>> welcome to welcome to the bipartisan policy center. my name is matt while. i'm the director of a project here at the bipartisan policy center. it is 2020. we have all made. it it is very excited for my team. we are very ready for 2020 and it is 293 days away from election day. that means that iowa is having its caucus in 19 days, new hampshire is having their primary in 27 days and super tuesday are having their primaries in 48 days. what does that mean for election administrators? it means the election is not hundreds of days away, it is here, because those voters who are covered by the uniform and overseas citizens absence voting act, u.s. ballots have to be in the mail 45 days before an election so there is gonna be a lot of balance out there going to our citizens overseas. election years are very fun for me. a lot of people i don't get to talk to a lot during the year are very interested in the work that i do. it is also a time when i become an expert in elections and have opinions about how to do the process. not really like how -- not unlike all become during the olympics where i developed his whatever civil sport i hear. about just a note if you're in the wrong event and, you are more interested in the olympics, that starts at 191 days. i really appreciate everyone being here. this is the culmination of a year's worth of work from my team, bringing together 21 state and local election officials to agree upon logical election policy. what makes our group unique is that it is made up of only state and local election officials, the ones who have to implement policy. there are a lot of good ideas out there, but policies not happen in a vacuum. the greatest policy if it does not serve americas voters well it will not improve voting experience. many americans expect that the voting process be secure, accessible an accurate individual should have convenient ways of casting their ballots but only those eligible to be able to do so. our elections are really complex. they evolve many federal and state election laws, and many local election administrators, to be everything from logistical expert to cybersecurity experts, that is why the bipartisan policy center created this task force. our goal is simple, which is a greater roadmap for policymakers to understand their option when doing election reform, but also to highlight the upstream and downstream changes to policy. i am going to leave the specific conversation about recommendations to the moderator of our second panel, and great task force members were able to join today and i appreciate that. i want to thank people who made this possible, certainly all 21 of our task force members, we appreciate all of the time you gave to this effort. they attended events in person, throughout the, country, three times, last year i don't know how many times we had on campus, calls a, lot 20 times we had calls with me and my staff individually and they all certainly provided -- so i appreciate it all. that i also want to point out to my team, john florida, tim harper, rachel curry, first of all, i've made this absolutely possible. also, i don't know if she's in the room, our program associate who's been on our team for three and a half years now to really make sure that everything we want to do can happen. today has been his last day which is sad for us but it was actually slightly terrifying for me in december when she told me she had exciting new opportunity because i thought she was leaving that, and was going to read for the report got to design phase, and thankfully she made her last day hour event. i also want to just note that our content, what we spend a lot of time on that, i think we are very proud of it, it would not look this good and polished without the digital, tv communications team, so i appreciate their work. but this time i want to invite the congressman to give you remarks. unfortunately their vote scheduled and he has to do his job and so i will turn it over to congressman davis. >> thank. you hold your applause, please. hey, thank, you and matt, i really appreciate it. i actually was looking forward to the back and forth that we had last year. do you some questions and be able to respond. had the opportunity to address this group about a year ago now and it was a great back and forth talking about what our views were, what we look forward to addressing when it comes to election reform on election security during this congress. really disappointed i don't get a chance to see what secretary ross burger and the commissioner on the panel and either cheerleader what you guys are doing or of, course like we do hear congress, complain if we disagree with you. but i really appreciate the bipartisan policy center for really, having me back. election policy matters. it does not make the front page. it is not in the 24 hour news cycle but since becoming the making wrangler of the house committee which as many of you know, overseas federal, actions we have held three markups four election policies and we have had five election related hearings including a hearing just last week where we had a voting chain ceos come in and testify in our committee of nine. house administration, i think it is very important, but we have nine members on that committee. it has become a committee that's become more of a legislative committee in this congress, more so than it ever has in his entire existence. i introduced two election security bills for this, congress hr 30 4:12, the election security assistance act, and h.r.40 7:46 the honest elections act, and both of those bills take aimed at addressing some types of interference that we saw in 2016 and also focusing on assisting states like georgia and others, my home state of illinois, bolstered their election security measures as well. we think they are good bills. we think they ought to be able to get a fair hearing. some positive things that we've already done, you, know the recently passed national defense reauthorization act, the nba, we have included many election security provisions that were asked for by folks like our secretary of state, by folks that are in charge at the eac like the commissioner in implementing changes to ensure that our election system's more secure. we will make sure that we have better interoperability to provide state, local and national officials with instances of possible intrusion. communication matters. one of the big things that we can do here in washington is to make sure that all three levels of government talk to each other and make sure it's not just about money but make sure that money goes to areas that we're really going to see real results and there's not many areas in government that have seen such bipartisan cooperation at all levels to address a problem that existed in 2016. and that's great. we want to continue to allow that to happen. those are our priorities. those are chair lofgren's proirts and should be america's priorities, in my opinion. we also, republicans and democrats, work to give $425 million in hava grants to states in order to help them secure their elections. spend it wisely. so we see cooperation in a city that is not known right now when you turn on the tv for any type of cooperation whatsoever. things are happening in this arena that should be touted and that's what i think a group like yours, a bipartisan policy center, you recommended that states enact meaningful election reform. we're helping them to do that, we believe. and that's a direct result, i think, of efforts by groups like yours to make sure this was an issue with increased scrutiny and we also want to make sure that we highlight what we've done that has worked. remember we had historic turnout in the midterm elections in 2018. anybody hear of any instances of foreign intrusion? i see none. i'm going to take that as a no. but that should be celebrated. we should be talking a little bit more about what we're doing right in this field instead of always going back to instances