Transcripts For CSPAN3 Election Assistance Commission Summit - Panel On Election Accessibility ... 20180124

Voting accessibility for disabled person. It concluded with a question and answer session with the commissioners. This is an hour and a half. Good afternoon, everyone. I want to thank you all for coming back to the exciting panel of accessibility. Im tom hicks, vice chair of the electrics commission. And on my left you will see a panel, and to my left is coming, and the other left is also coming. So i will introduce you to folks who are here. Virginia so, im going to introduce the folks who are here [ laughter ] so, to my left, virginia atkinson is the senior accessibility and accessible inclusion specialist at the National Foundation for Electoral Systems, and she has more than a decade of experience work on disability rights and governance issues. And she provides Technical Assistance and training to Civil Society, organization and election management bodies. She is also the lead author of the manual equal access, how the include persons with disabilities in elections and political processes. On my right, stafford ward. He is secretary of the board of the oversees Vote Foundation as well as the technology in Voting Systems adviser. The foundation provides u. S. Citizens with the Voting Services and election data central to the commissions on this side, over here. Yep. In elections, we just roll with it. So, central to that mission is the foundations work to provide online tools to assist the americans living anywhere in the world. Including those living abroad and serving in the military to register to vote and request their absentee ballots. Stafford plays a lead role in shaping the strategies of the Technology Initiatives and works to ensure that the voters have easy access to information they need to participate in the democracy from all corners of the world. Michelle bishop is the Voting Rights specialist with the National Disability Rights Network and a position she has held for nearly five years. Michelle provides training and Technical Assistance providing Voting Rights and accessible for voters with disabilities and she also coordinates the working group and manages their list serve. Last but not least and i will introduce him, because he is on the way is cameron siznak and he is the director of the office of electi elections and general registry in Fairfax County, the largest county in virginia, which the states most populous county. And he oversees the staff to coordinate the voting elections and initiatives for the county, and 3 4 million voters and during his time as commissioner, he has expanded the countys Language Access and the successful story that he shared with us last summer at our language summit here in d. C. , and we are looking forward to his continued conversation when he arrives today. So with that, i want to start with michelle to talk about disability access. Absolutely. Am i good . Okay. Hi. Im Michelle Bishop and i like to make an entrance and so i am always fashionably late, but i would like to thank cameron for being later than i am today. Come on up. [ laughter ] something that i will be basically never living down from commissioner hicks, so thank you for having me this afternoon first and foremost, and im happy to be here to talk about disability voter access and what we are looking towards in the 2018 election cycle and with the disability Rights Network, we are a National Network of disability rights organizations, so there is an organization of ours in every state, district, and territory in the United States. Wherever we are there and we are mandated by haba to access voting for people with disabilities. And now that is out of the way, i want to get to what you have come here to hear. And to sum it up for access to voting for people with disabilities is the report coming out of the government Disabilities Office and they have surveyed the polling place access in 2000, and 2008 and 2016 and that has been the best benchmark has to where we are at, and this is the most recent report of 2016 is really telling, because what we have found is that the polling place, itself, that have to travel from the parking all of the way up to the voting booth has consistently improved in terms of the accessibility. The first time it was studied in 2000, only 16 , and less than 20 of the polling places were full less than 20 of the polling places were accessible. And in 2008, 30 and then 2016, 40 , and that is sounding bad because less than half is accessible, but the sad thing is that when we saw that, i was excited. That is telling you where our expectations were right now, because it is less than half, but at least the number is going in the right direction and i will take that win for right now. I will say that the although progress has been slow for many reasons. The least of which is lack of funding. The progress has been slow, and we are moving in the right direction. I think to me the number more telling is that since 2008, gao has been looking at the accessibility of the voting booth, itself. The actual station. And in 2008 they found that 46 of them were not fully accessible. 46 of voting stations themselves had some type of the impediment for people with disabilities. In 2016, that number went up. 65 were in some way inaccessible. We are going in the wrong direction when it comes to how we are actually casting the ballots. This means that they were less likely to be wheelchair accessible, less likely to be sheltered to show privacy and less readily for headphones for people who cannot read a page or screen, and interestingly enough, less likely to even be powered on. We are setting up Voting Machines that we are not bothering to switch on. And there are two i think that in my mind are main reasons for, that and what changed between 2008 and 2016 . I will say that the first thing that we have talked a lot about today is the funding issue, and when hava passed the federal government was willing to put the money into the states to get the equipment that we need to make it happen, and that money has not been replaced in. In states and local jurisdictions that desperately need the funding to be able to maintain or update that equipment. And it is sorely needed to be updated, because the machines that we are using were invented before iphones and ipads and so they are severely out of date, but the funding is not there to make the changes. So we are working with equipment that is less than ideal. Another major thing that is a focal point today is the security issue. I think that it is important, and i think that it is important for elections to be secure and accurate and we all know that, but the main solution for the security issue is returning to the hand marked paper ballot. This has been the primary solution that has been offered for all of our Cyber Security concerns which means that we went back to polling places where mostly setting up folding tablets and a stack of ballots and a pen. And we have one piece of accessible equipment and you cant do that and we are not even able to, because for some reason when we talk about voting security, we get comfortable with the segregation. And to look at this paperback, and anyone else can go to use a special machine over here in the corner that is [ inaudible ] can and how we are casting the ballot to start to see the inequality. There is one that you can see that separate is not equal. And so we are seeing the decline in the accessibility of the voting booth itself and we will continue to see that until we start to proposing Real Solutions that are secure and accessible and fund them with the research to make that possible. Because that technology did not exist when we first went through this 15 years ago and we were having the same argument, but that technology exists today, and we need to nknow how to leverage it today to be efficient and affordable for the election authorities. So there are real solution, but we are not talk about them and not working together to find them. And also in 2018, we are changing the way we vote. All of the sudden, people are registering to vote online or maybe a mail ballot. Voters expect those options, and it is easier for the Elections Officials to manage, and the voters to manage the options, but all of the options have to be accessible. They are in varying degree, and like everything else, everybody does it differently. And the extent to which we are talking about disabilities throughout that process to make sure it is accessible is going to determine how accessible the systems are. Are we talking to people with disabilities when we roll it out or creating new voting equipment and asking the people with disabilities after what they think about it. Are we purchasing new systems and implementing them and then ask the people with disabilities how great they are, rather than will it work in the first place. So it is that we have to be collaborating and working together. We talked about today the expectations of the elections authorities, right . It is not enough to be an expert in elections, but now you have to understand the queuing theory and how to shorten the lines and be a security expert and then blockchain came up, and nobody defined it. So i bet you that half of the people in the room dont know what blockchain is, and so you have to know what that is and that is unfair. Because it is faulty logic that you dont need to be an expert in all of those thing, and there are disability organizations in every state and territory federally mandated to work on this whether we are talking to them or not, so we may as well be working together. And we can solve a lot of the issues and that is what we are looking at coming into 