said we are winning because yes we have a great secretary of state around the country and great elected officials who are sounding the alarm, were winning it because were on the side of the people, both parties, members of both sides of the political spectrum have voted by mail on the past and enjoy doing them for the data have pointed that out, the other thing that gives me a lot of hope, the citizens demanding more from change is actually creating a change in the reason we have vote by mail will succeed in our state is because citizens are becoming educated and adjusting is adapting, the last thing i will emphasize are the importance of partnerships, i will say democracy is a team sport, we have been Building Partnerships with business leaders, employers, universities, support teams to also make sure everyone has access to the new information they will need to know to adjust and adapt to the new reality for voting during the pandemic and in 2020 election. We are doing everything we can to protect the axis of the vote in the security of the process but we also had to be mindful of the entire experience looking ahead to what is the next move, the battle, we on to zepeda the move to cancel the election and that rhetoric coming back in march, we began planning for that by making sure election on schedule and demonstrating and run in election the midst of a pandemic, we anticipated the challenge of the Postal Service by preparing to implement the drop off voter early, several months ago, on top of all of that were now anticipating what will happen after the election which will be an attempt to discredit the processes that were talking about protecting today, we have to be prepared for that as well and i will emphasize again successfully winning each of these battles requires all of us and without secretary of state and elected officials who are fighting as well but as citizens in their engagement and their involvement and that will actually ensure success of every single one of you, that is why gatherings like this are so important because we can Work Together to ensure were pushing Forward Together and ensuring truth and data in fair democracy. Thank you for that, secretary merrill, and connecticut i was looking up what some of the republicans were saying about you, just as you said, secretary benson just said the idea of dropbox is really the pivotal hero in this current drama, my question for you, your comments on the Postal Service situation particular around the question of new processes that are underway for you, what is your biggest fear, your biggest concern of postmark and the question incapacity in this new sense of form of voting for you on a massive scale with so many watching and frankly the rightwing dropping lawsuits for everything from having dropbox is to not mailing out things quickly enough but the post office does not work it seems like you cannot win, whats keeping you up at night after you have a chance to sleep. Actually all the above but i remained concerned about having one way to vote, i think the best thing were doing is providing options to people and i just want to mention something we dont talk about very much, the Minority Community is very suspicious of mailing their vote, they have a long history of Voter Suppression in those communities and i think they prefer to come in person just to know everything is the way it should be, traditionally the problems weve had is talking them into voting at all, our biggest problem that we cant convince people that it matters to vote and now suddenly were confronted with a whole new set of issues, but a community that has become determined to vote, that is why i think im really uneasy about going to a total vote by mail system, i know thats what a lot of my colleagues are doing but i remain concerned that we have enough inperson voting, polling places, particular in cities, there is not a lot of experience in the state with mail voting and so i think at least for november we all have to be conscious of the fact that we cannot be canceling polling places, that is a mainstay of many of the neighborhoods and cities particular in cities of loss of black and brown people and they need to have that reassurance that this boat is being counted, i think that is also why the ballot boxes were so important because i saw people, so many people, the elderly and minorities in particular using those ballot boxes so they can touch it, feel it, watch it go in the box, it was right in front of town hall and i think that reassurance was needed more than ever because the victory that i really believe the republicans have had, not just the president , they have managed to make americans this trust their elections, that was the biggest fallout of this entire situation added to the Disinformation Campaign still be in noted by russia and all kinds of foreign and domestic bad actors and i know some of us have started to track that because thats going to ramp up as the elections continue, were seen encouraging into the Campaign Including biden campaign, you have a multitude of people trying to disrupt the election by making people distrust this very fundamental system that they have believed in very trustingly for 100 years and now you have all these new fears, to be the most important thing is to make sure we have all these things available to people, whatever they choose to do, thats what the public wants, they want options, they want to make sure their vote is counted, every time theres lawsuits and questions about the ballot box, youre just taking one little neck out of that trust, that