of 2016 where we know we had a problem but we worked together to help correct those problems. the secretaries of state can tell you that. our local election officials can tell you that. the eac has now been entrusted to ensure that those efforts continue to move forward. those are the things that we should be talking about in washington but instead we're talking about other issues that are much more partisan. last year our committee marked up three bills. remember, i said we have nine members of congress on the house administration committee. i'm the lead republican on the smallest committee in congress. i have three republicans on that committee, in the minority. we had three major election bills marked up through that committee. one, a 600-plus-page amendment to hr-1. while there were good things in all of these bills, there were also some major areas that i disagreed with, so those are areas that i think we can, as we move together, we've got to figure out which areas of those major pieces of legislation the democrats tried to ram through, our small committee, and had a partisan vote on each of them on the floor of the house. we ought to be able to come together and get things done in the areas we agree with and that's why i'm glad to be here and working with folks like the secretary and the commissioner, too. we want secure elections, very much so, that's our goal. we're getting secure elections. look at 2018. look at the investments we've made. these things matter and that's why we're going to continue as we move forward, we have some ideas where i think we can work together and we need to help of the bpc to make that happen and also the secretaries of state, too. make sure you tell secretary larose i said that. we've got to reform hava. it's been since 2002 since that bill was implemented. we have so many more issues not just in the election security arena but the election technology arena that we've got to be able in a bipartisan way to update hava so the eac commissioners can do the job of getting the funds out to secretaries of state, state boards of elections in the case of illinois, and local election officials so let's work together. we need your help helping us lead a reform of hava. we also need to look at securing more modern voting in election methods. they don't apply to voter registration databases. the programs and the security protocols that we make our election voting machine vendors follow through the standards administered through the eas don't apply to voter registration databases. as we know, as we move into the future, we'll have more e-poll books, more electronic technology at the voter registration portion. maybe we start to look at putting together some guidelines that our voter registration databases will have to follow. where was the intrusion in 2016 in illinois? was it at christian county, illinois, electronic voting machine with a paper backup that i use each time? did the russians hack into that? no, but the russians did try to hack into our state board of elections voter file, our statewide database for voter registration. that tells me we've got to do something better because if that's an area that doesn't have as much scrutiny, maybe that's where government can come in as republicans and democrats and get things done. we're doing things right in illinois, too. just last week, you know, being on the committee, even though it's a small committee, i get a chance to choose some witnesses every once in a while with hearings and i had the chance to pick a witness to come and testify at the election vendor hearing and i chose my home county clerk, my local election official. he's a democrat. i'm a republican. republicans don't choose democrats to sit in their witnesses, right? if you turn on tv, you would never expect that to happen but i did because you know why? i know mike genese because i grew up with him and went to school with him and i know there is nobody in my home county that wants to run a more fair and faster election process than mike genese. he's my friend. he's doing a good job. our local election officials aren't partisan. our local election officials shouldn't be partisan. our local election officials should care, like mike does, about getting elections that are fair, getting elections that make sure people don't have to wait in lines and making sure that technology works. so bipartisan support at the local, state and federal levels is essential for mike to be able to do his job but illinois has a cyber navigator program making sure that we have policies in place that our local officials know that if they think there's an intrusion on their voter registration system or by chance maybe an election machine, they know who to call. simple things like this in washington can be done to make sure that our local election officials are able to do their job. i think a national initiative mirroring illinois'campaign could be something we could have bipartisan support on so we stop cyber threats before they get to our precincts and look, at the end of the day our federal government and our role in federal government is to ensure the states have every resource possible to run their elections. and that's an area that i think we're going to continue over the next congress and the next few years, the rest of this think can, to continue to push forward. i'm glad election security is getting more scrutiny because it gives us a chance to make things better and i look forward to working with each and every one of you. sorry i can't answer your questions. that dastardly thing called doing my job and going to vote, i got to do. thanks, everyone. and good luck. >> so our first panel is entitled defending elections at the state and local level, state and federal level, but it's broader than that. what i really want to have a conversation about, today, it's still on that topic, don't worry, is broader. it's more how can the federal government help states run their elections? what do states need? what do localities need? where are there advantages? where are we not being the most efficient? we've met congressman rodney davis who was here. commissioner ben hubland was nominated by president trump and confirmed by unanimous consent to the eac in 2019. he is currently vice chair, soon to be chair of the commission in february likely. we have to vote on it but likely. and he serves as designated federal officer for the technical guidelines development committee which helps to create the voluntary voting system guidelines. ben has been in and around elections for 20 years, recently serving as acting chief counsel for the u.s. senate committee on rules and administration, driving force behind getting $380 million to the states, a driving force. earlier in his career he served as deputy general counsel for the missouri secretary of state's office, where you focused on election administration, recounts, polling training, statewide database matching, voter registration resources and ballot initiative litigation. ben has served as an attorney for the fair elections legal network. welcome, ben. >> thank you. >> next to him, georgia secretary of state brad rassenburger, ceo and owner of tendon systems, a specialty contract engineering and design firm with nearly 200 employees. he has served two terms in the georgia general assembly from 2015 to 2019 and you were elected secretary of state in 2018. welcome to you, as well. >> thank you. >> the first question is quite broad and i'd like your initial thoughts and then narrow it down. what is the appropriate role for the federal government in elections. i'm going to ask you first. >> i think one of the real challenges in elections and particularly for people who haven't really worked in the space is figuring out that balance. as you mentioned in my biography, i'm privileged to have worked at various levels. i still haven't done local, which i should, but i worked at the missouri secretary of state's office so have had