Transcripts For CSPAN Georgia 20240706

Isolation were tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of americans rely upon to facilitate to give us voice. Im pleased to have an outstanding panel for today. It will be moderated by any of the Washington Post. To her left his secretary, the state of maine. Im going to skip over and come back to you in the second. [laughter] we got bill gates was a supervisor in Maricopa County, arizona and secretary of state in michigan. I should say is you look on your program originally gates was supposed to be here. Gabe unfortunately tested positive for covid is on the mending side of that thing goodness but he couldnt be here and like a quarterback coming in First Quarter two zero gamewinning touchdown pass, we are joined by natalie, california so yes exactly, lets thank her for pitching in for him. I handed over to take it from the. Thank you for all of you, glad to be here and see your faces. Its a Cottage Industry for all of us together several times a year end talk about the things we were sure to happen in the country. I want to start by asking each of you to comment on the state of harassment and i will ask bill to go last because otherwise you will feel the show. [laughter] it seems theres a lot of relief expressed after the 2022 election among Election Officials and advocates for democracy and Voting Rights for some of election desires on the 2020 election in statewide races lost. Kari lake in the entire republican initiative, jodi based in georgia so there was relief but now, six, seven months later we are seeing evidence of things not going away as we head into 2024 we are hearing of intimidation and threats and i want to ask each of you to talk about what youre seeing in your state and where youre concerned about what the president ial. Good afternoon, its good to be here with you. I have to say i feel concerned, was talking with local elections about this friday about this very panel. One said could you please not identify my town for experience election threat, death threat and she said i dont want to be harassed. Im glad you told me ahead of time because i was going to put the name of the town and mike question list. We should be able to have this conversation and as i look at 2024, what concerns me is the epidemic and misinformation, disinformation thats led to dangerous thats against Election Officials and intimidating people and threatening recruitment in early retirement and this year is pervasive and ongoing. Like some of the panelists earlier legend, i have some concerns about my staff and colleagues across the state. The biggest threat we face locally is mel information around elections. I usually dont hear about it until it is out of control. He tried to get ahead of something and it feels like there five other pieces of this information you dont learn about until too late. I do worry sometimes if i could be honest, my colleague whose facing manual count of ballots and how voters are going to react to that. I worry about the Mental Health of my peers across the state and the country. A lot of folks i talked to dont want to be public about what they are experiencing and are sort of quiet for too long. I do think it is going to lead to people retiring before they intended to and that is concerning. Your perspective is interesting and boring because last several years of been focused on battleground states where theyve seen modest because of the impact on the outcomes but its happening in non battleground states like california and important to remember this phenomenon across all 50 states. Welcome and thanks to the song was misinformation is out there, but we saw in the tragedy january 6 and the beginning of a multifaceted effort and that democracy and individuals who personify democracy, we are the subject of those and we have experienced that. What we also have experienced in michigan, we believe in taking challenges and make them better, stronger, more determined to do our work and weve seen an increase in misinformation and also an increase in sentiment, determination of Election Community the democracy holds. And we can emerge from this moment in this last election and the people who work the election to emerge stronger for the work weve endured for the last year. Okay. Bill, your turn but i want to introduce a few ideas. Many people here have probably read what was published on saturday in Maricopa County, arizona. An incredible story and i think i probably for all here thinking for sharing. [applause] i want to start before i ask you to comment by reading a passage from the story. It is a quotation from your intake when you saw adult care and this is what you wrote. Death threat since the 2020 election and many other for my own party who have attacked me, with covid to siding i started to attend public functions where i see these individuals and have reacted negatively and gotten very angry. Ive been interviewed by many journalists the last 16 months about this issue and have become sad angry during these interviews. So im wondering if you could start by sharing what led you to that moment and the impact only on you but your family and doing something about. Thank you for asking and its embarrassing to be set up your front of the group telling the story because its a story of many people here and people across the country. For me i think are certainly known as a well mannered guy, conservative republican, not the guy to work the boat and i experienced in 2020 election certifying the election and joe biden had one Maricopa County and became and then we rolled into the audit in 2021 and my colleagues and i were one goal of the senate away of being jailed. I couldnt understand these people ive worked with, other republicans for years on local issues, statewide issues turned their back on me and my colleagues. I didnt deal with it well and covid with everything being on zoom, i was the most protected from the human reaction of once things got better and decided going to these events. I would see someone come in who would let me down in my opinion was that betrayed me. Im over talking with my friends, people who supported me for years now going on and on and they are getting way for me, what is your deal . I did it a few times and came home to my wife and started explaining this and shes like you got to deal with this. Didnt like who i had become. I didnt know how i had gone to this but in the spring last year, our