to me is the worst thing that is going on. Thats what we need to fight, we need to make sure that people understand that theres those of us trying to make it secure and safe to vote however, you choose to vote. If i weigh in, i on that i want to underscore when you look at georgia or wisconsin where polling places have been consolidated and you see online on election day, in part the Election Administrators and due to shortages of coworkers, i think thats a really important thing for us to recognize because we launched a recruitment effort in michigan that is recruited on 7000 individuals and that enabled us to have successful inperson voting and embracing record turnout in our august primary last week but you power the polls in many efforts to recruit this year on one of the most important things that we all can be a part of and support to ensure exactly what secretary said of the past, for voters to take advantage of, i would hope every Single Person watching today signs up to be a coworker in this election, its one of the most direct ways in addition to voting they you can ensure our democracy is protected. I will jump in, we are getting into the meat of the conversation and theres a couple things i wanted to comment from secretary, i think first off, if you have accessible elections, people will vote, that should be a major take away, its not just about our election, you know the fact of it is, our government is full of people who do not represent everyday people, they represent themselves, corporate interests and special interest, i grew up literally in a cabin with an outhouse outside, there were times when we were on food stamps, there was times when we were going to food banks and i started working very young, the first person in my family to go to college and to go to law school in the fact of the matter, elected officials are overwhelmingly not representing everyday people. I believe its a trifecta of gerrymandering, Voter Suppression and money in politics that enables a lot of elected officials to become and take office and not represent the people, if they dont like the people in their district, they cut them out of their district or suppress their vote or special interest with their campaign. I think we have a fundamental democracy problem and part of the issue of getting voters to vote is having a system that elects people will actually listen to the people and do there will, do things to help everyday people, i also think it is imperative to keep in person early voting and sameday Voter Registration and polls open on election day, thats what we do in colorado, i do think in our state primary i ran a Voter Engagement push, we had 99. 3 of all voters cast their ballot using a mail ballot, the fact of the matter we had that in person early access and sameday inperson voting, its really important that we really have all the options they need and having that in person is really important, we saw less than 11000 people go to the polls in our state primary but over half of them were under the age of 34, everybody deserves to her their voice heard, we need a comprehensive Voting System and when i say we need vote by mail for all, that includes spending every voter mail ballot and then enabling them to return it at the dropbox by the male with a functioning male but also allowing them to return the ballot to an in person Polling Center or even voting in person. Thank you for that, secretary if you want to jump back in we are looking into the discussion of whats at stake with the democracy and folks that are following along and we will take some your questions and about five or ten minutes or so, secretary merrill, any thoughts . You can see that those of us on the panel all have multiple options on the answer for a lot of this because when one does not work so well or is trumped as they say, you still have other options, that was the key in her primary because when they were delayed, people got them late but the challenge was letting them know, dont worry, you can still bring it down to the ballot box, i am lucky i have a democratic governor who is very helpful because every single day he gets covid updates and he included information about the ballot boxes on the last few days. But for movember is too late to change a lot of the laws and the other states, your hearing from three states, two of whom had great loss, i think colorado has one of the best and most option states in the country, there is a lot of others and i dont know how we make a national priority, thats another thing, we heard the democrats talking about it, they have not been able to get too far but i think that is coming in maybe thats what we need here, a lot of the secretary of state were very much dispute the need for the federal government to step in but it matters as a civil rights, thats where they have stepped in in the past when they were clear of Voter Suppression efforts in Southern States and some others, it is time i think but not in time for the selection and thats where we are and thats how we have to keep pushing forward with voting by mail because with covid there are lots and lots of people who are not going to risk their vote by going to an in person polling place, yet the Minority Community is more worked up than i have ever seen them, i think they are going to vote, one lady said to me im going to vote if i have to crawl enough i have to risk my health i will do it, thats not what we want to do, we cannot have people risking their help the Minority Committee has been decimated by covid, thats another factor. With all that all i can say, people