Isaac kramer, executive director of Charleston County, South Carolina board of registration and elections. Janay nelson, president and director of the naacp Legal Defense fund. Were also going■ to hear from our other witnesses. Not for any omission, but because senator fisher will be introducing them. That includes alabama, secretary of state wes allen and brian cruz, election commissioner for the Douglas County, nebraska election commission. More americans than ever have cast a ballot in cent elections, and it is in large part because of the work of state and local officials. And these elections he run smoothly and topped Security Officials in both republican and democratic administrations to the likes have confirmed the security o elections including last weeks primary elections. 18 states have already held primaries this year. In fact our witnesses, secretary benson, secretary allen, and mr. Kramer have overseen primary elections this year already. Are many more to go before the general election in november including three states, georgia, mississippi, and washington. In which voters are casting ballots today. With voting already underway, we are here to discuss the key issues facing the state and local Election Officials on the front lines of our democracy. One area of particular urgency is Artificial Intelligence. We have already seen how a. I. Can be used topr about elections like the fake robocalls using the president s voice, telling people not to vote in New Hampshire, which is now under investigation by the states Republican Attorney general. We must work across the aisle to protect our elections from these threats. And all of the witnesses at our hearing last fall agree we need to put guardrails in place that is whew im leading a bipartisan bill with senator holly, cons,■l collins, senator bennett and rickets, and it has brought support on both sides of the aisle to prohibit fraudulent ai generated deep fakes in our elections. Ed deep fakes in our but we■b■b are very concerned at what we have seen and just bits of ads and videos that have gone out that attack candidates on both sides of the aisle, but they are complete deep fakes, and you cant even tell its not the candidate. We also need to in addition to banning deceptive deep fakes. We also need disclaimers when ai is used in other ways. Last week i introduced a bipartisan bill with senator Lisa Murkowski to require transparency and add substantially generated by ai. So that whether you are a republican or democrat, voters will know if the ads they see are making use of this technology. We got some guidance from the hearing we had earlier last year that we dont want those labels to apply to every single thing when ai is used, so we have defined that in a way that will make it easier to but i cannot emphasize on how important i believe it is to also pass the deep fake bill. Finally since ai could make it so much easier to spread disinformation about things like Voter Registration, deadlines, or polling locations. R load in a question i should say, and ask well, what about■1 they often have lines, where should they vote . And im making up the numbers now, but 123 elmtreet didnt even exist. Clearly they have work to do, so we have concerns about that as well. We must tackle these issues head on. One way is the work that we are doing to require the election assist so the officials are prepared to meter these challenges. Six states including my state of minnesota and secretary benson, state of michigan have passed new laws to address ai and more than three dozen states have bills pending both red and blue states. But we cannot rely on a patch work of state laws and Congress Must act. Election workers including volunteers also continue to face a barrage of threats and intimidation. We have heard testimony in this committee from officials from both parties about threats targeting them and their families. It is no surprise that a survey last yearne in three Election Officials said that they have been abused, harassed, threatened. One in five said that they kno e to safety concerns. This has a real impact in how elections are run including efforts to recruitollast novembr more than a dozen anonymous letters, some containing fentanyl were sent tolen offices in at least six states, leading to evacuations and delays. And that is where senator fisher and i called on the Justice Department to prioritize investigating these incidents, and why i lead a bill with senator durbin and 26 cosponsors to protect election workers from intimidation and threats. In addition it is critical as ever that state and local governmes have reliable federal funding to maintain election infrastructure, keep pace with new technology, and combat cybersecurity threats. Election security is truly national security. And these investments must be prioritized as our intel agencies continue to warn about foreign adversaries trying to influence our elections. I have heard from officials in red, blue, purple states about the need to get steady funding when it comes to election. Finally ill note that in many states, voters continue to face new laws that will make it harder to vote with a major hearing on that this morning in the Judiciary Committee with senator warnock to talk about the john lewis Voting Rights bill. We also need basis federal standards like those contained in the freedom to vote act that i lead along with many of my colleagues including the democrats on this committee. I will not give up until they become the law of thed we trulyd to have federal Voting Rights protections for the citizens of this country. I want to thank our witnesses for being here and i look forward to hearing the testimony. And to prepare for our