county attorney tragically passed away and i was honored to eulogize her so at that i was facetoface with a lot of these folks and i snapped and my wife was there and these are people respected for years. My friends, im going off looking at them and saying where were you . Gone through so much like all of you in this room. As republicans in particular, republicans here i think understand betrayal. It is one thing from the other side thats politics but when is your own side i couldnt take it anymore and i made a fool of myself. I was embarrassed. My wife was embarrassed and i didnt know where to go. Particularly as men, its tough. We were brought up to just suck it up. Thats what a lot of us were told and im grateful to my wife for getting it through my head and the way she got it through my head i felt pretty good about myself. Doing the right thing, trying to do the right thing here even though negative impact, political career. Not paying attention to her in my kids, my family is what really mattered. Thats what it took for me to really wake up. What is the reaction to the peace you heard from folks you know . When trying to decide, i had to look inside myself decide why i wanted to do it and i decided it was because of people in this room and others you represent, maybe if someone read my story and it clicked for them, it could cause them to think about things and pray about it, whatever might be the way to address it. Thats why i decided to do it. Reaction has been pretty more remarkable. Not only have people reached out to me from the Election Community which is wonderful for them to open up to me but im hearing from people in other places were literally just people. Lawyers, doctors, Vietnam Veterans reaching out talking to me about the trauma theyve been dealing with and i cant tell you what a gift it is that they would share it with me. Ill admit, i am embarrassed to call them experiencing ptsd. To me that label for someone whos been in war, bullets whizzing by their head thats what ive been told, youre dealing with trauma so i now know what i need to do and this is the thing im doing great. Its something ive dealt with the past couple of years but going to therapy, i need to send us alongside my colleagues and county recorder do our best working with our whole team august and november of 22 and people have paid attention. [laughter] talk about how do you stay in that stance when the forces at work that created the trauma . You told me and some of us on the call friday the indicated how it hasnt changed, maybe you could share that story and talk about how you recommend to your colleagues here how to continue staying healthy and strong the forces continue to work up there in your city and county. I feel it is my job, my colleagues job to educate and we leaned forward on the two prebunk and post punk various conspiracies here and i would be remiss if i didnt recognize venezuela, one of my partners to Maricopa County who is our director. [applause] so again we doing our very best but unfortunately in arizona the beaver has not broken. The Republican Party which ive been part of the arizona Republican Party the day i registered to vote we have folks that simply are not acknowledging the facts of whats going on. I sat with someone last week at the luncheon for those of you for meeting with republican politics, opportunity to get together with other republicans so Maricopa County republican chair was acknowledging elected officials in the room and one of the people recognized was secretary of state and invited up to the stage. And i understand people who want to not be out there in the public eye on this but we do that, it creates a vacuum others still with misinformation and disinformation so we are going to continue to push forward and i know i am preaching to the choir, everyone is moving that same direction that we need those who decide to be quieter to raise their voices and if we do, we will be successful making sure the truth is out there. Thank you so much. You notice this will be the second time i will check this Washington Post story. [laughter] we have a story a couple weeks ago for there has been a takeover of the county board and they are doing a lot of stuff and the way elections are changing, i wondered you could address how prevalent that story is that the only place thats happening and some of the consequences having experienced people with election and what they are trying to do and what youre trying to do about it. What is happening is one of the best administrators in the country, the county clerk in Ottawa County and hes up for reelection this year end various ways in which individuals gain power and try to disrupt his work which is the Gold Standard in many ways, transparency and cleaning into the information and using folks in arizona and other places so its real and im glad that there are other stories where last tuesday a local perko on the other side tried to among other things, take various actions fueled by misinformation. That local clerk posting qanon conspiracy theories was recalled in a very conservative community in michigan, lost her seat to a democrat affiliated local leader is going to be the township. What we have seen is voters have become increasingly thats one story, voters increasingly aware and smart and rejecting elections but on the other hand my opponent luckily 14point because she hasnt conceded, she was award chairmanship or chairwoman ship of the Republican Party which appoints half of the certifiers for the election in 2024 so what i see is an ongoing battle many battle fronts oftentimes personified by Election Officials there standing up to do the right thing dealing with headwinds as a response and others choosing to succumb to conspiracy theories and in some ways losing their position as a result. At the end of the day not only transparency in truth combating all of this but Voter Engagement and busway in my view the most dangerous thing we can talk about specific things in michigan but the text course leaders to become the polls and other things but at the end of the day, it is the people in voters everywhere who arent typically focused on politics, if they continue to see the battle of democracy one of the most critical moments, issues of the moment in the need to prioritize information, pushing back on election deniers and rejecting information and we have a chance to succeed. Thats the story we are trying to do, for rise