you have to keep fighting and sticking with us when we get attacked by this National Republican agenda which is clearly whats going on, for tickly the litigation, using the litigation in every state, its all the same, now it is ballot boxes, particular anybody in the audience from pennsylvania, you ought to be very concerned about that because pennsylvania there trying to do the right thing in the been challenged in court as we speak, stick with us is all i can say and hopefully we can get this on the National Agenda so soon. Thank you very much for that, thats what i wanted to go next before we go to questions, brief thoughts and comments, it is ray that we have an opportunity to talk to the progressive secretary of state and its even rare and we get to strategize with them. What thoughts would you have for tickly for two sets of books, i think you just said this, and places where you have colleagues and secretary merrill as you were saying when you were in the fight of your life and getting hit by all sides and you can use advocates, what states are you seeing where folks can really jump in and help push forward the agenda and also for those in nonprogressive states and red states and problematic states and purple states, what would you suggest the advocates lookout for, what is the thing thats going to be coming out them, what can be the strategy for them to push back against the parade that weve been dealing with in places like connecticut that are only going to be compounded in other states, what advice you have, anybody can jump in and start. If you insist i will start, i want to jump in, i think we have to demand very clearly that american should have assessable elections,. , we also have to demand and underline what is happening, the president is willing for americans to die to cast their ballots, democrats need to lean in and say we are the party of allowing every eligible person to cast their ballot, here in colorado, we have one of the most accessible election systems in the nation and last year i ran a series of improvement, we added more Polling Centers, more drop boxes, for the First Time Ever we guaranteed a dropbox or Polling Center on every Public University in all tribal lands, we work with our tribes to make sure that the Voter Suppression we seen against native americans ever happened, we had enfranchisement, automatic Voter Registration, enabled 17 euros to cast a ballot in the primary, maybe 18 by the general, every state should be leaning in and adding access to voters, we have a corruption problem in the station, it is no surprise that so many big corporations, so many of the wealthy have benefited off of the coronavirus while working people died, enough is enough and i think the democrats really need to say what we stand for, we stand for civil rights and Voter Suppression and we stand against racial suppression and we demand that the democracy is put in the hands of everyday people and we have to say it loudly and they keep on saying it, all of your states so the nation is ready to pass h. R. 1 and if it does not pass h. R. 1 we need to surpass major democracy in every single state in this nation. Amen secretary. Secretary benson and secretary merrill, thoughts any thoughts to share with strategies the advocates of the facing, where is the rubber going to hit the road in the conservative states, what have you seen as tools that advocates can used to support secretaries of state that are trying to be progressive or to push back against some of the evilness that is happening and more conservative states i tell you what would happen to my state, i never have overridden the kind of restrictions we have for the covid without the work of advocacy groups, they were on every district and they demanded their help was protected with covid situations and without the emergency, the Public Health emergency, we never wouldve been able to ramp up our effor efforts, all those groups got together and said we cant let this happen again, we need to know and its still the best way to do something, if you dont have secretary of state were governor who will help, its very difficult but you gotta find somebody who is going to sound the alarm on peoples health, that is the best hook we have to make this happen because the public is with us, the surveys are 82 of the public, both republican and democrat want the option of not having to go in person to the polls, that is the only hope that we have right now and were fighting a big battle on every front and you just have to keep hammering away, where are the groups, come back to life, i just went to raleigh the other day among minority women through the ywca very actively registering voters and doing rallies, especially talking to minority women who are bearing the brunt of this covid thing, the healthcare workers, the moms that are trying to find healthcare in child care for the children in their being hit harder than others by the disease, those are the groups that you need to target to make sure that they understand the need to get out and vote, if you get them motivated they will vote and we have to make sure that happens. Secretary benson, thoughts of advice for advocates particularly in states where there are major challenges even more in michigan. In this great uncertainty and many people are looking for and making sure their voices are heard and votes are counted. Its the year of Voter Registration ngo pd work that weve always done its going to require more that every voter is counted in every voice is heard, that means getting down and talking about your particular