018. Thank you. We appreciate that. And one question later son how can groups like yours work with the Election Officials to move the ball forward and with that, cameron, we are going to be going to you, and the premise is that we are giving fiveminute presentation, and then we will be, i will be asking questions. Considering the target audience i will try to limit my five minutes, and so i have to thank you for allow knowing be the award winner for the fashionably late entry. Being the moderator is great, and i will tell you that literally being trapped on the on ramp on i66, and if you are visiting d. C. In the future, avoid 66, because if you are talking about the lines for elections, we can build some fantastic lines off there. In terms of the local administration for elections, i could not agree with more of what you said in regards to looking holistically in the approach for the approach. Here in virginia, one of the things that we had a fantastic look at election where is we had to have recount, and you could see these things not in the simulated environment, or the test environment, but the real world, and did the person fill out the bubble right. For those who have done the recounts in the election, and those of you who have done the audits and looked at all of the ballots, you know it is not as simple as filling in the bubble and that directions that they follow. So, you know, i get to think that, you know, what happens when somebody who may not with be able to hold a pen correctly, and what happens with the person who does not have the ability to actually understand fill in the bubble, what options do they have somethey that will ting too over to ask for the one machine that might be there. A few years back i was offended when i walked into the polling places, and my teams had put up a handicapped sign on the ada device and started to explain to them it is not for somebody who is physically disabled necessarily, but it is for somebody who might have a visual disability or for somebody who might have a cognitive disability to allow them to interact and that is the approach that we try to take here in Fairfax County is that making our election officers understand that the way it needs to be and not necessarily rolling up in a wheelchair or who might be using canes. So getting that idea into the 5,000 election officers heads at the same time they do in fact need to do more than pull it out of the bag, and turn it on, and they need to understand that it needs to have all of the accessories able and ready to go so that every voter will have the ability to vote. And so one of the things that i want to look towards is leveling the voting experience for everybody. So as the new equipment is coming out and more reminiscent of the dre style that presents over votes and ensures that voters with language barriers have that opportunity no matter the language, and getting and using those ada devices as actual full polling devices for everybody so that regardless of what the voters disabilities or limitations may be, they are voting the exact same way and in the exact same method as every voter who cast a ballot and ultimately at the end of the day ends up with the exact same types of ballots so we are not sitting here debating back and forth and having a threejudge panel to decide if an extra tlie that someone drew through the name is who the voter wanted or not. So those are the paths that we can go down towards. But those are decisions to be made as a administrator, and aim the one pounding the drum at the General Assembly, we need more money, or we are going to be seeing situations like this. If we dont have the tools and the are resources for the voters, we will continue to have es s essentially what is contested elections, because we will have ink all over the paper ballots, and so i think that minimizing that, and getting those resources, and one of the things they look at local cannily especially as of just a little bit ago are General Assembly here, here, and in virginia, and just begin. Thank you for invite knowing the panel and a specific acknowledgment to my wife, happy anniversary. I have a slightly different take on the disability, and different from what the other panelists have said today. The goals for my presentation today is a different of the narrative of the absentee voting and overseas voting. What do i mean by that . Gone are the days of ballot issues prior to the uniform and overseas voting and absentee voting since august of 1996 where the ballots were difficulty to reach to voters overseas, and received on time, and the citizens had the ability to vote overseas, and the u. S. Voting foundation cease itself in a Inflection Point as far as the policy for voting overseas in terms of accessibility. And those voters who have lived overseas for 20plus years have to file the absentee ballot every year, and tax limitations on that status of living overseas and they have that hurdle to overcome, and the states with american citizens born overseas may not have the ability to vote from overseas. If you are looking at the overall overseas voting turnout rate, it is 4 . I think that my colleague here at the federal Voting Assistance progr program wrote a report to congress in 2016, it is a 4 rate, and just this morning doug chapman mentioned the u. S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments with houston versus randolph ips tut institute military voters, and four years in afghanistan and he was thrown off the rolls in 2011 simply because he didnt elect consecutive election cycles and thats why he was taken off the rules. This is part of the narrative that is changing and that we are focused on in the u. S. Vote foundation. So i have to get through three points that i want to identify in my remarks here. I want to explain who is the u. S. Vote foundation and i want to address more about accessibility and technology that were utilizing and three to talk about the participation that we have with elected officials around the country. I know tom mentioned that was part of the overseas foundation. We are known as the u. S. Vote foundation. In 2004 we were known as the overseas Vote Foundation that was established by our president and ceo swingot. At the time she saw a need for having greater access for those living overseas consistent with the act. So were not an advocacy group. Were a nonpartisan, nonpolitical organization that serves u. S. Citizens living domestically and abroad to access the ballot and to register to vote. As part of the same year in 2004 we were the first to have the writein absentee ballot and part of the cobb act. We were there to make sure that these elements were in place so that u. S. Citizens living overseas no matter where they lived had access to the ballot. This is part of our mission and vision that every citizen is a voter and what that means is basically ensuring that every citizen has access to voter information as part of their engagement with democracy and civic life as voting is the central action. So the foundation usees and deploys Civic Technology to make the voting process easier for u. S. Voters and election ministers across the country. So how do we go about doing that . With accessibility, the cobb act came with the military and overseas Voter Empowerment act of 2009. That helped to facilitate and expand the rights of voter rights overseas with u. S. Citizens and thats labeled the foundationdation to leverage that passage of the act so we can increase accessibility for those u. S. Citizens living overseas and this is are the pa of the narrative that were changing to discard notions of what it meant to overseas to what it is now and in terms of how you use Civic Technology to dress accessibility issues overseas. We use industry standards. You know, in terms of technology and there was a notation and xml, and python languages and some of the things that are out there to develop our back end databases so that theyre available to our state officials and local officials and Third Party Organizations. Some of the services that we do provide to harness in accessibilities that we develop custom websites and host the System Solutions for states. We have election official data and we collect data from officials across the data and we have the api application interface and basically that helps push the information that we collect to our users and to our licensees so they can best use information at their leisure. So because we are Civic Technology organization, we are very, very serious about providing highquality curated data and data that is protected and were very much serious about data privacy as it was noted about the importance of securing voter information. That was something doug mentioned at the top of his remarks earlier and that leads into our partnerships and our relationships with the Election Officials across the country. Tha that, you know, being with state Election Officials and as i mentioned with the hostess Systems Solutions and our electionicial data through our data cureating and keep in mind, they control the information that they send us, and its the most accurate and most uptodate information that every u. S. Citizen domestically and overseas can access so theyre aware of the state voter requirements and theyre aware of election dates and deadlines and aware of Voter Registration deadlines and every state is different. I went through reviewing every 50 state and u. S. Territory, reviewing the absentry ballot policy and they have a legitimate, straightforward standard form or its basically, you have to email a county jurisdiction from where you vote regularly. So i say that because, you know, theyre nice to have widgets here and automated tools there, but