this in different counties and ways for ten years now, it will not end anytime soon and we hope it will subside after 24 but it might not and we have to be prepared for that so we cant lose sight of the fact that of this, voters who are reporting democratic ands independent and professional election to do the job saturday working together to continue with the law on our side and constitution on our side and vast majority of the American People on our side demanding democracy survive and thats what i think you will see in my view, the next chapter that we see in other counties. Now is the time in maine and the things youve mentioned about that story of the experience of the administration and is that the town with they are contemplating an account . At the county level we have more than 500, most of them very small. It is a small town and the work that was threatened after the 2020 election, physically threatened, someone who fell victim to disinformation in 2022 and when i talked to the incoming clerk and other individuals that were very active, we have a new clerk and town officials and that town and the old fashion meeting local government and there is an article to require this town to eliminate the election tabulator they dont have the authority to do it and they experience leading their positions and these ideas that make me worry about the future in 2024 we are seeing some difficulties and some are requiring recruiting people to take local Election Officials and it is low pay oftentimes and they have harassment for those that are not true. What is your office doing in that town to address what they are trying to do and address their experience . One large small town, week can do work training. For the first time before the 2022 election we do deescalation training in Cyber Security Infrastructure Security Agency some for our corporate they wanted to do an analysis so youre trying to provide tools and training for local Election Officials. One time in 2022 for officials walked off the job three weeks prior to the election so. The town has not been able to find a replacement. Can do a lot but there is a larger structural problem emerging because of the epidemic. He told another story like you to tell today, your office of how many people . Three, four . Arizona or georgia, lets put it that way. One way your office has information is every single bill that comes through the legislature and it is an amazing not so fun fact, what happens to the bills . They all should model themselves after me. [laughter] every bill gets a legislative hearing in a boat on the floor of the house in the senate. This means great things can happen like we passed protections for election workers in 2021 so it threatens election worker and resources for training but it means we have to combat a lot of disinformation. We are trying to knock down disinformation everyday and we do have people who testified on election. [laughter] one area i know every election administrator has had a discussion if not taking action on his security measures. Every important topic is funding for election. We were able to have eight, 9 just to in 2022. People use it for security guards or bullet proof glass or other individuals and on top of the funding extensively with Law Enforcement to ensure the right line was made and a relationship was built at the local level so everyone knew who to call and what to do in response and we are building that even more for 24 but funding is critical and im in the middle of i wouldnt call it a fight but it is hard even when you have a trifecta in michigan for lawmakers that they need to Fund Early Voting mandated by our state constitution so we havent even got to security funding because all of us everywhere arguing with security threats across the state and country and misinformation that comes from it, we desperately need federal funding across the board and it seems to see the least congress can do. Is this a new normal around the country . We anticipate all things could occur while trying to get them to ban firearms we can bring states like georgia and texas. We have to take seriously the moment we are in and repair. I hate im not comfortable using the battle analogy but thats what it feels like in this moment and what it felt like for michigan since april 20201 armed individuals showed up to try to disrupt the process so we have done from military family, weve responded to things as though everything is a battle line which in many ways you are and the weaponry we see oftentimes in battle we have to be prepared to potentially use. Have you in your county ramp up physical security for Election Administration and have you been able to fund adequately . We are fortunate we have an incredible team, we have maricopa sheriff and ca to work with other local Law Enforcement. This started for us in november 2020 in the eyes of the country on Maricopa County and a lot of people decided to hang out outside of our Regulation Center while they were counting votes so thats when we really worked quickly to build the infrastructure and with 2022 we had significant work, partnership and i was there on the Tabulation Center along with the other workers and we felt very safe because of the intentional efforts of the Sheriffs Office and we saw this coming as i think most of you know in arizona we do early voting so 27 days in advance of election day so because state law allows it, they have the narrative doing their work tabulating votes have people posted outside of our center so election workers are working 12, 14 hour days working outside folks come up to them and they are videotaping them and taking pictures of license plates. We heard about that we stood up and said this will not be allowed to continue. We will not allow harassment of election workers some people dont like to hear that because some people want to intimidate all of us in our elections workers so we had to continue to speak truth but we do need to provide security i cant say enough about local and federal Law Enforcement in partnership and the funding has been there to support it and my colleagues and i are committed to funding physical security. We have been able to do a few things but like my colleague alluded to earlier, some of these streams of funding have to be approved by supervisors and theres only a few things statutorily and able to do. Going through layers and layers of bureaucracy so a couple things, hiring crisis security