Was a topic of last nights debate. The American Bar Association hosted experts looking at the history of Voting Rights and the security of mailin ballots. They talked about how the states are preparing for a large increase and answered viewers questions about the voting process. Were thrilled to be presenting a timely panel entitled access to the vote, the ballot and the mailbox. Sponsored by the aba section of civil rights and social justice. This panel is one of many in a series of Rapid Response webinars. Were planning additional programs on a variety issues so please visit american bar. Org crsj for you be dates on these programs. Before we go to our program and how today will work, its my pleasure to turn it over to angela j. Scott, the 2020 2021 chair of the aba section of civil rights and social justice for a few remarks. Welcome, angela. Thank you, jamie. Many thanks to you and the entire civil rights and equal Opportunity Committee for planning this very timely panel. So its my pleasure to welcome everyone who is watching. Before i begin, and i say this before i say anything, i just want to make sure that you all know that im speaking in my personal capacity and that and not on behalf of my employer. Nothing that i or any of the panelists say today represents any views or of any component of the federal government. I just want to make that clear. In this day and age of a global pandemic, who would have thought that we would be living through Something Like this, but obviously over 210,000 americans have passed away from covid, so it is imperative that voters are aware of all of their options so that they can cast their ballots safely during this upcoming pandemic. And we know that certain voters had obstacles and barriers to voting even before the pandemic. So, for example, disabled and elderly individuals who were in longterm care facilities faced challenges that you and i may not and those barriers are obviously increased because of this pandemic. There are also Homeless Individuals and folks who for whatever reason list a p. O. Box as their resident address. Theyre not easily able to cast a vote. We know in various states and jurisdictions that there are new laws requiring purging from voter rolls or requiring identification that may not be easily available to some people. All of these constitute obstacles that can suppress the vote in many cases. And so to this end, the civil rights and social justice section is engaging in multiple efforts to stop some of these obstacles. We want to highlight the efforts through your programming and through some of the other efficients that we have planned. Were engaging in multiple efforts for our members to volunteer and serve the community in ways that will help ensure that people can vote this upcoming election. Our section along with other entities are helping people attorneys, to become poll workers through our aba poll Worker Initiative and those who cant do that, for those who cant be official poll workers or who cant commit to a long day of service like that, there are Election Protection opportunities. So the civil rights and social justice section is helping to facilitate, connecting our members and attorneys with nonpartisan organizations, some of whom weve partnered with in the past, Lawyers Committee for civil rights under the law, national bar association, we are helping to connect individuals who want to serve in shifts to help engage in nonpartisan Election Protection efforts. Our members are also working hard to create a tool kit that is designed for assisting individuals and Community Organizations in helping others. We all know there are many, many, Many Organizations that are well intentioned. We just want to make sure they have all of the facts and information and tools that will be helpful for them to be able to help other people. And finally in addition to this one, we have wonderful upcoming programming designed to take a deep dive into overcoming some of these obstacles. Obviously we have this Wonderful Program and coming up soon we have another program called obstacles at every turn, native vote in a world of coronavirus. We have our fifth annual state of Voting Rights program coming up. And we have another program on dignity, rights and democracy, a conversation. So we really encourage you all to join us for all of this, join the section, join us in all of these efforts. Im going to have to jump off, but, again, i want to thank you, jamie, all of the panelists, all of the Committee Members and the staff for putting this together. Elections are quintessential to our democracy through our nonpartisan programming and through our Community ServiceVoting Initiative this is year. Our members of the civil rights and social justice section with committed to being a part of solutions and a part of the nonpartisan effort to ensure that all eligible votes are counted. We look forward to you joining us. I think thats it. Im going to turn it back over to jamie. Thank you so very much for those comments, angela. Its wonderful to see you today. You too. During todays program, we encourage you to ask questions of our panelists through the q a, not the chat function. If you do not see the controls, please ensure your screen is not idle. We will address questions at the end of the day of the panel. We will be recording or sharing a recording of this program to everyone who is registered so you can share it widely with your networks. There will be captions available on the recording. And with that, were thrilled to bring you todays program entitled access to the Ballot Access to the vote, the ballot and the mailbox. There are four members of the panel. You will hear from them for several minutes each about their perceptions and expertise on the issues being discussed today. Then, we will open up for discussion and questions from the audience. I will provide a bio of each panelist before they speak. For purposes of initial introductions, im pleased to welcome our esteemed panel of elected officials, scholars and practitioners. The honorable kim wayman, secretary of state of washington, attorney general of oregon, law professor justin levit and attorney general jennifer holmes. Welcome and thank you all. More americans are expected to vote by mail in the upcoming president ial election than in any previous election in our country. Due to changes made by states in response to the pandemic. More voters are likely to cast their ballots by mail than go to the polls in person. But most voters have not voted by mail before. And that may lead to some uncertainty about whats ahead in the next few weeks. First, we will hear from secretary wayman. She is washingtons 15th secretary of state, first elected in 2012. She is serving her second term and is only the second female secretary of state in washingtons history. Prior to being elected to this office, kim served as the county elections director for nearly a decade and was elected county auditor. As washingtonians, we have had vote by mail for a number of years now. Can you please tell us about Washington States experience with vote by mail and how you address issues of safety and security. I would be happy to. Thank you so much for allowing me to be on this panel and thank you for the work that the committee and the bar has done. This is a really important topic and a very important year to do this work. Im going to take a minute to bring up hopefully if the tech agrees, a Powerpoint Presentation and just walk through what i would term the speed version of Washington State elections. And are you all seeing that . Okay. Im not. Thats kind of fun. I love technology. All right. There we go. Well, let me talk a little bit while im trying to get the tech to work. So there we go. Here in Washington State, and i think this is true of Election Officials across the country, we were election geeks by nature like many of you are law geeks and we were kind of like the offensive line in football. We dont really you guys dont Pay Attention to us until something usually goes wrong or we have a pandemic and now Everyone Needs to vote by mail. So let me real quick in the next five to ten minutes, share with you washingtons kind of path to this and what we do here to ensure that every eligible washingtonian has a right to register to vote and also have their ballot cast. Giving you scope and scale of washington elections. We have 4. 