Its time to wrap up the season with the cspan end of summer sale. Now through tuesday, save 25 on certain items. Every purchase helps support our nonprofit operations. The end of summer sale now through tuesday at cspan shop. Org. Scanned the code on the right to start shopping now. Colorado secretary of state Janet Griswold and pennsylvanias acting secretary of the commonwealth join a conversation on voting rights. It was part of the net roots nation Conference Held recently in pittsburgh. Things, and i think i dont want i am honored to be moderating this panel with secretary of states and candidates of senator of state. As well as the head of the democratic organization. We are going to get to talk a lot today about elections and the increasing importance. I would suggest this has always been an incredibly important role, especially at the local and state level. In 2020 we talked a lot about how the election went. On a lot of the election deniers. We will talk about that and how they are laying the groundwork for 2020 and 2024. I feel honored we have this team here. I am going to go ahead and let them introduce themselves. I will start with secretary griswold. Sec. Griswold thank you. How are you guys doing . Good. I am jena griswold, the secretary of state of colorado. I was the first democrat to win in 60 years when we won in 2018. I was the august secretary of state in the nation which i will continue to be after all of our great candidates win in november. Do not even telling me do not even tell me. I have you beat by one. Sec. Griswold asterisk, i am the youngest elected secretary of state. I serve as chair of the Democratic Association of secretary of state. Good morning, everybody. I am cisco regular running for secretary of state in nevada. I am an attorney. I have been in the is this sports world. I know the responsibility of a regulator, to understand imposing the rule of law, following galatian and making sure everyone is aware so they get a fair shot. I am excited about this opportunity to run. Nevada is a battleground state and we have to continue to protect every individuals right to vote. Geri secretary of state lee chapman. Sec. Chapman i am secretary of state lee chapman. I actually have some welcoming remarks. Can i get those now . Geri we have welcoming remarks from the pennsylvania secretary of state and our wonderful town of pittsburgh. Sec. Chapman can you hear me . It is great to welcome the Netroots Nation to pittsburgh. Anytime in the integrity of our electoral process is under renewed assault. Im also pleased to participate in this pencil this panel. We will be discussing the critical roles secretary of states play ensuring the integrity of elections and defending democracy. This subject is especially timely given we are 79 days away from a highstakes Midterm Election that could very well determine the future health of american democracy. Let me start out by saying i am in a different position than my colleagues who are elected to office. Pennsylvania is one of only seven states in u. S. Territories where the governor appoints the secretary of state. It is one of four states where the appointed secretary of state is also the chief election official. The Pennsylvania Department of state focuses on assisting 67 diverse counties with elected administration and educating the commonwealths 8. 7 of orders 8. 7 million voters. My job is to ensure all eligible pennsylvanians regardless of Political Party have the opportunity to participate in our democracy. When people think of secretaries of state, they usually only think of elections. My department supports Economic Development through corporate filings and transactions, protects Public Health and safety, sanctions professional boxing, kickboxing, wrestling, and mixed martial arts and maintains registration and Financial Information for thousands of charities within the commonwealth. We do a lot. On the election side of the pennsylvania continues to be in the spotlight. 2020 was the first year our state had the option of no excuse male in voting. Since the 2020 election, we have seen more than 5 million votes count through mail in ballots. This can by way of Bipartisan Legislation known as act 77 signed into law by Governor Tom Wolf in 2019. Act 77 to make the most significant changes to pennsylvanias Election Code in over 80 years. Despite that, the 2020 election has been the subject of any unprecedented amount of litigation. There have been more than three dozen lawsuits here in pennsylvania, some of which are being litigated. We have persevered and just recently we experienced some significant legal victories. A few weeks ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of act 77 and no excuse male in voting. Just yesterday, the president judged three counties, each refused to cut undated ballots in the primary election to cap them by august 24 to count them by august 24. Unfortunately, we also have seen an increase of threats against county and state officials and i am committed to protecting these frontline workers in our democracy. Now, with only 79 days to go from the Midterm Election, pennsylvania finds itself still in the spotlight again with open races for governor and a seat in the u. S. Senate. These are challenging times for those of us who are committed to the integrity of our electoral process. All of us here in this room can play a part to protect democracy. Help us be the Truth Tellers in this pivotal time. First, we need your help and educating and informing voters about registration and