its about the human interactions and the trust that we build with leElection Officials. Are you going to leave me hanging . I thought you were just pointing at me. We are here to provide the best Information Available to our, you know, u. S. Voters here and overseas and most of the people in this room well knows that elections are a yearround effort and its every year. I noted earlier that there are 178,000 voting precincts. We have a team at u. S. Vote that calms every single lech across the country and try to get as much information about that precinct and when they had the election dates and deadlines and we harness that information and we collect that information and we provide it for our user base and for state Election Officials and the Third Party Organizations and we license them out as part of our service. So ill close out by saying, you know, we use technology as an example of addressing accessibility for u. S. Citizens overseas and the technology is inexpensive and its available and its reliable and its proven to work given that we have quite a number of clients that we have that are using our services to make sure that every citizen that wants to vote, designs to vote can vote no matter where they are in the world. Thank you. Thank you, stafford, and i apologize for calling it overseas Vote Foundation because i know susan is probable emailing me right now. Ive worked with susan for a number of years and it has been called the u. S. Vote foundation for a while now, but lastly, virginia. We wanted to have a perspective of listening to the domestic part of this and then you and stafford coming in and talking about how it affects folks oversea, but youre mostly focussed in on organizations overseas and their processes. So can you tell us a little bit more about that . Yeah, definitely. My names virginia and im from the interNational Foundation for Electoral Systems so were a u. S. Based International Nonprofit organization and we work on issues related to democracy and governance all around the world and every region, we have been there rate now or have been recently and as part of that our Main Partners is the Election Commission and sole society groups. What they encounter here in the u. S. As well as globally, my role is to make sure that all of the work we are doing supporting Election Commissions in working with Civil Society groups is inclusive with people with disabilities. So i think the first thing to start off to say is that being american, were an internationalneutral and Nonprofit Organization and being american and being based in d. C. , one of the main questions im often asked is about the u. S. Process. So what happens here is of interest abroad and does have an impact in particular on Election Commissioners in terms of trying to persuade them to be more know collusive in the work that theyre doing. So to that end, though, there are still numerous barriers that people with disabilities encounter more so abroad. There are areas that those fall into. The first one being most obvious being physical barriers and next related to information, so people with disabilities dont usually receive information in accessible formats about where to go to vote, how to mark the ballot or who to vote for. What are the Political Party platforms and who are the candidates that are running and how do they differ from each other . The third barrier is related to stigma. In particular many countries around the world where were working there is a huge stigma with having a disability and a big part of that is sort of discrimination and a lot of it is historical beliefs in the country of maybe your ancestor did something wrong and maybe your child was born with the disability and there are a lot of misplaced myths and stereotypes in the places where were working and the last barrier that people with disabilities encounter is related to legal and policy barriers. So Election Commissioners arent responsible for changing the law, but theres a lot they can do that is within their purview. So under the guise of the four main barrier, the first one being physical, there is a lot of progress in the u. S. On that issue, and i say that in many of the countries where we work, everyone looks to us as the Gold Standard in terms of physical access. That said, there are innovative and unique things happening in other countries that im sure would be of interest here. One in particular in the philippines. So there, just like here, most of the polling stations are held in schools. However many schools, majority of schools there are not fizzecly accessible. So the Disability Community when we were working with the Election Commission ahead of the 2012 president ial election they had a great idea. They suggested why cant we vote in the Shopping Malls . The Shopping Malls are some of the most accessible buildings in most countries and Companies Want to make sure they get their money from everyone. What they did is they signed an mou with s. M. Malls which is one of the biggest chains there and they did a pilot in manila in the capital and people with disabilities were registering to vote outside the burger king, and this was something that was really popular. Theyve now expanded it across the whole country so people with disabilities are able to register nationwide now and as you can imagine, as well, the general public, i would also like to register in the Shopping Mall and this is much more convenient and theyre now expanding it and theyre doing piles of voting in the Shopping Malls, as well. Right now thats something specifically for citizens with disabilities. Another area they mention side related to information. So its something that is one of the most marginalized groups is people with disabilities and theyre often left out in terms of being included in the political process or thinking that they would want to participate where people with disabilities are interested and they have jobs and paying taxes and they would like to vote. Something the new zealand would like to do, is has people with intellectual disabilities telling the story of how to go to vote, where to go, what to do if you have a question and its all in very simple, easy to understand language, and this was again something that came about through a partnership with the Election Commission working directly with the Disability Community there. One of the other barriers was related to attitude and stigma. So something that happened in the dommen can dominican republic. Three months before the elections there is an entire tv channel thats all day elections, everything related to the electoral process. So they Work Together with the Disability Community to produce a video that was specifically to target to this stigma that showed people with disabilities and their jobs, showed people with disabilities pledging allegiance to the flag, singing the National Anthem. Dominicans, like americans, are very patriotic and the National Anthem and the flag in the background really appealed to the public there and this was something that the Disability Community specifically asked the commission to do because they were getting pushback from their family members when they said to their family they would like to go out to vote and can you help me get to the polling stations and a lot of times the family members would say why are you interested in this . It doesnt concern you. This was the Election Commission did in partnership to specifically address this number one issue raised by the Disability Community there. The last barrier i mentioned is to legal and policy barriers. Policy, as i said, is something that is within the remit of the Election Commission and something they can change. In guatemala, i have the poll worker training manual here, and in their poll worker training manual they have how to do the alphabet in sign language as well as how to say hello, goodbye and thank you in sign language. So all of the poll workers in guatemala for the past two National Level election cycles have learned basic sign language. And this is something in addition to people with psycho social disabilities, the Deaf Community is incredibly marginalized in terms of receiving information and feeling welcome at the polls and this was something that made a big impact there. The last thing id like to briefly talk about is we find that people with disabilities that also have or identify with the different marginalized group and say youre a woman with a disability and youre from anneth nuk or religious minority, the barriers are compounded for people that have the multiple forms of ident they identify with these different groups. So a lot of the work is working with Election Commissions and groups representing different parts of society to develop information campaigns that are inclusive. So i have a little mini poster here that was made in kenya for their elections last summer, last august and the Election Commission developed a campaign specifically targeting youth called why vote . As part of the campaign they integrated images of young people with disabilities and this one shows a young man who is blind at the polling station casting his ballot. Somethinges that will weve recently done is worked with the liberian Election Commission and theyve had elections in the end of last year on developing a guide for their poll workers specifically targeting the unique barriers that women with disabilities encountered. So that was an issue that was raised both from the gender movement in the country as well as the Disability Community. Ill leave it there, but the main Lesson Learned and i promise michelle and i did not coordinate on this is you really need to coordinate with people with disabilities themselves. Same as here