Transcripts For CSPAN Democratic Secretaries Of State Discuss Voting Rights 20240712

Because there has been a long history of it but it is a different scenario now. We all want fair am a secure, timely elections, but we have three essential problems facing this upcoming president ial election. First, the Global Pandemic, which none of us have ever seen, throughrough, or voted before. Second, the emerging tactics of a white house that is moving to very broadly and very clearly suppress the vote and third, the impact of both the white house strategy and the Global Pandemic on marginalized groups. That included black, brown, native, or those with differing disabilities, etc. In the past, in different administrations when the question of suppression came up, it could be put squarely on how the state treated black folks. It lost drew lines, how ballots, and that sort of thing. How they had been targeted by state policy but it is more complicated now. Moment where the administrations tactic is bolder, broader, and in some levels, it is extremely transparent and that tactic is to suppress the vote overall by a criminalizing mailing and absentee mailing by weaponizing the United States Postal Service that would be delivering the ballots and by dangling the specter of a delay in the elections due to a national emergency. Each of those things i laid out is a constitutional nonstarter on its own. Add to the effect on marginalized groups and voters, which will become pounded,. Ecomes broader im not sure the stakes could be any higher for the ability of the country to determine its future this november, but ive got good news. We are joined by three people who will navigate all of these questions and concerns in real time. They will be facing the high wire challenges that we are all facing, including breaking news about what the president is doing about the United States Postal Service and we hope this panel will be able to provide some information about what theyve learned from the current president ial primary season, some of which happened precovid. Some of it is happening post covid or during covid, what that has been, what they are watching to for, what we can expect happen in february, even if the only thing we can expect is the unexpected, which i think is going to be the case. Im very pleased to introduce to you three secretaries of state. Secretary of state of connecticut, the secretary of state of colorado, and the secretary of state for michigan. It is great to have you all here. I am going to throw out a question i told you i was going to ask before the news broke and im really interested, starting with secretary griswold. It would be great if you could of whate us a sense were some of the challenges you were facing precovid . You had a primary that happened before a lot of the lockdowns happened and what are you thinking about now . I would like to ask secretary griswold that and then secretary bentsen, if you could chime in with your piece and then we will move to secretary merrill, who just had a state and president ial primary a day or so give us some of your thoughts on those questions. We actually had our president ial primary on super tuesday, a week before the feeling theeally shutdowns and the fear of covid19, but we actually had our state primary june 30, so in the middle of the pandemic and i will say colorados election model is a great model and enables us to be in a really good spot when it comes to voting during a pandemic. We have online Voter Registration, sameday Voter Registration, in person early voting, and we mail a ballot to every coloradan. Pandemic, that has an able thus to have the highest rate of registered eligible voters in the nation and often, we are the leader in election turnout. I will say,rd, and we did a lot of work for our statewide primary to make sure it was safe and secure. Issued a series of election rules. By the way, when we talk about younger people, working class people, people of color, it is important to have mail valves and in person voting. In the statewide primary on june 30, during the pandemic, we set a voter turnout record. We absolutely did. It is proof of how well the colorado election model works. I want to share with you one of the reasons i am so passionate about expanding vote by mail for because my mom is a nurse and has been taking care of covid patients. And i feel like it is my job to save lives in the democracy. I am not willing to allow americans to die because they are forced into crowded voting. We talk about all commute is their voice heard. It is a great tool for that. It can save lives. President tax the mail ballots in the post office and now he is attacking drop boxes. Anything you want to do to make sure americans dont have to risk their health, the president and the postmaster general are attacking. I think it is important highlight today that he admitted that he is suppressing voters and he said he is trying to defund the Postal Service to stop mail ballots. He wants americans to risk their health to cast ballots. It is so undemocratic and unamerican. Every single american regardless of party should be concerned where this nation is headed under this administration. Thank you for that extraordinary work. You got a plus one because it is so easy to vote in colorado. Secretary benson, thank you for joining us your thoughts on the precovid, because i think also had primary precovid and what the post covid world looks like 10your thoughts about the and against going on with the United States Postal Service. Thanks for having me. I was withme i spoke my current colleague anyone of us were secretaries of state. It is great to come back 10 years later in share with you the perspective of overseeing elections in a critical swing state that is going to have an impact and has been under fire. Had three of the four elections this year. We had one in march, may, and last week on august 4, and of course in november. But that enabled us to do is prepare what that enabled us to do is prepare and develop data to make sure what will work best for voters in michigan in november and not to just ensure the system is assessable to thatter, but that is it is secure. We dont have to be pioneers in implementing vote by mail which voters voted for. Iteady for 2020, we knew would be a momentous cycle because my job would met same day registration automatic registration, audits, and the right to vote by mail, including the membership that will be announced next week. With all of those changes, we were already prepared for an enormous amount of stress on our current infrastructure they need s about how they can vote this year. That was exacerbated by the pandemic. We had already been on track to be prepared to ensure every citizen had the rope to vote by mail in michigan and develop had the right to vote by mail in michigan. We are now fully right to vote by mail state. The fact that it was citizens who overwhelmingly give us that enabled us to transition so quickly but also the fact that the amount of attention we have seen placed on vote by mail from the state. We invited people to vote by mail, educated them on how to do so with an application that became hyper politicized. The president attacked me in a number of tweets, some of which were inaccurate, of course. Incidents inn that every incident so far is the truth is on our side. In michigan, it is a right