Isolation were tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of americans rely upon to facilitate to give us voice. Im pleased to have an outstanding panel for today. It will be moderated by any of the Washington Post. To her left his secretary, the state of maine. Im going to skip over and come back to you in the second. [laughter] we got bill gates was a supervisor in Maricopa County, arizona and secretary of state in michigan. I should say is you look on your program originally gates was supposed to be here. Gabe unfortunately tested positive for covid is on the mending side of that thing goodness but he couldnt be here and like a quarterback coming in First Quarter two zero gamewinning touchdown pass, we are joined by natalie, california so yes exactly, lets thank her for pitching in for him. I handed over to take it from the. Thank you for all of you, glad to be here and see your faces. Its a Cottage Industry for all of us together several times a year end talk about the things we were sure to happen in the country. I want to start by asking each of you to comment on the state of harassment and i will ask bill to go last because otherwise you will feel the show. [laughter] it seems theres a lot of relief expressed after the 2022 election among Election Officials and advocates for democracy and Voting Rights for some of election desires on the 2020 election in statewide races lost. Kari lake in the entire republican initiative, jodi based in georgia so there was relief but now, six, seven months later we are seeing evidence of things not going away as we head into 2024 we are hearing of intimidation and threats and i want to ask each of you to talk about what youre seeing in your state and where youre concerned about what the president ial. Good afternoon, its good to be here with you. I have to say i feel concerned, was talking with local elections about this friday about this very panel. One said could you please not identify my town for experience election threat, death threat and she said i dont want to be harassed. Im glad you told me ahead of time because i was going to put the name of the town and mike question list. We should be able to have this conversation and as i look at 2024, what concerns me is the epidemic and misinformation, disinformation thats led to dangerous thats against Election Officials and intimidating people and threatening recruitment in early retirement and this year is pervasive and ongoing. Like some of the panelists earlier legend, i have some concerns about my staff and colleagues across the state. The biggest threat we face locally is mel information around elections. I usually dont hear about it until it is out of control. He tried to get ahead of something and it feels like there five other pieces of this information you dont learn about until too late. I do worry sometimes if i could be honest, my colleague whose facing manual count of ballots and how voters are going to react to that. I worry about the Mental Health of my peers across the state and the country. A lot of folks i talked to dont want to be public about what they are experiencing and are sort of quiet for too long. I do think it is going to lead to people retiring before they intended to and that is concerning. Your perspective is interesting and boring because last several years of been focused on battleground states where theyve seen modest because of the impact on the outcomes but its happening in non battleground states like california and important to remember this phenomenon across all 50 states. Welcome and thanks to the song was misinformation is out there, but we saw in the tragedy january 6 and the beginning of a multifaceted effort and that democracy and individuals who personify democracy, we are the subject of those and we have experienced that. What we also have experienced in michigan, we believe in taking challenges and make them better, stronger, more determined to do our work and weve seen an increase in misinformation and also an increase in sentiment, determination of Election Community the democracy holds. And we can emerge from this moment in this last election and the people who work the election to emerge stronger for the work weve endured for the last year. Okay. Bill, your turn but i want to introduce a few ideas. Many people here have probably read what was published on saturday in Maricopa County, arizona. An incredible story and i think i probably for all here thinking for sharing. [applause] i want to start before i ask you to comment by reading a passage from the story. It is a quotation from your intake when you saw adult care and this is what you wrote. Death threat since the 2020 election and many other for my own party who have attacked me, with covid to siding i started to attend public functions where i see these individuals and have reacted negatively and gotten very angry. Ive been interviewed by many journalists the last 16 months about this issue and have become sad angry during these interviews. So im wondering if you could start by sharing what led you to that moment and the impact only on you but your family and doing something about. Thank you for asking and its embarrassing to be set up your front of the group telling the story because its a story of many people here and people across the country. For me i think are certainly known as a well mannered guy, conservative republican, not the guy to work the boat and i experienced in 2020 election certifying the election and joe biden had one Maricopa County and became and then we rolled into the audit in 2021 and my colleagues and i were one goal of the senate away of being jailed. I couldnt understand these people ive worked with, other republicans for years on local issues, statewide issues turned their back on me and my colleagues. I didnt deal with it well and covid with everything being on zoom, i was the most protected from the human reaction of once things got better and decided going to