Secretaries of state of colorado and pennsylvania about Voting Rights and Voter Suppression at a conference in pittsburgh. Ok were going to get started here. Good morning everyone. I will be moderating todays panel. I am the ceo of civitech. I am very honored to be here at leading this panel with you here today. Republican lawmakers coordinated to undermine the results of the president ial election. Since then, republicans have passed even greater restrictions on the ability to vote and have your vote counted and what appears an apparent attempt to grasp power. Eliminating dropbox location. These target bracket black and brown communities. Voter suppression is not new but it feels that it should not be so brazen, it is. They have made it illegal to give food to voters waiting in line. It is been nearly 30 years since the last meeting feel meaningful Voting Rights legislation. Where do we go from here . We organize. We want to beat these Voter Suppression laws. We want to expand the electorate. I am very honored to be here. With that, i would like to introduce stephanie gomez. She works to organize, mobilize and empower youth advocacy. She has dedicated her career to get people to vote. She would chase her peers down to make sure they were registered to vote. From leading a state wide legislative coalition as the associated cause of vote texas. Thank you for joining us here today. At the end we have charlie oleda. He identifies policy and advocacy themes. He works to bring together election reforms that strengthens the integrity of our elections. Prior to joining the team of secure democracy, he works in colorado and his work has been in politico, the Washington Post and instate outlets. Thank you for being here today. Last but not least, we have jenna griswold, colorado secretary of state. 94 of voters used a pallet drop box. We are deeply honored to have her with us today. I would like to jump right into some questions. We will move to a q a there are no cards on your chairs if you would prefer to write a question but we also have a microphone if you would like to ask. If you would like to write questions now someone will come around to pick them up. To kick things off, with a little bit of a discussion. In the aftermath of the 2020 election, Election Officials and local offices found themselves amongst the onslaught, following showdowns, republican state legislatures sought to enact laws. Stacey abrams put it, they had grand plans tried to overturn the will of the voters . Charley this year alone we have seen 21 states that have enacted laws to manipulate the administration of our elections for partisan gains. A lot of these policies amount to Something Like death of a thousand cuts and they include policies to directly a change authority over certification. New and increased penalties for election administration, poll workers in the even for innocent mistakes. And the increasing restrictions on funding and resourcing as well as the ability of Election Administrators to coordinate or speak to her work with nonprofits and organizers in the communities. And even beyond those, we are also seeing in 18 states, legislation to restrict access to voting. Attacks on drop boxes, vote by mail, early voting, automatic voting registration. New burdensome voter id requirements, as well think we can underestimate the suppressive power of disinformation. This is hope in the dark. It is not all bad news. I want to share the good news here. Even in some of our most difficult states like arizona where they introduced 134 bills alone touching elections. Our coalition was able to defeat 120 and passed some good policy there. We have seen 24 states pass improvements to election administration. This includes improved access to vote by mail and early voting. As well as policies that balance enforced security to our elections with improved access. Comprehensive pallet tracking. Preprocessing imbalance. Risk limiting audits and automatic enrollment. In kentucky, where they have a super republican majority in their legislature, we were able to establish early voting for the first time ever. Established drop boxes, care process and absentee online request form. Almost unanimously through their legislature. It is possible to fight back and it is happening. Jeremy there are some great successes and a great point to showcase. Even though we are facing these threats, there are people doing great work. To this point and distinction, these actions by state legislatures, the top threat to free and Fair Elections, are you seeing measures making an impact . Jena griswold last year 34 Voter Suppression bills were passed. When we think about the attack on democracy we can think about it in three charges. It makes it harder for people to vote. Voter suppression is very pointed like in georgia, making lines that were already 11 hours long even longer. Criminalizing a woman standing in line a bottle of water illegal. Some of it is really broad, like what we have seen in texas. It is so broad that it disenfranchising everybody. And number three, destabilizing election. Election workers have been threatened, people are quitting. Pennsylvania has lost 30 of election workers since 2020. Then you have maga extremists like steve bannon recruiting people. And then the big lie is being adopted by Election Officials and compromise their own voting systems. And then they lie so much that americans no longer have high confidence in elections. It is very clearly setting the table for the next election. You saw President Trump try to steal the election, now they are focused on future elections. It is code red for american democracy. The passion to keep on fighting because i do believe we are going to win this fight for democracy