that citizens want and demonstrated they voted to give themselves that right in 2018. To doing this during a pandemic is one we have been able to successfully do because of all of these factors. Safehe government provided options to vote early in person or by mail. The last thing i will say is the evolving uncertainties and attacks by mail, is most of us have seen this storm coming since the pandemic hit in march. So in michigan and others, we have been adamant about not postponing our election, ensuring that citizens know bout their rights to vote by mail and how secure that is. We have done that successfully and we have had Record Numbers of voters by mail. And finally by being prepared for challenges of the postal and we have drop boxes all across the state. Citizens have multiple ways to return ballots once they receive them. And close partnerships with my colleagues in colorado, washington, oregon, and others who have done this work for years that we were able to quickly import that and be prepared for november. The last thing i will say and this is our greatest challenge in where we need a lot of help, is that we are doing all of this work in the midst of significant pushback at the National Level and likely from foreign adversaries as well. As we get closer to election day, the work will increase to educate voters about the truth, how safe it is, the true opportunity to have issue vote in person, and everything we are ensure that our elections are an accurate reflection of the people. We are also prepared for is the effort that may come after the election to try to to impact citizenss perception Citizens Perception about the accurate reflection. And we can ensure voters that they have the confidence that it is an accurate representation. Thank you. It is extraordinary that you have been able to switch from a system where you didnt have mail and to now or you have absentee, extraordinary. Interesting to hear the very steps you had to take to make thata reality, to backup democratically based shift in the way people want to express. Acknowledge that secretary griswold, but for the in your we would be state right now. We are sorry we couldnt be there. The good thing is it only took us 15 minutes to get ready for this panel rather than having to drive. Thank you for being an estate that was willing to post. Whato want to acknowledge is bubbling up in the chat. Michigan,ensign in secretary griswold in colorado secretary benson in michigan, secretary griswold in colorado, with states that havent done this around voting. There may be some questions about how you might help move ine of secretaries of states particular where republicans are in control, to do something different. I am going to return to secretary merrill, who has had the wondrous experience of doing both state and president ial about 45 seconds ago and has lived to tell the tale. Being with a spirit what was that experience like and what can we learn . Let me take you to the east coast, a blue state. You would think we would be really good. We are tied for last and access to voting in connecticut and alabama. Theyre the only two states left that have no early voting and you have to have an excuse to get an absentee ballot. Very tightly controlled. In other ways we have made progress, lots of work on Voter Registration and election date registration, but we have not been able to crack this. I have been trying for 10 years and it is embedded in our state constitution and republicans have blocked my efforts to establish more voting by mail, days of early voting, whatever it was, for years now. So here we are. I will say i was warned by my colleagues in colorado, oregon, other places, that this is not easy to implement. Along came covid. There was no public experience with voting by mail or absentee balloting. Officially we get 4 who vote by absentee because they are out of town that day. Ofdont have the kind restrictions like tennessee or texas, or if you are over 65 you automatically get an absentee ballot. Not in connecticut. I have been fought every inch of the way by republicans who have sued me several times. We have one all of the lawsuit. The short version is, yes, we just had a primary two days ago on top of covid, which was frankly the excuse we had for allowing people to vote by mail. It is wildly popular with the public. They are on our side. They are scared and feeling let they might get sick if they go to an in person polling place. Connecticut is in very good place with covid. Trajectory ofing covid is also in real time changing peoples attitudes about going to the polls. We learn from other states that we shouldnt be close and pulling cities, particularly where there are big cities with a lot of people where they shouldnt be standing in line because they could get sick. Made all of the districts we have no counties. 169 mostlyections by very small towns with election officials. The massive education project we embarked on was not just of the public to explain what was going on but to the local officials, many of whom were not in favor of this, because they had never changed anything in years. Ith all that, we managed it was an enormous turnout of absentee ballot voters. People did take advantage of the fact that we mailed applications to every eligible primary voter. I was sued on that factor alone. They lost. So we then mailed absentee ballots to anyone who requested them. 300,000 out of 1. 2 million requests. Then struck a major storm. Bout a week ago now so it out powers 800,000 people and most polling places. Connectivity was down for the couldnt process ballots and the the other x factor was the Postal Service. Like elsewhere we are compromised in the Postal Service we were compromised before trump eliminated services by the post office. And Fairfield County your mail goes to new york and back again if you mail something across the street. We knew that was a factor. People didnt get mail for three or four days. Everything was gone. So we had to extend for voting. Ig winner was the ballot boxes people already hearing the National News about the compromising of the Postal Service and the statements overtlyt trump, he very and transparently saying im going to compromise the Postal Service or eliminated because i dont want all this voting by mail. Particularly Minority Community came to life with the drop boxes. We watched hundreds of people. Ome by and drop ballots cnn did a special on the ballot box and they watched as people came up and said im not going to trust the Postal Service, im going to make sure my vote gets delivered. Eople are determined to vote weve never had that turnout in any primary in connecticut for many years. That is the good news. People are fired up and they are going to vote. Now it is up to us to try to manage this incredible situation. In a state like connecticut, it is a real challenge. My colleagues were right. It is very difficult to implement on the fly. Had the cares funds to be able to do this because we were able to provide resources to the town. We did all the mailing of the ballots. Without that money, we would not have been able to do this this way. I agree with the greatest challenge is the pushback we will get every step of the way. The republicans have an harshly criticizing me up through yesterday. First it was the ballot boxes. They went to court to try to block them just as is going on in