that viewpoint. i worked at the senate to have the legislative perspective and now in an administrative capacity at the eac, i think what i've seen over that time is finding that balance where i think you traditional see in federal legislation tends to be floors but it really leaves the states to be the laboratories of literal democracy and you see great innovation in the states so i think where we can ensure that people have the right to vote, that they're able to vote, but leave the flexibility for the states to innovate is really a great balance that we've seen work in a lot of places. >> secretary, same question. >> i think the federal government brings some resources we don't have at the state level and the capacity, one of those would obviously be cyber, from foreign actors in particular because they have larger resources. that's important for us. also to have a standard for testing of new voting equipment so we have a common standard because that really gives voters a sense of calm, peace that it's been tested, that there's some standard that the systems have and so i think those are two areas that are really at the federal level, you can help assist the states but at the end of the day, elections bubble up at the precinct level to the county level to the state level and i think that's the appropriate form that we've had for 200 and some odd years and i think we need to continue on. >> so you mentioned voting systems. commissioner, you helped serve as liaison to the gdc. i think there are concerns about voting systems in the public. usability, security. we know that in many states they're going to be using new voting systems this time compared to 2018 or 2016. how do you assess where we are today, where we still need to go and how we're going to get there? >> so, how long do we have? there's a lot to unpack there but i do think as the secretary said, some of the work at the eac on the voluntary voting system guidelines, i really do think there is a natural benefit and economies of scale to having a federal program. why should there be 50 different voting certification programs? that doesn't make sense for the states. that would be costly for them. that doesn't make sense for vendors. but we have to have a program that works and as you know, we've had a history that has been bumpy but i think we are on the way up and i think we are working on the vbsg 2.0 and hopefully that will be done soon. i think what that is really about is ensuring that the next generation of election equipment is better and that we build a program around that that really is focused on customer service and good governance and being a resource and a value add to the space and i think doing that ensures that election systems continue to improve going forward. >> secretary, georgia is one of those states with a new voting system. how did you settle on what you did and what are you looking for in 2020? >> we are going through our second statewide implementation. the first one was in 2002 when we made the decision, the general assembly, that we'd have a uniform system throughout the state. that was a d.r.e. system that has aged out so we're implementing a new system with touch screen technology, ballot marking device with a verifiable paper ballot trail so we'll have that implemented 33,100 machines throughout the state. we have 159 counties for the march 24th presidential preference primary. we're really moving fast. it's a big list, the largest and fastest implementation that's ever occurred in this country. >> one of the things that congressman davis mentioned was the $425 million appropriated at the end of last year for the states. i mentioned $380 million, that you were one of the driving forces behind in 2018. by my calculation, that's $805 million that the federal government is providing to states. when i've talked to state and local election officials, i think they are looking for clarity on how to spend it well, how to spend it quickly so that it can be impactful for 2020. so what does success look like when it comes to how to spend this federal money well, be good stewards of the taxpayers'money and secure elections going forward? >> absolutely. with a little bit of my former hat on, i can talk more about the 2018 money but, again, the 2020 money looks a lot like the reason that congress provided so much flexibility is because each state does look so different and each jurisdiction does look so different so when you're looking at increasing security, those needs really vary. some states we've seen replace aging and paperless equipment. other states, we have seen them replace their state wide voter registration database. congressman davis mentioned the cyber navigator programs. i think these are one of the best things to really help provide the technical expertise that a lot of the jurisdictions frankly do not have the resources or capacity to have, so i think that has been a great model. i think with the 425 million dollars, for certain states like in illinois, backing up the 2018 money was five-year money. some states have budgeted out five years of programs, which is logical. we're going to get the 2020 money out the door quickly, but for states who had budgeted out the five years, knowing that more money is coming, they can start spending what they had immediately. i think the reality is where we are in the cycle, there's only certain things you're able to do. so much of this is about -- i think of elections as an infrastructure. it is now critical infrastructure but it has to be about building in the process and the strength in the long-term. they cannot be just about the long term. building systems that are strong enough moving forward. >> one of the things that was different about the 2020 appropriation and the 2018 appropriation was a significant rise in state match. the states are going to have to put up more money to access the federal funds. how does that impact how quickly you can get out the door? does legislation need to get involved? what do you plan on doing with the money once you have it? >> was said to everyone that security is our number one goal. understand how important the voter database is. we are going to be looking at what we can do to strengthen that. we have a new system coming up. we will be doing a lot of social media videos. georgia public television has done a video and put it on their website. we are going to be looking at, how do we help voters and get them prepared? it is a new system. it is similar but different. that is our mantra. we want people to have a great experience. the whole idea when you show up to vote, we do not like lines. voters do not like lines. we want to help voters navigate so they understand what the process is. after they have made the selections, press the button, they have not voted until they dropped the ballot into the scanner. so people have fun with it. it should be a great day. it should not be misery. it should be fun. >> one of the other complaints we have heard is that it is not getting down to the election spheres. can states be doing that be doing to ensure it is getting to the local sphere? >> commissioner hovland: we have heard that from a number of jurisdictions and states. some of that depends on what the needs were. if you needed a new statewide voter registration database, we saw that was where a lot of focus of 2018 activity was. that was something that benefits the entire state. we did see some states that passed most of the money down. we have seen states that kept most of it up top. with the additional 2020 money, it will be interesting to see if you had an initial investment in a statewide voter registration database, maybe you are in a position to award more local grants. we are hopeful to see that. >> what is happening in one state certainly impacts what is happening in every other state. you go back 20 or 30 years, maybe states could run their own elections separately. certainly the monitor has been, we do not want