7 million registered voters and i anticipate by election day we will be knocking on the door of 5 million. Weve had a number of laws over the last 20 years that have really catapulted washington forward to be in a position that quite frankly like oregon was very good for a pandemic it turns out. It begins with voter i. D. In 2006, following the closest governors race in 2004, washington adopted voter i. D. Laws that have served our voters well. We have not had issues with suppression and we even withstood a challenge and im proud of the way we rolled it out. It wasnt politicized too much and it is really worked well with our system. Weve had online Voter Registration since 2008 and we have been a vote by mail state since 2011. Some of the in the last ten years, the activities and advancement that is weve made have expanded access. Starting, of course, with prepaid postage that we started doing in 2018 and in 2019 was really the huge expansion of access in Washington State. Same day registration, automatic Voter Registration and all of these really great advancement that is im proud to have been part of im not taking credit for it. Ive been an election administrator getting to enact these laws. We build out the controls that balance it out. And one of the big things we did in 2019 was rollout a near realtime statewide Voter Registration system. This is the backbone for a lot of the access that we have. Here in washington, our balloting will be available 20 days before election to any voter who wants to come in and get one. They have to be in the mail by our county auditors 18 days prior to election day. And we have over 500 ballot drop boxes that voters can drop their ballot in if they dont want to put it into the usps and were thankful for that right now. Certainly theres been a lot of interesting reporting about the usps. Here in Washington State and this is one area where oregon and washington differ. Im sure my colleague from oregon will talk about it in a moment. Washington is a postmark state. As long as we receive a ballot with a postmark on or before election day within the day following election day, that ballot can be counted and is counted as long as it meets all of the other eligibility requirements. And let me stop here for a minute and just talk a little bit about what we do to inspire that confidence. Certainly the president and the attorney general the u. S. Attorney general have made some pretty disparaging remarks about the security and the safety of vote by mail and ive been running votebymail elections for almost 20 years now. I can tell you the security controls that we have in place like checking and verifying every signature of every return ballot against the signature on the Voter Registration record is our linchpin for security. We make sure the signature matches and we dont want to disenfranchise a valid vote. We contact a voter if their signature doesnt match or is missing. Sometimes voters forget to sign their envelopes. We give that voter an opportunity for a second chance. Thats an empowering move that we started probably 15 years ago. But its also another security check. I quarantiguarantee you, if you a letter from your election official that says your ballot has been returned and you havent voted, youre going to be on the phone right away to make sure that ballot has been set aside and prosecuted if it is a crime. Another thing that were seeing a lot of here in washington that is a little bit newer in the last probably five to ten years is what we call the ballot chase. And that is where campaigns will get that list of voters after election day whose signatures do not match, theyll find their supporters, and follow up on this as well. This helps us reduce the rejection rate. Thats another reason why its good that our counties reach out to voters because it equalizes it for everyone. Its not the wellfinanced campaigns or wellorganized campaigns that have that advantage. Another thing that we have with our new vote wide system, the voters have the ability to i totally missed this, register to vote online and they can do that up eight days before election day. And then we do still have inperson same day registration up through 8 00 Election Night. Voters can track their ballot through our portal as well. Once they put it into the mail stream or put it into the ballot drop box and the county receives it, they can follow that path of signature checking to it being ready to count and can have an assurance that their ballot is received and if theres a problem, they can contact Election Officials to rectify that. As i said earlier, we have a 21day certification period in washington. So those latearriving ballots can still be counted. One of the things that i think is important to get on all of your radar if its not already is that i think were going to see a shift in november that most of the country has not seen before and i think oregon and washington voters are used to this. I think our counterparts across the country are going to be shocked to find out that theyre not going to know who won the election on Election Night and i think most voters think that is a final answer and i think all of the lawyers on this call know thats not the case because were working after election day to certify those results. But as you see in this bar graph, this is a typical return pattern that we see and this is from our 2020 august primary election. What i can tell you, though, this is off the chart in a way ive never seen before. Typically we do see about 50 o 60 of our ballots come in election week because of that postmark element. But you notice that we see a spike not only on wednesday after election day, but thursday. And what we saw in august is is that the volume was so crushing for our counties who are got at processing ballots, it took them an entire day to get a lot through their latearriving ballots that close at 8 00 on Election Night. I mention this because i think its a trend were going to see across the country. The latearriving ballots are going to happen. You potentially are going to be hundreds of thousands that get to their Election Offices with valid postmarks arriving the day after the election and will not be eligible to be counted in those states. I think we already are seeing litigation on that front across the country and i think we will see more of it following election day. But this is definitely going to delay the results in states across the country. This was a New York Times graphic that i just thought was great. The dark blue states are the states that have a history of votebymail elections. The gold states have how shall we say, very restrictive absentee laws. And all of the remaining states are ramping up their operations and we are going to have a wide array of absentee ballot processing and election activity that is vote by mail. I can assure you that my colleagues have been reaching out to our office and to our county partners and were all sharing a lot of information, probably the best thing that comes out of all of the preparations for cybersecurity, so we have been really working trying to get ready for 2020. One of the things the last thing ill leave you with is, we have a national hashtag called get out the vote excuse me. My brain is full. Trusted info 2020 and thats really trying to drive people to trusted sources of information like your county Election Officers, your state Election Officers, or the bar association, aclu, organizations that you can trust for information so that people know what they need to do. With that, i hope i hit my time right and thank you for letting me present. Thank you very much, secretary. We will next hear from attorney general rosenbloom. A former federal prosecutor, she was first elected as oregons 17th attorney general in november 2012 and was reelected to a second term november 8th, 2016. She is the first woman to serve as Oregon Attorney general. She has served as secretary of the American Bar Association as well as chair of the aba section of state and local government law. Attorney general rosenbloom you represent another one of the five states that exclusively votes by mail. I know youve been dealing with some recent litigation related to vote by mail. Can you tell us about this and any other relevant legal issues . Sure. Thank you so much, jamie. I want to go like this when you say were one of the vote by mail states. But, look, we understand its a lot more difficult for states that havent been to get up to speed and im so proud of those in so many states who are really making this effort because it is so important. Any state that allows for absentee voting, which we used to call it that, can easily, fairly easily, make this transition in a year where it is so important to do that. So let me start by saying thank you to you, jamie, for inviting me to the section of civil rights and social justice. I love working with you. Our sections do a lot together. And thank you to secretary wayman and my fellow panelists and for everyone who shown up virtually this morning. We have about 250 people on this panel webinar. Thank you so much for joining us. Obviously, elections are at the heart of our democracy and this year states are facing unprecedented challenges from the global coronavirus pandemic and frankly concerns about diminished faith in the election process. I think secretary wayman would agree with me that our two states have had a bit less scrambling to do than many other states and thats because our existing vote by mail, what i call vote at home systems inherently solve the problem of potentially crowded voting polling places and the fru infrastructure for getting ballots to people is already in place. Its been 40 years in oregon, unofficially, and officially 20 years since we voted statewide for all of our elections. Oregons system of mail voting is similar to what we just heard about washingtons prose. There are differences and thank you for flagging your concerns, kim. But i can allay those to some degree. Voters receive a ballot in the mail with the postage paid, return envelope, and an optional secrecy sleeve. Its not required to use it. Its a nice thing to have. They typical arrive a few weeks before election day. About two weeks. And they can be returned by dropping them in the mail, yes, or by returning them to our official drop box locations. I think you mentioned you have about 500 in washington and i think we have about a comparable number here. This is an important statistic. Historically about 40 , only 40 of people have used the mail in oregon. And so 60 have used the drop boxes. And so thats why i can calm your concerns a little bit. We emphasize in oregon getting your ballot in early. We dont worry about the postmark as much as you might think we should and thats because were good at getting our ballots in early. If we dont, we put them in the drop boxes. 