in the u. S. As with other countries around the world there are disability organizations everywhere. There are National Groups and groups working at the sub level and groups representing different types of disabilities and theres no reason that we cant that we cant find people with disabilities that consult in the work that were doing and the last thing is ill just make a quick plug. The u. S. Is looked at in terms of Good Practice examples, and the one thing i do often hear is related to we have not ratified the u. N. Disability treaty and its been ratified by u. N. Member states and there is a whole article related to political and public life, so its a bit difficult when im asked, well, the u. S. Hasnt ratified this treaty, why should we change our laws and policies to be inclusive if you havent done it. And we do have the ada which the u. N. Disability treaty is quite frankly, copy and pasted on that to look at as a model and having our International Leadership in the space by ratifying that treaty would really be helpful. Okay. Great. I want to thank you all for being a part of this and ill open it up for a couple of questions and have brenda signal me when well do audience questions. The first question that i have, basically in listening to some of the panels earlier today. You talked about how things are improving and one of the ways things are improving is the use of the internet, and i wanted to have each of you talk a little bit how you feel that the internet can improve the process. Wed heard about the internet voting and im not talking more about that, and more of Voter Registration, getting ballots out and things like that, as well. So if you can just talk a little bit more about those sorts of things of using the internet to improve access to the ballot, i would appreciate that. Cameron . The internet, when you think of information and getting information you are no longer thinking of print automatically or even gone are the days of getting an updated set offen cyclopeed yas. It straight is to the internet and whether youre looking for the closest restaurant and what a candidate might stand for, thats where you go and i think the use of the internet and figuring out ways that the administrator we can interface with whatever information candidates might be putting out as a way to get it to voters and not necessarily advocating for it, but if theres somebody who has registered as a candidate, the voters themselves have a clear way to know that they are registered as a candidate and how to get all of the information about that person, so kind of taking those resources and my customized news feed and using it for the voters advantages so they can understand what each candidate is saying as theyre saying it in real time in the news is a huge benefit that can be done, but in terms of right now, weve seen a lot of Voter Registrations since we opened up in virginia with online Voter Registration and its helped tremendously. It also was kind of an unexpected surge, and instead of having certain places where voters could register, its now every place that voters can register, so, but now weve gotten over that hump and its smoothed out the process quite a bit and automated it and weve incorporated in things such as absentee ballot requests and weve incorporated the kaaba request into that process and its kind of interesting thinking of these different processes and looking at it as an electronic process and it goes through question by question because you understand that its going to ultimately wind up and what you think of as a standard type of form and its asking it in completely user friendly ways and thats as an election administrator thats interesting to watch and play around with and see what the voters experience is as opposed to getting the standard custom form as to have note arized and do this and do that where it is the turbotax style method where its simple questions going through, just yes or no and does this apply to you or not instead of needing a manual to understand what that is. I think that alone has helped in the last few years and as more and more states come online, it will help Election Administrators down the road because it puts instantaneously the ability for voters to access the registration piece and more importantly, and its more toward the future and voters who might have some sort of disability in terms of a visual disability that they might have the tools built in to help them navigate the questions on the screens of their registration process, but i think in looking toward the future that whatever is offered out there as an official piece is done with an eye on the disability so that it is fully interactive and not just that i can move and click and do this. And increasing registration and increasing the accuracy, and hopefully at some point in the future well get to the point where i have moved and filled out my change of address or done this, and it just automatically pops up and says hey, want to go through this again . I wish we could have had ten other groups on this panel because you are saying things that are popping in my head of things like talking to the manufacturers, talking about using your own device to cast your ballot. Having that scanned in and being able to print that out and moving forward with that, as well. So there are so many other aspects that i would love to cover with this panel, but we just dont have enough time. Stanford, any so, this may seem trite when i say this, but the internet obviously is, you know, the great equalizer. Its provided access to everyone who has an Internet Connection anywhere in the world. Information if you go to www. U. S. Vote information. Org, you will find ways to access their ballot or register to vote and residents and the internet has allowed individuals to use their smartphones, laptops or ipads or anything that they use to access the internet. They can get what they need and get what theyre looking for. Obviously, there is a dark side of the internet, as we all know that sometimes theres misinformation out there or disinformation out there and we have to be careful of what we read and how we process and how we ingest that information and i think it was Charles Stewart that when we get data, we need to be mindful of what the data means and how we process that information that we get. The same is true and understanding when your Voter Registration deadlines are and when your election dates are and when the deadline is to submit the absentee ballot request, and this is information that it harnesses and puts it in one place so anyone that has any inkling and understanding of whens my next vote and when do i elect my next county clerk or when do i elect my next sheriff or when do i elect my next senator for my state or a raptive from my territory and that has what the Information Age has brought us and thats what the internet has brought us to make things more accessible. As i mentioned earlier, 2004 the Vote Foundation at the time was the first to automate the fob, the federal writein absentee ballot online, shifting away from paper. Youve seen the transition from the old ways of accounting for Voter Registration and it shifted online and thats one example of how the internet has been a great equalizer and citizens were living overseas in our case and they dont have to fill out a piece of paper and wait for the time line and its in the back and you can easily get it quickly within 30 seconds of determining, you know, your state of residence, the location and getting the forms and process and the Voter Registration application and send it in to your local election official. I think cameron gave an aplus answer to that question, and the technology is drastically changing the lives of people with disabilities and its making things infinitely more accessible than theyve ever been, and we have to leverage that. I think people being able to register to vote online is amazing and i think the electronic ballot delivery is amazing and we can deliver a ballot electronically and someone can tap into the technology that they have at home to be able to access it and complete it and that is a game changer for people with disabilities with the caveat that it has to be done in a way thats accessible. I can use my insider, and they should be 2. 