state, making sure people know they are voting by mail for the first time all the options to return their ballot and if they need the mail wherever the drop boxes are, the tutorials of how to vote are just as important as getting people to know the importance of voting and exercising this year, of course as i said the other piece that we have not talked about, the error of this information that were in and the importance of doing Voter Education at a time when theres so many others that have large platforms and tax orders minds about the truth and reality with voting the accessibility of the process, proactive Voter Education that is more granular and detailed and specific than ever before, using trusted voices and messengers to get that information out to communities and voters who are historically marginalized areas in their state and community and in their pocket and on top of that, be prepared to push back against acts of the system messaging that will flow into the communities that are most likely to impact the election, the data suggest like milwaukee, detroit, philadelphia, pittsburgh, columbus and cleveland and ones that will influence if not determine the outcome of the president ial election, there are so many efforts to ensure. The other question i want to connect with, i will find here in a second and it was a question about mail about in the effective of people of color, secretary, you are talking about that particular for the people of color the ballot boxes were really, really key, the first in malin versus drop off, what does that look like in the second piece, is there an effect with people of color with respect to malin specifically and can you talk more about that. Sure, in connecticut only about 4 of people generally use any form of absentee balloting or malin voting, usually its because theyre out of town, they go down to the town clerk and applications are hard to come by, this is the first time weve ever done anything like mail applications we cannot just mail them because you have to have an excuse for voting by mail. We had to mail applications to all the people who were going to be eligible, that is the first time we done that, that was the first hurdle in a way in a big piece of public information, people and that most people did not know what an absentee ballot was probably, that was new to everybody, they were calling our office and a lot of them thought they were valid, a lot of them in people who generally, these are basically the party regulars, these are democrats and republicans, they have a full primary system in connecticut, if you can imagine the lack of information of the absentee balloting, imagine what will happen in november with the unaffiliated voters which is the Biggest Group in most states, thats when i say theres a big challenge just informing people, you add to that that the Minority Community is very suspicious of any change in the way that they vote, they are very they have been disenfranchised for a long time and dont see voting as an answer too much, i think after 2016 some of that changed and theres a lot more interest but they suddenly get a piece of paper in the mail and the like what is this all about, they dont even know if its real, these are people that are not trusting of the system to begin with because it has not helped him that much, i think in general they have told me personally, i live in a city that is mostly a minority and i know many people have come to me and said i dont trust my vote by mail, im going in person, thats why the dropbox is such a wonderful thing, we never had it before so all of the sudden we bought them with the federal grant for every town, there were two towns that refuse to put them up, they said they were going to be vandalized, there is all kinds of questions in the Florida House because we had to get the legislator to vote to put up the boxes, there was great resistance and in the end everybody ended up compliant because the public kicked in, there is advocacy groups who hassled the mayors who refuse to put them up until they put them up and put them in a place where people can access them. So these are all sites but its taking a long time to convince the minority in urban communities that this is okay because they are not so sure and they know pulling places but now they have covid so you have the push and pull in these communities, Public Education by local groups, by people they trust in their community is the only answer i think. Because theyre not going to trust institutions. Thank you so much, im going to kick it to griswold who has to leave us after this comment to do the secretary of state. [laughter] thank you for being with us, i would encourage people if its inclined to secretary griswold and after he takes off and plays the dragon, what are your thoughts on the questions. 75 of coloradans who vote returned by dropbox, approximately, we just had 99. 