pennsylvania. Now they are saying the ballots werent on time. It wasnt the storm. It was secretary mail and secretary merrill and her miss handling her mishandling. You fight off challenges to your authority. Legislators get involved. It is a difficult atmosphere. But as you are hearing right here in three very different , who the secretary of state is matters dramatically in these circumstances. Without we had some Kindred Souls in some states like ohio, but just in the last few days, i believe the republican secretary of state has reversed himself on things. Am so grateful and some of my College Colleagues who got elected in arizona and michigan and colorado, because we gained back a lot from the last election. It is going to matter dramatically this year. Thank you so much for that. As i was preparing for this, i all ofinning to look at the complexity and the players. Just the legal ones. Whatho is responsible for and there has been a labyrinth of layered protocol that has to be now advocated. I have tremendous expect for the work that you do. Lets drill down on the post office situation. Are filled with people that comment on these things and are organizing and when you talk about Voter Education, now it is not just education on who the candidates are, it is education and how to get your vote in and is if plan a b doesnt work out. A few years ago, people were this postal think, service, i dont know what this is about. Do we actually need it when we have our phones. Ist we are finding now things like the Postal Service, things like oldschool stuff like drop boxes become really key mechanisms to be able to ensure votes get placed and votes get counted. I am going to ask a hard question, which is, what the way do we do when the only to get rid of and administration that is trying to dismantle the Postal Service so they can state in office is to vote that person out. It is a catch22. You cant vote to get the person out of the office because the person who is in office that you are trying to get out will not let the Postal Service deliver your ballot. Something along those lines. What are you thinking about doing and what are some of the scenarios. When the court says we are going to count the ballot from the date it was mailed or the date it was postmarked or the date it your ived, what are starting with secretary griswold , what will that mean . I do want to tell everybody, i was born before 1990 and the youngest secretary of state the nation. You know that throwback is popular. What is popular is voting by mail. You are exactly right, the administration is trying to create not a catch22 for them,. Ut corruption of our democracy they are literally, the president just said that he is trying to stop vote by mail by defunding the post office. That is Voter Suppression plain and simple. I do think that we all have to fight. Take awayrying to access people have to change our future. Whether it is closing down in person voting, then they lie about mail ballots. Issueets make sure any with the post office is resolved, they are going to kill the post office. Lets go for drop boxes to get around the post office, and then the mitigate drop boxes. This administration is trying to take the boys away from americans. It is hard, but we cannot allow them to win. In colorado, we will do everything he can to stop the president. That there is direct conflict with the post office. They are trying to slow down loading boxes it is very clear. The part that we all assume in the past of the history of Voter Suppression is being yelled loudly to us. We need to make sure every elected official, democrat and republican knows that suppressing the voice of americans is not going to be ok. There are some things they can do right away. Nevada just past mail ballots. It is the best way to vote during the pandemic. We can add drop boxes. They are secure and assessable and coloradans use them. We have been voting by mail since 2014. More republicans have used mail ballots in two out of the three last general elections. Just in the statewide primary, we had High Percentage use mail and. Quite makeesnt sense. I think we are fighting for the soul of our nation. We are not fighting for democrats to win, we are fighting for voters to win. I want to share that when we adopted vote by mail, increased. On votes i do think it is important to fight for the right to vote. Voter suppression is systemic racism. Full by mail is an option to increase access. We increase access and participation rates by black by 11 ,y 13 , latinos asians by 11 , young voters by 16 , so we can have more access and have a healthy democracy, but that means fighting five vote for mail by all. We need everyone to lean in and write letters and demand your legislators do better. Put pressure on your secretaries of state. If you need to follow what is going on, follow me on twitter. Im trying to push back on the lies the president is saying because he has the biggest bully pulpit in the nation and we have push back against listen misinformation. I know it looks hard and looks bad, but we are winning. The president is doing everything he can to stop voting in november. But we have already won. In 2016, 20 3 use mail and. 23 used mailin voting. Already increased access and now we have to keep on going. Thank you for that. We have many more minutes of soapbox time for all of you. I want to get to secretary benson who is a Voting Rights expert. That you click for i also noted that you clerked for a prominent judge. What do you think the response is to the Postal Service attack and the attack that secretary griswold on every plan b out there. Is one plan b020 in so many ways. Sincee been anticipating the beginning of the year and we have been how did someone get there ballot, how to date return the ballot and how did we ensure they were counted. Everyone will answer that question differently. One path may come become more challenging. In michigan, we are working to get everyone there ballot however the choose to get them. In michigan, you can pick them up in person 40 days prior or request to get them sent to you or get them on election day. It, you heidi return can return it in person or dropping at the drop boxes and thent the state counted,nsure it is and we are working on that. All that notwithstanding, it may come as a surprise that every is enveloped in that isd a battle inherent as part of our history and what gives me the most hope and i am very optimistic about this year. We need to tell the truth about what is happening about the Postal Service but we cant elect the fact that as secretary griswold said, they are winning. We have some great secretaries of state around the country and great elected officials who are summoning the alarm, but we are winning because we are on the side of the people. Sides of theth political spectrum have voted by mail in the past and the data points that out. The other thing that gives me hope is that the citizens demanding change has created change. Maileason vote by succeeded is citizens are becoming educated and adjusting as we are. The last thing i will emphasize partnershiptance of. We have been Building Partnership with Business Leaders and employers and make surees to also everyone has access to new information so they can adapt to the new realities of voting during the pandemic and in the 2020 election. We are doing everything we can to