Sexes them or racism. I am curious when we find the situation is a people are restricted to free speech zones we dispelled as if we were targeted and told to be restricted to the free speech zone for the advertising for an event we had coming and others had not been for their evens. But we also find for putting up signs it and unfair manner because some of them and it turned out the Young Americans for liberty was an organization to be signed up for the weekend and we have to pay this time for leaving the signed up over the weekend we have to figure out another way. And luckily ive was there lehr being infringed upon and we ended up contacting fire to have this handled in a due process like manner before we had a fine imposed upon this. How do we turn this tide had be turned that tide moving forward . Mind standing is we have good success it has been successful and correct me if i am wrong but to my understanding that regard to public universities have found that restricting free speech to a Public University is unconstitutional even one case involving a campus preacher is don google maps because attorneys have done a horrible job and does his own Internet Research but that is a topic for another conversation. That is more or less on point with the rosenberg case. But most of the cases involving specific read this speech codes are mostly at the District Court level could you turn the tide . Lawsuits alien shame. As of followup of your restricted how do you get out there and get then shame not to the community . And that is the fundamental issue. Shaven and epilogue . To get the message out to a the public that was never previously available. There is no guarantee of that but what they post online. Or by contacting evening safire organization and to speak out in ways that are not limited to the physical campus that are coming up through the fifth circuit were High School Student had a rap music sound he was critical of a gym teachers so on the header you and the secondary school has a lower constitution. In with the rap music artist but backward we were in school but email did not make a big until the year after i graduated. They saw were covering of for the top for the talks [inaudible conversations] good morning. I will try that again. Good morning. I am the president of the center for justice a gathering of the active list of leaders will citizens from all over the country that mark say sickle moment in we are so grateful to all of you to be here. And if yours was to be at the nyu commencement you are in the wrong place. [laughter] and to be rich and exciting but at a time in our country at a time to feel anger and disaffection with so many citizens have their basic rights challenged with Public Institutions simply cannot meet the challenges readers here to discuss and celebrate our you run our elections and how democracy works and this is the core american story. I did that start last year. That was the ideal from the very beginning. They didnt live up to it then. We dont live up to it now but its been our best moments and its been a struggle. We have strug lynn move forward and we have moved backward. When Voter Registration systems were first put in place all around the country in the beginning of the 20th century they brought significant improvements in how elections were run but they were also implemented in a manner that made it harder for poor people, for working people for nonenglish speakers to vote. We sought to expand that right, we sought to improve it but by 2001 in the wake of the fiasco in florida or more president jimmy carter and gerald ford studied this issue and they wrote them that the registration laws in force throughout the United States are as they put it among the worlds most demanding and are a big reason why voter turnout in the u. S. Is near the bottom of the developed world. Challenging showing diagnosis. As many of you know, many been part of this there actually has been significant progress all over the country since then. The real move to modernize our election systems with things such as on line registration in a whole host of other ways that it made no progress in the Lessons Learned from those incremental steps have created this opportunity for a big breakthrough for bold reform for something that can actually transform the way we run elections, automatic registration. This is a time where we are seeing a breakthrough for this change and its very exciting. Now as so many of you know automatic registration, what is it . It represents a paradigm shift in how we register voters and how elections are run. For the first time in a meaningful way the government takes the responsibility to ensure that all eligible citizens are on the roles that they want to be for the first time the right to vote for all americans as guaranteed in that way. Every time a citizen is eligible interact with the dmv or eventually other Government Agencies they would automatically register to vote unless they choose not to be. We moved past the paper records that clog our system today to take full advantage to harness the digital revolution to transfer the information and take these lists real and for the lifetime of a voter. Its a big deal. Its a big deal. Fully implemented nationwide, this would add 50 Million People to the roles. It would cost less and it would curb the potential for fraud and abuse and error. It solves in a lot of ways the problems of left and right. Its a breakthrough and its happening and all of you have so much to do with it and we are thankful to all of you for being a part of this. Its the waive of the future but its not not going to future comments actually something thats happening as we speak. As so many of you know over the last year and a half or again, california, West Virginia and vermont enacted automatic Voter Registration at the dmv. Yesterday in connecticut Election Officials announced that they will be implementing automatic Voter Registration by 2018 at dmvs. We know also and you are going to hear in greater detail that this policy works. The first tested in oregon work Voter Registration rates are as many as three times higher under the system than under the previous system. Its hard to think of a policy that is as positive, is as hopeful, is as imminent and tested as this is. Thats why this conference couldnt come at a better time. This is the First National conference on this topic bringing together people from all over the country and all backgrounds into this field. We have folks from 23 states. Election officials, activists, scholars, experts and the elegy and immigration and Voter Mobilization and citizenship. Ordinary people who want to learn more and be part of the Rock National movement. In the morning we are going to focus especially on why this matters and what the benefits are of this kind of change. We will be hearing later in the morning from the former attorney general of the United States eric holder. We will be having in the afternoon a working session where we are going to be as we are all day learning from each other, learning lessons of how this reform has been at it, what works what are the pitfalls to avoid, how can we broaden this burgeoning movement . And i should say on behalf of all of us at the Brennan Center how proud we are to not only host to you today but to be part of this effort. The Brennan Center for those of you who dont know is a law and policy institute that works to reform and revitalize the systems of democracy and justice in america. We were started two decades ago by the family and clerks of the late Great Supreme CourtJustice William brennan and are dedicated to his ideals that the constitution needs to be a document that works for every generation for the challenge of its time. We have been proud to be very much a part of this effort for the past decade. It was almost a decade ago when we first issued a report in proposals for automatic registration and a lot of these things are available in outside area. I want to introduce several of my colleagues who not only work on this issue day in and day out but makes us conference possible. Their