longterm. Thank you germany for giving me the sad question. Jeremy all these different types of categories with efforts with intentional purpose. In texas, the state has been an incubator for these types of ideas. These ideas in texas, they have a trial run of the certain things. It is something that plagues my daytoday existence. It is very hard for me as a texas who loves democracy and have to have a conversation with them we are so excited to get you to vote but these are very real changes to election law that you have to take into account now. Antivoter legislators are all over taxes unfortunately. The best example of that that people know when it comes to antivoter legislation is sc one. It was an absolutely insane, terrible year for me. This bill is unique is because it out lawed pro voter initiatives. They saw the need for things like drivethru, early voter in houston. They saw the need for extended early voting. What it did was give houstonians, particularly black and brown houstonians, the opportunity to safely cast their ballot early. They see our democracy operating in the way that it should and then what they recognized is that this is something that attacks their ability to hold onto power, because texas right now only serves a part of texas. But texas is a diverse, really young state. It was disheartening to see that legislation become law. You know what else is on the way . A lot more organizing. Jeremy i think that is another great point. We have seen vote by mail reach particularly salient levels in the last few years with the Global Pandemic that restricts people to access to public spaces. Vote by mail search and usage during the 2020 election. Interestingly, it has long been seen as a republican advantage. I am curious charley, is it anything more than partisan politics at play when limiting drop boxes . Charley if we look at arizona for example, there was a bill this year designed this bill was designed to ban drop boxes. The places that the drop boxes were most popular were in indigenous communities. Of course, this is where they wanted to target restrictions. We were able to defeat this bill three separate times in the legislature this year. I will get into why. The motivation is obvious. In georgia as well, another state that went to restrict drop boxes aggressively this year. Drop boxes are most popular in the four metro counties that are over 50 counties of color. Those four counties had 107 drop boxes and now they only have 25. The motivation is clear in highly partisan. It is something to consider, these states can be examples for states, colorado is done a great job with dropbox availability. It allows flexibility to take advantage exhibiting infrastructure. For example, putting a dropbox and Grocery Store where they have security cameras and often a Security Guard there. It is a totally public space where anyone can come in and access. If these restrictions are coming in your states receive these conversations happening and they are going to do something about security here. Think about the ways to creatively comply and protect access at the same time. Us elevating back conversation created enough doubt with just a couple of republicans, thats all we needed to defeat this bill three times over. They realized there was another path forward to recognize the bill language would not be helpful. Keep that in mind to creative compliance in ways to protect access while addressing security if it is going to happen anyway. Jeremy i want to go ahead put in the title for creative compliance for a future documentary. With vote by mail, for example in texas where i live, the state has long been famous for who is eligible to vote by mail, there has been a new bill passed were a voter put their drivers license number or their state id number on their application they want to put on their ballot in order to vote by mail but it has to match whatever number you first signed up to vote. We have this mechanical and logistical challenge that resulted in 12 of vote by mail ballots. Thats tens of thousands of people. So stephanie, how organizers on the ground creatively complying to help people cast their ballot in a world in which this is the law . Stephanie it is hard to explain to people who are just trying to do what they have been doing for years. This is affecting a lot of older people in texas specifically they just dont understand because this process doesnt make sense. You are asking all the right questions. We pointed this out in the legislative session. This is going to confuse people. This will disproportionately affect older voters are Younger Voters living on college campuses. It was actually hard for Willie Nelson, he had to try twice to get his ballot approved. If you are coming after Willie Nelson . We need education and support. It is not just students, we are already engaged. What we need right now are organizations like move, texas and explain to people this is what you need to know, this is how you need to implemented and continue to support young people and all taxes as they try to cast their ballot. At move, taxes, we come in three weeks before elections and have conversations with people and put together curriculum to support young people who were Building Communities and get that information out to their campuses. And so, we are excited to continue mobilizing the changes to the election law and whatever threats are coming. I am really excited to say we relaunched our campus chapter. They are doing it today in san antonio. We are putting young organizers through training. What does it actually look like to work for democracy in an antidemocracy state . We do a lot of community work. Jeremy inconveniencing celebrity is really powerful for us. I was working