protect the access to the vote in the process we have to be mindful that throughout this lookingxperience is head to the next data. We also anticipated the move to cancel the election back in march. We started fighting for that to make sure that our elections were on time. We anticipated the challenges with the Postal Service. On top of all that, we are now anticipating what will happen after the election which will be an attempt to try to discredit the processes we are talking about protecting today and we had to be prepared for that as well. Successfully winning each of these battles requires all of us. We have secretaries of state and elected officials fighting, but it is citizens and their involvement that will actually ensure the success of these efforts. That is why gatherings like this are so important so we can work andther and ensure truth data in fair democracy. Thank you for that. Secretary merrill, and connecticut, i am looking at what some of the state republicans were saying about you. They were going hard. And secretary benson said that the idea of drop boxes heroeally be the pivotal in this current drama. ,y question really for you is your comments on the Postal Service situation, particularly of their newestion processes under way for you. What is your biggest concern with respect to postmark and of thee question capacity that you have to absorb form of voting for you on a massive scale with so many people watching and frankly a lot of the right wing dropping lawsuits for everything from not mailingboxes to out things quickly enough. It seems like you cant win. What is keeping you up at night now that youve had a chance to sleep after the last. I remain concerned about just having one way to vote. I just want to mention something we havent talked about, the Minority Community is suspicious of mailing in their votes. They have a long history of Voter Suppression and i think they prefer to come in person, just to know that everything is the way it should be. Traditionally the problems we have had is tucking them into voting at all. My biggest thing has been that we cant convince people that it matters to vote. Now suddenly we are confronted with a whole new set of issues, but a community that has become determined to vote. Really why i think i am uneasy about going to a total vote by mail system. Concerned that we have enough in person, polling places, particularly in cities. There is not a lot of experience in this. November, least four we all ought to be conscious of the fact that we cannot be canceling polling places. That is the mainstay of many of ,he neighborhoods in cities particularly with lots of black and brown people and they need to have that reassurance that their vote is being counted. That is also why the ballot boxes were so important, because i saw so many people, the elderly and minorities in particular using the ballot boxes because they could touch it, feel it, watch it go into the box. It was right in front of the town hall and that reassurance is needed more than ever, because the victory that i believe the republicans have had, and not just the president , is that they have managed to make americans distrust their elections. That is probably the biggest followup of this entire situation, added to the Disinformation Campaign still being mounted by many in russia, from all kinds of foreign and domestic bad actors. I know some of us have been trying to track that, because that will ramp up as the election continues. Multitude of people trying to disrupt the elections by making people distrust the very fundamental system that they have believed in, very trustingly, for one good years. And now all of these new fears. So for me the most important thing is to make sure we have all these things available to people, whatever they choose to do. That is what the public wants. They want options here they want to make sure their vote is counted and every time there are lawsuits and questions about ballot boxes, you are taking one more nick out of that trust and that is the worst thing that is going on. That is what we need to fight. We need to make sure that people understand that there are those of us trying to make it secure and safe to vote, however you choose to vote. When you look at the data in georgia or wisconsin when polling places have been closed it isu see long lines, due to shortage of poll workers. That is an important thing for us to recognize. Workerched a poll recruitment in michigan. That enabled us to have successful in person voting and record turnout in the august primary last week. Many efforts to recruit poll workers this year is one of the most important things we can all be a part of and support to ensure exactly what secretary merrill said is that we have full access to in person voting for voters to take advantage of. I would hope every Single Person watching today signs up to be poll worker. It is one of the most direct ways that you can ensure democracy is protected. We are getting into the meat of the conversation. Accessible elections, people will vote. That should be one of the major takeaways. Government is full of people who do not represent everyday people. They represent themselves, corporate interests, and special interests. I grew up literally in a cabin with an outhouse outside. There are times when we were on food stamps and going to food banks, and i started working very young to go to college, the first person to go to loss will in my family. The fact of the matter is elected officials are overwhelmingly not representing everyday people. I believe that it is the trifecta of gerrymandering, Voter Suppression, and money in politics that enables a lot of elected officials to take office and not represent the people, because if they dont fight the people in the district, they cut them out suppress their vote. Special interests will bankroll the campaigns. I think we have a fundamental democracy problem. Part of the issue of getting voters to vote is having a system that elects people who will actually listen to the people and do things that help everyday people. I also think that it is imperative to keep in person, early voting and sameday Voter Registration and polls open on election day. Colorado,at we do in but i think in the state primary, i ran a Voter Engagement push. We had 99. 