elections. Turn it overo Ranking Member fisher. Good afternoon and thank you, chairwoman for holding this hearing and thha you to all of our witnesses for being here today. And three states conduct an election and one week after super tuesday, we will hear from state and local Election Officials from across the country. And about one of the most ndamental aspects of our democracy. The administration is a free and fair election. We look forward to learning about how jurisdictions are preparing for the upcoming elections. When voters cast ballots. He it is also the combination of months of preparation by state and local Election Officials to ensure every voter can fulfill their civic duty and in the democratic process. Election officials will maintain voter rules, train poll workers and volunteers. And and test voting equipment. Prepare ballots, and educate the public about the upcoming elections. Well every four years they step in to a brighter spotlight. These hard working a individuals address election add min station challenges for every election regardless of what is on the ballot. On top of the cybersecurity and physical security of election infrastructure, Election Officials must rcecruit and tran the next generation of poll workers, while also retaining experienced poll workers. They also work hard to ensure voter confidence in the electoral process, and the ultimate outcome of the elections. Im interested in hearing from our witnesses, how they adapt to the changing landscape to ensure election integrity. I also understand not only the challenges, Election Officials face, but whether the existirces are working as intended to ease those challenges. Our Founding Fathers providedsty responsibility of administering elections under our constitution. Resulting the diversity of election systems is a strength of our democracy. I look forward to a productive discussion and extend my sincere appreciation to our witnesses for being here today as they are in the midst of preparations for the 2024 elections. Thank you all. Thank you very much, senator fischer. And ill introduce three of the witnesses and we will introduce the remaining two. Our first witness is michigan secretary state jocelyn benson. A role she has held since her election in 2018. Previously she served as dean at Wayne State Law School and received her bachelors degree from welsley. Our next witness is isaac kramer of the board of Voter Registration and elections for Charleston CountySouth Carolina, where he has served for a decade and was appointed executive director in 2021. He a graduate of wheaton college. Then we have janay wilson. Welcome again. President a director of council of the naacp Legal Defense fund. She began her career at ldf as an extern before she was a full bright scholar in ghana. She returned as the Association Director of council and assumed the role of president in march tu of 2022. She received her bachelors degree from nyu, and her law degree from the university of li, los angeles. Senator fischer . Thank you, i thank all of our witnesses for being here today. We have with us mr. Brian kruse who serves for Douglas County. And was recently reappointed for a third term. Ive had the privilege of working with him to serve nebraskans for many years. He has come from omaha, nebraska to be with us today, as we have direct flights. Thank you. Thank you, madam chairman and Ranking Member fischer for your continued leadership on this committee. It is a pleasure to introduce secretary allen today at this hearing. Wes allen serves as alabamas 54th secretary of state where he is our states chief election official. Hired to his current office, secretary allen spent a decade in pike county, alabama as probate judge, which is the county senior election official. He was then elected to the Alabama House of representatives, where he served as the vice chair of the legislatures Constitution Campaign and election committees. Secretary allen is honored to appear in this committee. Thank you for being here. If the witnesses will stand and now raise their right hand. Do you swear that the testimony give me a second. Do you swear that the testimony you will give before the Committee Shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing, but the truth . So helphank you, you may now proceed, and we will recognize you each for a fiveminute statement starting with secretary benson. And i will leave some time, thanks. Secretary benson . Thank you, chair klobuchar. Its an honor to be joining you today for this important hearing. These next eight months, it will define the future of our country and our democracy. And as michigans chief election officer, that reality is clear to me every day. Both as we work to ensure our elections are safe and secure, and in our efforts to protect every voter and election official from the lies, threats, deceptive tactics that continue to play our democracy. Its been a challenging few years for us. Yet our democracy is getting stronger. First voter on the rise from 2020 when we saw more citizens vote than ever before to 2022 when michigan led the nation and used engaged and they are voting. Second, the number of ways voters could participate in our elections will continue to expand from the right to vote from homes to early voting to traditional election day voting places. Michigans experience underscores that the expansion of options to vote directly leads to higher Voter Participation. Across the political spectrum in every election. But it is the chief elections offnd state. I know these successes do not tell the whole story. We will go into this election cycle, expecting bad actors to use misinformation, turbo charged through ai, and to divide, deceive, and