for the president ial election and they had the address on one side in the same address on the other and on which way it got voted on, you could mail your ballot back and it would be redelivered to you. In a new york or reporter got her ballot mailed back. But if Willie Nelson cant vote, then we might have a chance. Deliberate attempts to inconvenience your vote, to make it harder. There are a lot of people who are improving this process. We have one of the most free and Fair Elections in 2020 because of the people sitting here like [no audio] jena griswold. Jena griswold this inconveniencing is elected officials trying to steal their seats. This inconvenience is a strategy that is so unamerican that these people should have full shame and what they do. It is not just the right to vote, that they are stealing from the American People. It is tied into reasonable gun reform. Making sure there are background checks. The attack on women, the fact that there are attacks on marriage equality. This is egregious what these folks are doing and we should call it out for exactly what it is. With that said, there is hope. One of the things that we have to do is elect people who are willing to protect the foundation of this country. Who believe that it is the American People who get to decide the elections in this country. I became colorados first woman, democratic secretary of state since eisenhower. Charlie lives in colorado and she helped get that vote through. She is a superstar. We ended up in 2019, i am not trying to make you blush. I am just trying to say the truth. In 2019, we did a series of things. We increase job boxes by 60 we increase drop boxes on tribal lands. We added more voting centers. Flip of a switch, 11,000 people were reenfranchised. We passed automatic Voter Registration, which registered a hundred thousand people. I subsequently passed statewide ballot tracking. We did a whole host of things and unfortunately this legislation i made it a crime to docs election workers. We prohibited open carry within 100 feet of where they process ballots or within a voting center. There is a lot of help. Democratic secretaries of state, even within arizona have passed major reforms. We need to focus on the policy. We have to focus on electing people who want americans to vote. That is the distinction we will see in three months. Jeremy i appreciate that, i think that is a great point. Every single method by which voters they are trying to suppress voters is also a way we can increase access. We will go through one more round of questions, if you would hold those notecards up we will have someone go around and grab them. We have talked here about some of the things we are seeing. To this point about where are there opportunities to address these pernicious laws . Correspondingly, how can we change them . Jena griswold the colorado model is the best model in the country. You can register online, you dont have to jump through a million hoops. You are automatically sent a ballot, we have weeks of early voting. You can put accessibility handinhand with security. We are the most accessible state and the most secure. We have 400 drop boxes with video cameras. This nation, if they want high voter turnout, if that is what folks actually want. That is and makes it an of vote by mail. I instructed my office, we would help any state that wanted our help. We were really talking with every state across the country to make sure that the americans could have access to the ballot before the vaccine. I will tell you, as a nation, we were able to extend access to ballots. 84 of american voters, that led to record turnout. Record turnout to democrats, republicans. Early voting, early access to absentee ballots. Extreme republicans do not want people to vote. They are having election deniers oversee election. S. In arizona, the secretary of state nominee says a republican will never lose again if he is elected. What we are seeing is an assault on our fundamental freedoms. That is why this upcoming election is so important. Democracy is on the ballot. The only way we save it is americans getting out and voting. Jeremy i appreciate that point about national policy. There is coordination between these elements and it seems very clear that we will not get voting legislation in the near term. Kyrsten sinema says she will not overturn the filibuster in order to get the National Voting bill passed. Stephanie, what role do you see organizers playing on the ground to be most effective in either creatively complying or overcoming efforts to restrict access to the ballot in texas . Stephanie the important thing about that is it takes time. It takes time to bring people into this work and it takes time with young people who are dealing with a lot of things. A lot of people think that young people really dont understand what is going on. They do, they are dealing with multiple climate crises. Understanding that they feel a sense of dread and frustration. We dont have empowerment for young people. They are not often asked for their opinion. They are not often asked what it is that they would do. For them to come across, move taxes is a you centered organization that will build those relationships and explain to young people that yes, it is hard. This white supremacist state is operating in a way that is violent. How can we get you registered to vote which is the first step in political empowerment but what does that look like to hold it down in the state capital right there with all the layers and policy wonks . In this latest session all the people who were there with me waiting until 4 00 a. M. . It was young people of texas waiting with me just so they could be a part of this movement. That is how we will organize