3 of all voters use the mail ballot in our state primary and if anywhere between 70 80 returning to a dropbox, our experience we see the use of mail ballots increased voting in communities that have been traditionally kept out of the process, like i mentioned, we increased black Voter Participation by 13 , asian by 11, latino by 10 , i do think its really important to secretary merrills point to really partner with Community Groups, we work with Community Groups that are going into prisons to make sure as people come out, they know the register to vote and they have that franchise. We worked with many of the leaders of the protest to make sure that we try to shift, complement the energy of protest with the energy of voting, we actually organized a march to the pool for our state primary to march through historically black neighborhoods to focus on getting out the vote, im going to be hiring an organizer to do outreach to the Homeless Community because just because you lose your home and your experience in homelessness does not mean you give up your fundamental rights, ill be going down in a couple of weeks to meet with the tribes in colorado to make sure were supporting native american access, i think its really important to have trust with Community Groups, regularly meet with Community Groups, ask them what they need so that the state and elective officials can be part of the solution, not part of the barrier. Thank you so much for that, we really appreciate it and thank you for spending the time with us, you have mad love on the chat. [laughter] i followed her since she was a child. Very inspiring and thank you for joining us. Secretary benson if you are able, any thoughts on particular how people of color experience mail in ballots versus dropbox, any thoughts that you can share in terms of how and what the percentages are vertically focusing on mailing are we putting additional burden on walk around in your perspective. This goes back to Voter Education and the importance of knowing every citizen knows her options this year, we are talking about a marginalized community and citizens with disabilities and english as a second language, we need to ensure that everyone has access and what we done in michigan to be the most determining impactful issue is disenfranchisement with communities of color to access the vote, by that you may know i launched Voting Matters Initiative wishes to identify the top 100 precincts in michigan and interestingly or surprising of the 100, 40 were island in detroit and 40 are at flint, as we got to the precincts and people in the community about what we can do better to ensure most people are participating in voting, the number one issue that came up was not questions, it was a question over whether somebody had voted in regardless of the criminal history and we know that is an evolving issue and issue that is evolving in the right direction but is so important to ensure that all communities know that returning citizens in michigan have the right to vote to society and to keep people from losing the right to vote, we found that proactive education from trusted voices, and communities of color has been critical in ensuring they have access to the voting right and engaged in the proce process, on top of that working with Community Leaders to communicate the opportunities to receive their ballots, return their ballot, whether we you return it through drop boxes, the goal is to take democracy to the citizens, meet people where theyre at, delivered to them the system of voting that they want, thats what we done in michigan a partner with the citizens to amend the state to expand Voting Rights and other things in our state, the work that ive done throughout my career and organizing the community is to ensure that people know their Voting Rights in working with secretary of state to make sure the process runs out it is critical, im grateful for the work that people are doing for the city of detroit and other cities daughter state and the norm is Health Crisis in the normans economic crisis and the crisis of affecting our communities of color and the crisis of systemic racism that are collaborating to drive democracy that serves as an avenue, its how every vote can count and every vote can be heard. Thank you so much, i hope you guys can hear me, my computer just said my internet is unstable, i apologize if i slow down and get elongated but heres the next question i want to throw out to you with the Voting Rights act, how much has a guided Voting Rights act impacted your fight in your work on addressing these issues world put another way, what would you need from the Voting Rights act moving forward in order to address the issues and the challenges that you talked abo about. The elimination of section five and i dont think any element of section five cover connecticut or the secretary maryland i know it did not cover and i knew it covered michigan in other areas throughout the south, the elimination of section five which is the guiding of the Voting Rights act in the Shelby County case, and certainly it is longoverdue for congress to recreate, not just section five in the clearance requirement but to do so in a way that is meaningful to the Shelby County case in the shield of section five in the clearance and is so can and should significantly diminished and weakened over time, section two importantly is in place and can still be used as a sword as it always has been to ensure that private citizens are able to litigate challenges to voting laws that are discriminatory or in effect, that being said that has been involved over time and restored Voting Rights act would include not only section five in a reinvigorated test and clearance requirement but also examining other things like this infringement laws and looking at the data about communities of color and voting by mail and further investment that needs to happen proactively in communities where you see underrepresentation in historic marks but community of voter turnout so we can be developing the new solutions to proactively address that, senator harris is very comprehensive reform package has been a model and shes really been the one thats worked mostly with the secretaries of state in developing that package, that serves as a great example