to be the next the mantra has been, we do not want to be the next florida. voters hear stories. what they are hearing is different from what is happening in their states. you have very long deadlines for certification of results in places like california, short ones out east, which leads to a lot of miscommunication among voters. what can the federal and state officials, particularly secretaries of state, do to make sure there voters are getting clean and accurate information quickly during a fast-paced media environment around elections? >> for us, we are upgrading our equipment. we are expecting to get election results on election night a lot faster just because of better technology. we were using equipment that is 18 years old. we're excited we are going to be upgrading to something that is a lot more modern and it'll be faster, so we're going to get faster results. we are going to be establishing to do risk limiting audits as part of the process. people at the end of the day, i understand that things are contentious at times but we want people to be confident that election results are accurate. you may not like the results but if you have the confidence results are accurate, that is what we are called to do as election officials. >> commissioner hovland: the secretaries are involved in a collective effort, trusted info 2020. i think that's a great effort to drive voters towards the trusted source of information, which is state and local election officials. we at the election assistance commission have partnered with gsa on vote.gov we are looking to enhance that. have government sources state local sources where people can go to get trusted information. that is a big piece of it. for voters, engaging arley. checking their voter engaging arley. checking their voter registration. i would hate to miss an opportunity to give a plug for being a poll worker, an election judge. i think it's a great experience. for anyone that maybe wants a little but more confidence in the process, i think actually being a part of it, you see all of the checks and double checks that go into it. you see all of the pieces that go into making election day great. and i know for me, and has been one of the more valuable experiences i have ever had. it is a long day. it isn't easy but it is worthwhile. >> i will warn everybody. i have five minutes until i am willinf to turn to your questions. in those five minutes where you're thinking about your questions, i want ask two questions to you. you are both coming to this from different perspectives. you are an elected official. you have been here for 20 years as a lawyer. what are the positive stories that aren't being told, that voters do not understand? and the flipside of that, going into 2020, what is keeping you up at night? >> many people do not realize we have a great story to tell. we are one of the first states to do online voter registration. we also have what is called opt out. so when you get your drivers license, you will be registered to vote. we think this year, we will have 7 million people registered to vote in our state. we expect 5 million voters this year. we've got a great story to tell. we have new voting systems being implemented. at the end of the day we also have at our county level, what i call personal integrity. county election officials want to get it right. they just want to do their job. they do not want to be on the evening news. they are working hard to make sure we have clean, fair, accurate elections. that is all we can ask of election officials. >> commissioner hovland: one of the real privileges i have in this job is i get to travel around the country and see how folks are administering elections, the work they're doing, the work they have been putting in. it is truly awesome. i probably should just take a video camera around. i could produce a documentary that no one would watch but would undoubtedly give anyone who watched it a lot of confidence. it really is amazing to give to see the work that state and local officials have been putting in and it should give voters confidence. as far as what keeps me up at night, i have a two-year-old that doesn't sleep as much as i'd like him to. but when i am awake with him, i think about what his democracy will look like in the future. the thing that worries me is that people do lose confidence in it. for the most part, the average american just wants to show up and vote for the candidate of their choice and believe it will be counted as they intended it to be. i am fully confident that will happen. i know i've been at conferences with cybersecurity experts and they have talked about the various vulnerabilities in our system, because all computers have vulnerabilities, but there is so much of that that has been mitigated. there are so many of the threats that have been addressed by the hard owrk election officials do. they have confidence in the process. that is important for americans to know. if they want a little more, they should consider being a poll worker. >> anything keeping you up at night? >> secretary raffensperger: cybersecurity, the back office. we know hackers do not sleep. but we do need our eight hours. those eight hours we're sleeping, we wonder what they are doing in their parent's basement or wherever they are. we don't know where they are going to come from. that's what keeps us up. >> there are some microphones in the auditorium. so if you have questions, please find one of those. right there. >> hi, thanks. cameron joseph, vice news, this question is for the secretary of state. when you guys going to announce the conclusion of your investigation into whether or not your statewide election data system was hacked in 2016? i know you have been working on that for a well. >> well it was not hacked. there were attempts but it was not hacked. there has never been from our understanding, there were attempted penetrations in florida and illinois, but our system was not hacked. >> there is an ongoing internal investigation into -- >> some of that is litigation. so on the litigation part, we cannot comment. >> obviously with the new system, there are some concerns, complications. i know there is a lot of litigation flying around your state. when you guys going to issue the rules of the road for auditing 2020 in case there are any issues? >> the way house bill 316 was written in the general assembly, that this year, the audit process is pilot audits. we have already began risk limiting audits for the municipal elections we had in the fall. that is the process we have started with. we had several officials that went up to virginia and watched and observed their process and we've implemented many of those measures. we've already had a task force, a roundtablee on audits and what that process will be. we will have that defined. will be codifying that in the state election board meetings next year. this year, our big lift will be having statewide implementation of the new system and doing audits statewide. we're not required by law to do that but we want to implement that as soon as possible. colorado began their process in 2010. they kept on adding additional counties. we would do it faster than colorado because we can learn from states that are ahead of us on this. >> we endorse a culture of auditing in our report, which we will talk about in our second panel. i want to make sure we have time for other questions as well. in the back? >> secretary, chairman our vice chair chairman or vice chair talked about poll workers being involved. >> we have a program in georgia. it is the student ambassadors program. it is to encourage high school students bieng engaged in the process. you can become a poll worker in georgia if you're 16 or older and so we want students to become involved with that. with the new systems, an ipad is part of the electronic poll book when they show up. we think it is really neat could rethink students will appreciate that. is really neat. we think students