these young people making sure that they have these tools. We vote so that we can get elected officials who are not hyperpartisan notes. People who want to pass common sense legislation. In my lifetime if i see online voting, i will be so happy. This is a 1015 year fight. We are working against so many systems. Jeremy it takes a sustained effort. Online Voter Registration which exists in 14 other states and no one accuses alabama or tennessee of being a radical state because of online registration, it helps everyone to be able to use the internet to communicate with their officials. Setting up a clear expectation helps because elections, this exploitative cycle of hay we need you right now and this feeling of not quite getting results out of it. Charley, you are coordinating with teams across 20 states. Do you want to highlight some of those . Charley states are 10,000,000 the frontline of these fights. This is where its happening. Particularly this year, it seems like arizona, texas, this is where the election manipulators and people that dont want democracy in america. This is where they are testing out their playbooks for 2024. To see how far they can go. I think every organizer will tell you, this is not just defense. Going on offense, works. There are all kind of approaches, experiences happening in states all over the country. I will shine on arizona a little bit more. Some of the things that they are doing are so powerful. One, is that they have a strong infrastructure of Democracy Organization and working together. There is also a real deep and true celebration of a multiplicity of approaches to the work. They crank out our bill summaries and strategizing on what lawsuits to file. There are groups with a lobbying capacities that are all working together in the legislature and sharing intel, divvying up targets and have conversations around this. There are organizers recruiting volunteers, spokespeople and storytellers coming to the capital, going out into the communities,s speaking to the communities about how the system is not working for them now. There are artist, having rage paint nights, and if we are pistol off we have to feel that an express that. All the way to creative stunts like a carnival at the capital because the legislatures were more akin to the circus than a legislative body. There is room for all kinds of approaches and all kinds of m issions. There is a true celebration of each others strengths. What i am good at, but if we can leverage each others strengths and constantly try to improve that is where we have opportunities. In a state like arizona where the legislature is tough, they are looking at alternate forms and avenues to get done what they want to get done. Both working with courts to leverage their authority to push the envelope within the guidelines of statutes but also taking this fight to the ballot. There is a mega omnibus bill with all of our dreams for the election, that is an opportunity to have the policy conversation that we know arizona voters want to have separated from this conspiracy driven conversation that they are having. Jeremy i think what i heard there is more carnivals and circuses are good. If you have a question, please raise your hand. I will go to a written question. Anybody can raise your hand, the first question, i worry that the general public is not worried about the real threat. They are worried about inflation more, how do we get them to understand the danger and to act accordingly . Jena griswold i think people care about both. I grew up very blue collar up in the mountains of rural colorado and the cabin with the outhouse outside. We grew up on food stamps. I was the first person in my family to go to college. I think people should be very concerned about the cost of living and inflation. It was already hard for people to pay their bills prior to the tightening of the economy. So when people are having to think about do i put food on the table or pay my electricity that is something elected officials should be paying attention to. It is also true that minimum wage will not go up, you will not have more protections for the middle class. You will not have more protection for unions if you dont have the right to vote. I know that as a philosophical approach, but i am taking the right to vote to my core. I go to conservative places, liberal places. Once a week someone comes up to me with tears in their eyes. To share a story, we were out of parade and a woman from Northern Colorado came up to me and told me that she lost her job in 2020 and she has been on food stamps, she cant find a steady job and she started to cry but not until we talked about the right to vote. The American People know what is happening to them. They know their rights are at risk. They also know that inflation is too high and they know there needs to be relief for the middle class and lower income people. People are very upset about what is happening to women. People are outraged at this point, and they understand what is at stake. To be very clear, and three months people could lose the right to vote. Democracy is on the ballot in states like pennsylvania, and new mexico, and arizona, and new mexico, and swing states they will be able to vote if they can protect democracy, i am so confident that they will say this is the fight of our lifetimes. The wellfunded dismantling of democracy right now, we have to win in 2022 to be able to continue to fight, but this is the fight of our lifetimes, we have to continue to be a nation formed by the people. Jeremy anyone from the audience . My organizations people concern for climate action. On the right, whenever i see a county clerk or secretary of state person talk about Election Integrity i know that is