names and emails of nothing else but i want to thank them and introduce you to them. Wendy weiser, general clarke and sophie please stand up and waive your arms around so that folks know who you are. [applause] there is a hashtag i have been told to tell you. I will not try to explain to you what you were supposed to do with it but it is hashtag abr for all for those of you who are tweeting or posting about this. There is wifi. I declined the opportunity to. To you the very lengthy, very lengthy password. They are waiving pieces of paper around so there must be important news. They have the wifi password and anybody who wants access to it its back there and we will be happy to share it. We are eager to work with you to continue as we do providing expertise to work with the incredible coalitions and states all across the country have made this happen with the officials who are bringing this to life. So many here have been supportive of this effort so on behalf of the Brennan Center and on behalf of our board we say thank you to all of you. We are thrilled to begin our conversation by hearing from one of the leaders in the country on this movement and this breakthrough. The honorable alex padilla the secretary of state of california. Secretary padilla is one of the rising and bright stars in our country not just on this issue. He is a graduate of m. I. T. And engineering. He left his job writing software and uses electronics to enter Public Service. You dont have to actually be a Rocket Scientist to understand automatic Voter Registration but it turns out it doesnt hurt. At age 26 he was elected to the Los Angeles City council. By age 28 he was the president of the Los Angeles City council. He served in the state senate and now elected statewide as the secretary of state of california. He was the architect of that states reform, drafted it. We got a chance to work with him, let the fight and persuaded the legislature the public and the governor that this was the right thing to do and is now charged with implementing it. He is the chair of the National Association of latino elected officials and on the board of overseers of m. I. T. And many other things. We will be hearing more from him in years to come and we are thrilled to be hearing from him right now, secretary padilla. [applause] good morning everybody. I heard that introduction. Thank you michael for the very kind, kind introduction and for all of you for your commitment to the issues in your commitment to the work of the Brennan Center. Its an honor to be with all of you this morning. Before i begin with my presentation a couple of acknowledge mens two colleagues in the effort. My colleague from West Virginia will be well be hearing from her later today. Amber reynolds who has visited denver and will talk about colorado election reforms and part of my remarks as well but most importantly please welcome a nice new york welcome and help me give thanks to my wife lets me do all of this stuff, angela who is with me here today. [applause] i stand there for all of you and i get goosebumps with audiences like this because i feel so much my life is really living the American Dream frankly. My parents are immigrants to the United States. They came to california and to los angeles specifically in the late 60s from different parts of mexico. They met in los angeles and fell in love and decided to seek residency, start a family and there may be a disney movie about that. In the meantime they raised three of us. I have an older sister who is in education principles that its bull of Unified School District and the other brother who works for the Los Angeles City council so you can see theres a Public Service theme that runs through our veins. Some folks who are recently retired my father is a short order cook in diners throughout los angeles. My mother used to clean houses for that same amount of time. Hard work, humble work but like so many immigrants they do it in pursuit of a better life and not even so much for them but the next generation had a better opportunity and hopefully a better life. One generation from our family being immigrants and the cooks in the house cleaners to now may be standing before he is the secretary of state for the most popular state in the nation, what a story. The American Dream is alive and well and our family has been blessed in large part because of what this country makes possible , that opportunity for education, that opportunity for being able to be whatever you want to be all made possible because of the strength of our democracy that should never be taken for granted trait so its a tremendous privilege for me to work in this space at this time to try to not just defend this democracy but to advance this democracy and keep those doors of opportunity open for generations to calm. When i think about democracy, we know that theres a very popular metrics, some points of measurement that we were for two whether his Voter Registration numbers and rates or voter turnout numbers and rates but i see it more broadly than that. If you look at participation in our democracy is more of a pipeline or a flowchart. We can point to things like immigration and naturalization and of course Voter Registration and voting as actions by citizens and that democracy. I think on it day in and day out basis it should include things like parents being involved in their Childrens School or so since testifying at the citys planning or landuse or zoning hearing and all these things to the keeper daily democracy alive and well in between elections. Elections are clearly critical and it takes my message of participation to every audience that will have me not just here at nyu but to high schools throughout california to Community Colleges throughout california to every naturalization ceremony that will have me. By the way of you have never observed or witnessed hundreds or thousands of people becoming United States citizens at one time, you should. It will move you like few other experiences will. Its in those audiences and in places like the high schools that i speak in california where im reminded that everybody grows up with the lessons being instilled from one generation to the other about the importance of being a registered voter and the importance of voting in each and every election. There are a number of reasons as we all know why not everybody registers and not everybody votes. Chief among them and not well enough understood this poverty. We can debate whether its correlation or causation. The consistency between communities that dont register or vote is high and has high rates with communities that are on the lower scales of income. And we can chalk it up to commutes and job schedules or having multiple jobs and why working in this day and age doesnt align anymore with having run elections. But we will get to that of the minute. We have, before we get to the voting part this Voter Registration piece. Voter registration as a process has been put in place to help pick up the voter rolls and ease of administration but far too often our nation has served as a barrier to participation because the burden is on the citizen to sign up. The burden is on the citizen to register and to vote. Unfortunately it has created a scenario where too many people are left out of the election process. In the year and a half almost that ive been in texas and travel the state and talk to as many groups as i can and theres an observation. As i was talking to one of the high schools in Salinas Californian not too far from moderate, with the local mayor or School Board Member of the School Principal will introduce us and far more often than not i hear their story about growing up in the households where their parents instilled in them being aired the importance of being a registered voter and voting and talk about whos on the ballot and talk about at the dinner table. They went to every other november to the polls and they were brought up with this tradition. I looked into the eyes of the kids in the audience and i see a little bit of a disconnect. I feel a disconnect because i wasnt brought up with those traditions. I wasnt brought up with that experience not because my parents didnt want to instill that in may me or teach made that but as you recall me mentioning a few minutes ago my parents were immigrants to the United States. They didnt vote because they werent eligible to vote. It wasnt until years later that they became citizens. They had never missed an election sense but growing up we didnt talk all it takes at the dinner table and we didnt go with them to the polls in november. So many young people today not just in california but throughout the nation have that in common whether their parents arent eligible or their parents arent as active and they need to do more than rely on parents to teach their kids about the importance of registering and voting. In california verses magic number that i try to rally the legislature around, 7 million. 