60 of oregonians do not use the mail. They use the drop boxes. Theyre at all of the Election Offices and also down at the pioneer square, theyre over at the lumberyard, theyre places that is convenient for people to drive up. You dont have to get out of your car. You can also have the option of going to a county Election Office and voting there with assistance during that twoweek period. There are not long lines. Its not like waiting in line and having to be six feet apart in the rain, potentially, and the potential exposure to the virus. Instead you have the opportunity to get that help at any time that the office is open during that twoweek period. One difference is that oregon requires our ballot to be returned by 8 00 p. M. On election day. A postmark on election day is not good enough and that means if youre going to use the mail, you do need to allow time for delivery and the post office this year is recommending one full week. We are telling people, even more than a week if you do intend to use the mail. Given the intent to which oregon has successfully relied on the mail system for elections, i was very concerned and i know that you were as well in washington, when news broke out about the changes that the postmaster general was unilaterally making. I want to talk about that a little bit. The Postal Service was dismantling mail sorting machines, disallowing overtime and requiring trucks to leave at scheduled time, even if that meant mail got left behind in the post offices. They were suggesting that they would no longer treat outgoing election mail as first class mail unless states paid the higher first class rate. The post Office General counsel was blunt about the impacts these changes could have on election mail. Oregon got a letter indicating that the state the service in our state would be slower than it has ever been. In fact, the suggestion was that if our Election Officials used the time allotted to design ballots and got everything in place, voters actually might need to send their ballots back on the same day they got them which is obviously unrealistic. So we were very concerned. Here we were thinking, a ha, we got it made. Were a vote by mail state and we realize that our vote by mail could be endangered. If this was the worst case possibility in oregon where we have the infrastructure in place, the consequences in other states of course might have been very dire indeed. Fortunately the Postal Service is designed so that changes that affect nationwide mail delivery are supposed to go through a regulatory process that allows for public input. These are not the kinds of things that a postmaster general can decide to do and then immediately implement. So i was very pleased to join with my neighbor to the north, attorney general ferguson, the washington ag and colleagues from a dozen other states in a lawsuit to these changes. And were all, guess what, winning our lawsuits. Austral as recently as yesterday, the pennsylvania case, the federal judge ruled in their favor as well. Not quite two weeks ago, we obtained the judgment we asked for. So the u. S. Postal service has been asked to do the following things, one, abandon the leave mail behind policy under which postal trucks were required to leave at specified times even if the mail was nearly ready for them, two, continue its practice of treating all election mail as first class mail regardless of the paid postage. Three, fix or otherwise replace machines needed to timely process and deliver election mail and, four, suspend recent policy changes until after the election. So with this injunction in place, i am reasonably confident that our mail election will once again be very successful. But, as other panelists will describe in more detail, there remains significant legal issues surrounding the upcoming election. Advocates are seeking a number of accommodations to enable a meaningful vote during this unprecedented time. And interestingly, a lot of what theyre asking for is consistent with oregon practice after 20 years of successful experimentation and experience, not requiring mailed ballots to have witness signatures or a notary. When i say that, i mean we have consistently have good if not great, most of the time, voter turnout, both in primaries and general elections, and almost zero voter fraud. There are several lawsuits challenging the kinds of accommodations that state and local Election Officials are making in light of the pandemic. And i imagine we will be talking about some of those too during our discussion. For now, i would just say, having an existing votebymail system means theres no basis for those types of challenges in oregon in washington or the other vote by mail states. And if anything good can come out of this circumstance, make it will be that other states will follow our lead and adopt vote at home or whats also known as vote by mail which has a long track record of avoiding fraud and making it easy for every voter to vote and have it counted. Thank you. Thank you so much, attorney general. Next we will here from professor levit. Hes the professor of law and fellow at loyola. He was a Deputy Assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division of u. S. Department of justice where he primarily supported the Civil Rights Divisions work on Voting Rights and protections. He holds a law degree and a masters degree in Public Administration from harvard university. Professor, can you tell us about your professional and Academic Experience on these issues and whats some of the issues may be Going Forward . Sure, and i try to do that by giving some context to some of the states that arent in as good of a position as oregon and washington are. Ive been a civil rights lawyer for a very long time. I still consider myself doing civil rights law. Im delighted to join you all and im delighted to join my fellow panelists. This is an Allstar Group that youve managed to put together, including people who are very much on the front lines of all of these fights in different ways. Youve got secretary wayman and the attorney general as state officials on the front lines. You have jennifer as a litigator on the front lines and its really been a privilege to watch them work on what havebehalf of voters in different ways. Washington and oregon, i think, have been doing a wonderful job with their own elections so far. No surprise there. Theyve got a lot of experience at running elections this way. As you heard from both of them, that experience helps a lot in adjusting to pandemic circumstances. Because they havent had to make a lot of adjustments. Their systems actually work pretty well to absorb the massive dislocation the pandemic is providing elsewhere. When you do it right, when you plan for it, misconduct in mail elections is minimal, truly minimal. If you plan for it, mistakes leading to problems in mail elections are also minimal. But not everybody, as youve heard from both of them, not everybody is in the same position as oregon and washington are. Just were getting in washington. To put it into perspective, a moment of sharing just a few slides about where various groups stand this year. So this is 2016. This is data from the election. This is from a survey they run every few years, just to track the mechanics of casting counting ballots. You can see, there is a wide disparity in the extent to which, before this year, states, individuals and states cast ballots by mail. You can see washington and oregon very much on the righthand side of the graph, with close to 100 , nearly 100 , of voters casting ballots by mail. Where i am now in california, were hovering around 60 . In four states in this category, encouraging even for states like california, encouraging even more voting by mail is not an insignificant lift, but comparatively easy. There are an awful lot of states in a very different category. States that have historically had 4 , 5 , 6 voting by mail. You heard this from the secretary general, theyre in a different place in terms of getting systems ready. Its not trivial to scale up from 4 , 5 , 6 voting by mail to 50 or 60 . I know because ive talked to folks on the receiving end of this. I know what officials in washington and oregon have been doing, helping counterparts across the country, which is wonderful to see. People are suddenly in need of that expertise. It is not just expertise. You need, for example, machinery to suddenly scale up from 10,000 ballots to a million ballots that youre counting by mail. This happens to be a ballot sorting machine. It is one of several. Its not the only one on the market, but i show it to you so you get a sense of, thats not a small desktop piece of machinery. That takes a fair amount of budget and time to order and get up and running, to really get your ability to process mass i amounts of mail ballots in time. Its not just about machinery either. You have heard some of the litigation over, and some of the other adjustments and processes, procedures, to helping people cast ballots by mail when theres suddenly a very different scale and different volume. Things like ensuring that when you have a postmark rule, the post office knows to stamp, to cancel a prepaid envelope, is muscle memory for states with long history of vote by mail. Theyre in contact with postal officials. It is part of the season the attorney general mentioned the suit against the post office. They know whats going on in the post offices. New york, less voting by mail, its not muscle memory yet. They learned the hard way in the primaries, that the post office doesnt automatically cancel a stamp when there is no stamp to cancel. That may mean ballots arent