code for something bad. Is there any shorthand code for something commonly used on our side free and Fair Elections . Jena griswold Election Integrity means the same as Election Security but one side says something and they start repeating it over and over. When they use code words to defend these feelings and then you have the sentiment out there you cant have sensible elections the opposite is true, if you have vote by mail security goes through the roof . Of. What americans want, not just republicans or democrats, the basic message of what americans want our electric ions that are free and fair. We dont need codewords we just need to deliver results. Secretaries of state for the most part are elected, we run on the ticket. Democratic secretaries of state do not run to help democrats they run to help americans choose who they want. Free and Fair Elections. Everyone should be able to cast a ballot. Those are the messages we should be pushing out. Jeremy first secretary griswold, how are you able to neutralize your Republican Opposition to secure those wins . Jena griswold i oversee business registry, business Identity Theft protections, every single one of those legislations except one had republican support. There are great republicans in this country. I will give you a couple of examples. Beside the fact that we had republican support on the majority of laws this year. The person i ran against in 2018 the republican incumbent secretary of state of colorado, when i called him to ask for his help to step into a county, he said yes. The majority of our county clerks in colorado are republican. We had to Security Breaches where i had to take action. To be very clear, this fight for Voting Rights are not against republicans. It is not the person running for local office. Everyone wants free and Fair Elections. This is a national fight where people around trump, including trump, steve bannon are trying to destabilize election. So it is important to reach across the aisle, and also recognize that this is the National Strategy right now. Jeremy you mentioned this asymmetry of trying to fight everyones right to vote while a small select few ajit pai and use things like voter integrity to try to take and hold power. There was a question from the audience about legislation, can something overrule this . Stephanie we were thinking the four the people legislation that would be great for everyone. It was introduced in other states. It was a bifurcation bill, it was super complicated. I am not a lawyer but i was listening to all of our allies and lawyers talk about it. You are telling me what this bill would do and it would separate elections in texas, federal elections would have to happen separately. You would the texans would do a lot of insane things to hold on to power. In the same way that they are going to try insane things on their side. To me, more reason why we should be investing in young people. Why we should be telling them, i have been doing this a while and it is not working. We need new ideas. We need to think outside of the box. Charley federal legislation is needed that would help in a lot of states. Lots of states are preparing for that to come down. Arizona this year also had lots of bills addressing federal only voters. Taking cracks on how to reduce their power and ability to legislate. Yes, to federal legislation but also, states are the front line and will continue to be the front line particularly with new theories, we cant skip the fight in the states. Federal legislation will not stop the fights in the states. We need that and we need investment there to continue for sure. Jeremy thank you very much. We will go ahead and start wrapping up. I want to turn back to the theme of this talk. We have these people who are running their fairly normal jobs helping execute elections. They live amongst all of the and 3300 counties. Volunteers, regular people. They are republican, democrat. They are thirdparty. There are a lot of people who are doing good work. The credit that so many of them are due, for creating better elections despite the attacks coming their way. We need to find ways to support those kinds of people. It cannot be up to them alone for holding the line for the rest of them. The fairest way for them to run the election despite the attacks they receive. It is no secret, we are in the midst of political turmoil. The overturning of roe v. Wade. The assault on the transgender community, a targeted minority. Ongoing attacks of all kinds. Local organizers have done all kinds of things. Even defeating a ballot measure in kansas. Elected officials who are coming up the resisting bad things, making a 200 system better all the time. More secure, more modern. We have a lot to be hopeful about. Stephanie, starting with you, voting is not the only thing we can do right now. Where can the people in this audience to channel their efforts to have an impact in democracy . Stephanie my answer is always going to be investing in young people. I am sure youve heard me say it three times just in this panel. It is interesting because if you believe in our democracy and you believe it needs to be reformed so it can live out its promise. Who are we building this democracy for, its for our young people, their future. We are Building Political power in young people so they can take charge of our democracy. This is a more diverse generation than we have ever had before. You know what is fun and energizing . When i come across a young person who is like, voting can fix this issue i care about . Because we often dont come across a person who was like, voting is cool. Because often they are just living their life. Oh i had abortion. I need to vote to protect that right. How are you engaging