of some of what we need to see in the reforms we need to see in addition to the restoration of section five of the Voting Rights act to bring us forward to democracy. Thank you so much, just for those at home, my internet went out, i dialed back in so im on the phone and video because i roll like that, secretary, what are your thoughts . I just want to weigh in because by now ive lived through what happened after they getting the Voting Rights act, it will continue to be an enabler of different forms of state laws that will keep evolving and they have changed, at first it was photo id and right after the Shelby County act, that is several states immediately the next day change the laws to require more stringent ids, that fight has weighed in then change the purging of list and were still in the midst of that fight and still going on my state while the list are bad, the terrible and if your mailing ballots to list the have lots of dead people on them and people no longer at that address and with corruption and fraud, that has been the next wave of complaints and the use of that act to permit states to pass very restrictive laws, the likes of which we have not seen since the Voting Rights act of 1965, these are not subtle questions and we are seeing that now, its going to continue right now, covid has ended everything in a different way and were having different kinds of fights but the fight over this is still going on, i have no doubt that during the selection, you may find out that your name has been removed from the list, we have not heard about that much lately because of voting by mail has improved our list because we can tell when they come back under livable, im using that as a reason to say, this is a good thing that we are mailing ballots and application to ballots for people because we can now update our list, that has sort of stopped the argument for the moment, but that is the true implication of Voting Rights act, getting, states are much more free to change laws to suppress votes in different in new ways that im sure we will continue to see, that is my concern and we were ready seen it going on in some places, it can be combated but we need it to come back and fix that right away. And second, my friend said about senator harris, she has met with her personally, she has tried very hard to develop a really comprehensive look at election law and possibilities for federal law on the topic of elections which are a little bit tricky because they guard that rate very closely and well its been a state responsibility with the involvement of civil rights they have insured in this instance. Extraordinary, well said. Tommy asked the question, how do we change the gop narratives around Access Programs like the ballot harvesting . As we said, the important thing of our work is the truth and the data is on our side, the reality is the voting by mail is evidence of decades of success in many states including washington, oregon and colorado, we are counting that misinformation is the fact in the truth and really recognizing and calling out for what it is the efforts for electorate and our elections in the time when we need our citizens to rightfully so have faith in our Democratic Institutions more than ever, those are the things whether taking the social media and other platforms that will be critical in one of the reason so many of us have been partnering with our leaders and others of our platforms to ensure they are emphasizing their voices as well to push back those efforts to misinform our citizens about the security of voting by mail in particular. I find that particular narrative really, really tough because it got a great sounding fate of ballot harvesting. What does it really mean. We need a countervailing narrative that has someplace to say you are in charge of your ballot or what strikes me when i listen to folks that come from states like oregon and washington whod been doing this a long time its almost like an open book test versus like the kind we have to write on your hand what you are going to do. In our state you are not allowed to bring anything in and that is in a kind appear for no idea about elections but i know people that literally right on their hand who they are going to vote for so they can ramp or who does. After they look at it in a vote by mail state its a much more family process. You get your ballot and you can set it on the dining room table and talk to anybody you want about who you are going to vote for it. Whats wrong with that . The requires a whole new way of thinking without voting in many of our states. I think thats the narrative we have to develop. You are right to talk to whoever you want about it and give permission to anyone you want to talk about your ballot. Thats the kind of narrative i think we need to develop to make this work. Thank you for that. This is a question for secretary benson from alisa mccool. Says hello secretary bentsen im a berkeley michigan native and fellow military staff. Because we so often, im sorry because we move so often voted by mail as a standard part is for my military family. Is there a role for veterans and military families about how a vote by mail is an important and establish part of americas elections . Gessen thank you for that question. There certainly is and you may have seen a number of things we are doing in michigan too engaged or military community and their Veterans Community as poll workers election workers and voices are workers but on top of that untold story of the reason we are voting by mail came from a military community is an important