Funded the film was a manufacturer of a popular riot gun used to fire gas canisters. Watch Reel America Police Training Films tonight beginning at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Up next, joining us is david decker, founder and executive director of the center for election innovation and research here to talk with us about the Election Security and in particular also mailin balloting, mailin voting. David becker, thanks for being a part of the program. Thanks for having me, bill, tell us about your organization. Center for election intervention and research. What have you founded . Ive been in elections 22 years and worked many years as a Trial Attorney in the Justice Department and voting section of the Civil Rights Division and made my way to the trust ran election teams for some years and in 2016 went off and founded this center to continue the work im doing. We work with Election Officials across the spectrum. Blue and red states, states, ev between, to try to help them successfully run elections. We focused in the past on things like Voter Registration and making that process for efficient and have more integrity. We focused on election cybersecurity which is still an issue and since the pandemic weve been working closely with states to help them adapt to provide voters as many convenient and safe voting options as possible. How are states in general planning to adapt for the pandemic . Well, most states this is true regardless of where they are and whether theyre run by republicans or democrats, are trying to find ways to give voters options, to give voters ways they can vote that they can feel safe and that are convenient to them. This means expanded mail voting. Every state is going to see a Record Number of ballots received by mail. But it means expanded early voting. Finding appropriate voting sites for voting in the pandemic which means they need to be large enough to accommodate social distancing. And also making sure that Election Officials can recruit enough poll workers so staff those sites. Thats a major challenge for them in this era of covid19 where we need about a million poll workers in a president ial election. Were going to need a new generation of poll workers to fill that role so that at risk individuals dont have to serve in the polling places. Define for us, for our conversation, the difference between mailin voting and absentee voting. Thats easy. Theres no difference. Theyre about exactly the same thing. Theyre basically three types of mail voting in the United States. There is there are the a small number of states that do what we call universal mail voting. They send ballots to all registered voters. The only swing state is nevada which Just Announced it this weekend. Other states including states like utah, washington, oregon, et cetera. And these are states that are run by both republicans and democrats. Theyve been doing this in most cases for a long time. There are a handful of states that require mail voting. And in many of those states the Election Officials, both republicans and democrats, have said that covid19 fears of covid19 would count as an excuse in some of those states. The vast majority of states, including almost all of the battleground states, offer whats called no excuse mail voting or no excuse absentee voting. These are essentially the exact same thing. This is when a voter has to request a mail ballot to be sent to them specific for that election. That mail ballot at that application gets validated against the voters information on the file. If that checks out, the voter receives a mail ballot. They fill out the mail ballot and the envelope which has a lot of Verification Information that only the voter themselves would have and they can return it by putting it in the mail or delivering it to a dropoff location. Thats the way that voting is done in states like georgia, florida, pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, et cetera. So its a very, very common thing. In 2016, about 1 in 4 ballots was returned by mail and were going to see more than that, obviously, this coming year. Our guest david becker talking about Election Security, votein ballots. 2027488000 is the line for republicans, 2027488001 for democrats, and independents 2027488002. Youve seen this study on mailin voting part of which says this, there are two major features of voting by mail that raise concerns. First, the ballot is cast outside the public eye and thus the opportunities for coercion and voter impersonation are greater. The transmission path is not as secure as traditional, inperson ballots. These concerns relate to ballots being intercepted and requested without the voters permission. States who have done a lot of mail voting have found that the risks its fair to say those risks exist. But theyre extremely rare. There are so many checks and balances in place on the ballots themselves, on the envelopes, on the applications, on the voter lists, that it would be exceedingly difficult for someone to commit fraud. When it happens, its almost always discovered. Its an easy way to get caught for voter fraud, to fill out a paper ballot application in the envelope and provide all of this documentary evidence that can demonstrate that you submitted a vote that you werent supposed. To of course you have to if you hope to get away it, you have to hope the person doesnt show up to vote. If they show up to vote, youre going to get caught. What republican Election Officials in utah, washington, oregon and many other states will tell you, there are several checks and balances in place. Voters who are unfamiliar with mail voting will have trouble filling out the envelope correctly or the ballot correctly and it could result in their ballot being rejected or one of their votes not being counted or the Postal Service will take too long to deliver the ballot in the first place and the voter may have to