to monitor the process so stating ballots returned to headquarters. I wish we could have a little more to the but we are able to afford headquarters at the very least. We have switched recruitment process for managers and have been able to recruit county employees so they go through background checks, they have to be vetted a little more than say a second poll worker. The situation. I have become a little concerned about folks targeting me specifically and more generally behaving in ways conducive to him nonpartisan coworker. I wanted managers to go to the background check and go through that county process, they get paid a little more than a stipend worker and i have the ability to sort of know we are dealing with someone whos sort of an honest broker. Not that we doubted before but we it is good to have that information. In 2020 because of the pandemic we did install cameras around the tabulation areas so we could have ability play back things and keep an eye on spicier people who would come in to our office to observe. For the other things we have been talking about things like ballistic maybe nice to have but we dont have funding to support thats and talking with the county about what is reasonable, i dont want to turn the Elections Office into unwelcoming but at the same time i want my staff and poll workers to feel they are safe. Apart from my duty from the election, i have a duty to make sure employees are in a safe Work Environment and they both feel safe and i need to address it but we need to do it responsible. Is another mandate for transparency and before you go, i want to ask for followup on security because in 2020, heading into 2024, have you had questions about i feel you probably have to do two things. One is make sure it is secure but also not eliminate transparency because theres so much misinformation that came out of the protests, the counting and elect, have you thought about how to address security well also thinking proactively on misinformation and having transparency . We keep the class from breaking so that is real. It becomes this information. We are a lot more seasoned now doing that. So we reporters from both parties ensure that all workers and observers from both parties to allow transparency before, during and after the election process at the same time is at any point anyone becomes disruptive the whole worker or a clerk or someone outside the process we will enforce the law and the will be removed. Being clear about not just that but how ineffective it will be world would be in the furtherance of disinformation in the cost of disruption and breaking the law by making the case that not only have you broken the law but you will not have succeeded in doing whatever is you want to do to disrupt democracy has helped us in 2022 deter a lot of the same types of disturbances because in working with Law Enforcement to communicate that i have time because it comes less vitriolic on the spot when people know there will be consequences if they want to decry the protections we have for our poll workers or others. Secretary benson said something important that earlier we were talking about how do we increase trust not only in your own municipality or state but across the country i think what she referenced in terms of poll workers from each party, observers from each party is something that is, that happens nationally and i think really leveraging people of both parties and independents as well, leveraging partnerships so they may have resources we cannot afford a half full glass in that situation but weve partnered with state police on voting tabulation which was a main feature of our election to host the statewide recounts after the administrative headquarters of the state police in a secure facility. Then from transfer once transparency is protected, from start to finish every single minute that we were in the room counting the ballots over several days that was on facebook and iwas narrating and it was boring. [laughter] not winning any pollsters like the Washington Post. [laughter] but those partnerships with Law Enforcement helped us for our Police Chiefs and sheriffs leveraging partnerships with cisa. We havent even touched on Cyber Security threats coming in online but its all class humans and their conviction for harassment did not prompt any in my office . During annual training for our clerks in the estimation techniques threat recording for our clerks to centralize those threats. Really making sure their strong partnerships with Law Enforcement at every level so they are trained to respond immediately when they calls from 22 we had one in a state that we know of, is an election were in a person received a visit by Law Enforcement and that one didnt to prosecution because the person who had been very angry, very threatening was so chastened by the media Law Enforcement presence that he realized he had lost it needed to adjust. Thats a happy ending, that doesnt always happen. Theres another person who served his time thats a consequence as well but we need to make sure theres an immediate response. Can i talk to that really because my experience unfortunately with our election workers is different. Unfortunately because i would like to be able to be read these responses natural Law Enforcement would like to be responsive when the thing is happening in realtime. I have heard about incidents with some of my workers that were deeply concerning where i would have call the cops for visiting tony until months laterbecause they just did not know how to react. They couldnt believe what they were experiencing. One of the incidents that comes to mind for me is around the time and one of our busiest centers and close the evening, voters have come up and it was five minutes after the polls close in the election worker said were sorry, bob polls hadclosed and the owner. Worker felt trapped in the vote center. They closed the doors to avoid confrontation with this voter and they described a long incident where they were pounding and shouting at the door and i was thinking why i love this months after the fact why did you not feel comfortable calling our office. I think that theres got to be some sort of more training and they just provided training. Ive been, is hard because i have done the training of our processor workers and is a these report, please report, please report and i see the look on their faces when they are actuallythinking should i do this. So i just