0 aa compliant and thats a web accessibility standard, and go me, i have my tech jargon. And theyre not always. Those types of things need to be happening and we need to talk to people with disabilities about what actually works for you, but i think that it is changing the way people with disabilities and people who are overseas are interacting and it will change for all voters. I think thats coming whether or not we feel ready for it so we need to be and we need to make it secure and accessible simultaneously. Virginia . Two things. One is the internet can now be used so voters with disabilities can look on their elections website and see if the polling station is accessible. This is something that the Election Commission in saskatchewan in canada does. Their website is fully accessible no matter what type of disability they have. You can see if your polling station is accessible. If its not, it will tell you what the issue is. Is the issue that its physically accessible for you to get into the building and once you get in, theres not an accessible toilet and whatever it is so you can make a determination whether this is fine for me or not fine for me . It doesnt just stop there. Your polling station is not accessible and it gives you the option to get to centralized hub and they have stations that are always fully accessible. The place where im supposed to go cast my ballot is not accessible and then you can online say you want to go to one of these hubs, instead. Secondly, the way were seeing the internet used effectively is voter education. So many people with disabilities maybe they dont have and the countries where we work dont have a computer ore laptop, but most people have smartphones and information disemmated thanated is much easier to make accessible that you can have captions on your video if youre doing that. You can have an audio version of a poster that youve made. Its much easier to make the content of your message accessible through the internet. One quick followup, with as much access that has been beneficial and you always have to keep an eye on making sure its accurate because if we begin automating processes too much, and we can find ourselves in situations where it might not be what the voter had actually anticipated to put on something. So if we get to the point of the ballot marking device, we have to be very well aware that while thats not an actual tab later and that is something that goes to play into and if it was used for voters with a visual disability then theyll never have a way to possibly verify that that was the correct indication of their choice. I think its also very important as much as we want to get information and resources out there that they are absolutely 100 correct and safe and secure. One of the things i would advocate for is making sure that people know about the eacs website on eac. Gov. We have links to each individual states website so they can get information on, and the best information for them to register to vote and, you know, other aspects of that to funnel that down, as well. I know there are Large Organizations that deal with that. You know, theres even a term out there that we dont go to the encyclopedia anymore. We google it. In terms of trying to find out information, i would definitely recommend our own website to move forward with that, as well. With that being said, cameron, we werent able to were restricted on the size, and one of the big aspects that the eac has focused in on through the leadership of all three commissioners has been the Language Access and so, and weve held summits on Language Access and you participated in it last summer, as well. How can jurisdictions anticipate what they need to do to serve these voters with limited english proficiency. So i think in terms of anticipating is that you need to look at data. While your jurisdiction may not have been included and the 2015 or 2016 Community Survey as being included for a new language. If you go back and look at that data, you can see where your populations are at and where the nearest estimate is for those populations and those languages. I think its important because in comparison to previous years census and surveys, will tell you what sort of trend youre on and most likely might see come 2020, or just generally what the need of your community is and one of the things that we were actually caught off guard with was the designation of vietnamese. We have a much more active Korean Community in Fairfax County, but the fact that the Vietnamese Community was the one that triggered the threshold did catch us off guard. Fortunately, we were in a position that we decided we could take on both those languages so we could serve both of those communities. Because we had to serve the Vietnamese Community and in looking at the data itself was just shy of the threshold. And so when we started looking back at the localities in virginia, we pointed out to places that, hey, you might want to be on the lookout because five years from now you might trigger that threshold. Thats one of the things that i dont want to necessarily say anticipating, but acknowledging that the data is there that can really help you make that determination, and its just using it and deciding if thats the trend that youre going on because you might see a lowering trend if you go back and look through some of the u. S. Census information and if you have any contacts with local groups that are, you know, advocating for these access to the ballot, see what the needs are on their end. You might not be required to put anything actually, you know, such as a bilingual ballot, but it might be beneficial to understand where exactly their biggest need is because you can start recruiting bilingual election officers and putting them in those places where it might not be necessary to put one in every polling place, but in those polling places that actually need it. In one minute, michelle, we have a lot of Election Officials here. How can they work with organizations like yours because a lot are worried about being sued. How can they work with groups like yours to increase access. The good news is its easy because were everywhere and you dont have to know who the disability organizations are in your state or locality, you can ask me and i can connect you to them and you can ask tom, and tom knows me and ill connect you to them. Its easy to find them. I think those fears, 99. 9 of the time are not well founded. I think that lawsuits are time consuming and expensive and a last resort for organizations who have not been able to build partnerships with our Elections Officials. I think that if you invite disability as vok assy organizations and people with disabilities in the door at the start of the process and you work collaboratively throughout you can get a better result and avoid things like lawsuits. Everyone loses, right . Theyre costly and at that point voters have been disenfranchised. Also, its one thing to go out and find enough accessible polling places and then you fail to and you brace yourself for disability advocacies to come after you. Why not ask them to go with you and try to find, and maybe well have good ideas and we both have to stand up together and say we tried and this is where were at right now. Thats a position id rather be in and any election official would be, as well. So i think that if you contact us and we start, woing together from the start, you actually avoid some unpleasantness that youre probably afraid of. If you know advocacy organizations that do like to sue, i would recommend leaning into that and seeing how you can make that work for you. Ive talked to a lot of Elections Officials who say we tried to find accessible polling places and we went to schools and Nursing Homes and places Nursing Homes. Inaccessible Nursing Homes. It happens, rid . I promise you, if you found that a lot of places werent complying with the ada, imagine what it would be like if you were using a wheelchair. We know its not enforced and there are a lack of polling places. You can be sued for wanot havin polling places and they can be sued by those organizations if they know that thats happening. So why not build some strong relationships with those organizations that do have that enforcement be a lawsuit andee if we can make that work for us and maybe next year when you need a polling place it wont be inaccessible anymore because someone would have taught them a lesson about it. I wont say too much about that. I dont know where the two mikes are, if theyre working around for questions and one thing i want the audience to take away from this is that one of my good friends doug lewis used to say if you live long enough you will suffer from or not suffer from, you will have a disability at your life if you live long enough and thats something to think of as we all age and get a little bit older to when we go to vote, as well. First question, i guess, is jim dixon. I wanted to offer two solutions to build on something that michelle just talked about. Here in the district, there are accessible schools and the principals wont let the board of elections use the school. We just got a commitment from the mayor that starting next year inservice teacher training days will coincide with election day so theres no longer and the schools will, therefore, be available and that was done in a partnership with the Disability Community and the board of elections. I wanted to speak to the really annoying points that michelle raised, the machines not turned on, the poll worker doesnt know how to use it. It isnt plugged in. Again, alice miller here in d. C. Came up with a simple and beautiful way to fix that problem. We all know its very hard to train poll workers and youve got to make them understand that something is important for them to get it. When you sign your name you are asked, every voter, do you want to vote on the machine or do you want to vote by paper . About 20 of the public, sometimes higher, will choose to vote on the machine. If the poll workers know they have to ask every voter, do you want to vote on the machine, the poll workers will be darn sure they know how to turn the machine on. It doesnt cost any money, and it takes away all of those excuses and all of those problems and makes it real clear to the poll worker theyve got to know how to run the machine because theyre going to ask everybody do you want to use it . Great. Great. So we only have five minutes left, so any other questions or i will Start Talking myself. Michelle . Hi there. I wanted to ask this question of Michelle Bishop. With all of the talk about accessible Voting Machines and thats awesome. I was wondering if you had any comment or thought or had seen any observations about the accessibility of the voter checkin process. I work as an election judge in travis county, for example, and theres still a big portion of that in another county, and thats not picking on my home county in any way, that has manual you have to sign in, and even when you have curbside voting when you bring a voting unit out you still have to do that, you know, maybe show your i. D. Or something, and make sure and