2021 chair of civil rights and Civil Justice for remarks. Welcome angela. Thank you. And then to thank you for planning this timely panel is my pleasure to welcome everyone who was watching it before i began im also speaking in a personal capacity this is not on behalf of my employer nothing that i or the panel says today represents any view of any component of the federal government i want to make that clear. So this day and age of a Global Pandemic flu that we would be living through Something Like this was 10000 americans were passed away from covid so they can cast their ballots safely with the pandemic. And those that have obstacles to barriers to voting even before the pandemic moving the elderly individual with longterm care facilities those are increase because of the pandemic there also homelessi individuals and those with the president address so they cannot cast a vote. So there are new laws that require your purging identification that may not be easily available to some people all of these constitute obstacles in many cases. And with those efforts to ameliorate we will highlight these efforts to our programming and engaging to provide our members to volunteer to serve in ways so people can vote this upcoming election. And that the poll Workers Initiative and those with those official poor workers or that commit to a long day like that there are Election Protection opportunities so the we are hoping to connect members and attorneys with nonpartisan organizations with the National Bar Association and those under the law we are hoping to connect those individuals to help engage in nonpartisan Election Protection efforts. Now looking at Community Organizations and we all know there are Many Organizations wellintentioned we just want to make sure they have the facts and information that will be helpful for them to help other people. And then to have programming to take a deep dive into overcoming some of these obstacles. De that we have another program called obstacles that every tur turn, our fifth annual Voting Rights programs coming up. And then dignity rights and democracy so we encourage you all to join us for all of this and all of these efforts thank you to all of the panelist in the Committee Members and the staff for putting this together elections are quintessential to our democracy. And those of the social justice section that are committed to being a part of the solutions to ensure all eligible votes are counted we look forward to you joining us. Thats it i will turn it back over. Thank you for those comments angela. We encourage you to ask questions through the q and a, not the chat function make sure your screen is not idle we will address the questions at the end of the panel we will be sharing recording of this program to everyone who has registered so you can share with your networks. Captions are available on the recording. We are thrilled to bring todays program there are four members of the panel you will hear from them about their perspective and expertise on the issues discussed today open questions from the audience i will provide a fuller bio before they speak the french one initial introductions welcome our esteemed panel of elected officials and scholars and practitioners and the honorable rosenblum and the attorney general of oregon law professor and justin love it and attorney general in the assistant counsel naacp and education fund. Welcome and thank you all. More americans are expected to vote by mail and the upcoming president ial election than any previous election in our country. They would rather do a by mail then go in person but most who have not voted by mail before that leads to some hunters uncertainty of whats ahead for the next few weeks. Jim wyman is washingtons 15th secretary of state first elected in 2012 serving her second term only the second female secretary of state and washingtons history prior to being elected served as election county director for nearly a decade and elected the county auditor 2001 throughec 2013 as washingtonians we have had vote by mail for a number of years now so can you tell us about Washington State experience with the by mail and how you address the issues of security . Thank you for allowing me to be on this panel and the work the committee has done its an important topic and then hopefully to bring up a Powerpoint Presentation and with the speed version of the Washington State elections. So now low technology. Okay. And talking about while i get thee tech support. So those Election Officials across the country we are election geeks by nature and then if it goes wrong we have aa pandemic so real quick in the next five or ten minutes share with you washingtons path and what we do to ensure every eligible washingtonian can register to w vote and also have their ballot cast. So right now about four. 7 million registered voters and i anticipate will be knocking on the door of 5 millions over the last 20 years to catapult washington forward to be in a position that create one quite frankly was good for the pandemicin it begins with voter id washington did adopt that served our voters well we do not have issue with the Brennan Center challenge i am part of the way because it was not politicized too much and has worked well with our system. Online votert. Registration since 2008 and a vote by mail state completely since 2011. So in the last ten years the activities and advancements have expanded access with a prepaid postage in 2018 and in 2019 and all of these really great advancements and im not taking credit for apply have been the election administrator to enact the laws. Build out the commentating controls and security measures. And then in 2019 to roll out a near realtime statewide Voter Registration system. This is the backbone for the activity we do so these ballots will be available 20 days before election and then with the elections director 18 days prior to election day. Is with those drop boxes that voters can drop in their ballot if they dont want to put into the usps we are thankful for that because certainly that is an issue now oregon and washington differ washington is a postmark state so as long as we receive a ballot withhi a postmark on or before within the 20 days following it can be counted and is as long as it meets all other eligibility requirements. Lets talk about what we do to inspire that confidence in those to have disparaging remarks with the safety of by mail and i have been running vote by mail elections for almost 20 years in the security controls we have in place by checking and verifying every signature and return ballot is really the linchpin for security and of course we dont want to disenfranchise so we contacted voter if the signature doesnt match the sometimes they forget to sign their envelopes. We give the voter an opportunity that is the empowering move starting 15 years ago. Also another Security Check because i guarantee if you get from the county election official your ballot has been returned in your signature doesnt match and you have not voted you will be on the phone right away to make sure it has been set aside and prosecuted. Thing we are seeing in washington in the last five or ten years and those whose signatures dont match and will follow up on that reducing the rejection rate thats another reason that the counties reach out because it equalizes this with the finance campaigns have that advantage. And eight days beforee election day with that same day registration through l8 00 oclock Election Night voters can track their ballots and once we put it in to the ballot dropbox in the county perceives that they can follow the path of signature checking and if there is a problem they can contact Election Officials to rectify that. And with that certification. In washington so those late arriving ballots so one of the things i think is important to get on your radar if not already there will be a shift in november oregon and washington voters are used to this our counterparts will be shocked to know who will not know who won the election on Election Night i think all the lawyers know thats not the case because we are working after election day to certify those results. This is a typical return pattern of the august primary election. This is off the chart in a way of never seen before because typically we do see about 50 or 60 percent of our ballots come in election week so we see a spike not only on wednesday