voting lights, polling place hours and other Vital Information that they need to exercise their right to vote. Second, help us communicate about how important it is to count every vote after an election and allow our Election Officials to do their job. When our democracy is at stake, we must get it right. Third, continue help us recruit election day volunteers, specifically poll workers. We need people who are truly committed to free and Fair Elections to serve in these roles. Thank you for being here at the great commonwealth of pennsylvania and the work you do to support democracy. I will now pass over to our moderator, jerry our moderator, geri. Geri thank you so much for that. There are so many things that secretaries of state oversee and somebody other things they oversee. It is great laying the groundwork for the questions we are about to go to. I will go to cisco first and then go to secretary griswold and then back to secretary chapman. Can you talk about the role secretaries of states play . We heard about pennsylvania, but tell us about nevada and what is critical today in what you are facing . Cisco thank you for the question. Can you hear me . The secretary of state role in nevada, most like pennsylvania even though we have an athletic division, the secretary of state sees pretty filings. On the Small Business, that is impactful. I think we are here to talk about elections. For secretary of state is the regulator of elections. 17 counties execute and government the elections. The election is certified by the county commissions, to secretary of States Office into the nevada Supreme Court for certification. The secretary of states role is critical because when you are interpreting those rules and regulations deputy county, you have to be fair, you have to be neutral. It is your responsibility to that new matter the Party Affiliation you are allowing and making sure every voters vote counts0 people have to have trust in that individual. Our current secretary of state is a republican but she has done a great job insuring all nevada and nevadans votes count. She has been open about the decisions she has made, she has investigated claims of fraud in our election system. Our courts have also interpreted those. Continuing that mission to be the neutral regulator you are. As a former regulator, i understand it is pretty significant in nevada because talk about the Economic Impact of our title fights, our first professional sport, antigaming revenue that goes through those activities. It had to be someone who is trustworthy, fair, understood the rule of law and the applications you could have on estate. I am excited about the opportunity. I know what we need to do in nevada and we are going to continue to get there. Geri thank you so much. Secretary Griswold Anna colorado has done so much to expand access to the ballot box in colorado. I would like to hear what is on tap for you. What are some Innovative Solutions you are looking at your and i would love for you talk about what the map looks like for all of the secretary of states secretaries of state . Sec. Griswold we are talking a lot about the regulator and overseeing martial arts. I want to tell you guys, i have a seal team in my office to protect the state seal. I am just joking. We do protect the state seal and eye color the seal team and nobody thinks it is funny. [laughter] i was elected in 2018 and a time where i dont think the nation the importance of these seats. In 2019 worked to pass to largest democracy reform in our country. Since i have been secretary of state, we continue to have the Gold Standard of elections. We have a vote by mail for all. We sent every voter every wrister to vote ballot. We have sameday Voter Registration. We also have the most secure elections in the country. In the last four years, i have increased drop boxes. We passed and frank past enfranchisement. We gained access in every university at travel bans and saw an increase in trouble voting in just two years. We passed and implemented automatic Voter Registration which registered 250,000 people in the middle of the pandemic. We also took on donald trump to stop him from stealing the election from the American People by slowing down the mail. That had rippling effect across the nation. The list of accompaniments and what we have done to increase access continues. Things changed at the end of 2020. We started to see an attack on democracy. We are continuing to open up access. The trick is if you want people to vote, they will. We have the secondhighest turnout in the country. We had to return to protecting our election infrastructure and voters. We can get into that. As for the map and what is ahead of us, how many days . 