verify that thats the person, and in my experience thats a little bit unak inaccessible. So i was wondering what your thoughts were on that . Thats schuch a good questio. I think that technology could be changing that as well. Theres been a huge rise in the use of e pf poll books and i think that has the potential to make that process more accessible and only if thats done well and thats not particularly regulated. We have Voting System guidelines that dont say anything about epoll books and i think thats a mistake, and i fought very hard to see that change which we probably wont. I think that we need standards for that type of thing for a couple of reasons and its not particularly accessible to voters and something that i would hope would be more moving for our friends in the Elections Community and ive talked to Elections Officials who say they can never find enough poll workers. The census tell me that one in five has a disability and pugh tell me its one in four. Everything that, all of the tools that the poll worker needs to use is not accessible. You instantly ruled out one quarter of the population by making it a job thats not accessible for them. So thats probably a mistake. I think everything thats a part of the process that deals with the voter or the poll worker needs to be fully accessible and we need to start leveraging technology to do that and i think we need to start to have standards and guidelines for them and consider them part of the end to end process for the voter. So we have time for one last question. Not seeing any hands, im going to talk. Well, on that note i want to thank my panelists and also to put in a plug for people to serve as poll workers. Ive had more than 30 years of experience working elections now, and one of the things that i got my greatest knowledge from was actually serving as a poll worker in Fairfax County, by the way. But as a public official i dont know if im eligible anymore, but anyway, i would love to. I would say anyone in this room or across the nation to serve as a poll worker because its a very enlightening experience. It gives you a lot of knowledge from the other aspect of it of what its like to be an election official for a little bit, for a day, at least. With that, i believe i will turn this over to brian newby for the last panel of the day the open mike discussion with my fellow commissioners, and brian newby, come on up, and i want to thank my panelists for participating today. I wish we could have had a little more discussion, but hopefully, this is the first and not last time we will discuss these issues. Thank you. [ applause ] i am brian newby, executive director of the var and we are starting the session a little bit later and if you see on your program on page 2, i think the staff may have been suggesting something to me that the session is scheduled from 3 00 to 3 00. So it was, like, brian, youll be on from 3 00 to 3 00. But if you look at the front page i would say the summit planner intent would suggest 3 30. So that will be what well be after today, and were going to open it up for questions, but as youre preparing your arm to see how fast you can be the first to raise your hand, i thought i would tee up the first question to chairman masterson, and that is the disability. Weve had a very good day today so far, id say, and looking to 2018, that is a definite thing, 2018 is what we want to target here. Look into 2018, what is the biggest takeaway you would like to see that people take out of the meeting so far today . Thank you for the question. Thank you all for sticking it out. I actually thought i was done at 3 00. So i was ready to head out, but apparently not. My big takeaway in part because of the panel on Cyber Security and moderating that is the need for a coordinated, onenation response to the current threaten viernment th environment, and it cant just be on the state and local officials and it cant just be advice given, but it needs to be a coordinated effort by working, communicating and identifying where resources are available and getting those resources down to those who run the elections. Its incumbent on us, i think, as well as folks taking advantage of the resources to share the resources that you have available with your colleagues and make available to them whatever is out there so they can decide what best to help them secure the systems and improve the overall cyber posture. For me the takeaway is everyone in the room has a joint responsibility to help coordinate that National Response to the current threa n environment. I have two things, that lawsuits should be used as a last resort, that there should be some sort of solution that should be raised and that means talking to each individual together. So if youre in the room together that starts that process, and its not a them versus us mentality. Its a how can we work to improve the process . Thats the first thing i took away. The other thing i took away and that was from dr. Stewart this morning is that things are improving. Were not necessarily where we should be, but things are improving and as we move forward, the eac should be there to help improve that process with all our stakeholders, so those are the two things i took away. I have a couple of thing, too. I would say in light of my panel on the data, look at all your processes and see where you can collect data to make your process and your Voter Experience more efficient and work on the integrity of your elections, and i think most of our Election Officials would like to do that. Some of them dont have the resources to do it or the office depth of staff to do it, but i think it is important for us to look at data and how we can make the elections better. The other thing is communications. Whether its communications with voters who need to know what the processes are and how they actually work. I can remember the first time i ever walked into an election warehouse, and how overwhelmed i was and what a huge, huge job this is, and most voters, i dont think understand that. Most people understand it. They think you let a machine out of the closet and take it back in and thats that. I think there is a fundamental need for communication and then transparency with, allow the voters to come in, be poll workers and let them know what theyll be doing with logistics and accuracy tactic on Voting Systems and what they can participate in audits at all, and i think the more that the general public is involved in the system, the more theyre going to trust it. So we have eac Staff Members at the microphone ready to run to your raised arm for questions for the commissioners. Yes. I think one of my takeaway his to take with the educational process in would Building Trust that the threat to our elections in part was Citizens Trust in the process, and so im wondering, if terms of educating and Building Confidence in the system, if you have any plans, for example, to take this summit on the road and to to expand some of the issues into the areas where trust is lacking, for example, in the recount process, or the audit process, and other processes that obviously are extensive and take this summit concept on the road so that you can educate citizens in every state who have an interest in this because clearly, you know, the interest in this is growing and growing and growing. Ive been in this movement, effort for many years now and ive never seen such growth. Its quite incredible, really, and i think we might be on the verge of one of the largest civil rights movements in terms of election intriddy, that ive seen. One of the encouraging parts for them was the level of interest and that folks were digging into their practices and procedures and they took a great deal of pride in opening up their operations and showing how they work, and so to your suggestion, i think at the eac weve been working very hard and well continue to explore ways to bring the process to people which is what youre saying, right . To educate. I was recently out in arapaho county, colorado, for the oddity and they did such an amazing job not just showing us the audit, but allowing us to participate in it and learn it and see how they were administering that audit and the more of those experiences we can share with the public and reach those who know me, know i talk frequently about cherilyn, ohio, how do we reach voters and Election Officials in the small counties to better educate and do that . The more ways we engage in summ summits like this and videos and trainings and having folks go out to meetings and thats our role and something that we will continue to push forward on and i appreciate that suggestion a lot. Other questions . Im sorry. Go ahead. In about five days we will celebrate being at the agency for eight years tthree years to the three years we have gone collectively around the world in the air leline miles put togeth several times and were taking this on the road for anyone who wants to listen to us speak about these issues and weve spoken at many state conferences and ive spoken to many disability groups and well go anywhere and everywhere that we can. We dont have a huge budget, but we have a small travel budget to get out there and talk to the American People and doug talked earlier about how we have a lot of responsibilities and not a lot of authority and its true, and it made it so it can serve as a Clearing House and not a lot of folks know about these resources that we have to better improve the election process. So at our website, eac. Gov which we redid last march we have a lot of those resources on there, but we also are doing all we can to just serve the bully pulpit, to let folks know that theres no evidence that any votes were changed during the election