after election day , but thursday and what we saw in august the volume was so crushing for our counties it took them an entire day to get through their late arriving ballots through the ballot dropbox the closer the pm Election Night so those late arrivingn ballots will happen because potentially you will see hundreds of thousands of ballotsn. With those postmarks arriving the day after the election and will not be eligible to be counted in those p states and i think we will see more but then to delay the results the dark blue states have a history of earl by mail those that have very restrictive efforts and probably the lowest turnout and those that are ramping up the operations we will have a wide array of election activity and i can assure you my colleagues have been reaching out to our office and countyty partners the best thing that comes out from cybersecurity so working to get ready for 2020 we have a National Campaign is trying to have the trusted source of information the state Election Officers those that you can trust for information so people know what they need to do thank you for letting me present. Thank you very much secretary weinman now here for attorney general rosenblum a former federal prosecutor in the privilege of one appellate judge with the 70 the attorney general november 2012 and reelected to a second term november 82016 the first woman to serve as over again attorney general and has served as secretary of the aba of the state and local Government Law attorney general rosenblum you represent another of the five states that exclusively booked on world by mail you have been dealing with recent litigation can you tell us about this or other legal issues . Thank you want to go like this when you say we are a vote by mail state. Gave. We understand it is a lot more difficult if you cannot get up to speed and im so proud of those in so many states to make this effort because its so important any state that allows for absentee voting can easily make this transition in one year and is so important to do that i love working with you and thank you to the fellow t panelist and for everyone who is shown up virtually wanting to talk about Election Protection we have 250 people on m the Panel Webinar so thank you for joining us obviously elections are at the heart of our democracy and states are facingmo unprecedented challenges and with the concerns of the diminished faithh i think the secretary would agree having a bit less scrambling thats because what i call vote by home system solves the problem of the crowded voting polling places and thats already in place in our state and mentioning the state here actually spent 40 years unofficially 20 years since we voted state wide although there are some differences sold over again to have a ballots in the mail postagepaid return envelope and and optional, optional i emphasize it is not required to use it. They typically arrive in two weeks before election day. And they can be returned by dropping them in the mail or our official dropbox locations. I think we have about a comparable number 500 here so historically about 40 percent those that have used the mail and 60 percent those that use those drop boxes so we can emphasize so we dont worry about the postmark is much as i think we should but we get them in early but if not 60 percentnt use the dropbox as the term of the offices down at Pioneer Square in places that are convenient you dont even have to get out of your car you also have the option to go to the county Election Office and book there with assistance with that twoto week period and then with that potential exposure to the virus instead you can get that help at any time its open during the two week period. Election day. A postmark on election day is not good enough and that means if youre going to use the mail, you do need to allow time for delivery and the post office this year is recommending one full week. We are telling people, even more than a week if you do intend to use the mail. Given the intent to which oregon has successfully relied on the mail system for elections, i was very concerned and i know that you were as well in washington, when news broke out about the changes that the postmaster general was unilaterally making. I want to talk about that a little bit. The Postal Service was dismantling mail sorting machines, disallowing overtime and requiring trucks to leave at scheduled time, even if that meant mail got left behind in the post offices. They were suggesting that they would no longer treat outgoing election mail as first class mail unless states paid the higher first class rate. The post Office General counsel was blunt about the impacts these changes could have on election mail. Oregon got a letter indicating that the state the service in our state would be slower than it has ever been. In fact, the suggestion was that if our Election Officials used the time allotted to design ballots and got everything in place, voters actually might need to send their ballots back on the same day they got them which is obviously unrealistic. So we were very concerned. Here we were thinking, a ha, we got it made. Were a vote by mail state and we realize that our vote by mail could be endangered. If this was the worst case possibility in oregon where we have the infrastructure in place, the consequences in other states of course might have been very dire indeed. Fortunately the Postal Service is designed so that changes that affect nationwide mail delivery are supposed to go through a regulatory process that allows for public input. These are not the kinds of things that a postmaster general can decide to do and then immediately implement. So i was very pleased to join with my neighbor to the north, attorney general ferguson, the washington ag and colleagues from a dozen other states in a lawsuit to these changes. And were all, guess what, winning our lawsuits. Austral as recently as yesterday, the pennsylvania case, the federal judge ruled in their favor as well. Not quite two weeks ago, we obtained the judgment we asked for. So the u. S. Postal service has been asked to do the following things, one, abandon the leave mail behind policy under which postal trucks were required to leave at specified times even if the mail was nearly ready for them, two, continue its practice of treating all election mail as first class mail regardless of the paid postage. Three, fix or otherwise replace machines needed to timely process and deliver election mail and, four, suspend recent policy changes until after the election. So with this injunction in place, i am reasonably confident that our mail election will once again be very successful. But, as other panelists will describe in more detail, there remains significant legal issues surrounding the upcoming election. Advocates are seeking a number of accommodations to enable a meaningful vote during this unprecedented time. And interestingly, a lot of what theyre asking for is consistent with oregon practice after 20 years of successful experimentation and experience, not requiring mailed ballots to have witness signatures or a notary. When i say that, i mean we have consistently have good if not great, most of the time, voter turnout, both in primaries and general elections, and almost zero voter fraud. There are several lawsuits challenging the kinds of accommodations that state and local Election Officials are making in light of the pandemic. And i imagine we will be talking about some of those too during our discussion. For now, i would just say, having an existing votebymail system means theres no basis for those types of challenges in oregon in washington or the other vote by mail states. And if anything good can come out of this circumstance, make it will be that other states will follow our lead and adopt vote at home or whats also known as vote by mail which has a long track record of avoiding fraud and making it easy for every voter to vote and have it counted. Thank you. Thank you so much, attorney general. Next we will here from professor levit. Hes the professor of law and fellow at loyola. He was a Deputy Assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of u. S. Department of justice where he primarily supported the Civil Rights Divisions work on Voting Rights and protections. He holds a law degree and a masters degree in Public Administration from harvard university. Professor, can you tell us about