7 million is a number of californians who are eligible to the voters but cant because they are simply not registered. Aside from just being a big number its important to think about who they are. As you know its disproportionately working families like the one that i grew up in disproportionately communities of color, disproportionately young people. If you look at what happened in the communities where we live arguably the most pressing Public Policy challenge that we face from education quality for schools to income inequality to air quality to health and chronic disease challenges there is that consistency again. There is a correlation between communities with lower registration rates and voting rates challenges our quality of life. There are communities that need to speak louder in our democracy but dont have that voice because they are not registered. So how can we empower them. [inaudible question] can we do a better job of including them in our democracy. It begins with Voter Registration and voting. You cant vote unless you are registered. You have a fundamental right to vote in this president johnson put it without the right to vote no other right really matters because its voting for democracy that we advance advanced policy in our nation. Voter registration we all know currently exists as the burden on the citizen to opt in to register, to sign up and therein lies the barrier. For most of our history Voter Registration has taken the form of not just filling out a card that has included things like letters he tests, poll tests, how many jellybeans in this jar . You may not have that today but voter i. D. Purging the voter rolls takes on different forms. And we stop to think about a right to vote. Freedom of speech, did anybody fill out that formed . The right to not be discriminated against . Can i do that on line . A right to gather here today and peaceful assembly. Know what their rights do we have do we have to signup for so why the right to vote . Especially in the digital age where this information, this data eligible and is that much more easy. To paraphrase governor jerry brown from decades ago at Democratic Convention descent is the video clip. He said if government can use its computer things to find us and get us to pay our taxes then surely we can use this computer thing to find people and register them to vote. I couldnt agree more. It was literally weeks after i was sworn in as secretary of state that the ill was cleared by the Oregon Legislature and landed on the desk of former secretary of state and now governor kate rowan and she signs oregons automatic registration built into law. When i made the announcement is good enough for organist good enough for california we have got to do it here too. A spendable coke might 2015 pushing this piece of legislation. I think i credit the right and center for being a huge partner in the drafting of it in the messaging of it in the rallies of support around it and the legislature into the governor to the big part of our success for they give oregon a lot of credit to be in the pioneers of it. They estimate that over time they will register thousands of reviews they had registered voters in the process. In california we are going to register millions. That scale alone makes this story shifts to our democracy. The opportunity systematically to give voices to many new voters is truly transformational. And perhaps more partly by doing in a california not do we just want to pat ourselves on the backs but we can remove any and every excuse for every other state in the nation to do it. It gets california the most populous state in the nation can do it in the most diverse state in the nation can do it come if we can figure out how to do it with how many branches and on line renewals theres no reason it cant be done anywhere else. Its important to remember when you look at those cynics that are out there who say why should we do this anyway its been required federal law for over 20 years now that every state to the department of Motor Vehicles facilitate the ability for someone to register to vote or update their Voter Registration that most of us refer to as voting. We have had this as possibility already. Are we are talking about is doing it better, doing it better. Given the technology we have today and officials will tell you an estimated 90 of the public, 90 of eligible voters are at dmv at some point. A drivers license or state i. D. So its a Technology Project that captures the information that people who are otherwise eligible to register to vote and have two state agencies the department of Motor Vehicles in the secretary of States Office for purposes of Voter Registration. Thats really what we are talking about. Building on information that is already being shared by the way. Both the roles of government federal state and local share data for the advancement of current policy are ready whether its in health care area, whether its in Public Safety were as governor jerry brown once said on the question of taxes. We already do it so why not do it for Voter Registration. We are capturing the same information over and over again. Names, addresses, date of earth and the signature on file. If we are already doing this at all makes perfect sense to use it for Voter Registration and mike oregon put Voter Registration on its head. If you know art you are eligible and being in the voter rolls if you have your freedom of speech lets make those who dont want to participate in a democracy have them opt out of the system and thats what we have created. The California Law will go into full effect next summer. Passed by the legislature signed by the governor last year and the year of implementation and regulation training employees and working on working out some. Oregons law that went into effect in january of this year is averaging 12,000 viewer registrations a month, 12,000. In the past when it was all voter voter to opt to not opt out they were averaging 4000 registrations, a 3 increase for the new motor voter. Hows that for success . In california lets look at the numbers. More than 24 million eligible californians and only 17 million registered, 7 million plus eligible to register but if we capture 90 of them over time with a little bit of opt out factored in more than 6 Million People added to the rolls in california in the coming years. That is awesome. Imagine the impact we are going to have. [applause] ive been asked to share some insights have experience in getting this to the legislature and maybe some of the unique miss about california as other states take this on. First, the fight we had to get over is theres going to be voter fraud. How are you going to make sure you are not registering systematically someone who is not eligible to be a voter . You pass this law giving you were giving drivers licenses to undocumented individuals, this is a conspiracy. No, no, no. Yes california does provide licenses to undocumented but dmv assures us and written into our bill they process their information and never get shared with us for purposes of Voter Registration by the way even if another state doesnt provide drivers licenses for undocumented vehicles they do provide drivers licenses for people like my parents