postmarked unless you ask for it. Similarly, states without things like sameday and automatic Voter Registration, which you heard both oregon and washington have, have a harder time making sure registration rules stay up to date and current. Thats even more important than usual. After a summer in which registration rates dropped because people werent doing registration rates in large volumes outside county fairs. When youre transitioning to much more voting by mail, where small errors in the registration rolls can lead to much bigger problems then you would have while voting at the polls. It is also true, i think you heard from the attorney general, that voters who werent used to voting by mail, you make mistakes when you do something for the first time. That is always true. Thats no less true in the election process than it is elsewhere. Making sure that states have rules to accommodate the mistakes, and making sure that states are proactive in contacting voters to minimize the number of mistakes. I dont know whether i couldnt have seen i hope youve seen some of the really, really Creative Design work and imagery around informing pennsylvania voters in the last week or so about the need to use their inner secrecy inve loenvelope. Ballot goes in an envelope, which goes in another envelope. Youve heard more about naked ballots that i think you ever expected to hear in recent past. Thats a good thing. Thats actively attempting to educate voters who dont have the experience already into how they can cast ballots that will be counted. Another thing that people are contending with is litigation, yes. All over the place. In order to help accommodate the changes of the pandemic, when the world changed and election rules didnt, that actually sent elections backward. So all of us have had to adjust an awful lot in terms of what we do, how we do it, including having this webinar in a studio that most people didnt have in their home until now. Election rules had to change, too, and an awful lot of states werent already encouraging voting by mail. Election officials either couldnt or wouldnt change the rules in time. Some were locked in by state constitutions. I dont mean to suggest this was always an option everywhere. Voters and those looking out for voters naturally turn to the courts. Ive been tracking all of the election litigation related to covid19 this year. Im up to 262 cases in 45 states as of yesterday. I imagine that in the few hours this morning or this afternoon, there have been some more casec. It is constantly running. It can present a challenge for voters at this point, in knowing exactly what the rules are. I know consciousness litigants, youll hear from jennifer in a second, are working in the courts and working to ensure the voters on whose behalf theyre litigating know what the rules are, so they can, win or lose, make sure theres the best possible chance for ballots to count. The thing thats going to keep this election from going awry in states that arent oregon or washington isnt the structure of voting by mail. The structure actually works. The system works when it is given the opportunity to, who. U. S. Postal service can handle the volume when they want to, and those like the ags are helping them want to. The vote by Mail Processing works to keep things safe and secure, as you heard from secretary wineman. There are lots of ways to make sure you are who you say you are and that your ballot will be counted. The thing that is going to keep this election out of the hands of the lawyers in a system that increasingly relies on voting by mail is encouraging voters to make a plan. Its really simple. It takes five minutes. Its not much more detailed than knowing what you want to order from dinner before you step to the front of the line or before waiter is standing there, tapping on a pad. Check your Voter Registration. Find out the rules in your state, to know whether you can vote by mail or whether you can vote early, and how you do that. Rules are different everywhere. Then do it as early as you possibly can, one way or another. Three simple steps will keep things smooth. Even as voting is a little bit different in a pandemic year, it doesnt have to be disruptive. One last point i wanted to make, and this may be a little bit of a transition, weve been talking about voting by mail and all of the things that states are doing and will need to do in order to make sure they can vote by mail effectively, or increase voting by mail. But all of that effort in voting by mail is designed to relieve pressure on polling locations, poll workers, and inperson options. Rosenblum mentioned, in oregon, you can go and vote in person if you want or need to, and that is really important as a fail safe. There are, just like there are communities that are hard to count in the census, there are communities that are hard to mail. Communities that, for cultural reasons or sociological reasons, want desperately to be able to count their ballots in person, to vote in person. Minority communities, language minority communities in particular, disability communities. There are plenty of reasons why people may want to be able to vote in person, as well. The push to voting by mail has this year has really been to ensure that theres space for those people who want to vote in person, to vote in person, given limitations on locations and poll workers. So its creating the space for people to show up in person when they want, rather than exclusively using the mail and shutting down all inperson options. Thats really important to remember. It also makes the program on recruiting poll workers really, really important to participate in. I am overjoyed that the ava has done that. Law schools are following suit. In 2018, loyola law school, where i teach, canceled classes on voting day to push students to work the polls. We have a program with our local registrar here, where law students are volunteering to serve as poll workers. An awful lot of other schools joined us across the country this year. It is important to remember, even as we makeshifts so more people can vote by mail, and i think both the secretary and attorney general are right, a lot of people will want to continue doing that after this year, we still make sure that there are options for those who have to or really want to vote in person, to be able to do so safely and smoothly and confidently. I hope theres more time to discuss all of that in the q a. Excellent. Now, we will hear from attorney jennifer holmes. Jennifer serves as assistant counsel with the naacp Legal Defense fund, where she works on cases that advance Racial Justice in the areas of educational equity, economic justice, and Voting Rights. Jennifer received her ged from Stanford Law School and ba from yale university, with distinction in political science. Ms. Holmes, can you tell us about some of the civil rights and other legal issues that you are currently addressing or that may be developing in the near future . Yes. First, let me thank you, the ava and actisection, you, jamie, fo inviting me and hosting this wonderful panel. Im proud to be in this esteemed panel. I feel out of my league to be with such great academics as well as elected officials. Before i dive into some of the litigation that ldf, my organization, has been doing around absentee voting and vote by mail and expanding options for voters during the panpandem id like to make a historical note about what Voting Rights litigation looks like prepandemic, that were still trying to do, as justin eluded to. Many of you are probably familiar with the Voting Rights act, which, unfortunately, the Supreme Court gutted section 5, which we see as the crown jewel of the Voting Rights act in a case called Shelby County versus holder in 2013. The reason why section 5 was so wonderful is because for jurisdictions in states that were covered, meaning they had a history of discrimination in voting, they had to get any voting changes, any election changes precleared and approved by the department of justice before they could actually implement them. They had to demonstrate that these changes would not have a disparate impact on minority voters. This was prophylactic. Voting rights and civil rights lawyers no longer had to play a game of whackamole, where a state or jurisdiction could institute a poll tax or literacy or a jelly bean jar counting test or every permutation, then the lawyers had to go case by case in trying to get those struck down. All along, elections passed, and voters were subjected to those disenfranchising practices. This ensured that the changes to election laws were not diskr discriminatory before they were implemented. Unfortunately, that is not the litigation. We dont have that in our toolbox anymore as litigators because of the Shelby County case. Were back, in part, to this whackamole approach, where lawyers are trying to sue every discriminatory practice thats put into place, after it is already in effect. So that is the circumstance under which we were laboring, even prepandemic. We are tistill doing this votin rights litigation. Now enter the pandemic. In a slight reversal, we are pushing some jurisdictions to implement changes because we realize that voters need a more expanded set of options in order to safely exercise the right to vote. We think that washington and oregon have done a wonderful b job, even before the pandemic, giving their voters the opportunity to use vote by mail. As you saw by the graphs that have been put up by others, there are many, many states that still do not have that option. Those are system of tome of the jurisdictions weve been operating. If