your professional and Academic Experience on these issues and whats some of the issues may be Going Forward . Sure, and i try to do that by giving some context to some of the states that arent in as good of a position as oregon and washington are. Ive been a civil rights lawyer for a very long time. I still consider myself doing civil rights law. Im delighted to join you all and im delighted to join my fellow panelists. This is an Allstar Group that youve managed to put together, including people who are very much on the front lines of all of these fights in different ways. Youve got secretary wayman and the attorney general as state officials on the front lines. You have jennifer as a litigator on the front lines and its really been a privilege to watch them work on what havebehalf of voters in different ways. Washington and oregon, i think, have been doing a wonderful job with their own elections so far. No surprise there. Theyve got a lot of experience at running elections this way. As you heard from both of them, that experience helps a lot in adjusting to pandemic circumstances. Because they havent had to make a lot of adjustments. Their systems actually work pretty well to absorb the massive dislocation the pandemic is providing elsewhere. When you do it right, when you plan for it, misconduct in mail elections is minimal, truly minimal. If you plan for it, mistakes leading to problems in mail elections are also minimal. But not everybody, as youve heard from both of them, not everybody is in the same position as oregon and washington are. Just were getting in washington. To put it into perspective, a moment of sharing just a few slides about where various groups stand this year. So this is 2016. This is data from the election. This is from a survey they run every few years, just to track the mechanics of casting counting ballots. You can see, there is a wide disparity in the extent to which, before this year, states, individuals and states cast ballots by mail. You can see washington and oregon very much on the righthand side of the graph, with close to 100 , nearly 100 , of voters casting ballots by mail. Where i am now in california, were hovering around 60 . In four states in this category, encouraging even for states like california, encouraging even more voting by mail is not an insignificant lift, but comparatively easy. There are an awful lot of states in a very different category. States that have historically had 4 , 5 , 6 voting by mail. You heard this from the secretary general, theyre in a different place in terms of getting systems ready. Its not trivial to scale up from 4 , 5 , 6 voting by mail to 50 or 60 . I know because ive talked to folks on the receiving end of this. I know what officials in washington and oregon have been doing, helping counterparts across the country, which is wonderful to see. People are suddenly in need of that expertise. It is not just expertise. You need, for example, machinery to suddenly scale up from 10,000 ballots to a million ballots that youre counting by mail. This happens to be a ballot sorting machine. It is one of several. Its not the only one on the market, but i show it to you so you get a sense of, thats not a small desktop piece of machinery. That takes a fair amount of budget and time to order and get up and running, to really get your ability to process mass i amounts of mail ballots in time. Its not just about machinery either. You have heard some of the litigation over, and some of the other adjustments and processes, procedures, to helping people cast ballots by mail when theres suddenly a very different scale and different volume. Things like ensuring that when you have a postmark rule, the post office knows to stamp, to cancel a prepaid envelope, is muscle memory for states with long history of vote by mail. Theyre in contact with postal officials. It is part of the season the attorney general mentioned the suit against the post office. They know whats going on in the post offices. New york, less voting by mail, its not muscle memory yet. They learned the hard way in the primaries, that the post office doesnt automatically cancel a stamp when there is no stamp to cancel. That may mean ballots arent postmarked unless you ask for it. Similarly, states without things like sameday and automatic Voter Registration, which you heard both oregon and washington have, have a harder time making sure registration rules stay up to date and current. Thats even more important than usual. After a summer in which registration rates dropped because people werent doing registration rates in large volumes outside county fairs. When youre transitioning to much more voting by mail, where small errors in the registration rolls can lead to much bigger problems then you would have while voting at the polls. It is also true, i think you heard from the attorney general, that voters who werent used to voting by mail, you make mistakes when you do something for the first time. That is always true. Thats no less true in the election process than it is elsewhere. Making sure that states have rules to accommodate the mistakes, and making sure that states are proactive in contacting voters to minimize the number of mistakes. I dont know whether i couldnt have seen i hope youve seen some of the really, really Creative Design work and imagery around informing pennsylvania voters in the last week or so about the need to use their inner secrecy inve loenvelope. Ballot goes in an envelope, which goes in another envelope. Youve heard more about naked ballots that i think you ever expected to hear in recent past. Thats a good thing. Thats actively attempting to educate voters who dont have the experience already into how they can cast ballots that will be counted. Another thing that people are contending with is litigation, yes. All over the place. In order to help accommodate the changes of the pandemic, when the world changed and election rules didnt, that actually sent elections backward. So all of us have had to adjust an awful lot in terms of what we do, how we do it, including having this webinar in a studio that most people didnt have in their home until now. Election rules had to change, too, and an awful lot of states werent already encouraging voting by mail. Election officials either couldnt or wouldnt change the rules in time. Some were locked in by state constitutions. I dont mean to suggest this was always an option everywhere. Voters and those looking out for voters naturally turn to the courts. Ive been tracking all of the election litigation related to covid19 this year. Im up to 262 cases in 45 states as of yesterday. I imagine that in the few hours this morning or this afternoon, there have been some more casec. It is constantly running. It can present a challenge for voters at this point, in knowing exactly what the rules are. I know consciousness litigants, youll hear from jennifer in a second, are working in the courts and working to ensure the voters on whose behalf theyre litigating know what the rules are, so they can, win or lose, make sure theres the best possible chance for ballots to count. The thing thats going to keep this election from going awry in states that arent oregon or washington isnt the structure of voting by mail. The structure actually works. The system works when it is given the opportunity to, who. U. S. Postal service can handle the volume when they want to, and those like the ags are helping them want to. The vote by Mail Processing works to keep things safe and secure, as you heard from secretary wineman. There are lots of ways to make sure you are who you say you are and that your ballot will be counted. The thing that is going to keep this election out of the hands of the lawyers in a system that increasingly relies on voting by mail is encouraging voters to make a plan. Its really simple. It takes five minutes. Its not much more detailed than knowing what you want to order from dinner before you step to the front of the line or before waiter is standing there, tapping on a pad. Check your Voter Registration. Find out the rules in your state, to know whether you can vote by mail or whether you can vote early, and how you do that. Rules are different everywhere. Then do it as early as you possibly can, one way or another. Three simple steps will keep things smooth. Even as voting is a little bit different in a pandemic year, it doesnt have to be disruptive. One