3 of all voters cast ballots using a mail ballot and the fact is that we had that in person, early access and in person voting. It is really important that people have all the options they need. Having that in person access is really important. We saw less than 11,000 people voted in the polls in the state primary, over half of them were under the age of 34. Every voter deserves to have their voice heard. We need a comprehensive voting system. When i say we need vote by mail for all, sending every voter a ballot and enabling them return it at a dropbox by the male with a functioning male, but also allowing them to either return the ballot to an in person Polling Center or even voting in person. Thank you for that. Secretary merrill, do you want to jump in for the folks that are following along, we will probably get to some of your questions in five or 10 minutes or so. Any thoughts you want to add . Sec. Merrill you can see those of us on the panel all agree that multiple options are the answer for a lot of this, because when one doesnt work so trumped, as they say, then you have other options. That was key in our primary. When the ballots were delayed, the challenge was letting them know, you can still break it down to the ballot box. I am looking that i have a democratic governor who was very helpful. Everyday he gave covid updates and included information about the ballot boxes on the last few days. For november, it is too late to change a lot of these laws in the other states. You are hearing from three have two of whom who i think colorado has one of the most options country, and there are a lot of others. I dont know how we make it a national priority. You have heard the democrats talking about it. They havent been able to get far with it yet, but i think it is coming and maybe that is what we need. A lot of secretaries of state would very much dispute the need for the federal government to step in, but in matters of civil rights, that is where they have stepped in in the past where there was clear Voter Suppression efforts in Southern States and some others. So it is time. But not in time for this election, and that is where we are and that is how we have to keep pushing forward with this voting by mail, because with covid, there are lots and lots of people who are not going to risk their life by going to an in person polling place, and yet, the Minority Community is more worked up than i have ever seen them. I think they are going to vote. One lady said, im going to vote if i have to crawl. Asterisk my health, i will do it. If i have to risk my health, i will do it. We do not want them to risk their health. With all that, all i can say is, you have to keep fighting and sticking with us when we get attacked by this National Republican agenda, which is clearly what is going on, particularly the litigation. You see it in every state. With ballot boxes, and particularly anybody from pennsylvania, you ought to be concerned about that, because pennsylvania is trying to do the right thing and being challenged in court as we speak. Stick with us is all i can say and hopefully we can get this on the National Agenda soon. That is where i want to go next before we go to questions. It is where we have an opportunity to talk to progressive secretaries of state and even rarer when we get to strategize with them. Secretary merrill, you just set this, in places where you have colleagues and as you were saying where you are in the fight for your life and getting hit from all sides and could use some etiquette, what states are you seeing where folks can jump in and push forward an agenda . And also for those in nonprogressive states, red states, problematic states and what would you suggest advocat to be looking out for . Advocates best looking out for . What is the thing they should push back against so that what we have been dealing with in places like connecticut are only going to be compounded . What advice. . Anyone can jump in. Sec. Griswold i think that we have to demand very clearly that america should have assessable period,. ,. We have to underline what is lstop. , fulkls last year, i ran a series of improvements. We added more pulling centers and more drop boxes. For the first time ever, we guaranteed a dropbox and every Public University and all tribal land. We worked with the tribes to make sure the Voter Suppression with seen against native americans never happens. We had automatic Voter Registration, enabled 17yearolds to cast a ballot they were 18 by the general. Every state should be leaning in and adding access to voters. We have a corruption problem in this nation. It is no surprise that so many Big Corporation and the uber wealthy have benefited from the coronavirus while working people died. Enough is enough. The democrats need to say that we stand for civil rights and against Voter Suppression and against suppression and demand that the democracy is put in the hands of everyday people, and we have to say it loudly. You have to say it so that we are able to pay off hr one and if it doesnt pass hr one we have to pass democracy reform in every nation. Thoughts this year, particularly with strategies advocates are facing, where the rubber hits the road in the conservative states, would be seen as tools that advocates can use to either support secretaries of state that are trying to be progressive or to really push back against what is happening in more conservative states . Jump in and i can tell you what happened in my state. I could never have overridden the kinds of restrictions we had for covid without the work of advocacy groups. They were in every district and calling legislators, both republicans and democrats, and saying they demanded their health was protected. Giving ation has the covid situation has given new impetus to this. Without the Public Health emergency, we would never have been able to ramp up efforts. To all the groups who got together after 2016 and said we cant let this happen again, we need you now. If you dont have a secretary of state or a governor who will very difficult, but you got to find somebody who will sound the alarm on peoples health. Have tothe best hook we make this happen, because the public is with us. 82 of the are like public, both republican and democrat, want the option of not having to go in person to the polls. That is the only hook we have right now, and we are fighting a big battle on every front. But where are the groups . Come back to life. I just went to a rally the other day among minority women through a, doing rallies, talking to minority women who are bearing a lot of the brunt of this covid thing. They are the healthcare workers and the mountains trying to find health care and the moms trying to find health care and childcare. Those are the groups you need to target to make sure they need to get out and vote. If you get them motivated, they will vote, and we have to make sure that happens. Secretary benson, thoughts of advice for advocates, particularly in states where there are major challenges, even more major than in michigan. Sec. Benson the important thing to note that many people in this great uncertainty, many are looking for clarity and how to vote to make sure their voices are heard and counted. It will require more this year to ensure that every vote is counted and heard. About exactlyking what your options are and making sure people know if they are voting by mail for the first time, all the options to return their ballots. The tutorials of how devote just as important in getting people to know the importance of exercising the vote this year. As i said, the other piece that we havent talked about is the era of disinformation we are in and the importance of doing collective Voter Education at a time when there are so many others with large platforms and megaphones speaking about the truth and reality and security of the voting process. Proactive Voter Education that is granular and detailed and specific using trusted voices and messengers to get that information out to communities and voters who are the most historically marginalized areas of your state or community. On top of that, we are prepared to push back on deceptive messaging that will be flowing into communities that are most likely to impact the outcome of the election. The data certainly suggests that voters in cities like milwaukee, detroit, flint, philadelphia, and pittsburgh, cloudless, columbus, and cleveland will influence the