process. So the people ive talked to said to me, why should i vote if my vote will be changed . If you dont vote your votes not going to count. So get out there, do your civic duty, cash your ballot, and you know, serve as a poll worker is what i always say to folks and were doing our best and hopefully we can continue that on, but thats an excellent question and thank you for it. I thought you were going to say after the three years comment that we should Say Something nice about each other. I know that face. Dave burke, director of elections in virginia. We are right across the river and we get to have the benefit of coming to these things because were so close and therefore we get a voice. One of the issues that i have been noticing about elections especially as the interest has grown over the last year, Election Administrators know and you all know, elections are complex. Voters, however, expect elections to be simple. Its the foundation. Its supposed to be you show up and you raise your hand and you get counted and youre done. Its supposed to be simple, but its very complex, and i think the conversation might need to move to do we need to make it easier and simpler or do we need to change the expectation of the voter to understand that it is complex, that in 50 states there are 50 different ways of casting a vote and just because theyre becoming more and more transient as a nation, people are moving more to cities and moving to new places where the elections are different and were getting questions every time. A california voter comes into my office and says how come you didnt mail that sample ballot to me, and i have to explain that virginia actually doesnt have that kind of budget that california decides to have to do those kinds of things. So the expectations of voters that it need be simple is where i think these conversations need to begin. Thank you so much for this summit. It has been extremely educational. I want to clarify one thing. A former california voter who is now in virginia. Thank you for that clarification. I would say we have to do both ask zee to educate voters and try to make the process simple for them. One of the things i experienced was a year in baghdad in iraq and served alongside people who were from every state in the country. When it came to voting everyone had a different process and that was extremely confusing and they said i cant do that and we need to work on in franchising people because of those problems and making sure that they dont not vote because theyre confused by the process, but they also have to understand that we do have 55 separate election jurisdictions, at least as far as states and for tors and that we do have different rules in different places and it is up to the states to run for the elections and we have to do whatever we can to educate people and to make it easy for them to vote and believe in their vote to have confidence that their votes going to be counted. Hillary . Hillary hall from boulder, county, colorado. First, thanks for taking this on with the Election Center conference and it made it possible for some of us that cant pretend these things in person to do so. My questions on the hot topic around security, so i know weve only been into a year with Homeland Department the Homeland Security and theyre working really hard at the state level and as a local election official i have an election coming up in june, and i have, of course, one in november. Give me the top three tips of someone who is not going to those committees and hearing those things first hand and has a day job and how do we get that information and how do we plug in the quickest and most effectively and efficiently . Sure. So awesome question. Important question, right . Because in the end, the information and the service neds to get down to you and theres a variety of ways i recommend and one is well give it to you, right . We have a lot of that information and ill follow up with you after this conference and we can share with you how to plug into the information thats being shared and what not. The second is say the election director in colorado is on the gcc and im sure can share that with you, as well. I know the Homeland Security folks in your state or assigned to your state as the deputy undersecretary will work with you as a county, as well and they have services, and they were focused on the states initially and to the extent that you want to look at the menu of services that they have, and maybe take advantage of some of those, i know theyll happily talk to you about that and the starting point for you, i think is you and i will talk after this and ill make sure you have the information you need and well have information up on the website as well and how to explore eac. Gov and brad would be mad if i didnt say it, but ill make sure you have it and that goes for anyone in the audience and at the core of what the gcc is doing right now. Governing coordinating council is setting up the information sharing protocols as far as, you know, known threats or risks that folks may be seeing in order to ensure that all 50 states and locals are able to receive it and thats formal information sharing protocols to ensure that you do get the information or are able to act on it. Thats good, man. To this side . Im susanna goodman. With respect to the Airline Miles and traveling around the world, i was wondering in terms of cybersecurity were not the only nation that has been under threat. Our nato allies are just as much in danger as we are and have been responding in different ways going to paper, going to hand counting and shutting down internet voting. What have you guys learned in your world travels . Your top takeaways . Im interested in your perspective and not just the nato allies and other countries, as well. So one of the things i attended a conference in the hague this summer and there were a number of democrat sees there that talked about the threats that they face in terms of voting, as well and none of them are focused in or reverting back and they wanted to say, hey, we can look at more security features and things like that and what sort of things can we do to ensure that our citizens can still cast their ballots . They have a lot more they have a lot more resources and things that the u. S. Government puts into elections, themselves and a lot more restrictions, as well, but for the most part i think that this is a continuing threat for the u. S. In terms of 2018 and 2020 and beyond, but i think of it as things change, the security measures need to change, as well. So were not going towards internet voting any time soon, but i think that there is a way to, as we are looking towards redoing the vvsg 2. 0 there are security measures in there to talk about what sort of things should manufacturers look towards when they get the systems certified. So, you know, as we look back at 2000, the election is run differently now than it was 15, 20 years ago. So as we move forward, the elections are going to be run differently in 20 years. So as the election evolve, security features should evolve, as well. I would say one of the things ive learn side that american elections are unlike any other elections in the world. We have a much different system. It is run by the local registers and election directors in the states. We dont have a centralized federal system. That makes our challenges quite different from other countries in the world who are facing the same issues. So thats something that we have to look at and try to gear our response toward its going to be different than other countries do. We certainly can learn from each other and how we can respond to some of these concerns, but we have to keep in mind that our system is completely different. Amber mcreynolds. Im the director of elections in denver. Thanks for having us. I think its fantastic and i agree, taking it on the road further to get out further in the country is fantastic. My question is sort of touches on a little bit of what came up, but being from a state that has a significant amount of people moving into it from all port parts of the country and theyre coming into our model which is ballot delivery and vote centers, we are getting thank you notes from voters in their ballot packets coming from other places, but what its highlighted for me in a big way, we also have election day and sameday registration, we have a connected statewide system and can manage changes. But i think that interconnectedness and transient nature of the country has very much highlighted these huge disparities and frankly confusing policies and practices across the board that all are solvable through datadriven policy changes. And so i think common data format work, some of what eric has done, i think what it has done is highlighted that much of our issues that we deal with from a Customer Service perspective, or voters voting ro visionals or whatever it is, has to do with varying deadlines state to state for registration, varying precinct deadlines, where someones eligibility in one state may very greatly differ from someone in the next state over. So maybe you want to talk about your thoughts on that. Seems like that is the most of the challenges that voters face, purely on the registration side of things. If they dont get registered successfully, it really doesnt matter once we get to the voting process. That registration part seems to be kind of the bedrock of much of what we do. So just maybe get your thoughts on that. Ill take a peaiece of it, since youre the first one to bring that up today. But the ease and exchange of data across or within jurisdictions is critical and has gotten a lot better over the last decade, right . When we first started collecting