last point i wanted to make, and this may be a little bit of a transition, weve been talking about voting by mail and all of the things that states are doing and will need to do in order to make sure they can vote by mail effectively, or increase voting by mail. But all of that effort in voting by mail is designed to relieve pressure on polling locations, poll workers, and inperson options. Rosenblum mentioned, in oregon, you can go and vote in person if you want or need to, and that is really important as a fail safe. There are, just like there are communities that are hard to count in the census, there are communities that are hard to mail. Communities that, for cultural reasons or sociological reasons, want desperately to be able to count their ballots in person, to vote in person. Minority communities, language minority communities in particular, disability communities. There are plenty of reasons why people may want to be able to vote in person, as well. The push to voting by mail has this year has really been to ensure that theres space for those people who want to vote in person, to vote in person, given limitations on locations and poll workers. So its creating the space for people to show up in person when they want, rather than exclusively using the mail and shutting down all inperson options. Thats really important to remember. It also makes the program on recruiting poll workers really, really important to participate in. I am overjoyed that the ava has done that. Law schools are following suit. In 2018, loyola law school, where i teach, canceled classes on voting day to push students to work the polls. We have a program with our local registrar here, where law students are volunteering to serve as poll workers. An awful lot of other schools joined us across the country this year. It is important to remember, even as we makeshifts so more people can vote by mail, and i think both the secretary and attorney general are right, a lot of people will want to continue doing that after this year, we still make sure that there are options for those who have to or really want to vote in person, to be able to do so safely and smoothly and confidently. I hope theres more time to discuss all of that in the q a. Excellent. Now, we will hear from attorney jennifer holmes. Jennifer serves as assistant counsel with the naacp Legal Defense fund, where she works on cases that advance Racial Justice in the areas of educational equity, economic justice, and Voting Rights. Jennifer received her ged from Stanford Law School and ba from yale university, with distinction in political science. Ms. Holmes, can you tell us about some of the civil rights and other legal issues that you are currently addressing or that may be developing in the near future . Yes. First, let me thank you, the ava and actisection, you, jamie, fo inviting me and hosting this wonderful panel. Im proud to be in this esteemed panel. I feel out of my league to be with such great academics as well as elected officials. Before i dive into some of the litigation that ldf, my organization, has been doing around absentee voting and vote by mail and expanding options for voters during the panpandem id like to make a historical note about what Voting Rights litigation looks like prepandemic, that were still trying to do, as justin eluded to. Many of you are probably familiar with the Voting Rights act, which, unfortunately, the Supreme Court gutted section 5, which we see as the crown jewel of the Voting Rights act in a case called Shelby County versus holder in 2013. The reason why section 5 was so wonderful is because for jurisdictions in states that were covered, meaning they had a history of discrimination in voting, they had to get any voting changes, any election changes precleared and approved by the department of justice before they could actually implement them. They had to demonstrate that these changes would not have a disparate impact on minority voters. This was prophylactic. Voting rights and civil rights lawyers no longer had to play a game of whackamole, where a state or jurisdiction could institute a poll tax or literacy or a jelly bean jar counting test or every permutation, then the lawyers had to go case by case in trying to get those struck down. All along, elections passed, and voters were subjected to those disenfranchising practices. This ensured that the changes to election laws were not diskr discriminatory before they were implemented. Unfortunately, that is not the litigation. We dont have that in our toolbox anymore as litigators because of the Shelby County case. Were back, in part, to this whackamole approach, where lawyers are trying to sue every discriminatory practice thats put into place, after it is already in effect. So that is the circumstance under which we were laboring, even prepandemic. We are tistill doing this votin rights litigation. Now enter the pandemic. In a slight reversal, we are pushing some jurisdictions to implement changes because we realize that voters need a more expanded set of options in order to safely exercise the right to vote. We think that washington and oregon have done a wonderful b job, even before the pandemic, giving their voters the opportunity to use vote by mail. As you saw by the graphs that have been put up by others, there are many, many states that still do not have that option. Those are system of tome of the jurisdictions weve been operating. If you give me a brief moment, ill share my screen and show you a couple slides on that. I hope you can all see my screen here. So im going to talk about three cases that ldf has been litigating recently, to expand absentee ballot access. First, a case in louisiana. Now, louisiana had very limited excuses for that people could use to request an absentee ballot before the pandemic. It was incredibly limited, they also did not have a lot of opportunities for people to vote early. So we sued because we feel that no one should have to choose between their exercising their right to vote and also their health. We wanted to make sure that louisianans could all we actually pushed for no excused absentee voters, so all louisianans could, if they so choose, vote absentee and wouldnt have to go to the polls in person. This would also relieve pressure on the polls because it meant that people who preferred to go inperson, and perhaps were healthy and felt safe doing so, would not be at crowded polling places. We also saw an increase in the number of early voting days to also act as a release valve on the pressure on the polls on election day. Thankfully, we secured a good court ruling in this case. The judge ruled that the reasons to request absentee ballot had to be expanded. We didnt get everything that we want. You still have to have a stated reason, but the list is much longer than it was before. Well stay on this slide. The reasons now include anyone who is higher risk from covid19 due to underlying medical reasons, anyone under a quarantine order, symptoms of covid19 who is seeking medical confirmation of whether they have it, and anyone who is taking care of a person who is isolating. All those are now additional reasons you can request an absentee ballot in louisiana because of our lawsuit. Now, i should also note that this is still nowhereuni v univ universal vote by mail that other states have. Were a far cry from washington and oregon, but this is a huge expansion from what we had before. In addition, the court ruled louisiana had to expand its number of early vote days to ten days before the election. We think this is really important. Again, our goal was to give options. Were not saying everyone must vote by mail or go in person, but people have options so they can decide, given their health, their schedule, and given their if they need assistance with voting, how they choose to exercise their right to vote. Similarly, in South Carolina, ldf sued and was pushing the state to allow no excused absentee voting, and also to eliminate the witness signature requirement that it has on absentee ballots. I believe attorney general rosenblum mentioned that in oregon, theres no witness requirement. In South Carolina, if you are completing an absentee ballot before this lawsuit, you had to find a person to act as a witness, to watch you sign it, and then they had to sign it and put their address on it. Of course, this is not ideal under our current social distance