deter Voter Participation throughout our country. Im not just talking about deep fakes. Ai will also make it easier to mislead voters about the voting process or even conditions at a polling place. And imagine atext warning, sayie long lines at a precinct or another seeing a social media post changing because of flooding. All of these could be false and all of these could deter participation. The realities of ai underscore the need for federal investment in our elections. Ai introduces a level of speed, scale, and sophistication that is difficult for to handle on or own. Federal funds will help us to support and bolster our state cybersecurity infstructuron to address this evolving threat. We also need the department of Homeland Security to be more aggressive in identifying and combating threats and to notifying local officials and states with critical security information. Helping us ensure voters know what to do when they encounter deceptive election practices. At the state level in michigan, we are doing our part. We have enacted laws to require disclaimers and disclosure of political advertisements generated with ai. And we have made it a crime for anyone to knowingly andptively i generated deep fakes. But now we need to do your part. As u. S. Senators, you can protect every voter in this country from the harmful affects of deceptive ai generated content by passing the protect elections and deceptive ai act. Finally we cannot have a secured democracy if we do not protect the security of the people who protect our democracy. Administrators increasingly forces us to endure harassment, false and malicious attacks on our character, and threats of ecause of lies about our work and our integrity. On a morning walk throughout the neighborhood, detroit city clerk Janice Winfrey waspp her youre going y dearly for your actions in this election. Oakland county elections director was recently threatened that he would be hanged for treason. Former Rochester Hills clerk received a voicemail saying 10 million patrons will surround you, and that she deserves a knife to the throat. These are just a few examples of what the Election Administrators endured and it is misinformation that will increase. So do the threats. We all have a duty to protect the people who protect democracy. And in michigan, we made it a state crime to intimidate an election official with the specific intent of interfering with the officials duties. This should be a federal crime. Election officials are professionals. We are nonpartisan. We put voters first. We are firmly committed to ensuring every citizen. Can use to drive this year and every year. Thank you. Thank you so much for that, secretary allen. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you today about election security. As alabama secretary of state, i serve as the states chief election official and work closely with the probate judges circuit court, poll workers, boards of registrars, who are all an integral part of our elections process at the local level in each of our 67 counties. When i took the oath of office 14 months ago, i made it a top priority to ensure that our elections are fair and secure, so that every eligible voter who wishes to cast a vote in any election in our state could dooj so their vote would e properly counted. Elections are the bedrock of our constitutional republic, and it is my constitutional duty to ensure our elections are conducted with integrity, honesty, and accuracy. Voter registration and voter file maintenance are the foundation of election integrity. Registered voters can choose to participate in elections in alabama with the confidence that our election process secure because alabama has ten steps, solid steps in our state to ensure election integrity. We have enacted legislation in alabama that will make it illegal for any to be connected to the internet. Alabama state law requires a use of paper ballots in all elections. Each of o verify their identity with photo identification at his or her polling place. If they do not have a for voting purposes, my office will send someone to the location of their choice, even their home, to issue them a voter i. D. Upon request. Proper voter file maintenance is essential and a preserving confidence in elections. Just this year with the help of the dedicated team of the office of secretary of state is to establish the alabama voter integrity data base. And for the first time in our states history, we have been approved to directly cross check our voter file with the master index, maintained by the Social Security administration, so when an alabama voter dies in another state, we are able to identify and remove that individual from our voter file. Quickly removing and from our voter file will allow us to maintain a more accurate voter file. Every state should be able to do this and excessive federal regulations will make it mor ite for states to accept this important information. You, as members of the United States senate, can remove these obstacles and make this information available. It enables us to work with the Law Enforcement agency to receive notifications of alabama licensed drivers over the age of 18 who have received a drivers lice i maintain by the United StatesPostal Service to our voter file, we identified registered alabama voters who have requested to have their mail to move to a location outside the state. For the first time in our states history, with■c each of the border states, allowing us to identify people who have registered to vote in alabama and a border state. Voters identified are possibly through any of these messages received from their county board of registrar and asking them to confirm their relocation and update their V