legal, permanent residents. They are over 18. They are not citizens and so you build it in the protocol. It remains in place under new voter motor and what about 16 to 17yearolds who have a drivers license. No challenge that we cant we heard a concern from some Rights Groups on behalf of legal residents and even some undocumented but are hopeful for the conference of Immigration Reform rather than sugar then later that we make sure someone is registered inadvertently that they are not punished later for a crime that they didnt commit to government automatically registers them possibly. We are pretty sure we are not going to do that but just in case he wrote language into the bill and thank you for your guidance on this that would put the fault on the government side not on individual side. So it doesnt create issues later for them. We also wanted to make sure that we were working with the department of Motor Vehicles to provide very clear language on voter a legibility. We do it on paper now. We check those boxes under penalty of her jury if citizens are eligible and filling out this form its true and correct. As to the language is going to be blaring for the new motor voter as an extra precaution. Also through automatic Voter Registration providing materials in nine languages other than english required in california under the federal Voting Rights act. We are both to do that to as we will describe in a minute we are doing at the pointofsale at the dmv. Will bit different than oregon for those of you in oregon the way it works is after people come to the dmv to do their business they are sent a letter after the facts saying we captured your information and you will be registered unless you tell us otherwise than by the way since the government cant pick a Political Party for you check a box and return it within 28 or 30 days putting california we are piggybacking on a previously funded Technology Upgrade at the dmv so we will be able to ask these questions not in that letter afterthefact but as that person is replying for reviewing their drivers license further state i. D. Its for the first time at the counter at dmv at the quote unquote voided sale. For people renewing via mail for people renewing on line we are building and protocols asked those questions right there. Part of her frankly was logistical. Can you imagine from a California State University as we are in 10 different languages quickly at a communications challenge and we had to work around it. We think its actually better and more efficient. Its also not lost, we are building just a foundation here even though we are going to get 90 maybe of the eligible and registered. What efforts can we do to capture more folks who are eligible that wont be at the dmv and once we got out the technology back on i envision being able to expand to other state departments and agencies to maybe local governments as well for all the people who provide said addresses and date of birth whether you are signing up for Unity College classes where they are coming into our Employment Department because you are now unemployed whether you are returning from a tour of duty in signing up for Veterans Benefits or millions of people previously and it should come you to sign up for health care through her Health Benefits exchange. Systematic capture in real time. Political Party Preference of Language Preference if they want to be permanent all that stuff that is going to make it more effective and more efficient for us to do. I envision that over the next several years putting the motor Voter Technology in place. Last but not least some people will criticize the new motor fraud or pricing for people who are renewing their drivers licenses that may not go back to the dmv for five or 10 years and how quickly are removing the natal . They have a little bit of a point but most people as soon as you move and you are redoing your checking accounts thats reminder you have to renew at dmv and we passed this on line registration tool. We also, i think well be old to keep up and they will be able to keep up with us as well. Last but not least i want to talk about the attitude i came across. They arrested the form of Something Like this. Why are you going to this effort just because you register somebody to vote doesnt mean they are going to vote. If you havent heard already expected. I disagree. Maybe not 100 of them will turn out to vote but if nothing else think about this. If you are eligible to vote in United States of america but not a registered voter today you did not receive the voter information guide from your state. If you are eligible to vote in the United States of america but not registered you dont get the sample ballot from your county. So think about that. Just through systematic registration of millions of voters in california and throughout the nation automatically these the registered voters will receive the voter information. They will receive a sample ballot and may be a wont hear from all the candidates and politicians seeking react registration. I need their votes so the bottom line is as a new registered voter you get the invitation to the Democracy Party that you never got before. You get that invitation to participate and information that theres an election coming up on, the dates, when and where and how to vote. This brings me to my next project that i put frankly in the Voting Rights category. Its how to conduct elections in recognition of the 21st century. We talk about automatic registration why not go one step further and talk about automatic putting a ballot in the hands of every registered voter each and every election . We have a tremendous opportunity would if we really do this right. As we free up time and energy and resources away from border registration because of success on automatic registration we can shift some of that time energy and resources on voter outreach and broader education and voter turnout. So just as oregon was a big inspiration for us to pursue automatic registration colorado has bid a big inspiration for us on how to conduct a legislation that could easier for people to participate. Ours is proposing legislation goes like this every registered voter receives a ballot for election day. In colorado for county installs dropbox is that the county and in any voter can drop their ballot off at any drop ox in the weeks leading up to the election. Then it goes a step or there and sets up curbside ballot dropoff stations. The post office on april 15. You dont even have to get out of your car. Theres a friendly face represented the county taking your ballot curbside and if you are like a mother and still insist on going in person to cast your ballot because you dont have it any other way they modernize vote centers. We will get into more detail when stage but they sit we afford voters the flexibility to vote anywhere in the county and not just at one designated location close to where you live you have this option for weeks leading up to election day not only the first tuesday after the first monday of november from 7 00 a. M. To 8 00 p. M. In california. The good news is this isnt a good idea who we are crossing our fingers. We know works. Qalat for him in 2014 ranked 23rd so clear we have room for improvement and we know where to go for the good idea space and matteo piloted this model just last fall so now we have our own metrics of whether or not it works pretty took the administration side Public Service announcements billboards social media mailings for a special election. San mateo so the highest turnout in 20 years across all demographic groups. That is success so for that to be the model in the years ahead. As i conclude here want to bring it all together and say heres what i propose our Voting Rights agenda to be in the 21st century. Yes we must defend and protect our Voting Rights and insist that congress interruptum later restore section for the Voting Rights act that was compromised by the Supreme Court. [applause] but im not satisfied with just playing defense. I want to play offense. Offense is how you put points on the board and we