lifestyle, to find another person to come to your home and do this. Many people live alone. Even people who live with others, some may not feel comfortable witnessing a ballot. Some people didnt want to provide their address as a witness. We said the witness signature requirement was also a burden on people who were trying to exercise their right to vote remotely. Because of our case well, i think it is because of our case, the South Carolina legislature actually moved before we got a ruling in this case, and they decided that think would allow no excused absentee voting. Now, any south carolinian who wants to can request an absentee ballot. I think this illustrates the importance of litigation, its not always in securing a court order. Sometimes it is in applying pressure, so that the elected officials or the secretary of state or whoever will take action that youre requesting, even if you dont get a court ruling. That source of pressure, we think, can be a very valuable tool. However, the legislature didnt budge on the witness requirement, so we continued litigating. At the same time that our case was going, there was a parallel case brought by the Democratic Party that also was requesting similar relief to ours. In that case, they got a ruling striking down the witness signature requirement. So that ruling also applies in our case, and right now, the witness signature requirement is not required for absentee ballots in South Carolina. This case is under appeal, but thankfully, even though its gone up to appeal and the panel actually stated the District Court decision, it was su sua sponte, and they lifted the stay. Right now, the reality on the ground is that theres no witness signature needed. I think, as professor leavitt mentioned, theres a lot of lawsuits going on. Theres a lot of changes because of these lawsuits. We see our role as twofold. It is very important for us to be in the court, expanding access to the ballot, but we also have a very important educational role. Because not everyone is a huge law nrerd, following these case slowly, and they may not know they dont need a witness signature for ballots in South Carolina. We work with a number of groups on the ground whose sole job is this voter education, which is a complementary piece to our litigation. Finally, a case still ongoing in alabama. Here, we challenged a couple restrictions that alabama had on absentee voting, as well as a ban that alabama had on curbside voting. Curbside voting, for those who may not know, is in many places, if you are elderly or if you have an ambulatory problem or any other disability that may make it difficult to actually walk into your polling place, poll workers can set up a curbside voting station. A poll worker will bring out a ballot to you and facilitate you voting from your car window or right up at the curbside. That makes it easier for older people or for people with disabilities to vote. Although this is technically allowed under alabama law, the secretary of state was not allowing it to be implemented. We sued to challenge that ban on curbside voting. We also wanted to strike down certain requirements that are that have been put on absentee voting in alabama, including, again, a witness signature requirement, and also in alabama, a photo id requirement. Alabama has a photo id law, if you go into the polling place to vote, you have to show an id from a specific list of ids that are acceptable. Also, if youre voting absentee, you have to copy and provide a xerox copy of your id along with your absentee ballot. I dont know how many of you have printers at home probably, actually, many of you because youre lawyers and were nerds. The average person does not have a printer at home. Not a scanner. It is difficult for them to adhere to this rule without going out in public and breaking social distancing norms. So thats why we challenged the practice in that case. The current status of this litigation is there was a trial that ended about a week and a half ago, and we filed post trial briefing. We are eagerly awaiting the ruling. We do we are somewhat optimistic because when this case was initially filed over the summer, we actually won a preliminary injunction, which enjoined these various rules that we had challenged. However, that was overturned by the Supreme Court. That was stayed by the Supreme Court while the case was pending. Now, were through the whole litigation and trial, but we are optimistic that we will get a similar ruling, since the judge was on our side at the preliminary injunction stage. That is to give you a flavor of some of the litigation thats happening. I think it is difficult because theres many changes happening with voting rules and voting requirements. But its worth it in our view because voters need more options to exercise their rights during a pandemic. Many of these restrictions, even in nonpandemic times, had disparate impact on black voters. Maybe because they disproportionately do not have an id, or they do not fall into the categories that can request absentee ballots. Certainly during a pandemic, when black americans have contracted covid and died from covid at disproportionate rates, these voting restrictions that make it more difficult for any voter to cast a ballot during a pandemic, the impact on black voters is magnified even more greatly. So we saw it as our duty to fight them. I should also mention that we were one of those many groups that also sued the u. S. Postal service. Were grateful to the various states attorney generals, attorneys general, who secured an injunction in that case. It kind of mooted out our case, but weve also been in that fight, as well. The last thing i wanted to mention, professor levitt scooped me on this, but heres how you can get involved if youre trying to figure out how to navigate the landscape in this election. First, start with the personal. Make your own plan to vote. The first website that ive listed here is ldfs voting website at ldf. Org. I call it the onestop shop to figure out everything you need to know about voting. It has links to check your registration. It has links of where to go if you want to be a poll worker. It has links to rules in various states. It has links to how you can get involved in Election Protection and poll monitoring. So thats a onestop shop. There are many other websites and resources that you can go to. If youd like to use a government website instead to check your registration, you can go to usa. Gov confirmvo usa. Gov confirmVoter Registration. There are hyphens between confirm, voter, and registration. After youve confirmed youre registered, and you should do it immediately because registration deadlines are coming up. I think they start as early as this week in various states, so this year, unless youre in a sameday registration state, you are running out of time to register. Check your registration. Make sure youre registered. Choose your voting method. If youre in a state where youre lucky enough to have universal vote by mail, or maybe you have early voting options, or do you have to actually request an absentee ballot . Figure out what options are available to you and which one you want to use. I know already how i plan to vote. I live in washington, d. C. , and i plan to vote early and in person. Early voting starts on october 27th in d. C. , and im going to go down the street to the rec center and vote. Thats my plan. So everyone here should also have a plan where you can just say it like that in five seconds. Once you have your plan, figure out exactly what rules you need to abide by. Does your state require an id . Does your state require specific rules about how to fill out your absentee ballot . Do you have to use the secrecy envelope or not . Things like that. All theese things you can potentially get tripped up, especially if youre using a method you havent done before. And i would also recommend i know theres been some discussion about dropboxs but given the uncertainty about the Postal Service, if you feel that you dont want to trust your ballot to the mail, your absentee ballot to the mail, and you have dropboxs available to you, use that as your means of delivering your ballot. Whatever you do, make a plan ahead of time so you know exactly how to execute it. Then after you turn in your ballot, you want to follow up. If youve sent in a mail ballot, absentee ballot, you can check the status of it. Many states