79 . Oh my gosh, we have less than 90 days to save democracy. There are election denies running in michigan, in nevada come in under zona nevada, in arizona, in minnesota, in new mexico. We have an election suppressor running in georgia again. Can you imagine saying people are standing 11 hours in line, lets make it longer. What we can expect for them is to suppress the vote and lie and be more beholden to maralago than the American People. We have cisco in nevada, Adrian Fontes in arizona, steve hobbs in washington, steve simon in minnesota. I am an okay candidate in colorado. We have to win this race is to make sure the American People can still decide their elected officials. That is what is on the line and that is what das is fighting for. Geri secretary chapman, im coming to you. Pennsylvania is always a state everybody is watching. Talk more about your race but what you think both internally and externally we should know about what is happening in pennsylvania and all the different races and how elections are administered. Sec. Chapman as i mentioned, i am appointed a so i dont have to run for office like my colleagues. I am focused on making sure we have accessible elections in pennsylvania. It is interesting being in the appointee because i am part of the governors cabinet. It is helpful when it comes to making sure we are streamlining. If you thinks i have you three over is to issue guidance to our counties. They know what liberals are to implement elections. I can also issued a electives and streamline the process for voters. They were really proud of we released yesterday is a streamlined vote by mail voter and administration form. You can register to vote and request your mail in ballots. I am not aware of any other state doing that. We released that yesterday. One thing we are really looking at is making sure we are combating misinformation and disinformation which is something that has been prevalent online and other venues. A few months ago there was disinformation that spread on twitter about elections in pennsylvania. It set mail in voting is illegal which we all know is not true. The Supreme Court just ruled it constitutional. We reported that to twitter, i reached out to twitter, they did suspend that account but that is just one example. We have facebook twitter, snapchat, instagram, tiktok. So many different ways this information can spread. We are focused on making sure voters have accurate, reliable information from a trusted source and that we are getting that information to them through text messages, emails, whatever means we can. That is what we are using. I also want to give another example. We recently heard any news there is a Group Targeting individuals in Nursing Homes, trying to get them to report voter fraud from the nursing home administrators. Because i am an appointee, we were able to get other secretaries that touch Nursing Homes Like Department of health, and aging to remind them of the rules are around voter intimidation, how they report anything that will have. And make sure every voters voice can be heard. Geri thank you for that. There is some as delicate messaging that goes on around here, even at little bit of disinformation puts people in a lot of confusion. What i would like from you cisco is election denying. I cannot get my head around that that i would love to know what you are up against. I want to say his name, you can if you want, who is an election denier and what that is to take on someone who has that focus. I would love to hear what youre up against and which and what an election denier says. Cisco secretary griswold said what colorado was able to accomplish. The limited early voting, and limited early mail ballots. They have done topdown Voter Registration. My opponent wants to take away every opportunity for a nevada and a nevadan to vote. Our tuesday from november does not work for working families to get out and vote. That is why we need to ensure, and it is my responsibility if elected, to protect every right of access our voters have. Talk about colorado increasing participation by 20 , we hit 25 . I think that is on the desk is only the beginning. When that denominator is so small, we can get to 25. My opponent sees this and knows that the only way he can win an election is by limiting access to the polls. I am there to fight him every second of the way to take that fundamental right away. You talk about the ballot box, our fundamental rights, our freedoms are guaranteed by that participation. He wants to take that away and im not going to allow him to do that. You talk about the power of education, i am a product of the family that was not well educated but they were hardworking. I am worrying today because of the Public Education i have. In nevada, we cannot be as proud as we should be. We need to do better and the only way it is going to change is if we get our fifthlargest School District in the country in a majority minority. Those parents will change the outcome of our states Going Forward and it is my job to get those parents to the polls to vote. This election denier, he is the chief of election deniers. He has gone throughout the country, aggregated his buddies and said this is what we need to do to take away democracy and the erectors so only a select few can determine where we are going. I see this guy, it motivates me. I want to take him to task on what he said and how he is being irresponsible, dishonest with nevadans. It is my obligation to expose him for that. [applause] geri thank you. I will go to you, secretary griswold. Two things we are seeing that i think are the atrocities, number one is looking at where there is a dropbox in texas for 1. 4 million citizens to vote. The second is the formation of Election Police under florida. Just important. Just abhorrent. Just harkening back to days i thought we would never see again, but i would love to hear your thoughts about that and what you all are doing to push back on these types of terrible initiatives. Sec. Griswold i think you all know there is an ongoing stealing of democracy. 