you give me a brief moment, ill share my screen and show you a couple slides on that. I hope you can all see my screen here. So im going to talk about three cases that ldf has been litigating recently, to expand absentee Ballot Access. First, a case in louisiana. Now, louisiana had very limited excuses for that people could use to request an absentee ballot before the pandemic. It was incredibly limited, they also did not have a lot of opportunities for people to vote early. So we sued because we feel that no one should have to choose between their exercising their right to vote and also their health. We wanted to make sure that louisianans could all we actually pushed for no excused absentee voters, so all louisianans could, if they so choose, vote absentee and wouldnt have to go to the polls in person. This would also relieve pressure on the polls because it meant that people who preferred to go inperson, and perhaps were healthy and felt safe doing so, would not be at crowded polling places. We also saw an increase in the number of early voting days to also act as a release valve on the pressure on the polls on election day. Thankfully, we secured a good court ruling in this case. The judge ruled that the reasons to request absentee ballot had to be expanded. We didnt get everything that we want. You still have to have a stated reason, but the list is much longer than it was before. Well stay on this slide. The reasons now include anyone who is higher risk from covid19 due to underlying medical reasons, anyone under a quarantine order, symptoms of covid19 who is seeking medical confirmation of whether they have it, and anyone who is taking care of a person who is isolating. All those are now additional reasons you can request an absentee ballot in louisiana because of our lawsuit. Now, i should also note that this is still nowhereuni v univ universal vote by mail that other states have. Were a far cry from washington and oregon, but this is a huge expansion from what we had before. In addition, the court ruled louisiana had to expand its number of early vote days to ten days before the election. We think this is really important. Again, our goal was to give options. Were not saying everyone must vote by mail or go in person, but people have options so they can decide, given their health, their schedule, and given their if they need assistance with voting, how they choose to exercise their right to vote. Similarly, in South Carolina, ldf sued and was pushing the state to allow no excused absentee voting, and also to eliminate the witness signature requirement that it has on absentee ballots. I believe attorney general rosenblum mentioned that in oregon, theres no witness requirement. In South Carolina, if you are completing an absentee ballot before this lawsuit, you had to find a person to act as a witness, to watch you sign it, and then they had to sign it and put their address on it. Of course, this is not ideal under our current social distance lifestyle, to find another person to come to your home and do this. Many people live alone. Even people who live with others, some may not feel comfortable witnessing a ballot. Some people didnt want to provide their address as a witness. We said the witness signature requirement was also a burden on people who were trying to exercise their right to vote remotely. Because of our case well, i think it is because of our case, the South Carolina legislature actually moved before we got a ruling in this case, and they decided that think would allow no excused absentee voting. Now, any south carolinian who wants to can request an absentee ballot. I think this illustrates the importance of litigation, its not always in securing a court order. Sometimes it is in applying pressure, so that the elected officials or the secretary of state or whoever will take action that youre requesting, even if you dont get a court ruling. That source of pressure, we think, can be a very valuable tool. However, the legislature didnt budge on the witness requirement, so we continued litigating. At the same time that our case was going, there was a parallel case brought by the Democratic Party that also was requesting similar relief to ours. In that case, they got a ruling striking down the witness signature requirement. So that ruling also applies in our case, and right now, the witness signature requirement is not required for absentee ballots in South Carolina. This case is under appeal, but thankfully, even though its gone up to appeal and the panel actually stated the District Court decision, it was su sua sponte, and they lifted the stay. Right now, the reality on the ground is that theres no witness signature needed. I think, as professor leavitt mentioned, theres a lot of lawsuits going on. Theres a lot of changes because of these lawsuits. We see our role as twofold. It is very important for us to be in the court, expanding access to the ballot, but we also have a very important educational role. Because not everyone is a huge law nrerd, following these case slowly, and they may not know they dont need a witness signature for ballots in South Carolina. We work with a number of groups on the ground whose sole job is this voter education, which is a complementary piece to our litigation. Finally, a case still ongoing in alabama. Here, we challenged a couple restrictions that alabama had on absentee voting, as well as a ban that alabama had on curbside voting. Curbside voting, for those who may not know, is in many places, if you are elderly or if you have an ambulatory problem or any other disability that may make it difficult to actually walk into your polling place, poll workers can set up a curbside voting station. A poll worker will bring out a ballot to you and facilitate you voting from your car window or right up at the curbside. That makes it easier for older people or for people with disabilities to vote. Although this is technically allowed under alabama law, the secretary of state was not allowing it to be implemented. We sued to challenge that ban on curbside voting. We also wanted to strike down certain requirements that are that have been put on absentee voting in alabama, including, again, a witness signature requirement, and also in alabama, a photo id requirement. Alabama has a photo id law, if you go into the polling place to vote, you have to show an id from a specific list of ids that are acceptable. Also, if youre voting absentee, you have to copy and provide a xerox copy of your id along with your absentee ballot. I dont know how many of you have printers at home probably, actually, many of you because youre lawyers and were nerds. The average person does not have a printer at home. Not a scanner. It is difficult for them to adhere to this rule without going out in public and breaking social distancing norms. So thats why we challenged the practice in that case. The current status of this litigation is there was a trial that ended about a week and a half ago, and we filed post trial briefing. We are eagerly awaiting the ruling. We do we are somewhat optimistic because when this case was initially filed over the summer, we actually won a preliminary injunction, which enjoined these various rules that we had challenged. However, that was overturned by the Supreme Court. That was stayed by the Supreme Court while the case was pending. Now, were through the whole litigation and trial, but we are optimistic that we will get a similar ruling, since the judge was on our side at the preliminary injunction stage. That is to give you a flavor of some of the litigation thats happening. I think it is difficult because theres many changes happening with voting rules and voting requirements. But its worth it in our view because voters need more options to exercise their rights during a pandemic. Many of these restrictions, even in nonpandemic times, had disparate impact on black voters. Maybe because they disproportionately do not have an id, or they do not fall into the categories that can request absentee ballots. Certainly during a pandemic, when black americans have contracted covid and died from covid at disproportionate rates, these voting restrictions that make it more difficult for any voter to cast a ballot during a pandemic, the impact on black voters is magnified even more greatly. So we saw it as our duty to fight them. I should also mention that we were one of those many groups that also sued the u. S. Postal service. Were grateful to the various states attorney generals, attorneys general, who secured an injunction in that case. It kind of mooted out our case, but weve also been in that fight, as well. The last thing i wanted to mention, professor levitt scooped me on this, but heres how you can get involved if youre trying to figure out how to navigate the landscape in this election. First, start with the personal. Make your own plan to vote. The first website that ive listed here is ldfs voting website at ldf. Org. I call it the onestop shop to figure out everything you need to know about voting. It has links to check your registration. It has links of where to go if you want to be a poll worker. It has links to rules in various states. It has links to how you can get involved in Election Protection and poll monitoring. So thats a onestop shop. There are many other websites and resources that you can go to. If youd like to use a government website instead to check your registration, you can go to usa. Gov confirmvo usa. Gov confirmVoter Registration. There are hyphens between confirm, voter, and registration. After youve confirmed youre registered, and you should do it immediately because registration