allow you to track whether the ballot has arrived and whether its been counted. Some states are required to inform you if there is a problem with your ballot, maybe with a signature or some other rule. You should also follow up if you go to vote in person and you have to vote a provisional ballot. Many states enable you to check on the status of your provisional ballot to see if it was ultimately counted, and to see what you can do to cure the problems with your provisional ballot. So your task is not over once the ballot leaves your hands. Make sure it is actually counted. Once you figure out your own situation, make sure all your family and friends also have a plan and are also doing these things. Finally, id like to encourage everyone here to volunteer on election day. Youve already mentioned the importance of becoming a poll worker. Im so excited the ava has an initiative on how people can become poll workers. Another option is power the polls. Org, which is one that ldf has been partnering with. Whichever initiative you use, if you are healthy and able to volunteer to be a poll worker, many states will pay you for the day, i greatly encourage you to do that. Our poll worker force, generally speaking, is somewhat older. Many of them have many are high risk for covid and are unable or unwilling to work on election day. We need to fill the gap. Also volunteer to do Election Protection run by the lawyers committee. You can also join ldfs prepared to vote team. Ive got my prepared to vote tshirt on today. If you go to our micro site i mentioned, voting. Naacp. Ldf. Org, you can figure out how to do remote poll monitoring. Helping us keep track of the issues that are going on in various states. Ill mention that this effort mostly covers nine states in the south that have historically had the worst voter discrimination problems. Were focused on prepared to vote. You can help us connect with groups on the ground, or if youre in one of the states, you can be our eyes and ears on the ground on election day to connect with us. And we want you to report any issues youre seeing. Finally, even after election day, please stay engaged. In this postShelby County world, we need everyone, but especially attorneys, to be the front line against Voter Suppression in your communities. As attorneys, you are uniquely equipped with the tools and the sophistication to report issues going on, to garner media attention, to petition local governments, to provide testimony, all sorts of things that shine a light on where there are issues in our elections. As many of you know, Voter Suppression can take many forms. It can deal with rule changes that may seem minor but can have great impacts on minority communities. It can be the fact that nobody knows about the rule changes. It can be forms of mismanagement that have no nefarious intent behind them at all, but simply the fact that at a polling place, the machines break down, or at a certain precinct, they dont get the funding that provides for enough machines. All sorts of things. So yes need lawywe need lawyers to the issues, report them, and engage in the places where decisions are being made about the issues. Finally, id encourage you to be a poll worker every election, not just this election. The more you do it, the more you will become experienced and knowledgeable about it. Then we will have a future army of poll workers, and well finally have our current poll workers able to retire from the job. Im going to end there with those calls to action. Thanks again. I look forward to q a. If i can add one tiny thing to jennifers last point. Please. The only way we increase the possibility for systemic change in some of the jurisdictions that are not as advanced is if were interested in the way we conduct elections aft s even afe elections. Election officials know, this is an ongoing we dont have elections once every four years, once every two years. Elections are all the time. We need to stay engaged and sbersed in th e interested in the process, to make sure theyre as fair as can be all the time. Dont just wait until november 3rd or thereafter when we have a result in the president ial election and tune out. We need everybody here to be just as engaged the month after the election as the month before. Excellent. Thank you, justin. Thank you so much, jennifer, for those comments and that call to action. Also, especially for the resources that you shared. Now that weve had a chance to get a good overview of the issues from our excellent panel, wed like to open it up for any questions from the audience. As a reminder, please take your questions into the cq a. Our panelists, thank you for responding to the questions that have been popping up. Ill do my best here to pull up some of the questions for our panelists. To get started, attorney general rosenblum mentioned the recent injunctive victories in court. Could you comment on any concerns of whether usps may comply or not with these with the injunctions . Also, has the equipment removed or destroyed been replaced in those affected states . Do you have status on states other than oregon . Thank you for those questions. Thanks for putting them all together like that, jamie. Of course, if you get an injunction, you get the relief, you want to make sure they comply, right . I want to be able to come back and hold them in contempt if they dont. How do we know under these circumstances, right . Well, heres one way, and i cant make any guarantees, but we are watching them closely. The judge, im sure, will be, you know, welcome us back, if you will, if need be. Heres one thing weve done. In lawsuits, you have to get declearance, right, to get affidavits, attached to the pleadings, what their expeercrie is. A number of the declarants are postal union workers. Theyre on the inside, watching. Guess what . The Postal Service knows there are declarants. They know we essentially have, if you will, moles there to keep a watch on what theyre doing and whether they are in compliance. We feel that we will be apprised if we learn that they are not in compliance. Now, as to the question about the machines, unfortunately, if you followed some of the testimony of the postmaster general, i think one of the things he has made clear is that some of those machines, maybe most of the sorting machines, have been essentially dismantled and, you know, the equivalent of sold for parts. So, no, we dont have any assurance that we absolutely that the Postal Service can literally put things back the way they were before. To ensure that all the mail will be handled as quickly and as deftly as it has been previously. I wish i could give you that reassurance. I think there was a third part to the question . Hopefully i came close to answering it. But i guarantee you, we will go back to court, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that the provisions of the injunction are complied with. Great. Thank you so much, a. G. Another question, what can be done about states that purge voters and dont let the voters now . Checking registration is important, but its not necessarily the case that people will be able to reregister in time to vote. Anyone like to tackle that . Ill jump in, i suppose. I think this is why it is so critical, as you heard from our speakers, to have a plan. Check right now. Really encourage those people who you influence and that youre connected to to just verify with Election Officials right now. Because some of those Voter Registration cutoffs approaching in some states quickly. Once they pass, the voter will be out of luck. You know, im happy to say here in washington we dont purge voters. We havent since 1993 when i first started here, and we dont intent to in the future either. We want to comply with federal law. Call me crazy. Ill add to that. Just because you think youre registered doesnt mean youre actually registered at the right place. What the secretary said is right, check your registration. If you think youve got it, check it again. Cant possibly hurt. Its really quick. There are a lot of resources nationwide to go check your registration. It doesnt take long at all. Most states make that available online, and it is super quick so you can check. The second thing is, and this is stay engaged after the election. Thats absolutely the right answer for anybody voting november 3rd, right . Go get the word out. Check now. Longer term, putting procedures in place like