will appreciate that. it's not your grandfather's system. we've had in the past two programs in this event area and in forsyth county to encourace people to come out and be poll workers. we would love to encourage more people to become poll workers. it is going to be a big turnout, so we are going to need more coworkers than in the past. thank you for your question. >> you referenced 18-year-old election systems as being outdated. what is the average life expectancy when you purchase an election system? >> life expectancy are what it should be or how it is used? a lot of what we have talked about today has been the $380 million from fy 18 and the $425 million. part of the reason that money has been so important is the underfunding of elections. we had the help america vote act that was essentially 3 million dollars and you had the nationwide replacement of equipment. that was the first time you had that broad scale equipment change across the country. we have seen a lot of that equipment start to age out or be replaced. one of the things that is really challenging is you have jurisdictions that have had to patch that equipment together or find spare parts where they can because they do not have the funding to replace it in the most timely manner. a big piece of addressing that is, you hear people talk about we need a whole-of-government approach for cybersecurity and election cybersecurity. i also think it is important to talk about a whole of government approach in finding elections. state and local election officials absolutely run elections and should be responsible for paying for it, but there is a federal portion of the ballot and a federal rol. figuring out how to best fund elections will change the timeline for what is realistic to expect out of your election equipment going forward. >> your question with our new system, one advantage we have with the new system as we are going to start at the front end with the electronic poll book. it is an ipad. as apple will start with the software, we are going to get those upgrades. if the ipad falls apart, we can replace it and so it is almost like plug-and-play by piece. you come to the ballot marking device, that is on windows 10. if we end up with 11, 12, 13 software upgrades, we will be able incorporate that. likewise the printer, incorporate that. with the printer, it is a hewlett-packard printer. it is something you could buy at a local office store. it will be an upgrade to the printers. the ballot scanner, the same idea. it is not the whole system you have to replace. the software as we move through the system will be an upgrade. the voter database on the backside, we want to make sure we continue to strengthen that and make sure that stays current and update that going forward. we will not end up in that situation. we will see where we end up in 2025 and 2030. we incorporate that. we will look at how we incorporate that. >> mention was made of a program that voters can access to get accurate information about election and about candidates. what role if any can state election officials and the federal government play in countering misinformation put out over social media, especially about candidates? >> commissioner hovland: to be responsible to my jurisdiction issues, candidates are a bit outside of my purview, but i think we do see one, the way you see some of these foreign adversaries acting is mimicking certain traditional divides or weighs that voter suppression efforts have been happening. we see efforts to potentially talk about, certain people vote on wednesday or a day that is not appropriate. educating voters to know where that trusted source of information is. know who their state election official is. know who their local election official is. is a big piece of ensuring their ability to participate in the process is there and that they know when their registration deadline is, they know when, if they have an early vote period in their state, they know when that is. already centralized system is great in a lot of ways, but one of those areas we can improve is in communication and ensuring more people know the right place to get the information about how to participate. >> time for one last question. >> i was just going to answer, when one candidate is throwing mud at the other candidate, our job is just to administer the election process. that is the job of the political consultants on both sides. i have been in several runoffs. i get that. i'm never called and asked for help. that is not our role. our role is to make sure we have accurate elections. the candidate's job is to do whatever they can do to get elected, i guess. it'd be nice if we can elevate the level of civil discourse in this country. >> a question right here. >> i am a retired member of the foreign service. to what degree are you considering polling stations as far as the number and location in the state or in the county or jurisdiction so that all members eligible to vote have adequate opportunity to vote? >> in the state of georgia, we have already put out to our election officials, please expect 5 million people to come out and vote this fall and plan accordingly. expect numbers. i am an engineer, so i start running numbers. if you have this many people in precinct and look at how many people can move through the line, you better make sure you have enough machines to handle that. you may need to redeploy people in your county. we decreased in our purchase by 10%. every county will have enough machines. now it's the county election official's job to make sure they are deployed. we need to plan so we have uniformed line flow. i guess i am good at that because i am an engineer. we are trying to help the election officials administer as best we can. >> it's also a great way for us to highlight the bpc's work in polling place lines. we got the report last year. we have some work on that as well. thank you for being on the panel. i'm going to call the second panel. >> this is an exciting day. there is the tyranny of the timer. i am charles stuart, directorof the mit election data and sicence lab. this panel with three experts who i will be introducing in a second is going to be focusing on the report released today by the bpc. it highlights some of the proposals in that report. i will introduced the panel in second. a few things to introduce the panel. the first thing about the report is that it does help to illustrate how while there has been great strides in improving election administration since the president's commission on election and decade before, there is always room for improvement. increasingly, there is a sense of continual improvement in elections and i think that is a reflection of the report. the report also demonstrates the information and insight that america's election administrators have to offer. it is reflected in the report and the people on the stage embody that personally. another point i will make, when you look at the report, there are 21 recommendations. we do not have time to talk about all the recommendations. on the panelists the panelists will highlight a few of the recommendations. there are other things they can talk about. with that in mind, that may say a word about who is up on stage. immediately to my left is mandi grandjean, who is the ohio director of elections and the assistant secretary of the state. to her left is judd choate. should we let loose about the order of the panel? let's not. brian is the supervisor of elections for pascoe county, florida. chris thomas, the youngest member of the panel, is a fellow and served 36 years as michigan's director of elections. we will go down the line. mandy, i know had some things to highlight about eric and maintenance. >> it is great to be here. it is fantastic to be here and representing ohio and the secretary of state. ohio has been a member of eric for a while. e.r.i.c. stands for the electronic registration and information center. it is a recommendation for the task force report. we very are proud members of e.r.i.c. member states, of which there are 30 members. 