outcome of the election. There are 70 efforts to ensure we engage voters in that there are so many efforts to ensure that we encourage voters in those cities. So being prepared and all of those ways to be more creative and proactive in developing messaging. I know so many are out there working. This is an election layer Election Year like no other so getting that information out will be critical. Thank you so much. We are going to move to some questions. With, one ofoff about what is the percentage of ballots that are dropped off versus mailed usually in your states . If you have a sense of those statistics, that would be useful. The other question i wanted to will findth is, and i it in a second. It was a question about mailin ballots and the effect on people of color. Secretary merrill, you were talking about that particularly for people of color, the ballot foxes were key to the first question is male and versus drop off, what do those like . In the second piece is is there an effect for people of color with respect to mail and, specifically. Sec. Merrill in connecticut, only 4 of people generally use any form of absentee balloting or mailin voting. Usually, it is because they are out of town. They go to the town clerk, by. Ication are hard to come we cant just mail ballots because you have to have an excuse for voting by mail. We had to mail applications to all the Million People who were going to be eligible. That is the first time we have done that. That was the first hurdle in yet a big piece of public information. Most people didnt even know what an absentee ballot was, probably. That was news to everybody. Offices. Calling the a lot of people thought they were ballots. Are basically the party regulars, democrats and republicans could live a closed primary in connecticut. So you can imagine the lack of absentee ballot in that group, you can imagine what is going to happen in november. That is what i mean, there is a big challenge just informing people. Add to that the fact that you have a Minority Community that is suspicious of change in the way they vote. Been disenfranchised for a long time and dont see voting as an answer to much. I think after 2016, some of that changed, and there is a lot more interest in it, but they suddenly get a piece of paper in the mail and they are like, what is this all about. They dont know if this is real. These are people that are not trusting of the system. In general, they have told me personally i live in a city that is mostly minority and i know many people have come to me and said, i dont trust my vote by mail. I am going in person. That is why i think the drop boxes are such a wonderful thing. We never had them. We bought them with the federal grant for every town. There were two towns who refused to put them up, because they said they would be vandalized and there were all kinds of questions on the floor of the house because we had to get the legislature to vote to put up the ballot boxes. There was great resistance. In the end, everybody ended up complying, because the public picked in. Groups went to the mayor until they were put up. It is taking a long time to convince, particularly the minority and urban communities that this is ok. They are not so sure and they know pulling places, but now theyve got covid. You have this push and pull in these communities. Public education by local groups , by people they trust in their community is the only answer. They are not going to trust the institutions. Kick it to secretary griswold who does have to leave comment. This i would encourage people in the chats to throw some love to secretary oswald so i can secretary griswold so i can mention that after she leaves. Coloradansld 75 of vote who vote by mail drop it by dropbox. Ballot in the it state primary and it is between 70 and 80 return them to a dropbox. We see that the use of mail inlots increased voting communities that have been traditionally cut out of the process. Black Voter Participation by 13 , asian by 11 , latino 10 . It is important to secretary merrills point to really partner to Community Groups. We work with Community Groups who are going into prisons to make sure that as people come out, they know they are registered to vote. We worked with many of the leaders of the protests to make , notthat we try to shift shift but complement the energy of protests with the energy of voting. We organized a march to the pole polls and march to historically black neighborhoods, and to focus on getting out the vote. I am going to be hiring an organizer to do outreach to the homeless community. Just because you lose your home and experience homelessness, doesnt mean you give under give up your fundamental rights. I will be meeting with the tribes in colorado to make sure we are supporting native american access. I think it is important to have trust with Community Groups, regularly meet with Community Groups, ask them what they need, so the state and elected officials can be a part of the solution, not part of the barrier. You so much for that. Thanks for spending the time with us, secretary griswold. You got mad love on the chat. Once that i have been following her since she was a child. Very inspiring and thank you for your work and thank you for joining us. Sec. Benson sec. Griswold thank you. Secretary benson, if you are able to, any thoughts on particularly how people of color experience mailin ballots versus drop boxes, any thoughts that you could share in terms of what the percentages are between the two, if you have them, but particularly on focusing on mail and are we unwittingly putting an additional burden on black and brown communities . To thenson it goes back importance of education. Disabilities, english as second language, there is so much work we have to do to proactively make sure everyone has access to vote. What we have found in michigan issuethe most important is access to vote. I launched voting matters initiatives, which identifies the precincts in michigan with the lowest turnout. 40 were in the cities where in the city of detroit. I have had conversations with people in the community about what we can do better to ensure more people are participating. The number one issue has not been questions about it has been the question about whether someone had the ability to vote, regardless of their criminal history, and we know that is an evolving issue, and it is in evolving in the right direction, but it is so important to ensure and all communities and returning citizens have the right to vote. Keepnal history does not people from losing their right to vote. Proactivehat education from trusted voices in communities of color throughout the skate state is critical. And, are engaged in the process. Working witht, Community Leaders to communicate the opportunities, to return your ballot, whether you return it through drop boxes and through election day. The goal is to take democracy to the citizens. The system to them of voting they want. That is what we do in partnership, to amend our state constitution to expand Voting Rights. The work that all you and i have done in organizing communities to ensure that they have Voting Rights and access and then working with secretaries and state secretaries of state. It is critical, and i am grateful for the great work that so many of you are doing in detroit, flint, and in other cities. It is through this enormous