can play offense when it comes to Voting Rights by automatically registering all eligible voters who could we can play offense by automatically sending every registered a ballot and providing choices for when, where and how and we can play offense by taking the savings of these reforms investing in voter outreach and education and turnout. I believe this is the agenda of how we ever come a historical barrier to the ballot box and participation. This is how we instill the tradition of voting for all people and strengthen our democracy and this is how we fight back against the attack on Voting Rights that we see in far too many states in our country right now. While we wait for congress to act we embrace the opportunity for states to be able to act now this is our agenda. The department of justice cant do it alone. Later today well hear from former attorney general eric holder whose leadership as attorney general rebuilt the Civil Rights Division of the department of justice pretty was a tremendous leader for the department. He had a sturdy shield when it came to Voting Rights. I can only hope that my conjugation to democracy is a small fraction of what he has done and is continuing to do so thank you Brennan Center for your fight for democracy and for justice and thank you all for having me here this morning. [applause] [applause] c thank you secretary padilla. I was truly inspiring and energizing. I would like to call up our panel is now. Thank you everybody. My name is wendy weiser and i direct Democracy Program here at the Brennan Center among other things. Work to protect Voting Rights and to improve Election Administration both of which is significantly advanced by automatic Voter Registration. As you know we in the United States face a real turnout crisis. Our last federal election saw the lowest voter turnout in 72 years even with all the enthusiasm around this years president ial primaries. Turnout remains embarrassingly low. According to a recent pew study analysis of the first 12 primaries this year turnout was around 17 for republicans, less than 12 for democrats in that is actually reasonably high. This is a real problem we need to address. In some ways our country is going even farther in the wrong direction on voting. We are facing the first president ial election in which 17 states have new laws in place that will make it harder for eligible citizens to vote. It is the first president ial election in more than half a century which has the full protection of the Voting Rights act and it is the first president ial election in which we are feeling the full or so the Supreme Court decision in citizens united. But today we are here to talk about the major way in which the country is going in the right direction and the groundswell of momentum around the automatic Voter Registration is not only a rope right spot but really inspiring and we are really delighted to be working with all of you on this important reform. At this time i was going to talk a little bit about what are the benefits. We know from our study of other recent efforts to modernize Voter Registration that this reform will save states millions of dollars. Well make our border roles far more accurate, uptodate and errorfree and dramatic increase Voter Registration rates. But what also increase participation rates . Will increase turnout among lower propensity voters and those who have faced the greatest barriers to participation traditionally . New registrations did not necessarily translate into new voters, or doesnt it . These are the questions of the panel is going to address. Only when sega started implementing automatic Voter Registration so far and that is oregon and we are already seeing really positive results. We have heard that the Voter Registration rates have skyrocketed going from roughly 4000 a year to a month im sorry to 12 to 15,000 registrations a month and recent data put out by the Oregon New Motor Voter Coalition suggest that these registration are also translating into greater turnout as of monday morning according to their analysis and people age 18 to 29 who were automatic registered in oregon voted at higher rates in the primary than those who were registered using traditional means. If you look at the unaffiliated voters and those who couldnt vote in the president ial primaries and they only voted in the nonpartisan local and judicial election turnout was 10 for those who voted, registered automatic way as compared to only 3. 3 for those who registered using traditional means. In other words automatic registration really seems to happen in persistency participation according to the early returns. We are lucky today to have three brilliant panelists with experience and background to help shed light on why and how automatic registration can help Voter Participation and turnout. They are going to adjust the questions from three different perspectives the perspective of Voter Mobilization campaigns, behavioral science and brain studies in experimental Political Science and im going to start immediately to my left and we are going to go when it is time with jeremy bird one of the countries leading strategists with experience working to engage and turnout voters. Jeremy is the Founding Partner up to 70 strategies and a founding board member of i voted new organization that is focused on improving the voting process and automatic Voter Registration. In 2000 happy with the National Field director for president obamas Reelection Campaign where he ran the campaigns turnout effort that he was also the founding leader of battleground texas which focused in registering and turning out millions of texans to vote. We couldnt be more pleased to have you here. Jeremy drawing on your campaign and mobilization experience i would be grateful if you could talk about how you think automatic registration will impact Voter Participation. Thanks for having me. Good morning everyone. I want to start by getting people to get in the mindset or think about the times they have volunteered on the campaign or work on the campaign or if you havent just about being out on the campaign. I think back to so many stories of being in states where there wasnt sameday registration and there wasnt early vote boat and there werent some of the reforms that the Brennan Center. I remember so many times having my lists of voters and knocking on the doors await before the election, 30 days before the election, the day before the election and the person opening the door wasnt the person on my list and talking to them about why they were not on that list. So many of those conversations were two books of the secretary of talk about early disproportionately communities of color disproportionately young people and disproportionately low income communities where people were already excluded from my list of voters because they werent registered and in the window of their ability to participate in the process. You will hear more on this but its a massive, massive issue. We know when he will hear from the two other panelists that Voter Mobilization works. We know that the makeup micco to the door of somebody who is registered to vote who is less likely to vote that by having a conversation with them talking to them on the phone engaging them in the process when they are visible on that list that we can increase the participation rates and we have seen that in studies whether its from the counties or states sending out information or from the campaign for or Community Group engaging that person. Our resources could shift fundamentally with automatic Voter Registration. I just want to take you to 2012 for second. On the Obama Campaign we knocked on the door or called 150 million times to different voters, 150 million times to either talk to somebody was a persuadable voter or do a conversation with a voter that was registered that we wanted to help up the pit we also registered 2. 1 million voters. To register 2. 