vote in person. Its not theres no perfect voting system. Every voter has to make their choices. Its very clear, a lot of voters are going to choose to vote by mail. There are states who have currently done and successfully done vote by mail exclusively . Exclusively isnt quite the right word. But there are states who do it almost exclusively. Well over 90 of their votes are mail ballots. Washington and oregon are the most notable. Both of them are run by republican secretaries of state. Colorado is probably next in line. Theyve been moving towards nearly all mail ballots for some time. Theyre well over 90 of their ballots are cast by mail. Hawaii is moving to all mail voting. Utah is moving to all mail voting for this election and they were at very high rates of mail voting. And even a state like california was on pace for about 75 of their ballots being delivered to voters by mail. So and then returned as voted. So its theres always an inpers inperson option, but states like those are nearly as close to 100 . The attorney general welcome barr testified before the house last week and was asked about the potential for voter fraud in the upcoming election. Lets take a listen. As attorney general of the United States, do you believe that this 2020 president ial election will be rigged . I have no reason to think it will be. President trump tweeted that the election will be rigged, but he also tweeted that when he was losing to Hillary Clinton and he tweeted that, the day after fox showed that he was losing to trump. But i dont want to be too political. Do you believe as the attorney general of the United States that mailin voting will lead to massive voter fraud . I think theres a high risks that it will. Do you ever vote by mailin ballot . Apparently i did once at least. But you believe that other people voting by mail could lead to massive fraud . No. What ive talked about, made very clear, im not talking about accommodations to people who have to be out of the state or have some particular need not to inability to go and vote. What im talking about is the wholesale conversion of election to mailin voting. You do understand that africanamericans disproportionally do not survive covid19, coronavirus i didnt hear the question. You are wear that black people disproportionately die from covid19, coronavirus, correct . Yes, i think thats right. And not that it would be the first time that africanamericans would risk their lives to vote in this country, to preserve its democracy, but the suggestion is that them having the ability to vote by mail would somehow lead to massive voter fraud. But i dont stick to that. I didnt say that. I just state what i think is a reality which is that if you have wholesale mailin voting, it increases the risk of fraud. But it doesnt make it likely. Thats all i said. David becker, the attorney general saying if you have wholesale mailin voting, the increased increases the likelihood for fraud. Do you agree with that . Absolutely not. I think i would really encourage the attorney general, he made these comments in the past. I would encourage him to talk to my former colleagues in the Justice Department about how mailin voting working and secretaries of state in his own party and the Lieutenant Governor of utah to find out the facts about this. States first of all, im not sure what he means by wholesale mail voting. In states with the largest percentage of mailin ballots, washington, oregon, utah, all run by republicans, there are many checks and balances in place. When fraud occurs, it occurs extremely rarely and its caught and prosecuted as it should be. Republican Election Officials in states like georgia, florida, ohio, have seen increased rates of mail balloting. And florida is very used to mail balloting. So there are many checks and balances in place. There are many protections. Republicans know this. Theyve been encouraging their voters to vote by mail, democrats are doing the same. Not every voter should be voting by mail. Its something that is a personal choice. Some voters who are very, very comfortable with paper ballots, with mail ballots who voted before should be voting by mail. Its very also important to note were going to need very significant inperson voting options so voters who need or want to vote in person can do so safely and conveniently. David becker, the founder and executive director for foundation for voter investigation and research. 2027488000 for republicans, 2027488001 for democrats and 2027488002 for independents. Caller thank you for taking my call. When i left california, we were gone for six years when i found out the people that bought our house, we were still would call me and still receiving election ballots. And i knew years before that the california was about as crooked as they could be. Nevada just recently passed laws where there are no boundaries, anybody can pick up whether related or not, they can go and pick up ballots from people that they dont know. And pass coronavirus to them. I live in a home now that i have lived in since 2009. Evidently, there were 11 people that lived here before me and i still havent been able to get their mail delivered to their correct address. I have tried my best to find these people. I have put in for change of addresses on these people. I have begged with the post office. And now, i have received mailin ballots for these people half of these people. So tell me that i cant fill out these. Im damn good at signatures. Yeah, i highly encourage you not to do that. If you fill out any ballots that come to your house in error, you will get caught. Theres a lot of private information that only the voter themselves would have. Its very unlikely no matter how good you are that you would know exactly how the person signed on their voter file when they first registered to vote, which is the signature its being matched against. You better hope that person doesnt