For a moment, do not leave the meeting. At this time i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days and that any remarks be made part of the record. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Today, we are examining new information in the 2020 election. How the spread of false information impacts voters and what can be done to combat this and ensure that americans can go forward in short armed with Accurate Information. Information ss misinformation without recognizing the persistent misinformation being spread about the ongoing covid19 pandemic. Americans need Accurate Information about how to cast their ballots about the pandemic, and important Accurate Information on how to cast their ballots in a manner that protects their health. Election day maybe four weeks from today, but voting is well underway. Overseas and military ballots were sent out a few weeks ago. Absentee ballots can be requested now and returned in the weeks ahead. More than 30 states are already mailin ballots to voters. Early in person voting began in many states and will do so in the weeks ahead. Early voting begins in ohio today. The American People are voting and will be voting now through november 3. During all of this, the president and others are waging an insidious campaign to so distrust in our process by spreading false claims that vote by mail is right for fraud, making unsubstantiated claims that the election will be rate, encouraging people to vote twice which is illegal and wrong. Additionally, u. S. Intelligence agencies warned that russia has continued its Disinformation Campaign and continues to interfere in the election. In 2016, no group of americans were targeted more by Russian Internet disinformation than africanamericans. American people deserve the truth. They deserve an election free from the fraud of false information and Voter Suppression. The truth is, millions of americans including the president and members of his administration cast a ballot by mail every election cycle with exceedingly rare instances of fraud. As significantly more americans prepared to cast their ballots from home this year than ever before, the American People must be prepared that we may not know the winner of the election on the night of november 3. This does not mean that anything is wrong with the election. Ify states often take days not weeks to certify their results. This also allows ballots that were mailed on election day to be counted. That there is nothing the various. It is simply about counting ballots. The count must be accurate and that takes time. Every validly cast vote should count. That is democracy. Most votes are cast on election day, and we should count them. Not spread fear and lie about a rigged election. Misinformation being spread in the lead up to this years election is a disservice to voters and a danger to our democracy. And our democratic institution. The house past the shield act in 2019 which would address the spread of misinformation including prohibiting the spread of false information about voting but the senate has refused to act. It is our duty to ensure voters have all of the necessary Accurate Information you need to cast their ballots freely, fairly, and safely during the pandemic and with confidence in our electoral system. I think our witnesses for being here today and i look forward to hearing your testimony. The Ranking Member is unfortunately unable to join us today. I ask unanimous consent that his statement be made part of the record. Without objection, so ordered. Will be recognized for five minutes. Thatl remind our witnesses their entire written statements will be made part of the record and that the record will remain open for at least five days for additional materials to be submitted. Another reminder to our witnesses, there is a timer on the screen. Please be sure you can see it and you are mindful of the five minute limit. , a commissioner with the u. S. Election assistance commission. The commissioner was confirmed in the senate on january 2, 2019. He previously served as acting chief counsel for the Senate Committee on rules and administration. Is colorados 39th secretary of state. She began her term in 2019. She is the youngest elected secretary of state in the country. Internationaled anticorruption law, worked as a Voter Protection attorney, and previously served as guest is a member of the board of elections having served since april 2007. She is a law partner in cleveland and chairs her firms nonprofit group. Mr. Overton is a tenure professor at George WashingtonUniversity School of law. At theiously served department of justice during the obama administration. It is interesting to note that hearingolding this during National Voter education week. For there five minutes. You arein today recognized for five and its. Good afternoon. I appreciate this opportunity to testify today regarding the u. S. Election system ongoing work. Combating disinformation was one of the expected issues of the 2020 election and the covid19 pandemic has only exacerbated the risk. For interference in our elections, there has been an increased focus and dedication to the security of our elections. The department of homeland to codifyas helped and coordinate efforts between federal, state, and local Government Agencies as well as private industry. This has led to a change in information sharing and coupled with an act his greatly improved the Security Posture of our elections. That commitment to securing our elections has continued, but it is impossible to discuss this election without acknowledging the impact of the covid19 pandemic. Since march amid the debates about the health of our communities and economy, Election Administrators have had a difficult path of determining how to adapt their practices and procedures to conduct safe, secure, accurate, elections. We have pivoted substantially to focus our attention on how we can support state and local Election Officials as they make tough decisions. We have also distributed almost 1. 