29 states and the district of columbia. the recommendation is that all states should join e.r.i.c. for secure data sharing and list maintenance. it is a fantastic organization that is led by wonderful people. georgia recently joined. we are grateful to have them. florida is another notable state that joined e.r.i.c. kentucky and vermont as well. ohio uses e.r.i.c. in the secure transfer and sharing of data to do many things. secretary larose is very passionate about maximizing ohio's access and data sharing. one of the ways we plan to do so is increasing our eligible but unregistered mailing frequencies. so that again is sharing data with other states to identify the list of folks in your state who are of eligible voting age or unregistered to vote. sending them a postcard and saying, we noticed you are on you are eligible to vote, but you are unregistered. "yl stats to share from eric. the total voting eligible population of eric amber states is 127.5 million. states is 125 -- 127.5 million. way to identify folks. it is a great way to increase civic engagement and engage with the voting population. we are thrilled about the task force recommendation. maintenance can be a political thing. that is why we love the bpce and the task force recommendation, because of the polarization we are in right now. .t is great to sit next to judd it is great to interact with secretaries of state and election directors of different political affiliations to do what is best for the boater. that is something that secretary -- for the vote her. that is something that secretary larose is passionate about. ultimately, our process was upheld by the u.s. supreme court. secretary larose settled that case in 2018. if any of you find frank larose on twitter or instagram and watch the video of andre washington, the ohio president of the a philip randolph institute, the entity that originally sued the previous administration, thanking secretary larose for his work in analyst maintenance and doing the right thing and moving forward in a bipartisan way. if it does not bring you to tears, it will bring you close to tears. , last yearwill say in 2019, the previous administration in 2015 had ohio is our what in clock of cancellations. what secretary larose update was unprecedentedly transparent. he actually published the list of those individuals who were said to be canceled. withwe did is he worked the ohio leak of women voters -- voters, tof women get them right is dirt in that process. -- to get them registered in that process. we hope it serves as a nationwide leader. our friends in georgia did the same thing with their maintenance process as well. we are proud of our transparent efforts to get as many people in ohio registered as possible. judd from colorado, your state has already been invoked. the colorado way involves mail in ballots. there are number of reports toudd related to that. j -- related to that. process and the bbc developed. that is that there are democrats and republicans on this stage. there are people with a lot of. there are people with less experience and more rural and urban states. states that have the eastern which -- eastern model, is based more on polling places. the western model is based on vote at home. we were able to come up with 30 plus recommendations we could all agree to. everyone could buy into those recommendations. that is an amazing thing. congressslatures, the should recognize these are all things we can all get behind. a couple of the things that stood out to me involve vote by mail. colorado is a state where we send every active voter a mail ballot. election.ior to the we figure that is an easier way to transmit that ballot to our voters and by having them get into the car and coming to see us. we are willing to put into an envelope and send that she you -- send that to you. the recommendation is that all states allow a voter to sign up for a mail ballot. they should be able to receive that prior to the election and that should be a seamless process. there are some recommendations to that. if you want to get a mail ballot and signed up for multiple elections at a time, you should be able to do that. in colorado, it is permanent. we do it for all of our active voters. if youer part of that is are in a state where people are getting their ballot by mail and a lot of voters voting with those mail ballots, you should provide opportunities for those motors to hand off the ballot in an easy way. the easiest way to do that is to have drop boxes throughout your state. you can drop them in a local way and not have to go stand in line and go to a boat center or paul vote center. washington and oregon have these long-standing vote by mail policies. they have the drop boxes. it leads to more voter engagement across more elections. maybe some of the low interest elections generate more interest when you hand a ballot to them. it is a good policy and one we could all agree on. the other thing is risk limiting audits. risk limiting audits in colorado. weery good policy, a policy could all get around as a bipartisan policy center with this group was to audit your election results. there are various ways you can do that. at the very basic, you should be doing something to show that you have taken it upon yourself to make sure the outcome you have -- producedhes matches the will of the voters. you can do that through one of the many auditing procedures. we have developed risk limiting audits. it is a long process. there was a big rollout. it is not something that realistically, a state could go and say i want to do risk limiting audits and six months later do them. that is not real estate. if you employ the strategy and research strategies, you could rule out some sort of procedure. a sub point to that is you should be doing audits before you certify results. if you certify results and then you do an audit and you find there was a problem, you have put the wrong people in office. long-term significant problem you're going to have to be in court about. might have the wrong people in elected offices. you should be doing those procedures before you certify outcomes, which in many states would require changes in law. those are two important areas in which the bipartisan policy center and the group of people we brought together to do the recommendations identified very good recommendations. been an brian, you have advocate for harnessing technology and improving elections. there are some things that you have to say. thank i would like to matt for invoking florida earlier. davis said it best when he said that election policy matters. that is a logical leap to the bipartisan policy center. of a spectrum of political ideologies and geographic and different approaches. they came together and came up with a bipartisan approach. and regards to the process harnessing technology, it is important we never lose sight. the most important stakeholder is the voters. we must keep that in mind whenever we are discussing. with regards to harnessing technology, it is a necessity. we look at where we are as a society, i often tell groups a fee think about it, the smartphone is a thousand times more powerful than what we use the moon.on you can harness that technology to make better election administration. woulduld have thought we have in good chunk of our nation, online registration. i tell my daughter that her fellow sailors can register to vote on her ship in the south china sea chain electronic poll -- the south china sea. we have come a long way from hanging chads. part of eric. the electronic aspect of data swaps. it is a great resource for voters, perspective voters, to do things like find out who their elected officials are. that information is powerful. it allows them to check the status of their absentee or vote by mail ballot. they can opt in by text alerts. whereiver there -- for their ballot is