show up to vote in person. If they do, they will know there was a fraudulent vote cast and they will find you and you will be prosecuted. There will be years that you spend in jail. There are protections against this in both federal and state law. With regard to ballots in states that do mostly mail balloting, it is important that the voter record be up to date. States are doing a better job of keeping their voter records up to date. Its something weve worked on with the states for some time and theres still some work to do. Even if a ballot gets delivered in error to a voter, if they try to vote that, they will be caught and they will be prosecuted. Its not the crime of the century. You will risk many years in jail and a very large fine for the right to cast one additional fraudulent election. And thats one of the reasons that americans take their elections so seriously and fortunately we see and there have been many studies on this by the bush Justice Department, by republican and democrat secretaries of state around the country and we have confirmed that there is very little voter fraud in the United States and thats a very good thing. Well go to our democrats line next. Claude is in river view, florida. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call, mr. Becker. Just a few points of interest that i would like for you to address. The president has been undermining our elections from asking russia to find hillarys emails, saying that the election was rigged even before it was even elected even before the vote. Now, hes continued that up until this point, still saying and undermining our elections. How do you square that with the pack of lies that hes told from building a wall and mexico is going to pay for it, how does that affect our elections . Thank you. It is its a big concern to Election Officials around the country. I talk to them about this regularly. Its not just democrats, its republicans as well. Voters are losing confidence in our elections and of course this has been the goal of our foreign adversaries like russia and china and north korea and iran for some time. Theyre all autocracies. They want citizens of a democracy to lose confidence in the system of government and in the elections that elect our leaders. And its very disappointing when any domestic actors or particularly our leaders use rhetoric, especially false rhetoric, that would lead to lowering the confidence of American Voters in our elections. I can tell you, Election Officials are working overtime right now. Theyve done more to increase the security of our elections in the face of foreign interference. Theyre trying to provide for the best possible voting experience even during the pandemic, even as they have very few resources and state budgets are drying up. And voters should feel confident that theyre vote is going to be counted properly. We all need to work harder to make sure that we encourage our fellow citizens to have confidence in our system and make sure we have a system that has integrity in it. If you look at polling, we should be concerned about diminished confidence in our elections and i can tell you if you have any doubts about that whatsoever, if you want to really learn about how elections work, volunteer to be a poll worker. Go to your county election website, state election website and volunteer to be a poll worker and see it from the inside. Youll do a Tremendous Service for your fellow citizens and you get a chance to see exactly how the system works and protects against any possible fraud or other problems. Certainly, though, a number of states must be concerned that those poll workers, there present in the past, are concerned about being there in person this time. Its pretty much a wellknown fact that many of the poll workers are Older Americans who can volunteer at the polls. Any sense of states that may be struggling to fill those positions as the election approaches . I think its safe to say every state is concerned about filling those positions. There are huge percentages who are an atrisk population and arent volunteering to be a poll worker again and probably shouldnt volunteer to be a poll worker again. Were going to need younger segments of the population to step up and volunteer to serve as poll workers and Election Officials are doing what they can to make sure that the polling sites are such to that people are minimizing any risk similar to what we might do in a Grocery Store, perhaps even better. Election officials are working to get plexiglas shields to that to separate people in the polling place. Theyre keeping polling stations far apart. Theyre having enough ppe and disinfecting supplies on hand and training their poll workers to use it during the day. I think what youll see, if you go to vote in person this fall, youll see that the polling places are safe, that Election Officials have done what they needed to do, even though they need a lot more resources to do it. Were seeing other elements of society stepping up to help. Im helping advise the more than a vote initiate that lebron james started and theyve been successful getting sports teams, nba teams but others, to also volunteer their facilities, arenas, which are very large and can accommodate social distancing, and large polling places, those are good places for Voting Centers that can be used in early voting and even on election day. Election officials are doing things theyve never had to do in the past, but trying to find ways to have a safe voting experience. Caller i live in a paper ballot state, washington, and i didnt take trump to lose my confidence in the paper Ballot System because my mother died and for four election cycles, ballots were delivered to her home. The family after one of the family bought her house, the family ended up getting the last ballot. The only way they could secure the system is to put i. D. Like, an i. D. Bar code on every on