young the answer cannot be fellowship and internships. What are we doing to give young people a piece of this movement and working to set the strategy . When you do that, it is creative , fun, and energizing. Try to have conversations with young people and listen to them and you will see such success. Jeremy i think stephanie is onto something because we are sitting here with the youngest secretary of state listing all of the awesome things theyre doing. But i will save you for last. Charlie, same question. What can the audience channel their questions to . Charley i will split this into two pieces. First i will give you the abstract and then the actionable. First by way of the abstract, organizing runs on hope. The mood in the general public right now is not great. It is pretty dismal. On elections in particular, about 50 of likely voters have some concern about their elections. We do not inspire action by making it feel insurmountable or impossible. If i say this thing is impossible to do, do you want to dedicate 10 hours a week to doing it . No, you just said it was impossible. So we need to be singing out the affirmative. We need to be explaining what voting can deliver for our communities. The question about being concerned about inflation, okay. How is that connected to our elections and voting . It is connected. This is how voting matters. Now is not the time to back into a defensive crouch. We need to be going on offense and we need to be fighting. To do that, we need to hold hearts, we need to hold love in our hearts and hope in our hearts that we can get to where we need to go. One of my partners, alex gomez, the director for united and change said something on a panel i am obsessed with witches that organizing is the catalytic converter that turns my rage into love. Think about how to turn your rage into love. Now to think about the actionable. The biggest point i want to make is to expand partnerships and look across the aisle, look for opportunities to find agreement or alignment, even if it is on one tiny narrow thing. I spend most of my time working with republicans and i have shared examples of successes we have had. In kentucky, the republican secretary of state was a huge champion for their massive expansion of Voting Rights they did. We passed that bill almost unanimously. There were four votes in the entire legislature we did not get. It is possible to find alignment across the aisle. Thinking about policies like care process to allow a voter to fix an innocent mistake on their ballot. That guarantees that the vote is counted. That is important for access but is also a security touch point for Elections Officials to say this is the actual person who cast this ballot. Trying to think about, in this tough time and in this time when it is so partisan and really a charged environment, where can we make progress . Even if it is a small bite of the apple. Where are the partnerships that are not part of this conversation that should be . Business community, veterans and military members, disability rights groups, safe organizations, labor. Expander partnerships and the kind of people you are reaching out to. Once a week i tried to reach out to a potential new partner. I have no idea how this call is going to go. They may say, oh my god, you communist whatever. It could be a disaster but im going to have the conversation because what if we agree on something and could Work Together to get something done that seems impossible. Those are my two pieces, abstract and actionable. Jeremy thank you. Great points. The idea of connecting the outcomes with the efforts and devoting and it is delivering results. We just had a surprisingly historic legislative output that is dramatically improving american industries, the climate bill reducing inflation. Making good on some commitments that it took four years of organizing efforts and decades before that is that the stage. Getting people in place to have that legislature, that strength came from four years. It also us of the secretary of state of colorado who has been leading the way, creating opportunities for people to vote. Secretary griswold, will you close us out. Sec. Griswold thank you jeremy for hosting this. Charley and stephanie, thank you for what you are doing in the states. Are you guys from pennsylvania mostly . No . Anyone from pennsylvania . I know you guys are. [laughter] live one thing you can do is help your local county clerk and secretary of state. We have secretary of state chapman with us today who is leading pennsylvania in a tremendous way. She cannot do it alone, i cannot do it alone, they cannot do it alone. Saving democracy depends on everyone of us. Number one, get involved with a campaign. We also have cisco regular hiding in the back who is the democratic nominee for secretary of state in nevada. I have to win in colorado. I would set up the campaign, get involved. If you dont want to work on a campaign, adopt a state. Make sure there are enough poll watchers and voters know how to cast a ballot. Do something this election. We are going to save democracy but it on every single one of us chipping in dollars and time. That is what it comes to. Are you ready to save democracy . Good. Thank you guys and thank you, jeremy. Jeremy thank you, everyone, for being with us. I want to use this position to plug in for these people. You have moved texas and secure democracy usa and reelect secretary griswold. And these candidates that are in the room with us. Consider donating a volunteering. Thank you to our panelists for being here. It is not lost on us that we are here at netroots in a room full of people doing things. Thank you, all of you, for the work you are doing. Go check out the new tool showcase. [applause]