1 million voters in the Obama Campaign took 700,000 volunteer shifts, 700,000 volunteer shifts. If those volunteer shifts and by the way this is only in 10 states. Theres a whole issue about the other 40 states that we can talk about later. This is only 10 states. If wed redirected those volunteer resources of those people that did that execution we would have been able to knock on our call 35 million additional voters and engage them in the process and invite them to the Democracy Party. Simply by her campaigns alone to redistribute their resources for people who are already registered and have those conversations be about plan, where why and how to vote as opposed to getting them on the list would fundamentally change the way we run our campaign in on the mentally changes the way in which we bring people into the process. Can you talk a little bit about what impact you think these changes might have on engaging lower propensity voters minority voters and lower income voters . We are talking about voter them registration generally. We are talking about disproportionately communities of lowering, for citizens who could become voters. I think the process by which automatic Voter Registration works is generally changes the composition of the electorate. If you go to any state in the country and is pronounced in places like texas and others where theres larger populations of latino voters in african mothers and asianamerican voters and young people thats what the bigger impact in those communities because of a change who is on the list we are talking to from Election Officials. I think theres another thing tactically that this change is pretty pure in the campaign and there is an sameday registration or you dont have these laws when you get to her list you will notice in those same communities that the density of where people live and the density of the list is not so much because there are so many houses that you are walking by were people arent registered to vote and within that registration window so i think what you will see his campaigns will have a much more of an ability to talk to more folks when people are on that list and you will be able to have those conversations. Like you see in oregon are ready people voting for the first time we can get them involved in the process and get them to vote a second time. These voters created tradition as the secretary was talking about where their kids, starts to become a cultural change and then we start to change the narrative which to me is important. Thank you. We are going to turn it over and there will be time for questions i believe at the end of this panel. An expanelists sam wang who is one of the leading professionals on behavioral some science. He is at princeton university. His published over 60 scientific articles and two popular books and he is also widely known for his work on statistical methods for analyzing election polls. Sam mentioned automatic registration works significant part by changing the perceptions around Voter Registration. In the Current System and most of the country no one is registered unless they affirmatively take steps to register to vote and automatic registration, citizen who goes to the dmv or some other agency that is covered will be registered unless they affirmatively declining Voter Registration. From the perspective of behavioral science what is their research on changing default options tell us about the possible impact of automatic Voter Registration on behavior . Think you were that question. Im glad you gave me that kind it didnt introduction. What i would like to do is get a little bit of information about exact he how one can go about estimating the benefits of automatic Voter Registration but as we have heard this morning Something Like 24 of the voting eligible adults in the United States are not registered to vote and 53 Million People i believe we heard this morning 50 Million People. The question is how come we understand how much benefit they would be especially given its innovative and fairly front edge to be doing automatic Voter Registrations inactive in four states so to predict what i cap electoral and principles my own field neuroscience or behavioral and cognitive science. I think they are couple of basic principles and i want to give you what you think about this thats a little bit different than what we have heard the story so far and want to give you to ideas and build out from those ideas. Well try to do it fairly briefly. The first idea is cognitive and behavior signs theres something about the power of the default option to the general idea is that human beings as it turns out dont like to think very hard. As the terminology and i will throw in some technical terms and these technical terms or maley if you are curious go to google and start looking up this information yourself. If thats a reasonable option we will choose the default option and take that as a reasonable option so thats a powerful point that i think we know intuitively. The second is the power of not having to plan ahead and so generally speaking we think that we can plan ahead but studies ranging from things like Organ Donation to saving for retirement, and seems there is some barrier to making plans for in the future to future we cant necessarily see. In particular be something called the executive function executive in the domain of behavioral science means executing actions so part of your brain is important for executive function as the prefrontal cortex. Let me talk about these little bit. Si party said intuit have laid off that is supposed to often has several bandages and one of the biggest ones is inertia. If you dont do anything which is what those people specialize in then you are registered in the opt out system and you are not registered in the opt in system. The other point is planning ahead to it as i said we are not good at planning ahead to the future. We choose her immediate actions in this plays out in every aspect of our daily life. If you had the pacers to their fruit you from a Houston Point he didnt very well. You may not plan 2030 years when the fruit or pastry might make a difference in your life. One difficulty with executive functioning planning ahead is we have to be able to match what we are going to do on the first tuesday in november and that could be his first two years away from now and its hard to do that. All these types of things require executive function break for me give you a couple of estimates of all we do from moving this barrier would achieve. The first example is savings plans. As a famous study done by the rigid than the shea and it has to do with retirement savings. What they showed was the participation rates in the optin approach lead to 65 participation after three years so 65 participation in a retirement program. That sounds pretty good but then the system switch to automatic enrollment participation rates jumped to 98 . We brought that up by a then secretary hypothetically but there is a way to look at putting statistics to see if that will increase boding that goes back to executive function in the ada is are there people like to vote but dont because they failed to register in advance . Before the invasion of West Virginia a used to be the had to register 21 days before the election because the percentage of the eligible population is 46 moved so we will see a bigger experiment so is that a barrier . Eleven states allow you registration and election day itself. You can fill up the form and to plan in advance all 12 have aboveaverage voter turnout in a few by the difference nationwide of those top 49 states three have sameday registration Wisconsin New hampshire and has 76 of the end of voting on election day. And conversely that require advance registration. And then to bring up another point will these people actually vote . Ended is greater than what i have said. Is in the desert as a the question of their richest home dash registered in advance call the implementation. End thereof those manipulations ever demonstrated. But how do you plan to get there . When will you go . In with those students is that ted has turned up for the with the prefrontal cortex but we dont necessarily have the ability to do it by ourselves and we need a voting betty but it turns out the