deadlines are coming up. I think they start as early as this week in various states, so this year, unless youre in a sameday registration state, you are running out of time to register. Check your registration. Make sure youre registered. Choose your voting method. If youre in a state where youre lucky enough to have universal vote by mail, or maybe you have early voting options, or do you have to actually request an absentee ballot . Figure out what options are available to you and which one you want to use. I know already how i plan to vote. I live in washington, d. C. , and i plan to vote early and in person. Early voting starts on october 27th in d. C. , and im going to go down the street to the rec center and vote. Thats my plan. So everyone here should also have a plan where you can just say it like that in five seconds. Once you have your plan, figure out exactly what rules you need to abide by. Does your state require an id . Does your state require specific rules about how to fill out your absentee ballot . Do you have to use the secrecy envelope or not . Things like that. All theese things you can potentially get tripped up, especially if youre using a method you havent done before. And i would also recommend i know theres been some discussion about dropboxs but given the uncertainty about the Postal Service, if you feel that you dont want to trust your ballot to the mail, your absentee ballot to the mail, and you have dropboxs available to you, use that as your means of delivering your ballot. Whatever you do, make a plan ahead of time so you know exactly how to execute it. Then after you turn in your ballot, you want to follow up. If youve sent in a mail ballot, absentee ballot, you can check the status of it. Many states allow you to track whether the ballot has arrived and whether its been counted. Some states are required to inform you if there is a problem with your ballot, maybe with a signature or some other rule. You should also follow up if you go to vote in person and you have to vote a provisional ballot. Many states enable you to check on the status of your provisional ballot to see if it was ultimately counted, and to see what you can do to cure the problems with your provisional ballot. So your task is not over once the ballot leaves your hands. Make sure it is actually counted. Once you figure out your own situation, make sure all your family and friends also have a plan and are also doing these things. Finally, id like to encourage everyone here to volunteer on election day. Youve already mentioned the importance of becoming a poll worker. Im so excited the ava has an initiative on how people can become poll workers. Another option is power the polls. Org, which is one that ldf has been partnering with. Whichever initiative you use, if you are healthy and able to volunteer to be a poll worker, many states will pay you for the day, i greatly encourage you to do that. Our poll worker force, generally speaking, is somewhat older. Many of them have many are high risk for covid and are unable or unwilling to work on election day. We need to fill the gap. Also volunteer to do Election Protection run by the Lawyers Committee. You can also join ldfs prepared to vote team. Ive got my prepared to vote tshirt on today. If you go to our micro site i mentioned, voting. Naacp. Ldf. Org, you can figure out how to do remote poll monitoring. Helping us keep track of the issues that are going on in various states. Ill mention that this effort mostly covers nine states in the south that have historically had the worst voter discrimination problems. Were focused on prepared to vote. You can help us connect with groups on the ground, or if youre in one of the states, you can be our eyes and ears on the ground on election day to connect with us. And we want you to report any issues youre seeing. Finally, even after election day, please stay engaged. In this postShelby County world, we need everyone, but especially attorneys, to be the front line against Voter Suppression in your communities. As attorneys, you are uniquely equipped with the tools and the sophistication to report issues going on, to garner media attention, to petition local governments, to provide testimony, all sorts of things that shine a light on where there are issues in our elections. As many of you know, Voter Suppression can take many forms. It can deal with rule changes that may seem minor but can have great impacts on minority communities. It can be the fact that nobody knows about the rule changes. It can be forms of mismanagement that have no nefarious intent behind them at all, but simply the fact that at a polling place, the machines break down, or at a certain precinct, they dont get the funding that provides for enough machines. All sorts of things. So yes need lawywe need lawyers to the issues, report them, and engage in the places where decisions are being made about the issues. Finally, id encourage you to be a poll worker every election, not just this election. The more you do it, the more you will become experienced and knowledgeable about it. Then we will have a future army of poll workers, and well finally have our current poll workers able to retire from the job. Im going to end there with those calls to action. Thanks again. I look forward to q a. If i can add one tiny thing to jennifers last point. Please. The only way we increase the possibility for systemic change in some of the jurisdictions that are not as advanced is if were interested in the way we conduct elections aft s even afe elections. Election officials know, this is an ongoing we dont have elections once every four years, once every two years. Elections are all the time. We need to stay engaged and sbersed in th e interested in the process, to make sure theyre as fair as can be all the time. Dont just wait until november 3rd or thereafter when we have a result in the president ial election and tune out. We need everybody here to be just as engaged the month after the election as the month before. Excellent. Thank you, justin. Thank you so much, jennifer, for those comments and that call to action. Also, especially for the resources that you shared. Now that weve had a chance to get a good overview of the issues from our excellent panel, wed like to open it up for any questions from the audience. As a reminder, please take your questions into the cq a. Our panelists, thank you for responding to the questions that have been popping up. Ill do my best here to pull up some of the questions for our panelists. To get started, attorney general rosenblum mentioned the recent injunctive victories in court. Could you comment on any concerns of whether usps may comply or not with these with the injunctions . Also, has the equipment removed or destroyed been replaced in those affected states . Do you have status on states other than oregon . Thank you for those questions. Thanks for putting them all together like that, jamie. Of course, if you get an injunction, you get the relief, you want to make sure they comply, right . I want to be able to come back and hold them in contempt if they dont. How do we know under these circumstances, right . Well, heres one way, and i cant make any guarantees, but we are watching them closely. The judge, im sure, will be, you know, welcome us back, if you will, if need be. Heres one thing weve done. In lawsuits, you have to get declearance, right, to get affidavits, attached to the pleadings, what their expeercrie is. A number of the declarants are postal union workers. Theyre on the inside, watching. Guess what . The Postal Service knows there are declarants. They know we essentially have, if you will, moles there to keep a watch on what theyre doing and whether they are in compliance. We feel that we will be apprised if we learn that they are not in compliance. Now, as to the question about the machines, unfortunately, if you followed some of the testimony of the postmaster general, i think one of the things he has made clear is that some of those machines, maybe most of the sorting machines, have been essentially dismantled and, you know, the equivalent of sold for parts. So, no, we dont have any assurance that we absolutely that the Postal Service can literally put things back the way they were before. To ensure that all the mail will be handled as quickly and as deftly as it has been previously. I wish i could give you that reassurance. I think there was a third part to the question . Hopefully i came close to answering it. But i guarantee you, we will go back to court, and we will do everything in our power to ensure that the provisions of the injunction are complied with. Great. Thank you so much, a. G. Another question, what can be done about states that purge voters and dont let the voters now . Checking registration is important, but its not necessarily the case that people will be able to reregister in time to vote. Anyone like to tackle that . Ill jump in, i suppose. I think this is why it is so critical, as you heard from our speakers, to have a plan. Check right now. Really encourage those people who you influence and that youre connected to to just verify with Election Officials right now. Because some of those Voter Registration cutoffs approaching in some states quickly. Once they pass, the voter will be out of luck. You know, im happy to say here in washington we dont purge voters. We havent since 1993 when i first started here, and we dont intent to in the future either. We want to comply with federal law. Call me crazy. Ill add to that. Just because you think youre registered doesnt mean youre actually registered at the right place. What the