these events. I would see someone come in who would let me down in my opinion was that betrayed me. Im over talking with my friends, people who supported me for years now going on and on and they are getting way for me, what is your deal . I did it a few times and came home to my wife and started explaining this and shes like you got to deal with this. Didnt like who i had become. I didnt know how i had gone to this but in the spring last year, our county attorney tragically passed away and i was honored to eulogize her so at that i was facetoface with a lot of these folks and i snapped and my wife was there and these are people respected for years. My friends, im going off looking at them and saying where were you . Gone through so much like all of you in this room. As republicans in particular, republicans here i think understand betrayal. It is one thing from the other side thats politics but when is your own side i couldnt take it anymore and i made a fool of myself. I was embarrassed. My wife was embarrassed and i didnt know where to go. Particularly as men, its tough. We were brought up to just suck it up. Thats what a lot of us were told and im grateful to my wife for getting it through my head and the way she got it through my head i felt pretty good about myself. Doing the right thing, trying to do the right thing here even though negative impact, political career. Not paying attention to her in my kids, my family is what really mattered. Thats what it took for me to really wake up. What is the reaction to the peace you heard from folks you know . When trying to decide, i had to look inside myself decide why i wanted to do it and i decided it was because of people in this room and others you represent, maybe if someone read my story and it clicked for them, it could cause them to think about things and pray about it, whatever might be the way to address it. Thats why i decided to do it. Reaction has been pretty more remarkable. Not only have people reached out to me from the Election Community which is wonderful for them to open up to me but im hearing from people in other places were literally just people. Lawyers, doctors, Vietnam Veterans reaching out talking to me about the trauma theyve been dealing with and i cant tell you what a gift it is that they would share it with me. Ill admit, i am embarrassed to call them experiencing ptsd. To me that label for someone whos been in war, bullets whizzing by their head thats what ive been told, youre dealing with trauma so i now know what i need to do and this is the thing im doing great. Its something ive dealt with the past couple of years but going to therapy, i need to send us alongside my colleagues and county recorder do our best working with our whole team august and november of 22 and people have paid attention. [laughter] talk about how do you stay in that stance when the forces at work that created the trauma . You told me and some of us on the call friday the indicated how it hasnt changed, maybe you could share that story and talk about how you recommend to your colleagues here how to continue staying healthy and strong the forces continue to work up there in your city and county. I feel it is my job, my colleagues job to educate and we leaned forward on the two prebunk and post punk various conspiracies here and i would be remiss if i didnt recognize venezuela, one of my partners to Maricopa County who is our director. [applause] so again we doing our very best but unfortunately in arizona the beaver has not broken. The Republican Party which ive been part of the arizona Republican Party the day i registered to vote we have folks that simply are not acknowledging the facts of whats going on. I sat with someone last week at the luncheon for those of you for meeting with republican politics, opportunity to get together with other republicans so Maricopa County republican chair was acknowledging elected officials in the room and one of the people recognized was secretary of state and invited up to the stage. And i understand people who want to not be out there in the public eye on this but we do that, it creates a vacuum others still with misinformation and disinformation so we are going to continue to push forward and i know i am preaching to the choir, everyone is moving that same direction that we need those who decide to be quieter to raise their voices and if we do, we will be successful making sure the truth is out there. Thank you so much. You notice this will be the second time i will check this Washington Post story. [laughter] we have a story a couple weeks ago for there has been a takeover of the county board and they are doing a lot of stuff and the way elections are changing, i wondered you could address how prevalent that story is that the only place thats happening and some of the consequences having experienced people with election and what they are trying to do and what youre trying to do about it. What is happening is one of the best administrators in the country, the county clerk in Ottawa County and hes up for reelection this year end various ways in which individuals gain power and try to disrupt his work which is the Gold Standard in many ways, transparency and cleaning into the information and using folks in arizona and other places so its real and im glad that there are other stories where last tuesday a local perko on the other side tried to among other things, take various actions fueled by misinformation. That local clerk posting qanon conspiracy theories was recalled in a very conservative community in michigan, lost her seat to a democrat affiliated local leader is going to be the township. What we have seen is voters have become increasingly thats one story, voters increasingly aware and smart and rejecting elections but on the other hand my opponent luckily 14point because she hasnt conceded, she was award chairmanship or chairwoman ship of the Republican Party which appoints half of the certifiers for