use data, even within a jurisdiction, getting that data either complete or consistently was almost impossible. So the effort weve been involved in to ease that exchange of data, to encourage that ability to Exchange Data both within your state or otherwise, and i think what you will see, because the trend is headed that direction is exactly that. The ability to analyze and Exchange Data across election jurisdictions toed educate voters, to improve the overall information, allowing people to look up where they can vote and what not has gotten so much better over the last five, seven years. I think you will see that grow as Technology Grows to support it. I would say that, as michael said earlier, he has a huge county and he sees different voters behaving in different ways in different places. As we know, every election is different and every jurisdiction for every election. We dont do the same election over and over again. But this underscores the importance of sharing information, national Clearing House. Getting best practices out there and sharing those so that folks can update their processes. I think one of the things that is sorely needed in the country is a review of all of the state and election laws and procedures. A lot of them are very old. Technology has made them obsolete and i think we need a real review of our election laws and our processes and we have, i dont know how we do that, but i think the states need to start tackling that issue. I dont know if i should introduce myself of the deputy of arapahoe county, but i have a question. We are reminded today about florida in 2000 and policy changes that came from that being very public and the funding that came with that and we talked a lot about the Security Issues that we faced this last year and again we saw a lot of Amazing Things because that was so public and we have the governing coordinating council. There is a quick glossary of terms to help us become cybersecurity experts. We have a lot of sharing of information as we heard from different entities. Is there merit for the eac to well, let me back up. We try hard as Election Administrators to make sure we are always pointing out all of the really great positive things happening and all of the improvements taking place. Is there a merit in the eac either guiding us or helping us maybe pull back the curtain on some of the other issues we face collectively making those public in a way that might help drive further change such as the struggle that we have to secure polling locations that are big enough and accessible or some of the issues that we deal with in colorado with registration changes and updates and those sorts of things. Have you given any thought to sort of, whats the next big issue you would like to tackle or maybe help us help you bring our stories to the public so that we can get those policy changes or that funding that we need. I would say its an allhands on deck process. The researchers are good at bringing up the problems that we have and i think the eac is good at looking up some of those things as well and because of interaction with state and local Election Officials, we do hear some of the problems and we do see the threads that run through the different states. And so were in an interesting position that we can see whats happening throughout the country rather than just an isolated area. So i think we are looking that. I think our staff is looking at some of that as well. Obviously the big, you know, big thing right now is the cybersecurity and the threats against our system and i think we just have to keep chipping away that you know, each issue that comes up and how we can best respond to it. So i think, yes. Through a lot of the worth that we do we are doing that. But youre right, we probably should do more. I would, the dance is yes, and part of what your question suggests to me is the need to identify, were focussing on pretty complex challenging problems but have we identified and help you all deal with the simpler problems that are the larger issues for you like polling places. Thats simply a challenge of finding and identifying places you can actually use, right . And how do we help educate, get in touch with county commissioners or ledge lators or whoever else to help thaez burden and communicate that on a more National Level using data, right . We can utilize the information we have at our fingertips to help do that. So the answer is, yes. How do we you have to help us identify where the challenges lie and it is incumbent on us to help work through those with you. I look at, honestly, i look at auditing. At this point auditing has become an expected practice, right . So now the conversations move to efficient auditing and you go and do your risk living audits. How can the eac work with the community as a whole, Election Officials and otherwise to identify efficient auditing practices and then share that information about whats working and whats not working and why its working. To allow you guys to make the decisions about what works best for your operations. As we see that evolve and improve. We went from doing edot and then yes, we need to audit and what are the best ways. Those are are the challenges in front of us. So, yes. Someone said earlier there is 170,000 plus polling places around the country on election day. The odds of all those places not having one incident at all are very minor. So in 2000 we talked about hanging chads. 2004 it was long lines. 2008 long lines again. 2012, hurricane sandy. 2016, it was the, you know, russian meddling. Whats 2020 going to be like . We dont know. We dont have a crystal ball. But i think as we move forward, as long as the Election Officials and public are working together to facilitate that no votes are being changed, i think thats a positive aspect. We have our survey out in the hallway there that i would tell folks to make sure you get a copy of. We dont have many left. So if you get a chance to get that copy of that, its on our website for those at home. Look through that data. And as problems come up, were going to come up with solutions, hopefully. So if i could, from an eac staff perspective, can i use that to transition a couple things. One, i plef i would say as former election official, polling positions are not a simple issue. That is a thing. But i think one of the things weve tried hard to do this year is make it real. That was an eac initiative. And it make our information relevant. We wanted to make sure what we were doing spoke to you. We hope it has. We hope todays event is indicative of that. We want to continue that for 18. We definitely want feedback if there are things we are focus owned that we arent. I do think we have, we are running towards the end, we have problem time for one more question and then we might have one wrapup here. So is there any one last question. Its that time. It is. I would give a shoutout to our staff. I think theyve done a terrific job today. [ applause ] thank all of you for attending. Look at eac. Governor more information. More information. I would turn to chairman masterson for a final word. Thank you to the staff, final commissioners, panelists, and you all for being here. It is obvious the level of engagement because of the amount of people here, right . So the challenge for all of us, whether youre an election administrator, member of the public and activist on academic is to remain engaged with each other. Work together to solve these problems. There are big challenges but a lot of great people working to solve and tackle those challenges. And so, its incumbent now that all of you have met and been in a room together to Work Together to tackle these challenges and solve some of these problems. So thats the message i hope you leave here today with is to find a way to buddy up. I feel like we should have Election Officials raise their hand so you can identify who needs the help and support. But just go out and conquer and take on these challenges headon. Well be ready to go for 2018, i got no doubt about that. No, no, stop. You stop. So thats all. Thank you. All right, thank you. And where are you from . The moment itself, i described at the time and i would still describe it as a bizarre moment, was the surprise when he called me over. But he is the president of the United States and youre in the oval office. So if he says, you know, who are you . Come over here. You dont really have an option. Sunday night on q a, irish journalist Katrina Perry talks about covering President Trump and his supporters for the irish media during and after the 2016 president ial election season. In her book in america. Draining the swamp as three words is incredibly evocationaltive and it does what it does and the notion that d. C. Was built on a swamp and by training taking at horrible people that live there and replace it with better people. That was something that, you know, whether voters believed him or not or believed that he could fulfill that or not, they were prepared to take a chance on it. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. The Supreme Court heard oral argument for collins v virginia. A case about warrantless searches. Talking about how far the automobile exception extend. In 2013, police investigated an unidentified motorcyclist who had been abating them in highspeed chases. Law enforcement officials believed ryan collins was involved. During their investigation, they were led to mr. Collins girlfriends house where a motorcycle covered by a tarp was parked in the drive way. An officer lifted the tarp and ran the number on the motorcycle. It showed up as stolen. And mr. Collins was charged. Mr. Collins legal team. Says the officer trespassed on to private property and the