secretary said is right, check your registration. If you think youve got it, check it again. Cant possibly hurt. Its really quick. There are a lot of resources nationwide to go check your registration. It doesnt take long at all. Most states make that available online, and it is super quick so you can check. The second thing is, and this is stay engaged after the election. Thats absolutely the right answer for anybody voting november 3rd, right . Go get the word out. Check now. Longer term, putting procedures in place like oregon and washington have, automatic Voter Registration, sameday Voter Registration as a fail safe, that helps make the polls as accurate as they can be, and you dont have to purge people off the rolls, as the secretary said. Thes the sta it its the states responsibility to make sure youre registered in the right places. Sameday Voter Registration helps that continuously, which turns out to be more secure, accurate, and cheaper. So fewer of your tax dollars go to paying temps to process voting registration cards on election day. It should be something everyone can support. Turns out red states, blue states, and purple states have done it. The only way it spreads to more states in all of those categories is if you care about it. Thank you. The only thing i would add to this is what everyone is saying is completely correct. Especially for the upcoming election. The way to figure out if youve been removed from the list is check your registration now, before the registration deadline passes in your state. In the future, as professor levitt was mentioning, you know, if you are involved in seeing what your secretary of state is doing, what your state legislature is doing, if you attend hearings or follow the issues on this, you can know what practices they are putting in place that might cover future potential purges. Whether theyre creating an inactive voter list or sending out postcard they claim will confirm whether or not you are still living in the state. You can get in on the front end and have some input on whether that practice is going to actually take effect. So staying engaged, youll know ahead of time before the issues sneak up on us with election day looming. Great. Thank you. Have you noticed any foreign interference with Voter Registration or voting so far . We have not seen any foreign interference, and we have not had in 2020, i just dont want to say things out loud because you jinx them, but weve not seen any evidence of any kind of compromises of our syst system here in Washington State. Make no mistake, what you heard and what you read the last four years, there has been a concentrated, ongoing, nonstop effort by foreign actors, including russia, china, and iran, to try to get into state and local Election Offices, Voter Registration systems, or anything they can. We have been really focused for the last four years with a laser focus on securing our system, and i know that its happening in all 50 states. When i talk about washington, the same things are happening in their states, much more fi firewalls, monitoring equipment, cybersecurity, conversations that are happening with our federal partners and local partners and our state partners, training, putting simple things like multifactor authentication to doing tabletop exercises. So the effort has been incredibly ongoing, and now we are ready for whatever is coming our way. Yes, weve been under attack, and we continue to be, but were fighting it off. Were going to protect everyones vote. Thats really the bottom line. Vote by mail helps because its paper, right . We have paper ballots to back up any system that gets hacked. Good point. Ill add sorry, jennifer. Go ahead. I was going to say, let me take the broader perspective of foreign interference. It is not just about potential hacks. It is also about spreading misinformation, which is why it is so important to get, as the secretary mentioned, to get your information from a trusted source. To make sure that you are thinking critically about what your media diet is. If everything youre getting is from postings on facebook, do you know that those are trusted sources . Some of those are coming from foreign actors that are trying to spread misinformation or influence people and influence their vote. En thatexactly what i was goio say. She said it better. We got hacked in 2016. It wasnt the ballots, the machines, the tallies. It was us. They hacked us, the people, and the information we believed and what we got reallysense, we wer continue to be the weak link. That also means we are the source of strength because all of us have individual agency to do exactly what jennifer mentioned. To be careful about our media diet, be careful about information before you pass it on, to take a deep breath before we respond to things. Turns out that if what theyre hacking is us, we can each respond to that. With a little patience and a little bit of thought. Thats actually the most security that you could ask for. Excellent, thank you. Next question, how is the confusion about voting twice going to be handled . Ive heard folks say theyre confused because theyre receiving mixed messages about voting, submitting an absentee ballot and then inperson. How will these discrepancies be resolved . Through tweets. Through tweets, responding that you should not, that it is illegal to vote twice, that you should not vote twice, and that this attempt to confuse voters and to somehow enlist them to test the system is absolutely wrong, improper, actually illegal. So every state, every single one has a system for not only deterring people who vote twice with prosecution, but also for making sure that the rolls are checked off whenever the first ballot is cast, so that the second ballot doesnt count. In some places, the ballot that counts is the ballot you cast in person. Other play placeces, it is the e ballot. It changes state by state, but every state has a system to make sure you cant vote twice and have it be effective. As the a. G. Said, every state makes it illegal. Federal law makes it illegal. Yeah. Id just tail on that, especially with this many lawyers in one place at one time. You know, you combat this garbage with the facts. I understand that the president is very frustrated with states like mine and is not happy with my answers, and thats okay. Im okay with that. We just keep combating it with the facts. One of the facts we have to share with people is it is a felony, i believe in every single state, to attempt to vote more than once. Well, it is not a felony to attempt to vote more than once, but you all know. Youre lawyers. But making people aware of that. Just the idea to check the system is asking people to commit a felony. Weve tried to share that information on every platform we can, and well continue to beat that drum. It goes back to what jennifer was saying, is that we have to continue to provide trusted information through the sources and channels we have available, and we have now we have to ramp up our activity. We were all planning to do it. Now is the time we have to start ramping it up and get the information out to people. Yes, thank you, all. Thats very helpful. Jennifer, this one may be for you. The question is, are any of you working on litigation to address the poll tax being imposed on people convicted of felonies who have been given the right to vote but states are now requiring restitution, court fines, fees, et cetera, be paid before they can vote. Ill add quickly that in our state, in washington, we changed the law over ten years ago, so that we call them legal financial obligations, but fines and fees do not need to be paid for someones right to vote to be restored. Would you like to take that . Love to address that. Because i am working on that litigation, actually, in florida, specifically. Unfortunately, we got we recently received today a bad ruling from the 11th circuit, that did not see things our way. Linking the payment of peoples financial obligations to their ability to vote, they say, was not a poll tax and did not burden the fundamental right to vote. But the silver lining, i guess, is there are still ways to help because there are many campaigns in place to fundraise and help people pay off their legal financial obligations, so that they can register and vote. Its not just about this election, which is certainly important, but moving forward, we want to bring there are studies that show that when a person has committed a felony, hes more likely to become a constructive member of the community and really reentente the community if they have their civil rights and their Voting Rights restored. If they dont carry additional collateral consequences with them from the time they were incarcerated that make it more difficult to obtain work, to vote, to obtain housing. So we would, you know, encourage you to look into these efforts, to help pay off peoples legal financial obligations. Although the litigation right now is not will likely not be resolved before this election, its not totally over, necessarily. So stay tuned on that. And i know there was a related question in the q a about where to contribute to the efforts to pay off the debts. The Florida Rights Restoration Coalition has been one of the primary engines in helping individuals pay off those debts. So ill drop the link in the chat. You can find more information. Excellent. Thank you so much, justin. In addition to the litigation, we need to work with our state legislatures to change these laws and repeal these practices. Its 2020, we need to eliminate these sort of poll taxes, arguably, as they are. Another question here, is there one