2020, we saw a failed attempt to steal the presidency. We knew they were trying to slow down the mail. He told us in 2020 i am trying to make it impossible for democrats to vote by mail. He thought that was how he could win. We know there are conversations about changing voting equipment. We know Rudy Giuliani trying to get fake electors. We know they mounted an insurrection, some of whom were planning on hanging the Vice President of the United States to stop the certification of the newly elected president. That all failed. Now the focus is on 2022 for 2024. What we are seeing across this country to stripping americans of their freedom to vote. 500 Voter Suppression bills introduced from the beginning of january. This is a coordinated effort to make it harder. Number two, we are seeing the destabilization of elections. Antics like what geri was saying to make people think something must be wrong. That big lie is to threaten election workers. Election workers across this nation, 1 6 said they have been threatened for doing their job. In atlanta, every election worker stepped down after 2020. Steve bannon and extremists are recruiting in. We have seen county election workers embrace conspiracies and become Insider Threats. We are seeing secretary of state candidates like in who said he would not certify the election for joe biden. The republican nominee in arizona who said if he wins a republican will never lose again. We are seeing a destabilization of elections and all of the lies, all of the fake political feed to corrupt american elections. All of this is for next time they want to steal the american presidency. Either the American People cannot vote or something is going on in the states so there is a basis to say go get those state electors or the next time the American People, a higher percentage are with the people storming the capital. This is a very dangerous time. What we have to do is stop these folks. We have to fight Voter Suppression, we have to prosecute people who would break the law to try to steal elections or spread misinformation and we have to beat them at the ballot box. Geri thank you. Secretary chapman, i would love to hear from you. You were recently appointed, but before then you held so many positions dedicated to this. From your perspective, what are some other big threats you would like to do or innovative things you would like to do in pennsylvania . Sec. Chapman i wanted to piggyback on something secretary griswold said. We have seen a lot of turnover when it comes to election directors in pennsylvania. We have had 35 election directors resigned since 2020. Because of election threats, some of it has been planned retirement. That is something we need to call attention to because there is a lot of high turnover. People are being intimidated every day for just doing their job. We are trying to support county Election Officials as much as we can. We have office hours every two weeks where we are answering their questions, making sure they have the tools needed to be successful in our elections. It is something unfortunate that such an important job has become politicized. It is about making sure everybody can vote. It is important we have people filling in those roles because they are the frontline workers. One thing i would say about pennsylvania that we are trained to get ahead of the narrative is that every vote needs to be counted. Pennsylvania, we dont have precanvassing like a lot of other states do. Out of varsity seven counties, they cannot stop cannot start processing ballots until 8 00 a. M. Election day. That is when Election Night 2020 they were saying pennsylvania is still counting those votes, or even during our primary this year and it is friday after the election. It is because Election Officials dont have the opportunity to start counting until the day of the election. We are requesting and all counties are requesting that counties have at least two weeks to start that processing. That will put us in line with other states. We can have results early in florida and call Election Results early on Election Night. That will instill confidence in our elections. That is not the situation we are in so it is important to manage expectations and let people know it will take time. That does not mean there is anything nefarious happening, that is just the system we are working in. One thing to note that is different this year is that counties received additional funding from the state this year. Counties received 45 million in additional funding. That funding came with a requirement that counties have devoted continuously. They have to start at 7 00 and continues to vote until the last vote is counted. They can hire more staff with that money. Hopefully we will get results faster with that but we will see. This is the first election we have that in place. It is important we are managing expectations and combating the narrative that there is something going ms. We have to let Election Officials do their job and count every vote. Geri thank you. Lets get back to some of the political strategy here. This is such an important position and there are others that are also incredibly important like attorneys general. We know the top of the ticket is what people are generally focused on, the senate, governors races. This is so important. Does that change your tactic knowing there is a dropoff on voters . Does that change your tactics in how you are going to reach out or have your Campaign Strategy be different. People are looking at your race which is critical to our democracy. How do you think about that . Cisco it is absolutely critical. When you look at my opponent, he has a strong base of support. We know theyre going to get out and vote 100 . What am i going to do to motivate our base and those who i want to get their vote and understand why