2 billion in Grant Funding to the state since 2018. This includes 400 million from the cares act funds and additional Election Security funds. These resources have proven vital to improving Election Administration and covid19 related issues. Election administrators have risen to the challenges during these times. The Public Servant that administers elections can only did dust do their best when it impact ofimiting the disinformation. Clinical campaigns and Interest Groups are spending billions of dollars to influence americans. Adversaries are amplifying our divisions to dissuade participation or provide an Accurate Information about how voters can participate. Americans must come together to protect our nation, the electoral process, and voter confidence. We should help encourage confidence in the electoral process will have lighting the great work of our Election Administrators. Supporting efforts like the National Association of 2020 campaign are integral parts of ensuring that americans get the right information this year. Today, we are 28 days from election day. Citizensand overseas absentee ballots have been sent out around the world. Some registration deadlines have already passed. What we can focus on at this point are the basics. Serving voters well and helping them to have a positive experience whether they vote by mail, absentee, early in person, or on election day. Misinformation can interfere with that. Must push back against misinformation. Voters areon, d. C. , registered in one or two states or the district. Each state holds elections in a unique way. The effort i mentioned earlier is about helping in americans get Accurate Information about Election Administration from their state and local officials. This is the trusted source for each voter which provides correct information on how to participate. With all of the noise that surrounds this election, it is crucial that we encourage individuals to think through how they want to vote and trust source information. Most americans have the opportunity to vote in many ways. We know from the cdc that limiting congestion in the polling places will keep voting us it is deaf safe as possible. Get accurated to information about their voting. Ptions thank you again for the opportunity to testify today and i look forward to your questions. Thank you very much. From secretaryr griswold. You are recognized for five minutes. Thank you for your work on elections and for inviting me to this hearing. I am colorados secretary of state. Look forward to sharing my views on combating misinformation in the election. I believe Election Security is one of our greatest National Security risks. If Foreign Countries interfere with our election, it undermines faith in the entire electoral process. Then voters are less likely to participate which weakens our democracy. I would like to briefly discuss what we are facing and proposals for congressional action. The Intelligence Community and bipartisan Senate Committee on intelligence can concluded that russia interfered in the 2016 election. We know that enemies are trying to under undermine how we vote based on reports. Warningsust released noting foreign actors may try to undermine confidence in the results. Foreign adversaries are meddling in our elections. We cannot allow this to continue. In response to ensure colorado remains at the forefront of preparedness and that we remain confident in our process, i unit to combat misinformation and cyber threats. The rescue team is coordinating with partners by implementing a Public Outreach effort to ensure we ignore the noise. Ensuring my office can rapidly respond to misinformation by releasing Accurate Information and ensuring county and nongovernmental partners work with us to rule out correct information. We are also working with dhs and the fbi. Following the election, we will toward enhancing our resistance to foreign interference. Covid19er, before shut down our state legislature, i proposed legislation to combat disinformation and colorado. The proposal strengthens requirements to ensure paid election messages are not coming from foreign sources. Campaigns from collaborating with foreign governments. Ensure that Foreign Countries do not use social media platforms as a tool to suppress americans votes. Colorado is leading on this and our democracy demands it. Congress also has an Important Role to play. From appropriations and warnings this ipublic to tackle recommend the following action. Congress should establish a commission with bipartisan representatives to develop recommendations to make sure what happened in 2016 and is happening right now never happens again. Congress should provide adequate foring to states cybersecurity. Third, congress should require the Intelligence Community to declassify foreign misinformation and work with a partisan representatives from state and federal government to rule out the information to the fifth to the public. Fourth, congress should consider legislation to combat election misinformation and foreign coordination. I also call on congress to act to remove the artificial protections afforded to social Media Companies. Social Media Companies are not neutral platforms. Content can promote ill intentioned for an activity. They should not be shielded from accountability. While social media can be a tool for good, adversaries can use it as never seen before. I am grateful for this opportunity to testify today. I am optimistic that we can counter foreign misinformation and make sure every american has a democracy we can believe in. Thank you. Next guest, you are recognized for five and its. Five minutes. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. I have served on the ohio board of elections including the last three president ial elections, i have never witnessed the falsehoods being disseminated about the integrity of our elections process that i have seen in this cycle. The line that there is rampant voting fraud has been tamped n, it is a fact voters in ohio have been voting by mail successfully since 2006. Our ohio secretary of state has published a number of materials highlighting the goals and tactics of the Disinformation Campaigns we are seeing. These campaigns are taking , amplifyingues protests andnizing so forth using internet and social media to launch campaigns with the goal of subversion, civil unrest. The campaigns are building distrust and cynicism cynicism and discouraging public participation. There are a number of foreign bad actors engaging in this campaign. Misinformation is being promoted by President Trump, the white house, and other bad actors who have unfairly demonized the vote by mail process and undermined public confidence. We are committed to combating this in a number of ways. We began implementing a new initiative to encourage voters to vote by mail to maximize their safety in the pandemic and that initiative is called vote from home. Were also trying to separate fact from fission from fiction by making sure voting is secure. Misinformation with facts using mythbusters campaign. Samples of our messages were included with my written testimony. We have ramped up efforts to connect with voters by education and Community Outreach as a way to combat misinformation and disinformation. We connect with over 300 Community Partners regularly. Although we only have three employees in our outreach department, these individuals organize and present events that educate and gauge voters. And we a robust website have vastly improved our social media presence. We are working to expand those capabilities. One new program we are proud of session onengagement facebook live. The session is held twice per minutesnoon for 1015 to provide information and updates on the election, to address deadlines. we post pertinent information on all outlets weekly and all of this and more often if we need to and its an effort to counter inaccurate and dangerous messaging being circulated in both traditional media and social media. We have been thinking about ways Congress Might help boards of elections combat misinformation. Additional funding to allow for more robust Community Outreach and Voter Education programming, hiring additional staff to work with voters and earmarking money to improve social media capabilities would be welcomed. I am hopeful the information i share with you today will help you as you consider ways to stop misinformation and restore voter confidence in our election process. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today and it is appropriate we are having this hearing on Voter Education week and i am pleased to be here and i would be happy to answer any questions you have. Thank you. Membersning, a couple of my staff happened to be down by the board of elections and took videos of people lined up around the block. On the very first day of in person voting. Next guest, you are recognized for five minutes. Congresswoman and committee members, thank you so much. Jointresident of the center which is americas black think tank. Law also a tenured professor at gw. Social media platforms are fueling the spread of lies that are undermining our democracy. This crisis is not hypothetical. Organization associated with Russian Military intelligence erected fake accounts pretending to be africanamericans and they urged lacked people to protest by not voting. The russians directed 38 of their u. S. Facebook advertising buys toward africanamericans even though black folks are only 13 of the u. S. Population. In 2000 16, the Trump Campaign divided millions of americans into several categories calledng a category they deterrence. It cant it targeted those voters with tailored social media ads discouraging them from voting. It black voters were disproportionately singled out although African Americans account for only 22 percent of North Carolinas population, they were 46 of the North Carolina voters laded as deterrence labeled as determinants. Millionaign labeled 3. 5 black voters for deterrence. The 2016 election marked the largest decline in black voters in modern history. It is no surprise these efforts continue now. Russianse primary, targeted black users with online disinformation about senator Kamala Harris. Facebook and, twitter acknowledged they removed a network of russian backed account originating in nigeria that targeted black communities in the u. S. Last month, the department of Homeland Security revealed that russia is attempting to reveal false statements online mailin ballots or little with fraud. When some social