clearinghouse nationally that holds all Voting Rights litigation . What is the best way to compile data on Voting Rights claims since there are now many state causes of action . Instead of just using pacer to find federal causes of action. Any thoughts on that . Ive got a couple quick thoughts, then ill leave it to others who may know other resources. I dropped the link in the chat. Im trying to track all of the covid19 related election litigation this year. Thats a mammoth set. Thats, by no means, all litigation, including, for example, jennifers case about disenfranchisement. Reenfranchising people after convictions. That isnt on my list, but incredible important. Michigan has a great civil rights clearinghouse that tries to track voting litigation when it exists. The ohio school of law, the Moritz School of law at ohio state, has another litigation tracker that tries to track prominent cases. But the question reflects how difficult it is, actually, to track state law cases in particular. We still, in the 21st century, dont have, in many states, particularly accessible ways to get hold of documents or litigation generally in dockets. It is difficult. I would add that the Brennan Center has a very good website with lots of great information. And if you would like, through the democratic attorney general association, were trying to keep track of state and local cases, and i might be able to put that together for you and provide it as a link. I cant do it right this moment, but i will look into it. Because i check it every day. Its very helpful. On the topic of tracking, this actually doesnt have to do with litigation, Voting Rights litigation, but ldf has been tracking and i wont say this is fully comprehensive but election and voting changes. Rule changes, practice changes, in states that were formerly covered by section 5 of the Voting Rights act. We have a report called democracy diminished, and we update it after every large election, about problems were seeing that probably would have been prevented, had we still had section 5 operating as it did before. So if anyone is interested in that, i will try to find the link and drop it in the chat. Excellent. I am so sorry were not able to get to everyones questions. Well do our best. We have these obviously in the chat, and well try to respond as we can. The panelists, i know how busy they are, but they may be willing to share a few thoughts on a couple of your questions. We have time for one more, so i wanted to see if our if there was a question in particular that any of our panel lists wou panelists would like to address. I saw one that i think is a great way i dont want to make it the one to end on, so if others have favorites, please note but one was asking about somebody had a Voter Registration rally today for people, potential voters, ages 18 to 25, and what we should tell them to help them engage in register. Ill just take a stab at that, then maybe others can contribute. If there are other questions people want to answer, please, please. I dont mean to ma noppe lionop. Voting is a habit. The more you get Younger Voters to step up and take part, the more likely it is they become lifelong voters. It is really not hard to register to vote, but it can seem like a barrier if you dont have somebody bringing you through the initial step. Help them through the initial step. It takes a Small Holding hand. Help them take the initial step. There are lots of resources. There are plenty of government sites that you saw in the chat. Every state has individual resources. If you google how do i register, kwlregiste register, there is a good, comprehensive list for the person in their state, about how they can best register to vote. Give them a little nudge. I think theyll take that opportunity and turn it into lifelong voters, which we really need more of. Id like to put in a final plug for the vote at home system. Stop thinking about it as vote by mail. Theres so many different ways to cast the ballot after you have the time with your family to go over the ballot. You can bring your kids into the kitchen. Have them sit around and actually have a civics lesson. People are feeling a little nostalgic for the polls. Forget about it. Its way more fun, you have time, and its relaxing, and youll do a better job. Youll make a more informed decision about your vote. Then you take it to the dropbox or put it in the mail or you take it to the Election Office. You have so many different ways of voting. The important thing is vote. As jennifer said, make your plan now. Make sure if you need to change your registration or address. Here in oregon, weve had wildfires. We have people who have been evacuated. They have to change their address. Were helping them to do that. We have people who live under bridges who are homeless. Were helping them to vote. We have people on indiana reservations. Were bringing shuttles in to town for them, to make sure theyre comfortable casting their vote. Theres so many different ways to vote. Please vote. Thank you. I would just i oh, im sorry. Go ahead. On the make a vote plan, feel free i believe my slides are part of the materials for this webinar, so feel free to save the slide i have on making a plan to vote. Use it as a checklist. Absolutely. And i echo all of my colleagues comments. I would just add, because one of the questions in the q a was those of you in washington and oregon, we dont have places for people to work on election day. Actually, we have a big need for election workers. It varies by county. Here in washington, we have a project called the boat squad, as in im dating myself, but i think of the mod squad. Anyway, those old enough to remember will get the reference. But it is really designed to try to connect people with counties and fill in the needs. We do have 500 dropboxs that need to be closed at 8 00 Election Night. There are needs out there, though we dont have traditional polling places. Im sure oregon is the same way. Somebody asked a question about postmark iing if you use dropbox. Dont worry about postmarks with a dropbox. Its not mailed in ballots, just to be clear. You dont need to worry. No postmarks necessary. Excellent. One more thing, jamie, so sorry. Which is, in the chat and in the q a, there will be a ton of really great questions, especially about specific states and jurisdictions that i certainly dont know off the top of my head. But i would encourage everyone to just read through those. You might think, oh, i want this in my state. I want curbside voting or i want universal mailin voting, whatever it is. Or maybe i have it already and i just dont know. Use that as to just make you think of initiatives you should push for, like automatic Voter Registration, other things. Even the chat and q a are Fertile Ground for people to use as for things theyd like to advocate in the future. Excellent. Thank you, all, so much. To the audience, we know were almost at time, but if you can stick with us just a few more minutes, we have a short video that we want to share with you. If you node eed to leave you, w also understand that, too. There are 35 days until election day. As we know, early voting is under way in some states. As lawyers, we have a heightened duty to protect our democracy and the rule of law. I hope everyone will do what they can to ensure every eligible citizen has a safe and fair opportunity to cast their vote. As youve heard throughout the panel today, it is crucial that we have enough poll workers on november 3rd, and some states need volunteers to help count votes after that day. For details in your state, check your local Election Officials. Trump telling us not to worry. That the virus will, quote, disappear. That a, quote, miracle is coming. Joe biden saying we need a plan, a national strategy. A president who is willing to lead, willing to be a role model for our nation. While joe biden said at their National Convention that no miracle is coming, we actually think we might just be a short time away from when america will produce the first safe and effective coronavirus vaccine. And we will begin to deliver it to the American People the moment it is approved. Watch the Vice President ial debate between Vice President mike pence and senator camera harris, live wednesday, october 7th, at 9 00 p. M. Eastern, from the university of utah, in salt lake city. Stay with cspan for the second president ial debate town hall, with President Trump and former Vice President joe biden. Taking audience questions, live from the Adrienne Arsht center for the performing arts in miami, october 13th. Watch the debates live on cspan. Stream live or watch older or recent debates on demand at cspan. Org debates. Or listen live on the cspan radio app. Youre watching cspan3, your unfiltered view of government. Created by americas Cable Television companies as a public service, and brought to you today by your television provider. Week nights this month, were featuring American History tv programs as a preview of what is available every weekend on cspan3. Tonight, a look back at the 1969 Supreme Court case, tinker versus des moines, which decided that students do not that students do not lose their First Amendment rights on school grounds. The court ruled in favor of three des moines, iowa, students who were suspended for wearing black arm bands to school to protest the vietnam war. Watch tonight beginning at 8 00 eastern. Enjoy American History tv this week and every weekend on cspan3. Washington post political reporters broke down last nights first president ial debate. Opinion Writer Jonathan capehart moderated the discussion. Good morning. Welcome to first