located. social media gets a bad rap. the internet has brought us together, but social media is telling -- is tearing us apart. it is a great tool to disseminate information to your stakeholders. certainly, sometimes sadly, refute information and disinformation. that is going to be a huge issue 2020. it is a great opportunity to use that technology to reach out to voters and stakeholders. i would be remiss not to mention the 800 pound gorilla. when you talk about things such as electronic poll books, having a backup register in the event of a power issue. having a robust cybersecurity plan to protect your platform and photo registration as well. thats such as having continuation of operations plan. it is wonderful to harness technology, but you have to have a plan b, plan c, and plan d. charles: chris, you spend a lot of time in michigan. michigan is known for pioneering and automating voter registration. recommendations in the report touch on that. thatan say things about recommendation from your deep well of experience. chris: it is a pleasure to be here. bpc for pulling together election officials. this is a report by election officials that is voter centric. there was a time if you put that many election officials together, you would have an election officials' view of the world. election officials today are very voter centric chain -- are very voter centric, which is where they need to be. i will move right along. 1990's, the national voter registration act was passed. the department of motor vehicles and social service agencies would give opportunities to register to vote. 44 states recovery. the remaining states had election day registration, so they were exempt. the commission on election registration in 2014 concluded it was poorly performing up to the expectations that were out there. most states were well below 50% of the transactions. coming from the dmv's, which is a place everyone comes to for ids, drivers licenses and social service necessities. there has been a lot of work in various states dealing with how to improve that. before, went to a dmv it was an opt in. you want to register? the numbers were so low. why was that? in many cases, you never got asked. in other cases, you had been there long enough that standing around to fill another form was not on your agenda. our recommendation deals with opt out. you are registered unless you opt out. that is the big change we are looking at. it is called automatic voter registration. it is not automatic. if you do not opt out, you are in. election officials are not going to add you to the file until they have taken the various steps to accept her citizenship, residency and age for example. there are two types. our preferred type is the front end. at the point of service, you have the opportunity to opt out. at the same time, you can add your political party preference and whatnot if your state requires that. the other is a back end. you go through. you are put on the list. this is communicated to a local election official who gives you an opportunity to opt out and add your political party. most people do not respond to those types of notices. ist a few states are doing they are finding very few people are selecting a political party through that system, which is going to be an issue when they get to a partisan primary. with this, the full spirit of the and dra is arising. we are seeing some incredible numbers in the election assistance commission eaves reports. few that ie you a think we'll underline the importance of this program. at the 2014 series, which is two years. and the 2018, which is 2017 2018. adopted an opt out and doubled the transactions coming from their dmv's. oregon, vermont, alaska and georgia. four times the number of transactions coming from the dmv's. an incredible amount of data, which lives up to what the end dra was intended to do. i will give a shout out to georgia. transactions in 2014 cycle. million.18 cycle, 3.5 that will give you an idea of how many people are being placed on the roles in all of the states that have adopted the opt out system. what this does, it is not only put people on. it keeps them on. move, which 25% of the people do every year, they are retained on file. that takes care of a major maintenance issue. you move from one place, they transfer you right over so you are not going through notices and whatnot. i would say probably the most incredible thing here is the amount of people that are added to the files who will be in position to vote if they choose to. charles: thanks a lot, chris. i think you all get a sense about the quality of the recommendations in the report. we have time for questions. get ready to ask them. we will do the same as before. i would like you to raise your hands. we have a couple people with microphones to bring them to you. please identify yourself. that was a good thing that happened the previous session. ask a real question. yes. in the front. >> department of labor employee. about the colorado system, i had two quick sessions -- two quick questions. mi correct that mail balloting is the only way to vote? ok. and then, the drop boxes. where are they? what is the security? >> colorado we like to say as the burger king model. do it your way. it is a buffet of options. priorl a ballot 22 days to the election. we open vote centers 15 days prior to the election. there are vote centers in every county. vote centers are based on population. there is a formula and a set of days. as you approach the election, counties have to employee more and more vote centers. though we are handing you a ballot ahead of time, we are providing you the back end opportunities. the question -- second question was the drop boxes. under state law, you have to have a certain number of drop boxes based on population. we require drop boxes based on college campuses. and on indian reservations. we have two indian reservations in colorado. they are required to have drop boxes as well. the dropbox formula. in burke county, 40 plus drop boxes. el paso county, arapahoe county, adams county, have 20, 30, 40 drop boxes. will have small counties with less population, which might have one or two. >> where are they? ontypically, they are government facilities or government land. they tend to be outside of libraries or recreation centers or sheriffs offices or postal offices. under state law, they are required to be under 24 hour, seven days a week, we hundred 65 days a year security. images -- 45 days prior to an election, becomes an election record. you have to hold that for 25 months. on occasion, that does become amething that ends up in court case after an election. they want to make sure it nothing did happen or something did happen at a particular dropbox. charles: let's move on. the fellow in the yellow shirt in the back. follow-up questions for colorado. is colorado a postmark state? do you allow ballot harvesting like california? how does it work for a primary? >> let me see if i can get these. hand state. the thinking is, we do not want to have a gap in time where we are not comfortable -- we are not confident about who won the elections. we want to be able to identify our winners right away. in hand means we have some election official in the state has to have the ballots by 7:00 p.m. on election day as opposed to a postmark, which may extend the window of time in which the ballot could come in. that is one thing. i am not going to remember your other questions. ballot harvesting in colorado, we allow somebody to bring in as many as five ballots. that is been me in my wife's ballot. we have an 18-year-old. i might bring in her ballot. ballots bigger group of you could bring in. we changed that in state law. the last question? we have a pseudo-open primary. is way our primary works and if you are unaffiliated -- our primary works is if you are unaffiliated, we are going to send you a democratic and republican ballot. you get to choose which one you vote. if you return them