they are impacted on a daily basis to the office of the secretary of state. He goes back to an earlier comment. I looked at kids during the november 2020 election and i thought if somebody is going to stand up for these students and these families the school is 86 latino. The kids are like me, their parent or hardworking tried to give them a better opportunity. I said these are the students im going to fight for. Im going to give them a voice and let them know they can serve in the secretary of state. Are they going to be able to have that job for the longterm . Latinos are entrepreneurial. The secretary of state impacts everyone of those. Explaining why education is over the ballot box. If the secretary of state oversees corporate filings, you go back to economic develop meant cash to Economic Development Economic Development. Nobody should have to hire a lawyer for corporate filings. It should be simple. We use Technology Every day to make our lives more efficient, the secretary of state owes that obligation to homeowners. The secretary of state is here to serve you and your business, lets do it. We had the opportunity to go to a broad acres which is our Small Business there are tons of them. You talk to them about the implications they have on a daily basis of trying to build their business, access to capital. It all starts with the secretary of States Office. Getting them to understand the connection points and say yes, that is why i am going to vote for that candidate. My opponent does not give a crop about Small Businesses. Not once has he mentioned the responsibility of the secretary of state to serve Small Businesses. All he is talking about is how he and his friends are going to win these elections Going Forward. Geri thank you. I will preface this by saying i have not seen somebody who was so dedicated to serve just jump in and work hard. Secretary griswold was out there talking to everyone and raising money which is what we need to do. It was pretty phenomenal. I would love to hear from you, what was your strategy and how is it different than four years ago . Sec. Griswold i started running never having run for elected office at all as the age of 32 or 33 for a seat in democrat had not won in 60 years against the only republican incumbent. It was an impossible race. Folks like me dont tend to run and they dont tend to win. I grew up in a cabin on food stamps. I started working the summer after seventh grade, worked for a Fouryear College and then law school. Growing up like that teaches you that you are always the underdog and you have to outwork everyone. We were relentless that first campaign. No one thought we could win. I ended up getting the secondhighest amount of votes and a distant of colorado on one 24th of what the governor spent. We flipped the seat and i think it is important we win these races and do exactly what we say we are going to do. I have been able to provide results. I will tell you, the conventional wisdom of the folks sitting on it thinking about races is it is down ballot come people dont care about the secretary of state race. There are two things i think you need to win races. Number one, you need enough funds to communicate to folks. You also need something to talk about. You dont need to be most money, you need to communicate and have something to talk about. For the Democratic Association of secretaries of state, in every one of our tier one races, we either have a woman running, a person of color, every Single Person under the age of 50, many of us who grew up first in our families to go to college. One in georgia is the daughter of refugees from vietnam. We all have the ability to connect with the American People than the standard folks who run for statewide office or going to converse to congress. This election cycle, i am not going to sugarcoat it, im the top of target in state of colorado. I am up against a candidate, my republican opponent who has a super pac already backing her who dumped in 500,000 already in the primary. We are seeing a movement to stop Democratic Candidates and take out the incumbents. It is very easy to understand why. Democratic secretaries of state, when we get elected are not there to help democrats. My job as secretary of state is to make sure every eligible republican, independent, and democratic voter has access to free and. Fair elections. My duty is to the people. We are seeing the mega extremists want to take these seats because they dont believe in the fundamental principle of our nation anymore. That is why these races are hard. Colorado has some of the lowest contribution limits in this country. These races are often first or second time candidates. The stakes are so high these races are a must win in three months. Geri i have a question, i think you talked about this earlier talking about poll workers. I love going to the polls to vote and i Love Learning by mail. When i used to go into polling locations, you have volunteers, people wanting to be involved. Now you have the threat theyre focusing on and we dont have as many. I dont know if you have heard in your previous roles, what are we doing to get people to come and be poll watchers or poll judges . Sec. Chapman that is a good question. How many people in here are from pennsylvania . Okay, there are still a lot from other states. People are shocked to learn most poll workers in pennsylvania are elected. The judge of elections is an elected position and it happens on any of here. 20 on an off year. 2023 will be when judges of elections are on the