the election in 2024 so what i see is an ongoing battle many battle fronts oftentimes personified by Election Officials there standing up to do the right thing dealing with headwinds as a response and others choosing to succumb to conspiracy theories and in some ways losing their position as a result. At the end of the day not only transparency in truth combating all of this but Voter Engagement and busway in my view the most dangerous thing we can talk about specific things in michigan but the text course leaders to become the polls and other things but at the end of the day, it is the people in voters everywhere who arent typically focused on politics, if they continue to see the battle of democracy one of the most critical moments, issues of the moment in the need to prioritize information, pushing back on election deniers and rejecting information and we have a chance to succeed. Thats the story we are trying to do, for rise this in different counties and ways for ten years now, it will not end anytime soon and we hope it will subside after 24 but it might not and we have to be prepared for that so we cant lose sight of the fact that of this, voters who are reporting democratic ands independent and professional election to do the job saturday working together to continue with the law on our side and constitution on our side and vast majority of the American People on our side demanding democracy survive and thats what i think you will see in my view, the next chapter that we see in other counties. Now is the time in maine and the things youve mentioned about that story of the experience of the administration and is that the town with they are contemplating an account . At the county level we have more than 500, most of them very small. It is a small town and the work that was threatened after the 2020 election, physically threatened, someone who fell victim to disinformation in 2022 and when i talked to the incoming clerk and other individuals that were very active, we have a new clerk and town officials and that town and the old fashion meeting local government and there is an article to require this town to eliminate the election tabulator they dont have the authority to do it and they experience leading their positions and these ideas that make me worry about the future in 2024 we are seeing some difficulties and some are requiring recruiting people to take local Election Officials and it is low pay oftentimes and they have harassment for those that are not true. What is your office doing in that town to address what they are trying to do and address their experience . One large small town, week can do work training. For the first time before the 2022 election we do deescalation training in Cyber SecurityInfrastructure Security Agency some for our corporate they wanted to do an analysis so youre trying to provide tools and training for local Election Officials. One time in 2022 for officials walked off the job three weeks prior to the election so. The town has not been able to find a replacement. Can do a lot but there is a larger structural problem emerging because of the epidemic. He told another story like you to tell today, your office of how many people . Three, four . Arizona or georgia, lets put it that way. One way your office has information is every single bill that comes through the legislature and it is an amazing not so fun fact, what happens to the bills . They all should model themselves after me. [laughter] every bill gets a legislative hearing in a boat on the floor of the house in the senate. This means great things can happen like we passed protections for election workers in 2021 so it threatens election worker and resources for training but it means we have to combat a lot of disinformation. We are trying to knock down disinformation everyday and we do have people who testified on election. [laughter] one area i know every election administrator has had a discussion if not taking action on his security measures. Every important topic is funding for election. We were able to have eight, 9 just to in 2022. People use it for security guards or bullet proof glass or other individuals and on top of the funding extensively with Law Enforcement to ensure the right line was made and a relationship was built at the local level so everyone knew who to call and what to do in response and we are building that even more for 24 but funding is critical and im in the middle of i wouldnt call it a fight but it is hard even when you have a trifecta in michigan for lawmakers that they need to Fund Early Voting mandated by our state constitution so we havent even got to security funding because all of us everywhere arguing with security threats across the state and country and misinformation that comes from it, we desperately need federal funding across the board and it seems to see the least congress can do. Is this a new normal around the country . We anticipate all things could occur while trying to get them to ban firearms we can bring states like georgia and texas. We have to take seriously the moment we are in and repair. I hate im not comfortable using the battle analogy but thats what it feels like in this moment and what it felt like for michigan since april 20201 armed individuals showed up to try to disrupt the process so we have done from military family, weve responded to things as though everything is a battle line which in many ways you are and the weaponry we see oftentimes in battle we have to be prepared to potentially use. Have you in your county ramp up physical security for Election Administration and have you been able to fund adequately . We are fortunate we have an incredible team, we have maricopa sheriff and ca to work with other local Law Enforcement. This started for us in november 2020 in the eyes of the country on Maricopa County and a lot of people decided to hang out outside of our Regulation Center while they were counting votes so thats when we really worked q