Health Crisis and economic crisis, and the crisis affecting communities of color in the crisis of systemic racism that we are all collaborating on ways to ensure that our democracy serves as an avenue of empowerment where every vote be counted and every voice heard. Vincent thank you. I hope you guys can hear me. My computer says my internet is so i apologize if i slow down and get elongated. As long as you can hear me, heres the next question. The question from shareen is how much has a gutted Voting Rights act impacted your fight and issues . In other words, what would you need from the Voting Rights act moving forward in order to address some of the issues and challenges that they talk about. Sectionlimination of five, i do not think any element of section five covered connecticut or colorado, but it covered michigan and any other areas throughout the south. The elimination of section five most is what the significant of the gutting certainly it is long overdue for congress to five,ate not just section but to do so in a way that is meaningful and have teeth, but even because even prior to the case, that shield had so significantly been diminished. Section two is still in place, thecan still be used as sword as it always has been to ensure that citizens are able to litigate challenges to voting laws that are discriminatory in purpose or effect. That said those challenges have evolved over time and a restored Voting Rights act would not only aclude a section five and reinvigorated clearance requirements, but examining other things like felon disenfranchisement laws and looking at the data about communities of color and voting by mail and what further investment needs to happen in communities that are historicallyted or marginalized communities with low turnout so we can be developing new solutions to practically address that. veryr harris comprehensive reform package has been a model, and she has been the one who worked most closely with secretaries of state to develop the package, and i think that serves as a great example of some of what we need to see and some of the reforms in addition to section five bring us forward to a democracy accessible to all. Vincent thank you. For those at home, my internet went out and i dialed back in so i am on the phone and video because i can roll like that. L, what are your thoughts . Sec. Merrill i wanted to weigh in on it, because i lived through the permutations of what happened after they gutted the Voting Rights act. It will continue to be an enabler of different forms of state law that will keep evolving, and they have changed. At first it was photo id, and right after the Shelby County act, several states immediately, the next day change their laws to require more stringent ids. Thenfight has waned, and came the purging of lists, and we are in the midst of that fight, and it is still going on in my state which is well the lists are bad and terrible, therefore if you are mailing ballots for lists with a lot of dead people on them and people no longer at the address then that is rife with corruption and fraud. That has been the next wave of complaints, and the use of that act to permit states to pass restrictive laws, the likes of which we have not seen since the Voting Rights act of 1965. These are not settled questions, and we are seeing that. It will continue. Everything inded a different way and we are having different kinds of fights. Over list purging is noll going down, and i have doubt that during this election you might find out that your name has been removed. The voting by mail has actually improved our lists because we can tell when mail comes back undeliverable. I am using that as a reason to say, this is a good thing that we are mailing ballots and applications were ballots to people, because we can now update our list. That has sort of stopped the argument for the moment. That is the true implication of the Voting Rights act gutting, states are much more free to change laws to suppress votes in and novel ways that we will continue to see. That is my concern, and we have already seen it going on in some places. It can be combated, but we need congress to come in and fix it. I would second what my friend jocelyn set about senator harris. She has met with us personally and tried to develop a comprehensive look at election possibilities for federal law on the topic of elections, which is tricky because states guard that right closely, and it has always been a state responsibility. When it comes to the involvement of civil rights, they have stepped in, and showed. Vincent extraordinary and well said. Change the how do we gop narratives around Access Programs like the vin the vilas sounding ballot harvesting villainess sounding ballot host harvesting. Of ourimportant part work is showing the data. Mailg my bit voting by has had success in many states. I think we are countering that information with the truth, and recognizing and calling it out, which are efforts to sow seeds doubt about the electorate the election at a time when we need citizens to have faith in democratic institutions. Whether it is taking to social media or going to other platforms and being critical, it is why so many of us have been partnering with sports leaders to be sure that they are emphasizing their voices as well to push back against those efforts to misinform citizens about the sanctity of their vote and the security of voting by mail in particular. Find thatll i narrative really tough, because it has this great sounding phase, ballot harvesting. What does it mean . Mostly for years, when you mail in an absentee ballot or vote from mail you could have somebody else drop in the box if you give them permission, and so they made it sound like this is an evil, corrupt thing. I think we need a phrase, but we need a countervailing narrative that has some phrase to say like you are in charge of your ballots. What strikes me when i listen to folks who come from vote by mail almost like an open book test versus the kind where you have to write on your hand what you are going to do. In our state, you are not allowed to bring anything into a polling place that is any kind of paraphernalia about elections, so i know people who write on their hand who they will vote for for board of education so they can remember. In a vote by mail state, it is a exercise. Family you can set around the dining room table and you can talk about who you can vote for. It requires a new way of thinking. I think that is the narrative that we have to develop, this is your right to talk to whoever you want and give permission to anyone you want to deliver your ballots. Is the kind of narrative we need to develop to make this work. Vincent thank you. This is a question for secretary mccool. Rom alyssa hello, i am a berkley, michigan native and fellow military spouse. Often, votinge so by mail is a Standard Practice for my military family. Andhere a role for veterans military Family Voices on how voting by mail is an established part of the American Election . Sec. Merrill thank you for that sec. Benson thank you for that question, and you may have seen the number of things we have done in michigan as coworkers and election workers and voices for Voter Education. On top of that, the reason mailrigins of voting by came for military communities and it is an important one to be able to share and spread, and your voice