ballot. It is a great entry point in pennsylvania to start running for office, becoming a poll worker. You have other poll workers. People can still sign up and serve in those roles. The people in charge actually elected offices. A lot of times people are not running for those roles because people dont know about them, they dont know they are elected. A lot of stakeholder organizations and nonprofits in pennsylvania are trying to get the word out about those races when they are vacant, that is when the board of elections appoints people. It is important we have poll workers that represent the community. In pennsylvania, we actually have we require section two of three to have three languages from english, spanish, and traditional chinese in certain counties. Philadelphia has to have materials in spanish and chinese. It is important for us to have coworkers who are bilingual in multiple languages. On tuesday, we celebrated help america vote day. We did a lot of social media to push out the fact we need poll workers. There is around 9000 polling places in pennsylvania. When you look at the 67 counties, five poll workers per county, that is 45,000 people we need to fully staff our polling places. Even before the pandemic it was always a challenge to recruit poll workers. Another thing unique to pennsylvania is if you are 17 years old, you can serve as a poll worker. A lot of states do not have that. Make sure we are partnering with high schools to ensure that we have that pipeline to have robust volunteers across the commonwealth. Geri thank you. It is always amazing to hear. This is a huge endeavor. Everything you oversee is phenomenal and massive. Great to hear about elected judges as well. Cisco, you live in a very rural state where there is concentrations and then you have a lot of people around the state. I would love to hear how your system works. Mr. Aguilar nevada has 17 counties. You have reno and las vegas. We have one county in nevada right now which the county commission determined to go to paper ballots. You go, wha the heck are we doing . How did they make this decision . Esmeralda county, which has 300 voters, it took eight hours to count. They do that entirely by paper, hand counting. How are they going to ensure accuracy and efficiency . You talk about my race which we are viewing as a margin race. We are going have to work are butts off. When you have 15,000 of those 30,000 voters determining the outcome of my race, this is a scary situation and we need to educate the public of the importance of accuracy, efficiency, timing. It could take days for those 31,000 ballots to be counted. The secretary of States Office is determining the regulations for what that looks like. We need to continue to watch what we are doing in this county. It goes back to challenges of, what do the tribal communities have access to . What are the local counties doing . They are asking for ballots in spanish and the county has said no, because they want to drive votes to their side and not give everybody a fair chance. Those are the things i would focus on as secretary of state. The quality of our systems, the accuracy, the integrity of our systems, the fairness and openness that exist across the state no matter where you live. But somebody has to fight the fight and if you dont fight, things are never going to change. It is quite interesting. 85 of the voters live in clark, and that is a priority but that is not who we are. We value every single one of our citizens. It is not about being democrat or republican. It is about being anywhere you are in nevada, you can have faith in the person running the elections. They are honest, trustworthy, and the information my opponent is sharing is inaccurate. We are going to have a challenge to overcome that. What are you going to do about it . There is not much i can do other than to listen, understand with the issues are, be empathetic, try to encourage them to continue to have faith. But again, it goes by action. This is what we are going to do. We are going to show you by actions why we are doing what we are doing is in the best interest of every voter and that every vote counts. Geri thank you. Secretary griswold, you have done so much to modernize election the colorado. What is the next big hill . I want to make sure they are even more modern. Sec. Griswold you want more from me . [laughter] there is a lot still to be done. There are always ways to improve. One of the things i am excited about is automatic Voter Registration with tribal id. [applause] we are working on pilots for that. Why it is so exciting, colorado has two tribes located in state borders. But the vast majority of tribes use the same id technology. We are a pioneer in automatic Voter Registration and the most secure state in which to cast a ballot. If we can get it right, we could expand that across the country. I am very excited about that. To tell you the truth, things shifted at the end of 2020. I think a lot of us thought, like in the elections world, we just have to get through this election. Global pandemic, sitting president trying to steal the presidency. We will get through this and things will go back to normal. That was very much wrong. We are under the worst attack on democracy in recent times. Everything is at stake. I have had to really shift what my focus is with my legislative leadership. This year, i passed the nations first law on Insider Threats. That is when an election worker embraces conspiracies and tries to influence the election themselves. We have the first