like a balance between report if theres an incident but you probably wont have an incident because most people are good, they dont want to be confrontational. And im still trying to figure out how to sort of be more of a resource to our workers. I had been looking forward to asking a question about georgia but i was asked is stand in secretary raffensperger this question instead. Im not ambushing him, i asked if i could askthis question i had of time. There was a republican retreat in nashville a few weeks ago and there were two interesting things that happened at that retreat in my opinion even though the most of the headlines out of the retreat were trumped was still asserting his dominance over the party and was still talking about having the election stolen from him but two things happened, one was that Governor Brian Kemp who attended the retreat told donors not a single swing voter in a single swing state will vote for our nominee if they choose to talk about the 20 20 election being stolen. The other thing that happened was in a closeddoor session with Anita Mitchell the prominent republican lawyer and election denier, a wealthy north georgia donor who i believe secretary raffensperger nose stood up and said the 2020 election was not stolen and we need to stop talking about it. There was a little bit of blowing you could hear on the audio but i thought that both of those facts, the fact that Governor Kemp felt comfortable standing up and saying that it was it would get reported in the media and this donor from conservative north georgia would also get up and Say Something was quite remarkable. And perhaps a moment to feel optimistic about what might come next and secretary raffensperger ithought what that was the question i would ask you. Was there a question in there . Should we feel optimism, weve been talking about all the ways in which the story has not gone away. Be it stacy abrams or anyone else if youre an election denier youre not going to win in georgia. And anyone is going to be hard stuff to steal in 2024 there not going to have success in georgia. So when i consider were going to have our primary march 12 2024, i said that great victory runs through georgia. Someone that has a vision for our country and recently once to move this state forward looking past is not going to be successful and be able to stop the steel is not going to be successful and we proved it with our 2022 results. I dont have any more questions but i think if anybody in the audience does , we can open it up. Are we doing microphones . Okay, standby. Do i need to stand . My name is sally murray and i work for democracy but i want to start off, im also training to be a psychiatrist and i want to thank each and every one of you will address these these issues we have in our field and especially you for being so public about it when we know not only so many males in the Republican Party or so in opposition on that work im talking about threats and harassment and for me who works on advocating in the state federal policy im just curious what are you all doing as the Gold Standard and what youd like to see from the federal government for your stay around protecting our election workers . I know in my state of michigan we had some bills introduced or we talk about prosecutions but there pushed around and theres bakeries in the long and you i swear if someone is in the line complaining, saying my child is crying, im hungry. Any and now we have a genuine tired person facing the court of law, a person is not actually harassment but we open ourselves up for. So i guess my question is what will be the Gold Standard of choosing legislation to protect our election workers. Hopefully we dont have to keep passing the glass at my grandmothers polling place in detroit. Im happy to review the republican view on this. Which is we dont always look to the government for answers this is the issue. We need starting within my party we need more Leaders Within the Republican Party to stand up. We need when theres threats out there online, speak out say that its wrong to silence has been deafening not all the same thing, community leaders, Business Leaders. They been for the most part. My experience is the arizona experience so much cyber bullying. The cyber ninja on it has been a vacuum within my party. So while i am thrilled to see the prosecution that was in place at the federal and state level i think thats important, people need to understand this isnt a game. This isnt like christ youre calling people out. This is serious when you make these threats either digitally or on the phone so im pleased to see that i think theres a lot of personal responsibility that we need to take on because those Business Leaders who benefit from say a probusiness environment in the state of arizona, has done because there are leaders who affect perspective. If they are driven away by the harassment and the threats, thats what i think we need to do more personal responsibility. But certainly open to legislation that might provide additional protection. I completely agree with that there has to be some personal responsibility for the things that you say because words matter. At the same time i think that there could be more accountability. In the law for the folks who are, theyre doing some pretty bad stuff to election workers. Particularly to pull workers and they really dont deserve that. I think that some attitudes need to shift. I have been told by more than one lawmaker that youve been threatened, youve been harassed, you must be doing something right i say no, i dont think thats the right approach to i also dont think there are folks in my county that think it cant happen here and i live in a world where i sort of optimistically dont plan for stuff. And you know, i also think that theres should be more incentives to do what bill is describing and really stand up and say a, you can disagree. You can ask all the questions you want but what youre doing to these people is not right and you need to be called out. We cant separate the fact that misinformation has fueled a lot of the threats. We been doing is deceptive practice to ban the attentional dissemination of false information knowing that it be leads to intentional abuse and weaponization of misinformation and threats on election workers. Whats the status ofthat law . I believe that a hearing is working its way. We had things michigan. So that said, just like theres consequences