candy dash in by mail or other points of contact. Of those registered currently that though in the president ial election and. That 30 Million People are likely to go. But this is something that should appeal to secretaries and states those are both lose states and in what read states across all demographics if you have a nationwide coalition surely youd like those people to vote did your state issue would not want to lose ground to others that are motivated so that appeals to those competitive instincts. So i will stop there. [applause] before i turn to the last panelist our , is trending we did have a fourth panelist that was supposed to join in a statement there was a lastminute emergencies so he sends his apologies. Tourney to our final panelist a professor of Political Science at Temple University in those studying mobilization with lower propensity voters into rallies for president ial election cycles and over the last decade so what does the Political ScienceResearch Tell Us . Registration is really hard because you have to opt in seed get the person that is interested in voting so if youre interested uri would have so a lot of groups gore around with registration cards but a lot of them have to come up at the grocers stores to say yes i will vote so that does it measure the effect we need to know what would happen if there ever not there to register people so rather than rely a long backed in my field trials we try to see what happened if they were not standing there . With their clipboard . 01 experiment that ranges from tampa in detroit to thousand four though collection 2007, we granted reassigned streets to knock on doors or two streets for they did not go down because there is no list of unregistered voters you to go to the secretary of state and tell me everyone and then mobilize them and theres a lot of experiments on that but the streets are easy to track fatal move you to see how many votes were cast that people that our tricky to get the close the door they are free will so in this case we will take the streets and immobilize them and what we found with the overall registration rates we can increase the registration rates on the treatment by about 10 cards per street of an increase of registration that is Pretty Simple for like 50,000 hours of work but that was a pretty minor intervention so the worry is the still have to sign the card if those people are only interested in voting you may not see a difference in those turnout rates so depending on who cast a vote five months later resaw and increase of turnout of 2. 5 points which means we are increasing voter turnout but those people if you register them to vote who would turn out otherwise would have stayed at home and factory had a very strict fire wall and then it went away with all of the information so they didnt know where those streets were in these are people that are getting engaged because people organize a lot of volunteers to seiko vote for our side or the people who were late to the fight a lot of people like football bet the and they try to catch up on the super bowl but a lot of people dont like voting you understand the kitchen were intimately involved in this process but i dont like elections because there is excitement there are some interesting ideas but after the registration deadline they cannot participate so this experiment shows those ever showing interest late there already cannot vote i cast a dark randomizing classrooms and other captive audiences but 1 4 to 1 3 of those people also likely vote. Give one a third of those people overall that otherwise would not have been registered turned out to vote then you can see differences for the lower income minority voters or the similar effect . Yes. In three of the experiments 2006 that ranges from high income to low income we saw a smaller jump in registration rates to people ever already registered once you register them they voted at about the same rates the story was a little different in neighborhoods that were low in, like 15 percent of average income in the city they had a much larger effect in the overall rate of turnout was lower but the number of votes generated were twice as high so there is more value to be gained in a higher income communities. You talk about the downstream effect of participation if a new person enters into the political process can you tell us about those . Yes. When we die vote stroke mobilization assigned to a control group we knock on the door or make phone calls so that helps the campaign no if you knock on the door. But one interesting fact but then what happens to turn out down the road . So we increase turnout by 6 . Pc onequarter of that job been turned out to with no intervention so once you get people engaged in the process that is familiar in their more likely to do it again down the line. Is buried any effect on the people around them as well like cows will members . Yes. This is fun for me because i mcgee but we were randomly assigned people to knock on the door with the getoutthevote message with a recycling message we did that if you answer the door that has no affect on turnout. [laughter] vs but a was a 6. Boost in turnout but what happens to the other person the household who did not get the knock on the door . The first experiment that was published that 60 percent was passed on to subsequently it was 30 saw the person you register to get involved is likely to pass that around as more anecdotal an experimental one of the challenges we registering immigration they may not be citizens but if you talk to people about the election the information about the process viniculture of wearing gauge because it is inefficient so if we were to increase registration my guess is you would see a culture of politics arrive but just not as deeply rooted that has registered to vote. Thank you very much for that we will open the panel to question somebody is Walking Around with a microphone but i will start with the first question one of the effects of Voter Registration there is a much more complete list including those that were previously unregistered and that enables us to learn more about those voters and their behavior so what about that ability to study them or have a list to contact them with their studies or how that could affect the participation in overtime . When you say your goals from the beginning that these people will turn out what is the electorate looks like . There isnt a good list of unregistered for orders reached tried everything that we could to figure out how you take the information we put on that list but not on the other last it doesnt work very well so to think about running a campaign that is universal all it changes the bolsa you set for the campaign in the people that you put on your list neil door phones the way you conduct the people the you try to reach a would fundamentally change the campaign to increase participation because and you fill out your goals with the targets that you tried to reach. It gives us a more complete picture of what the electorate looks like and how they respond with the medical sciences with those drugs and we thought were effective for not been the same with voters if youre of the order registration list it is how you believe that there justin visible so we cannot do studies of the engagement of up process. So maybe learn more and get better acting deejaying as well. Please raise your hand the microphone will come to you. We need of mine registration and voting this would eliminate paper which kills the tree is. Is there somebody a with a question . I am from new york i believe you have convinced us automatic Voter Registration is a good idea but a new address the problem the implementation in to get this through in places like new york state or texas florida and pennsylvania . Part of what this conference is here to address is to seek a lot of pills ever being pushed across the country in 28 states this year with legislative efforts summer getting pretty far the york state does have those active coalition pushing bad right now that is why we are here today especially in the afternoon to try and help make that happen. I have been doing a lot of this work then there are two approaches in the research that is important data for a given to show with a case study was a success also legislative strategy in states where you have legislators in statehouses and state senates to use people like the secretary of california to say here is legislation that works. Some of them will not do that process summer through the amendment process. You will see people doing it in ohio but we have to take it to people to say this is a good idea whether is a constitutional amendment and education and research through public pressure to make this happen so to organize that process. We cannot expect a Snowball Effect as it happens across the country to be implemented successfully to mimic the origin of other reforms to modernize the registration process of adopting online registration in their successes have bred a massive reform nationwide so a the success will breed additional success. If i could brighten the question a little bit but 2. 