oregon and washington have, automatic Voter Registration, sameday Voter Registration as a fail safe, that helps make the polls as accurate as they can be, and you dont have to purge people off the rolls, as the secretary said. Thes the sta it its the states responsibility to make sure youre registered in the right places. Sameday Voter Registration helps that continuously, which turns out to be more secure, accurate, and cheaper. So fewer of your tax dollars go to paying temps to process voting registration cards on election day. It should be something everyone can support. Turns out red states, blue states, and purple states have done it. The only way it spreads to more states in all of those categories is if you care about it. Thank you. The only thing i would add to this is what everyone is saying is completely correct. Especially for the upcoming election. The way to figure out if youve been removed from the list is check your registration now, before the registration deadline passes in your state. In the future, as professor levitt was mentioning, you know, if you are involved in seeing what your secretary of state is doing, what your state legislature is doing, if you attend hearings or follow the issues on this, you can know what practices they are putting in place that might cover future potential purges. Whether theyre creating an inactive voter list or sending out postcard they claim will confirm whether or not you are still living in the state. You can get in on the front end and have some input on whether that practice is going to actually take effect. So staying engaged, youll know ahead of time before the issues sneak up on us with election day looming. Great. Thank you. Have you noticed any foreign interference with Voter Registration or voting so far . We have not seen any foreign interference, and we have not had in 2020, i just dont want to say things out loud because you jinx them, but weve not seen any evidence of any kind of compromises of our syst system here in Washington State. Make no mistake, what you heard and what you read the last four years, there has been a concentrated, ongoing, nonstop effort by foreign actors, including russia, china, and iran, to try to get into state and local Election Offices, Voter Registration systems, or anything they can. We have been really focused for the last four years with a laser focus on securing our system, and i know that its happening in all 50 states. When i talk about washington, the same things are happening in their states, much more fi firewalls, monitoring equipment, cybersecurity, conversations that are happening with our federal partners and local partners and our state partners, training, putting simple things like multifactor authentication to doing tabletop exercises. So the effort has been incredibly ongoing, and now we are ready for whatever is coming our way. Yes, weve been under attack, and we continue to be, but were fighting it off. Were going to protect everyones vote. Thats really the bottom line. Vote by mail helps because its paper, right . We have paper ballots to back up any system that gets hacked. Good point. Ill add sorry, jennifer. Go ahead. I was going to say, let me take the broader perspective of foreign interference. It is not just about potential hacks. It is also about spreading misinformation, which is why it is so important to get, as the secretary mentioned, to get your information from a trusted source. To make sure that you are thinking critically about what your media diet is. If everything youre getting is from postings on facebook, do you know that those are trusted sources . Some of those are coming from foreign actors that are trying to spread misinformation or influence people and influence their vote. En thatexactly what i was goio say. She said it better. We got hacked in 2016. It wasnt the ballots, the machines, the tallies. It was us. They hacked us, the people, and the information we believed and what we got reallysense, we wer continue to be the weak link. That also means we are the source of strength because all of us have individual agency to do exactly what jennifer mentioned. To be careful about our media diet, be careful about information before you pass it on, to take a deep breath before we respond to things. Turns out that if what theyre hacking is us, we can each respond to that. With a little patience and a little bit of thought. Thats actually the most security that you could ask for. Excellent, thank you. Next question, how is the confusion about voting twice going to be handled . Ive heard folks say theyre confused because theyre receiving mixed messages about voting, submitting an absentee ballot and then inperson. How will these discrepancies be resolved . Through tweets. Through tweets, responding that you should not, that it is illegal to vote twice, that you should not vote twice, and that this attempt to confuse voters and to somehow enlist them to test the system is absolutely wrong, improper, actually illegal. So every state, every single one has a system for not only deterring people who vote twice with prosecution, but also for making sure that the rolls are checked off whenever the first ballot is cast, so that the second ballot doesnt count. In some places, the ballot that counts is the ballot you cast in person. Other play placeces, it is the e ballot. It changes state by state, but every state has a system to make sure you cant vote twice and have it be effective. As the a. G. Said, every state makes it illegal. Federal law makes it illegal. Yeah. Id just tail on that, especially with this many lawyers in one place at one time. You know, you combat this garbage with the facts. I understand that the president is very frustrated with states like mine and is not happy with my answers, and thats okay. Im okay with that. We just keep combating it with the facts. One of the facts we have to share with people is it is a felony, i believe in every single state, to attempt to vote more than once. Well, it is not a felony to attempt to vote more than once, but you all know. Youre lawyers. But making people aware of that. Just the idea to check the system is asking people to commit a felony. Weve tried to share that information on every platform we can, and well continue to beat that drum. It goes back to what jennifer was saying, is that we have to continue to provide trusted information through the sources and channels we have available, and we have now we have to ramp up our activity. We were all planning to do it. Now is the time we have to start ramping it up and get the information out to people. Yes, thank you, all. Thats very helpful. Jennifer, this one may be for you. The question is, are any of you working on litigation to address the poll tax being imposed on people convicted of felonies who have been given the right to vote but states are now requiring restitution, court fines, fees, et cetera, be paid before they can vote. Ill add quickly that in our state, in washington, we changed the law over ten years ago, so that we call them legal financial obligations, but fines and fees do not need to be paid for someones right to vote to be restored. Would you like to take that . Love to address that. Because i am working on that litigation, actually, in florida, specifically. Unfortunately, we got we recently received today a bad ruling from the 11th circuit, that did not see things our way. Linking the payment of peoples financial obligations to their ability to vote, they say, was not a poll tax and did not burden the fundamental right to vote. But the silver lining, i guess, is there are still ways to help because there are many campaigns in place to fundraise and help people pay off their legal financial obligations, so that they can register and vote. Its not just about this election, which is certainly important, but moving forward, we want to bring there are studies that show that when a person has committed a felony, hes more likely to become a constructive member of the community and really reentente the community if they have their civil rights and their Voting Rights restored. If they dont carry additional collateral consequences with them from the time they were incarcerated that make it more difficult to obtain work, to vote, to obtain housing. So we would, you know, encourage you to look into these efforts, to help pay off peoples legal financial obligations. Although the litigation