lying about a product in Consumer Protection lawthere would be consequences for lying about elections. So that is one thing i think we have to take on. Because too often we are seeing that threats dismissed even by lawmakers who say whatever,we all deal with threats. When secretary oliver and i sat before the Senate Judiciary committee talked about colorado and a number of others was senator cruz or there was a issue with credibility in people with Law Enforcement and we all have to seek accountability across the board but the fact that misinformation is at the root of a threat to our democracy rooted just not in a attempt to intimidate Public Servants but to intimidate those voters that we fight for her from participating in our democracy all rooted in these lies and falsehoods that is what we need to seek accountability for. So to me the Gold Standard is recognizing theirs intentional disruption of democracy. We need to have accountability for that if were going to emerge out of this moment where we have democracy with borders on both sides of the aisle is political independence everywhere feel they do not have confidence in our election process they are being equipped with disinformation about the process. Im also staying on the right side of the First Amendment but thats where intent comesin. The Consumer Protection laws and protections against lying about products. Wellestablished protections in seeking consequences for the dissemination of information about what would violate othersrights to the. In may we reached out to the aclu to work with them and craft our bill. And something that would protect voters as well and election workers. Ultimately there are folks who we need resources as well. Human resources are stretched to capacity right now and when i think about what keeps me up at night, it is making sure that we are protecting our Human Resources and supporting our humanresources. Part of that is Financial Investment and infrastructure and election workers can stop working overtime as one panelist mentioned earlier. Okay. Josie christine with issue one. For organizations trying to find new avenues and initiatives to support our Election Administrators im curious what the panelists think about how we can provide more voice to speak to the American Public about what is happening to you. There are more and more articles coming out but it feels like the vast majority of the American Public, your voters dont reallyknow whats happening to the election administrator. So with that, without them having that outrage that Election Officials in this country are goingthrough , what youre actually going through is there going to be enough pressure on lawmakers to actin time . Now you said something earlier about theres a sort of, i dont know if its a shame but people dont want us to talk about what theyre doing. And and Election Administrators feel like they have to bear this burden the cause somehow is embarrassing or they want to maybe even get into their opponents who are the people who are causing this and make them feel like theyre winning. Giving them more fuel for what theyre doing. So can you elaborate on that . Is there anything we can do to support you in seeking out more about whats happening . I think theres some of my colleagues that sometimes for me i dont want to draw more attention to myself. I definitely dont want to draw more attention to the fact that sometimes you know, what people say isreally hurtful. I do want to sometimes put on a strong face because they are pretty bothered by all the things that people say. I dont want them to think that its all sort of going down the drain. I do want to make sure im stronger for them. And when i do choose to speak out it is a hard decision every single time. It is hard to have that kind of spotlight on the and the reason why i admire the Washington Post article so much is that its hard to stand up in front of people and say i need help. And i cant do it by myself. That is really rough. So i think the best thing that folks like, organizations like issue 1 can do is to have our backs. Sort of bring a spotlight and bring legislation, be an advocate for morefunding. So that we can do our jobs and dont have to worry about that part. So exactly what youre doing, just more. Maybe if i can add on that point. Sort of seeking help. Between game four and game five for the sons weve got to work that in. Booker and kevin durand have to get ready for the next game. They go, they stretch, they do things now we workwith our minds. We use our brains and to think that we are lots that dont need to get work on ourselves, we are not building widgets as elections officials. We have one of the hardest jobs in our country right now. We along with the courts are the guardrails. So for us to say, the choice to become public thats another issue. I would encourage people to say its not a sign of weakness to say i need to get ready for that next election. I need to go hit a golf ball or go pray. I need to go to church, go to therapy, whatever it is we have to take care of ourselves. You talk about the importance of Human Resources. We go into politics and its slings and arrows for our election workers in the interest of transparency which i completely support are on 24 seven in Maricopa County. People see something that they dont understand. Claim that is an example of fraud and a post that person again never ran for office. They serve an Important Role but they dont have anything in the publiceye like that and then they become the source of threats. There a victim. That is wrong and most of the sources saying that appreciate your support. But in particular lets support them and i know everyone here is committed to that the cause there are good people who have given their lives and if we dont support them that next generation there are going to see something, but ive seen a lot of people in the next generation, and say im inspired by whats going on in this administration and i choose a career. So theres a lot of optimism out there to and im very encouraged to see that. Thank you all so much. Its been a very illuminating panel. Im a professor at Rutgers University and i want to ask you just about Cyber Security. The exwife six digit number at twitter generating a lot of noise and coordinated actions by state interference in our elections in various ways. We hear about it occasionally but i wonder if you could illuminate how you dealt with Cyber