both, that is fine. if they are both voted, we have to spoil both of them. ourthinking being, we want unaffiliated voters to have some say in who will be the general election candidates. if you are affiliated, you have to change your affiliation 29 days or more prior to the election to be able to vote in the other side. if you're a democrat, you have to change prior to the election to vote as a republican. if you come in and affiliated, we will give you either ballot you want. >> it follows up a little bit. i am happy to have others comment on it. i serve on the advisory council of the election reformers network. it is about postmark balloting. we will call california and arizona having late results. what is the thinking about how that changes, what needs to be done so those problems are minimized? any others can comment on that. >> all of the states here have issues related to this. >> i will start with mine. we are concerned about that because it is a legitimacy question. we want to make sure the people and around the country and the world understand the person who has been elected for a given office has been legitimately elected. i'm going to off script a little bit and say, we are concerned about elected officials around the country and prominent national officials who discount the legitimacy of elections because it takes a wild to do that process. elections do not happen on a day. they have been over the course of time. there is a gap in time between election day and when you can certify an election. it is important for people to understand that. we like to tighten that as much as we can. that means not allowing for postmarks but in hand. runsorida essentially three elections. ail election. in moreyour experience of a traditional state? in hand by 7:00 p.m. on election day. the biggest issue we see with educating voters is a delay. we try to educate our voters. we find analysis, vast majority of those that arrive after 7:00 p.m. on election day often times were put on the mail the day before election day. you cannot put it in your mailbox at noon on election day postmark,opposed to but it would take a change in our state constitution. we have a short timeline and a to certify our elections. ballots 40 days in advance. there is plenty time to mail it. -- contrary to what you may read about, it is not an issue frankly. both in hand and postmark. of the many issues that exist in elections, that is not one of them in ohio. >> we found one. there is a question over here. i will go to this side next. >> there is a concern after 2016, some of what we sow with attempts at hacking election systems, a couple folks were talking about audits. can you talk about how that could alleviate those concerns and states and localities that do not have audits set up for 2020 and what could that mean? >> absolutely. we actually -- secretary lareau has helped introduce in our signed into law the frequency of audits that need to be done. , also in that bill is the ability to perform a risk limiting audit here we are increasing the types of audits that can be done at the local level. iz in her dean -- and her team did several pilots. we actually came up for our local counties a template press release for them to engage with folks like you to legitimize the results of the election and say, hey, media, we did an audit. please publish that. we have had a good relationship with our media to publicize the results. it is one thing to say you did a. it is another to show the work if that makes sense. in ohio, we are proud of that. it has gotten great results. >> audits are essential. you must do an audit. if your stay is not doing an audit, there is still an opportunity for you to do one. you have to pass a law or do a lot of work right away, or there is a great alternative, which is what maryland does. after an election, you can rerun your ballots with a different system. look at the images. you get a picture image of each ballot. put that stuff online. it people look to see, do believe in the outcome? i can do my own account if i want to. auditing and election is essential for voter confidence. i think every state should do it. fun like florida and recounts. if you ever want to have a audit on steroids, do three recounts. you're looking at every over vote and under vote in the entire state. it solidified the results. you are doing testing on those machines as well. it is a necessity. in to then has jumped risk imaging audit. our challenge is we are a home rules state. do not have the benefit of mail ballots were at the end of the night, they are nicely stacked. you come into to do the audit, it is real easy to find. when they are distributed in that istabulator bins, a lot more difficult. are performance audits. those need to be done over a myriad of detailed requirements to make sure election officials are doubting the eyes and crossing the t's. add, we spend a lot of time on issues of reporting. one of the things the report tried to do was think about the effect of recommendations. we'll find in the report on the recommendation that states do more sophisticated statistical audits but think about the certification. and think about -- the certification periods. it is not that you flip a switch and do auditing. you have to think comprehensively about how you do elections from casting the ballots to certifying. that is not going to happen overnight. i think we have time for one question. going. if not, i think matt -- we do have one. sorry, matt. >> tim harper. one thing i think is important to discuss is, there are important upstream and downstream effects making modifications to elections that means the time frames for how things happen are the effects have. can you talk a little about the ways in which the reforms in this package are structured or if there is a reform early in this process, does that mean for one certification happens? -- what does that mean for when certification happens? one thing i would say is, you have to think a less tickly about what you are tracked -- you have to think holistically about what you are trying to employ. we should really employ an earlier voter registration deadline. should try to go with mail ballots. ok. if you have an earlier voter registration deadline, colorado has same day registration. how is that going to work? if somebody adjusters to vote the day before election or on the day, i cannot mail them a ballot. if you register inside eight days, great. come on in. we'll give you ballot. come by a polling place not. problem. he problem though, is we can't mail you one. and even if it does get to you, it can want get turned around and get to us. ou have to think ain't wholistically. >> i would add the election calendar for each state is obviously so unique. it's a snowball effect. it changes one thing and changes everything else. i would encourage lawmakers, policymakers, election officials, holistic is the exact word. you have to think about unintended consequences when you are changing something. and it's not that change shouldn't occur. it absolutely should. but really thinking hard and deep about what tim packet of that change is going to be. it sounds like congressman davis really and his team are working hard to think about those things hole listically. we ene encourage lawmakers to do the same thing. >> that's a good note to end on. as someone observing this process, i was impress bds the corporation as you can see on the stage among the election directors who came in with a variety of perspectives and practices that everyone should consider and consider adoptingful i would -- adopting. i would like to thank the panelists who did a great job. [applause] turn it over back over to matt. matt: thank you, charles. thank you for panel one, for panel two. and thank you for all coming that's the owned our session. -- that's the end of our session. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.visit ncicap.org] awe -- nashua, new hampshire. here are his remarks.