in the nation Insider Threat when county clerk tina s compromised her own equipment. I passed the first law making it a felony to copper mines equipment, a felony to access equipment, to discuss passwords and we provided whistleblower protections had made sure that no big lie actor could affect this in colorado. [applause] we also passed a lot to dox or threatened an election worker. They are grandparents, neighbors, democrats and republicans. They should not be penalized by doing one of the most patriotic things. Voters should not be intimidated from going to cast the ballot anywhere in this nation. I had to lead a law so i could get more state patrol protection. Number one, we are going to save democracy in three months. [applause] we are. It is going to be hard work but every single one of us in this room is going to get it done. But these attacks on democracy and our fundamental freedoms, unfortunately, it will not be over in 2022. For my next term i am going to continue to push for the best elections in the nation, the most secure, most innovative, cutting edge, most accessible, and i am going to do everything within my power to protect our election infrastructure, voters and election workers. [applause] geri thank you for that. Very exciting and a constant reminder of how important everything you are doing is. Thank you so much. I also want to hear from you, secretary chapman. I am going to ask you the big question at the end of what you want everybody to know. I would also love to know, on your end, what is the most next big modernization of voting in your state you are looking forward to . Sec. Chapman good question. We have already done so many things to modernize elections. We are in the process of upgrading our state election database right now. That is something we are rolling out and we will have them up and running for november. Brandnew website. But we are actually pretty far ahead of a lot of states. We have a web api that stakeholder organizations and agencies have been using for years to integrate into our online Voter Registration system. As individuals are in the field registering voters on the ipad it is integrated right into our system. We are looking at ways on how we can expand that to have other agencies within the state, as people are submitting information, to get benefits and given the opportunity to register to vote. That is something that is cutting edge. Also, with online Voter Registration we partnered with cofax where if somebody does not have an id or signature on file, they can just sign their name on a white piece of paper, take a photo with their phone, and their signature is uploaded automatically. There is a lot of best practices we have done already in pennsylvania but we need to expand upon what we have already built. When it comes to policy, i mean, there is a lot we need to do. I said we only got no excuse vote by mail in 2020 where other states have had it for years. We need sameday Voter Registration, precanvassing. There is a lot we need to do on the election reform side so we can get toward that 100 participation in the election process. There is around 1. 7 Million People in pennsylvania eligible to vote but have not registered. We need to think of creative ways on how to reach those individuals. Geri thank you. [applause] cisco, you talked about how important it is where clark county is the majority of the voters. Nevada is a huge population. I lived in new mexico and we were still faxing things. That is not because people dont want to be modernized, it is funding. I would love to hear some of the things you have in mind and maybe some of the things people in Rural Counties grapple with. Sec. Aguilar yes. It is fascinating because the secretary of States Office is the thirdlargest Revenue Generation in the fund. We are a moneymaker for the state of nevada. People come to that to do the corporate filing because we are the delaware of the west. However, the technology we have is outdated. It is not invested and when you are making money, to be able to continue making money, you have to make investments in infrastructure. The same as on the election side. We need to secure and continue to be secure. We have great elections. We are some of the most secure in the country. Probably better than colorado, sorry, secretary. [laughter] but we need to invest because if we dont, we can slide quickly and that is where the confidence of the voter comes in. Making sure every county that buys systems, they are supported, they are the most quality and uptodate, so that the voter has the trust that when they walk into the ballot box or that booth, they are able to know their vote matters. Clark, our legislature meets every other year. We dont get the opportunity to have annual legislative sessions. We need to pass these. It goes to voterworker protection. I am putting myself out there to be criticized for what i am doing as secretary of state. Most of these workers are going to work every day to provide for their families. They are not being asked to be harassed. We need to stand up and protect every single poll worker, every person working in the election system. The secretary of States Office is down 33 in personnel because people are afraid and that is scary. We lost some of our best clerks and two of our 17 county workers because they are harassed. They are walking out to their cars and that is not what you want to feel every day you go to work to work on behalf of every citizen. It is understanding not just the computer systems, not the technology, but