Threats and Cyber Security issues in your administration . We partnered with cisa in multiple ways. A posting Election Officials across the nation in a way that useful tool for us. I additionally posting a statewide Public Security summit to work with some of theCyber Security basics. We think its really important. Its also an element of disinformation. One of the chief myths is that somehow tabulators are connected to the internet and i like to say no, its a modern day advocates. Theyre not connected to the internet but as a hard Conspiracy Theory to fight back against. One of the challenges as we talk about Cyber Security is to back down those conspiracy theories that are and placed there in some cases by foreign actors whoare seeking to disrupt our democracy and undermine our confidence in voter participation. Isnt it interesting how many people where learning have said they dont actually believe that dominion machines were hacked . Fox news and Helena Mitchell said that at that republican donor retreat and it is interesting that there is a new line in the sand where some people are willing to say about now that was a bridge too far for me although i dont think that the rankandfile conservative trunk supporting public ask followed yet about those dominion machines. Seems likeaccountability matters. I think just for me at the county level having the relationship with the it department is important we have to do treating one Cyber Security, not just for the permanent staff also a temporary staff are onboard. Of course we also dont have any machines connected to the internet we do these tabletop exercises not only for the state were still looking at the county level tabletops to sort of stress test our contingency plans like all those things are certainly important course it helps a couple of years back we did get some reimbursements from the state to put some Cyber Security protections in place. That was really helpful. Same thing for us in the county, Third Largest county in the country. Very robust Cyber Security program not only elections throughout the county and same thing, we talked about this in a lot of miracle accounting that is an error system theres no way that folks can interact remotely with our tabulation machines had President Trump coming to town and sort of them had several senators get the router sense. You may have seen that speech problem is with those routers we have other operations like the boards Insurance Office that are connected but we wanted to come up with a solution and interest of transparency so we actually entered with senator karen who was the president of the senate to have it experts examine those routers and they confirmed as well three different it experts in our mission machines were not connected to the internet so we will continue to get the word out there but nonetheless there are other parts of the operation are very important because when you get in the news, you are attacked by both foreign and domestic actors who are very much focused on that team color county. You got me all the way on the end iq i want to talk about the Human Resources piece of the retirements we are people not like to take jobs everyone saying is held together with teeth and is holding, the duct tape is working. So im sort of curious how will we know when its broken . Youve been to be reinforced so far so good and elections have completely fallen apart and im very im spending money to make sure you can keep doing the work do we really have to worry about this . How will we know when is broken . The images of the United States capital on january 6, i can say having observed the escalation of election, that among other things misinformation yielded whether the security to the stress of whether his people leaving the profession or people just simply not being able to do basic functions of our water Bureau Elections making sure things were posted. If you just look at the data theres question those stresses are increasing our job is to deliver anyway. Thats what we do. But it shouldnt have to be that way. So dont allow the fact that we are really good at hiding how far this is an ic everyone not made your desire to a loss do this with a little less stress and then again, and all things that they can go straight what we all need to do our jobs without that Swiss Army Knife is what helped us in michigan in 2020 11 despite that we had our highest turnover, more people voting work, to the electoratevoting by mail. There are a lot of ways things go wrong in that file and what was disinformation and election piece that said how much worse could it have been had we not finished counting all our balance within 24 hours . We had this option a place, and workers not show up at half reserve 150 people ready to go to so theres lots every link and on time. We were ready at the same time more partners and funding will ensure we had enough machines so need is there maps and you need. We estimate we need one 70 million in michigan to be prepared for 2024 but we dont necessarily have accounted for because we have prepaid postage on all action related mailing. The tracking number of other things that we have to be paid for so i think that short way of answering that is just access to get you a needeverything we need. And position and will also be able to tell you what you can expect to happen as a result of having 4 machines instead of two, as a result of having five election workers registering people on election which is what we can afford. Anyway, so sorry. But we need funds and dont allow the fact that we made this far without, while still being slow to indicate that we can keep doing these kinds of things i would also add that instances where the local certifying body has refused to certify and Election Results without actual evidence that whatever the law connects the is an example of the system breaking. Secretary benson was instrumental with in 2020 in not allowing that to happen at the state level with the board of canvassers but its happened in other states and is required legal challenge and interaction. I know its an area im looking at journalist where i will be interested in. Agreement will give you a very literal answer is we do know that spreading. We also need to know is because we have blood. Not a siren in july and honest on my personal antibiotics tell you is that the clients areshowing that is not. Again, and from Customer Service perspective we had issues in Maricopa