is one of those to keep telling that story, and we also need to do work. We are nearly out of time and we are limited in scope, and certainly the work to ensure military Service Memory families are just important just as important because we have more challenges with international mail. Andk you for your service thank your family for its service, and if you have not already considered being a poll worker, i would encourage you to atn up because when we look the successes we have had with our elections, i am proud of the recordbreaking turnout and the Record Number of people voting by mail. Possiblemade that all is citizens demanding the right to vote by mail, serving as poll it is an opportunity for our veterans and the military community to reflect that as well. Question,or our last emily asks what are your thoughts on the following about the recent polling showing biden voters are more likely to want to vote by mail than trump voters, and how do we square that with the data about how vote by mail increases voting in a bipartisan way and how do we protect against further attacks that vote by mail is somehow partisan . I think we should build a democracy about how people vote and making sure voters can vote regardless of how they cast their ballot. Just know the data that we are focusing on is information across the board making sure that every citizen knows the choices they have and has confidence that whether they vote early at their court office or at home that their vote will count. Every state will be different in terms of the data of who is choosing to vote which way, and it is based on a lot of different factors and there are a lot of voices trying to claim this, that, or the other. In my view, building a strong democracy means setting partisan agendas aside and building the right system for every Single Community and voter. Focus, making sure everyone received an application to vote by mail and every community has access to be able to vote in person without having to wait in line and voters themselves will choose what is best by then by them. Over time when you look at the metadata you do not see much partisan impact on any of these changes. The only data source that i have be that has not changed from alexion to election is our state is the fact that young people overwhelmingly choose to register and vote in person on election day. 18 and 19 your 19yearolds have registered to vote on election day, and many of you who have been doing this work that i have worked with for a number of decades. Concerned, theis most reliable data is on that, the impact of eliminating the barrier of Voter Registration. Even then, that is not partisan, that is about an age group that votes more than others. I am just big on the messaging about Good Government and the mocker sea and emphasizing access to the vote mocker see and then making sure that every system works for them. I would concur with all of that and i have not seen any data so i do not know that benefits one party or the other, i wish it were true, but it is not. Usey state more democrats mailin voting this time and we will probably show that more than before, and that is probably because we have more democrats than republicans in connecticut. Usedajority of people who absentee ballots were in Fairfield County, commuters to new york, and mostly republicans. Benson iscretary right and every state would be different depending more on their demographics and age groups. And, that sort of thing than party. I do not know how you capture that narrative, but it is true. Lots of people are trying to tell lots of different stories and there is quite the cacophony at the moment. Hopefully it will all come out in a place that we realize that what we are trying to do, particularly as secretaries of state, we are interesting because we are elected partisan late and then we are asked partisanly and we are expected to be nonpartisan. And there is a strong ethic that that is what we are here for. We want to represent all voters. Our party happens to want to make it easier for people to vote. There are people that would dispute that and say that why should we make it easy for people to vote, shouldnt it be hard . It is not just a right, it is a privilege. And i do not personally understand that way of thinking, that there is a narrative. This country is deeply divided on many issues. I hope we should push forward in this instance where we are in a very critical moment in this country, and people do want to vote. That was our biggest challenge for years, and now it is the opposite, we are worried about so many people overwhelming the system that we will not get on their ballots in time. I keep remembering that is not a terrible problem to have in the end. Lots of people will be voting and they want their voices heard, and it is the first time in a long time we have seen that. It is a great thing and we will just have to manage it. Vincent look at that, we are on the dot. I want to say a few quick things. Emily put in the chat thank you for the answers. It is the moderators privilege to facilitate answers to good questions. I also have to say that this has been a tremendous privilege to be moderating this conversation with three extraordinary women brilliance, and i had notin ways that expected. It has been aces a privilege to serve you and lift up your bushes and for netroot nation for pulling together this channel because it is clear that the secretary of states need the advocates in the advocates need the secretary of state. Thank you so much for being on this panel and thank you everyone for joining us. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] q a, thenight on about ther ratification of the 19th amendment. Senate with the only two vote margins. There are senators who are sitting on it after the house and it takes1918, until june of 1919 before it then theth houses, and senate knew that they were sending it out for ratification in the states i in an off year when most state legislatures were not going to be in session and that was sort of purposeful to make it more ficult, so the suffrage is suffragettes had to convince 30 governors to call their legislatures back into special session. Sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. Themonday night on communicators, Shirley Bloomfield head of the Rural Broadband association on expanding broadband into rural areas and the challenges small providers phase. Literallynd providers kicked into action immediately, and not only thought about how they could continue to operate safely and keep their staff safe, but they had to spend time thinking about how to wait get the school kids who do not have connectivity. They were getting demands from customerswho from or not yet customers who needed connectivity or that they needed higherspeed, and most importantly they served a lot of communities that were significantly impacted by covid, and they really had to work through how you connect people and know that you are not going to necessarily get paid for it right away. Monday night on 8 00 eastham cspan2. Eastern on President Trump said he would agree for additional funding for the Postal Service if democrats except his proposals for additional coronavirus relief. The president answered questions about the review of the fbi russia investigation and the middle east peace deal between israel and the united arab emirates