right now is not will likely not be resolved before this election, its not totally over, necessarily. So stay tuned on that. And i know there was a related question in the q a about where to contribute to the efforts to pay off the debts. The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition has been one of the primary engines in helping individuals pay off those debts. So ill drop the link in the chat. You can find more information. Excellent. Thank you so much, justin. In addition to the litigation, we need to work with our state legislatures to change these laws and repeal these practices. Its 2020, we need to eliminate these sort of poll taxes, arguably, as they are. Another question here, is there one clearinghouse nationally that holds all Voting Rights litigation . What is the best way to compile data on Voting Rights claims since there are now many state causes of action . Instead of just using pacer to find federal causes of action. Any thoughts on that . Ive got a couple quick thoughts, then ill leave it to others who may know other resources. I dropped the link in the chat. Im trying to track all of the covid19 related election litigation this year. Thats a mammoth set. Thats, by no means, all litigation, including, for example, jennifers case about disenfranchisement. Reenfranchising people after convictions. That isnt on my list, but incredible important. Michigan has a great civil rights clearinghouse that tries to track voting litigation when it exists. The ohio school of law, the Moritz School of law at ohio state, has another litigation tracker that tries to track prominent cases. But the question reflects how difficult it is, actually, to track state law cases in particular. We still, in the 21st century, dont have, in many states, particularly accessible ways to get hold of documents or litigation generally in dockets. It is difficult. I would add that the Brennan Center has a very good website with lots of great information. And if you would like, through the democratic attorney general association, were trying to keep track of state and local cases, and i might be able to put that together for you and provide it as a link. I cant do it right this moment, but i will look into it. Because i check it every day. Its very helpful. On the topic of tracking, this actually doesnt have to do with litigation, Voting Rights litigation, but ldf has been tracking and i wont say this is fully comprehensive but election and voting changes. Rule changes, practice changes, in states that were formerly covered by section 5 of the Voting Rights act. We have a report called democracy diminished, and we update it after every large election, about problems were seeing that probably would have been prevented, had we still had section 5 operating as it did before. So if anyone is interested in that, i will try to find the link and drop it in the chat. Excellent. I am so sorry were not able to get to everyones questions. Well do our best. We have these obviously in the chat, and well try to respond as we can. The panelists, i know how busy they are, but they may be willing to share a few thoughts on a couple of your questions. We have time for one more, so i wanted to see if our if there was a question in particular that any of our panel lists wou panelists would like to address. I saw one that i think is a great way i dont want to make it the one to end on, so if others have favorites, please note but one was asking about somebody had a Voter Registration rally today for people, potential voters, ages 18 to 25, and what we should tell them to help them engage in register. Ill just take a stab at that, then maybe others can contribute. If there are other questions people want to answer, please, please. I dont mean to ma noppe lionop. Voting is a habit. The more you get Younger Voters to step up and take part, the more likely it is they become lifelong voters. It is really not hard to register to vote, but it can seem like a barrier if you dont have somebody bringing you through the initial step. Help them through the initial step. It takes a Small Holding hand. Help them take the initial step. There are lots of resources. There are plenty of government sites that you saw in the chat. Every state has individual resources. If you google how do i register, kwlregiste register, there is a good, comprehensive list for the person in their state, about how they can best register to vote. Give them a little nudge. I think theyll take that opportunity and turn it into lifelong voters, which we really need more of. Id like to put in a final plug for the vote at home system. Stop thinking about it as vote by mail. Theres so many different ways to cast the ballot after you have the time with your family to go over the ballot. You can bring your kids into the kitchen. Have them sit around and actually have a civics lesson. People are feeling a little nostalgic for the polls. Forget about it. Its way more fun, you have time, and its relaxing, and youll do a better job. Youll make a more informed decision about your vote. Then you take it to the dropbox or put it in the mail or you take it to the Election Office. You have so many different ways of voting. The important thing is vote. As jennifer said, make your plan now. Make sure if you need to change your registration or address. Here in oregon, weve had wildfires. We have people who have been evacuated. They have to change their address. Were helping them to do that. We have people who live under bridges who are homeless. Were helping them to vote. We have people on indiana reservations. Were bringing shuttles in to town for them, to make sure theyre comfortable casting their vote. Theres so many different ways to vote. Please vote. Thank you. I would just i oh, im sorry. Go ahead. On the make a vote plan, feel free i believe my slides are part of the materials for this webinar, so feel free to save the slide i have on making a plan to vote. Use it as a checklist. Absolutely. And i echo all of my colleagues comments. I would just add, because one of the questions in the q a was those of you in washington and oregon, we dont have places for people to work on election day. Actually, we have a big need for election workers. It varies by county. Here in washington, we have a project called the boat squad, as in im dating myself, but i think of the mod squad. Anyway, those old enough to remember will get the reference. But it is really designed to try to connect people with counties and fill in the needs. We do have 500 dropboxs that need to be closed at 8 00 Election Night. There are needs out there, though we dont have traditional polling places. Im sure oregon is the same way. Somebody asked a question about postmark iing if you use dropbox. Dont worry about postmarks with a dropbox. Its not mailed in ballots, just to be clear. You dont need to worry. No postmarks necessary. Excellent. One more thing, jamie, so sorry. Which is, in the chat and in the q a, there will be a ton of really great questions, especially about specific states and jurisdictions that i certainly dont know off the top of my head. But i would encourage everyone to just read through those. You might think, oh, i want this in my state. I want curbside voting or i want universal mailin voting, whatever it is. Or maybe i have it already and i just dont know. Use that as to just make you think of initiatives you should push for, like automatic Voter Registration, other things. Even the chat and q a are Fertile Ground for people to use as for things theyd like to advocate in the future. Excellent. Thank you, all, so much. To the audience, we know were almost at time, but if you can stick with us just a few more minutes, we have a short video that we want to share with you. If you node eed to leave you, w also understand that, too. There are 35 days until election day. As we know, early voting is under way in some states. As lawyers, we have a heightened duty to protect our democracy and the rule of law. I hope everyone will do what they can to ensure every eligible citizen has a safe and fair opportunity to cast their vote. As youve heard throughout the panel today, it is crucial that we have enough poll workers on november 3rd, and s i am Nikki Kennedy and on behalf of the edward m. Kennedy institute for United States senate im very pleased to welcome all of you to this very special edition of our getting to the point series