County in 22 of the audit showed votes were counted accurately and thats what were seeing nationally. Today a literal answer is not in and we get through all of Human Emotions and all the feelings of loss of faith in our property are we counting. Saturday if we are should we . Professional audits so we always come back to that will be clear, i support on its is not quite that are preconceived done by people who have a political perspective and people are not professionals. Thank you all for your Incredible Service and your focus on the county. I have a harder question. I think which is that ai is going to make disinformation fiber powerful and allow a person whos been trained on heat or disinformation you have a box about how you and me as people who care about democracy can actually use the tools to partly get out had and help pursue regulations against vr . We have to start by talking about it more we need to plan for 24 and beyond but were starting to do that in michigan and looking at solutions but im buying training as well. Understanding all the potential problems, potential owner abilities and benefits im beginning to see some positive use of and we had not i believe and continue to be said of time and energy in having these conversations. Despite my name i dont have ranged inside on this question. [laughter] we need a regulatory framework. In maine we had a legislator have a drone. We new drugs were not going to be bad we started the conversation and were successful in passing legislation to prohibit Law Enforcement drones at the protest that day because that was the goal so i think thinking through what is the right framework to address Civil Liberties and the First Amendment are election because its deeply alarming especially in the environment were in that selfregulation by social Media Companies didnt work in 20 as we worked to combat disinformation. Chris piper with the elections group. I want to thank all of you for being so open about the treatment and therapy, what you time. And what i was administering the virginia i knew the outcome will determine whether i wouldcontinue. My two days before the election and said i think i need to start there. Why did mark i said i think im going to need it if i dont get to do this the next four years and ill definitely needed i stay around. The question i have beyond therapy because therapy can be present deals with election issues is dealing with some sort of trauma out of here from you what you do beyond therapy to take care of yourself secretary benson is our runner, i am also a rather meditation and mindfulness is key for me. We hear what else you are doing beyond therapy . This community is a key piece to supporting all of us and i ran a Half Marathon saturday wearing a tshirt that said said as he enters she made for secretary oliver and a few others i think that is really important these events are an opportunity to come together to share learning strategies for the future. Say that i dont mean to me like a serious issue you were in maine so thats therapy to me. My place. For me i also do quite a bit of exercise and i also returned back to my more artistic endeavors witness just a stupid doodle on my or you know, taking a class. Im trying to figure out ways to come back to im and rediscover who i am so disconsolate a changing thing. Is a wonderful distraction fromwork. For me obviously you know some of what im doing but also i love the beautiful nonsense within the city where i find prayer is also very helpful through all this and just ending time with my family and being with my daughters who let me hang around with them. All those things are great and thats what we have to remember we are not robots. Were not bureaucrats. We are people we we go take care of ourselves were not going to be to do the best job for our constituents. I ran last weekend and i see that to say i used two run on your team. But im trying to get to from 2019 until the spring of 21 i didnt do any races because of covid and all that so i ran another one this month in 2022 and every time i actually is the definition of who i am evil i am the another Running Community which is incredibly supportive and amazing. I was telling someone the other day talking about the race, it was excruciating. Verse one i was there with thousands of other people going through the same thing and we were helping each other out, wading through it. And it is very much a metaphor for our democracy right now and it helps me do what i think we all have to find the thing also students is it helps me redefine who i am in the midst of an environment everyone else is trying to find me and my work hard for us in a way thats malicious and comes through threats and other ways. Its a way for us to reclaim we are and remind ourselves of our power to define we are in all these other structures and pressures my advice is to find whatever it is, are as a way to remind yourself who you are at your core because being attuned to focus on is actually how we our way through the sea of malaise including the former president of the United States is trying to define us or our work through our collections thats how we retain our power to find what our work really is. And if we can do that for voters and actually say no, this is the truth, your vote is safe your life as hard as we can to make sure you have confidence that when you vote your vote will be happy. I think thats our job, as our duty, thats our responsibility when we come more emboldened to do that we take care of ourselves. Is an outstanding placeto draw this to close, do you agree Mister Becker . [applause] thank you for telling your stories and sharing your experience with the group for story ideas in my hand already. I was reminded of yvonne in that Washington Post piece since 2020 election conferences have become much more Like Group Therapy sessions and theboring affairs they used to be. I hope we held our effort to make elections on oriented. But whats really in that we recognize just the value of the interest the as we have here across party lines. And i was incredibly thankful to you all participating here today. Anyone want to go upstairs one floor to the reception. We have to do elevators to get there. Everything is ready up there. Its a Beautiful Day in washington dc where we can all get a chance to thank each other for all the work everyone is doing so asyou, i appreciate everyone and we will see you tomorrow morning. [inaudible]