one to share and spread in your voices is one of those is so important to be telling that story. We also need to do work. We are nearly out of time and we are limited in scope but certainly the work of our military servicemembers and their families want to get their fan ballots in one time. We have even more challenges with International Mail so thank you for your service and i think your family for your service and if you havent considered being a poll worker i want to encourage you to go to michigan and sign up to be a poll worker because we look at the successes we have had this year in michigan with our elections and im really proud of the recordbreaking turnout in Record Number people voting by mail from both sides of the aisle. What is mated them possible is demanding the right to vote by mail and the thousands who have signed up and its an opportunity for veterans and military to do that as well. Thank you and for a last question maryland asks what are your thoughts on the following. Biden voters are much more likely to want to vote by mail than trump voters. How do we square that with the other data about how vote i mail increases voting in a bipartisan way and how can we protect against further attacks that vote by mail is somehow partisan . I think we should build a democracy that is about how people voted making sure voters can vote regardless of how they cast their ballot. The data we are focusing on his information about acrosstheboard making sure every citizen knows and has confidence whether they vote early or on election day or at home every state is going to be different in terms of who they are choosing and a vote which way and its based on a lot of different factors and there a lot of voices that are trying to the partisan impact in my view building a strong democracy means setting agendas aside and building the right system for every single citizen in every single voter. Thats my focus, making sure everyone has an application to vote by mail making sure every community has access to be able to vote without having to wait in line and voters themselves will choose whats best for them. When you look at the metadata you dont see much partisan impact on any of these. The only piece of data that i have found to be most, that is not change from election to election is our state is the better young people overwhelmingly register to vote in person on election day. 18 and 19 else by far are the vast majority of citizens to vote on election day and many that ive worked with for a number of decades no as far as data is concerned the most reliable date is around that. Eliminating that there barriers for registration but even then thats not partisan. Those can change and evolve as well. Its about Good Government democracy with a small d and then its up to voters on how they want to vote. C yeah i would concur with all of that and i have not seen any data so i dont know what study you are referring to. Ive seen no data or no evidence and i wish it were true but its not very more Democrats Use mailin voting and probably it will show that in our primary than before but thats probably because we have more democrats than republicans in connecticut are traditionally the majority of people who got early ballots were candidates and they voted republican. Secretary bentsen is right in every state will be different depending more on their demographics and their age groups. I dont know how you counter that narrative but its true. Also people are trying to tell lots of different stories and its quite the cacophony at the moment. Hopefully we the truth will come out and a place were realized that we are trying to do particularly as the secretary of state wherein adjusting position because we elected partisan lay most of us and that we are expected to be nonpartisan i think this is a strong ethic among secretaries because thats exactly what we are here for. We are here to represent all voters. We want to make our party easier for people to vote and their people that would do that. They would say why should we make it easy for people to vote . Shouldnt be hard . Its not just are right its a privilege and i dont personally understand that way of thinking but there is a nerd about their critic country is deeply divided on many issues and this is no exception so i hope we can wish for it from where we are in a very critical moment in this country and people do want to vote. Its been a challenge for years announced the opposite. We are worried about about so many people overwhelming the system that we wont deal to get the ballots in one time. Thats not actually a terrible problem to have her lots of people will be voting and they want their voices heard and for the first time in a long time ive seen that so i think its a great day and we will just have to manage all of it. I want to thank you and put in the chat thanks for these answers. Its a privilege to be able to help the silicate answers to the questions of thank you to that in all the people. I also have to say its been a tremendous privilege to be moderating this conversation with extraordinary women who are leaders who were brilliant and are aspiring in ways that are on my list of things to be inspired i secretary of state not so much im totally inspired and thank you for educating us and the way you have. Its a great panel because its very clear the secretary of state needs the applicants and the advocates need the secretaries of states of thank you so much all three of you for being on this panel and i thank everybody for joining us
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