remembering that these are humans. We all have hearts. We are doing this because we have the same goal, we want a democracy that includes us, listens to us and allows us to participate. But when somebody is preventing that from happening, we need to stand up to those bullies and say, you are not going to do this anymore because these people deserve the right to earn a living just like you. I think one of the priorities going into this office is looking at that human component and saying, how do we protect these workers to be able to do the job they do . Geri thank you. I am going to ask i think we have a few minutes left the one big question. I will start with secretary chapman. Number one, we have gone on for so many important jobs the secretary of state does. I know we have people streaming at home and pennsylvanians as well. What is your ask of the people watching and the people in this room as secretary of state . Sec. Chapman my ask is to talk with your neighbors, friends and family about why you are voting in this election. What is at stake, wide is important, and make sure youre talking to friends, family and neighbors about how to vote. Make sure they are requesting the mailin ballot by the deadline or registering to vote, updating their status. It is really critical. Having those conversations at the local level, the community level, is really going to be how we close the voter gap. Geri absolutely. Thank you. Cisco . Sec. Aguilar it goes back to, we are a community and we want to be a community. I think people in nevada are tired of being angry. They want to be engaged. They want to see nevada be successful. They count on the individual freedoms they experience every day in their lives. But they have to understand we cannot protect those freedoms, we cannot build community unless we allow everyone the opportunity to participate in voting. That participation, that fundamental right, is critical to everything we do. I like to say this often, strong leaders inspire, weak leaders create fear. Right now, there are individuals, like my opponent, creating fear and that is not acceptable. We have to inspire and drive the vision of democracy. It can be better but it requires participation by all of us. Geri thank you for that. I am going to ask you, secretary griswold, as secretary of state and the head of the national Democratic Association, what are your asks . Sec. Griswold there are a couple of things. Democracy is on the ballot, it is. This is not a philosophical, like, lets talk about democracy. It is literally on the ballot. Americans are going to be voting for people who are telling as they are destroying the stability of the country, for people who say they will suppress the vote, destabilize elections, or Democratic Candidates that will uphold the will of the people. Democracy is on the ballot. But we know now all of our fundamental freedoms are on novembers election ballot. We are seeing extremist policies being put in place across this nation. Women are no longer full citizens of this country. We cannot make decisions about our bodies, our futures. We have such extreme elected officials in this country that they are unable to say, a woman who has been raped deserves access to an abortion. No 10yearold should carry a baby. We dont have elected officials like that anymore. We are seeing the perversion of the Second Amendment being used as an excuse to send second graders to their deaths at school. We are seeing governors unwilling to say they will not get rid of Birth Control in 2022. There was a vote in congress. Every republican voted against protection for Marriage Equality and interracial marriage a month ago. The same people who are attacking women, who are attacking the ability to send our kids to school and know they will be ok, who are attacking Marriage Equality are the same stripping those of the freedom to vote. They know the American People are not with them. The only way they are able to put this minority lifestyle in view on all of us is by suppressing the vote at the ballot box. 2022 is about protecting the ability for us to have a functioning democracy into the future. It is also about being able to live in a country where we can love how we want, determine the future how we want, have kids when we want, to be truly free. What i am asking of every Single Person here and everybody streaming is to do one thing to say democracy join a campaign, chip in, organize, join an ngo. Make sure americans get to the ballot box. Be part of saving this country. [applause] geri brilliant. Thank you. Thank you so much. I feel honored to have been up here and meet everyone and hear from you. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone. On the way out i think you will be able to say hello to some of these amazing officials and candidates. Thank you again. And thank you for everything you are doing and onto november. [applause] [indistinct chatter] the january 6 committee has conducted a series of hearings, revealing the findings from its investigation, all week, watch these men as we look at the committee watch cspan, as we look back at the committee and the attack on the u. S. Capitol. Tonight at eight eastern europe, formal justice appeared to wn cspan or anytime on demand at cspan. Org. Now available at the cspan shop, 2022 congressional directory. Go there today to order a copy. This spiral book is your guide to the federal government with Contact Information for every member of congress. Order your
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