0 first one of the states they mentioned in texas has the fourth lowest rate of voting in the United States fewer than those are eligible to vote that voted in 2012 them the bottom for states the rule is they have to be registered between 21 and 30 days and it is it takes that long and that is of what i said before three allows sameday registration one allows 10 days but in general we have been very high minded about being registered to vote the from that cognitive science standpoint it could be good for competition so few are a competitor state when it comes time for the National Popular vote so broadly speaking would not underestimate the power of prayer. [laughter] thanks for this presentation i was curious to know from the cognitive point of view in the Political Science analysis effect once you get to the point where people are registered i know we have had decades of experience had you get beyond the fact what do we know about Current Research to getting them motivated to vote to start with . Rabil points out some of the problems arent limited to voting and democracy but there is a deep distrust across institutions and other religious leaders and representatives but medical professionals and every domain in the military but leaders of society so the advantage of the opt out automatically engages people it is hard to say how that works with alienation but it seems it is better from a policy point of view to where they could conceivably take one step to be less alienated rather than those multiple steps not to decrease teen alienation across the board is the big problem but to take out one barrier and then get them to go vote. Of our electorate is more diverse that comes in all forms we talk about where election day is a distinction between in, of who turns out if you want to solve economic inequality and that is what happens if voters on election day theyve will become more diverse and representative of the population it is chicken and egg but fundamentally changing who is representing is to change to is voting. I am from common cause new york diamond arrested in the interaction between habit forming and novelty talking about automatic Voter Registration it is such an exciting idea to have that opt out and not have the burden on individuals but to what extent do we expect the bump up and how do we move people with what kind of maintenance do we need from the cognitive point of view that this is just coming in the mail every four years but actually helps them to become habitual voters . Thanks for that question. We think about the conscious act to be the abstract event i have a choice and i will make that choice but to any action we take is not isolated but as you said the formation of a habit so i habitually vote and dont even think about i know it is election day i know when i can duet after day care closes but i make those plans because it is a habit we dont have to go to a mental effort to pressure our chief so the difficulty is the habit formation generally speaking think about the way the brain makes decisions it is not one center but many betted different domain better eating habits are better exercise habits it is for your reply your willpower but it works the tissue for a man have been a day after day after a while you do not think about that so it suggests the possibility the benefit might not be won election might take several if you think of these election cycles with the primaries is possible it could take a fall election cycle of for years to see the full effect but it wasnt could expect the media bump followed by a gradual ramping up after they establish bad habit and then to decide when the intervention and has succeeded but it does have a bunch of Decision Making barriers and then that makes that easier. From that point you are right about that novelty effect with the invention the first time in is more effective but the third or fourth time it is a longer quite as effective so it is often very biggest carpet bin trails off and then you say this is amazing people are interested the first time because they have not seen the ballot by mail before then it comes down to lower levels seen cannot judge that based on the first one. I work at the Baptist Church in brooklyn and my question is one of the things that you said that it is nice that the streets dont move them might concern is the concept of districting people have voluntarily moved by the will of political factions to put it to more of vintage how the voting situation might be affected can you give an idea what we are doing by say that because we are all involved or what are your ideas or suggestions to battle that aspect . The eric your concern is as a representative i will be disconnected . I have seen that happen in brooklyn. This seems a low and outside of my realm. Id think i knew touched an important issue of lot of the gerrymandering problems they do 88 people and have the negative impact with automatic Voter Registration although it has a significant effect does not address that problem there is a lot of momentum about redistricting around the country addressing these concerns of gerrymandering picasso of Community Representation for communities of color and of course, that is an important issue to a engaged as well. You touched on that is thus a decision that does not register but is motivated but doesnt take the first step so how much of that is our own emphasis the attention to reach out of love the idea going up and down the streets but my question is do we know any more than a person that is registered to vote are we steadying that level of motivation . There is some work on that and this goes back to alienation were some people dont register to participate because they are young they havent had problems one sure established in the neighborhood then they dry you into this system like a life cycle process reno i should get older you go and invade the habits and behavior is of people who vote but first, it just does not speak to them as part of their core identity and the reason for that varies wildly but no matter what theory you have that person exist is just a question of what proportion like mrs. Maurer anecdote and what i can tell you how people think but when i have done door knocking and very poor neighborhoods one of the questions you often get is why should i care . The matter who gets elected the status of my neighborhood doesnt change. The groups i have worked with have seen those that engaged them can point to Small Victories to say we get this person elected and the lights were fixed or as the group we petition the Police Department in may changed how they patrolled the community. Because people are stubborn they dont want to go. And through a collective process that you are expecting barack obama to feature neighborhood problems and where you can make a difference and they are incredibly complex. It is not just homogeneous but it is related to those other questions if you ask through polling or focus groups part of the reason is because of redistricting and that is how it is restricted into certain aspects