Sexes them or racism. I am curious when we find the situation is a people are restricted to free speech zones we dispelled as if we were targeted and told to be restricted to the free speech zone for the advertising for an event we had coming and others had not been for their evens. But we also find for putting up signs it and unfair manner because some of them and it turned out the Young Americans for liberty was an organization to be signed up for the weekend and we have to pay this time for leaving the signed up over the weekend we have to figure out another way. And luckily ive was there lehr being infringed upon and we ended up contacting fire to have this handled in a due process like manner before we had a fine imposed upon this. How do we turn this tide had be turned that tide moving forward . Mind standing is we have good success it has been successful and correct me if i am wrong but to my understanding that regard to public universities have found that restricting free speech to a Public University is unconstitutional even one case involving a campus preacher is don google maps because attorneys have done a horrible job and does his own Internet Research but that is a topic for another conversation. That is more or less on point with the rosenberg case. But most of the cases involving specific read this speech codes are mostly at the District Court level could you turn the tide . Lawsuits alien shame. As of followup of your restricted how do you get out there and get then shame not to the community . And that is the fundamental issue. Shaven and epilogue . To get the message out to a the public that was never previously available. There is no guarantee of that but what they post online. Or by contacting evening safire organization and to speak out in ways that are not limited to the physical campus that are coming up through the fifth circuit were High School Student had a rap music sound he was critical of a gym teachers so on the header you and the secondary school has a lower constitution. In with the rap music artist but backward we were in school but email did not make a big until the year after i graduated. They saw were covering of for the top for the talks [inaudible conversations] good morning. I will try that again. Good morning. I am the president of the center for justice a gathering of the active list of leaders will citizens from all over the country that mark say sickle moment in we are so grateful to all of you to be here. And if yours was to be at the nyu commencement you are in the wrong place. [laughter] and to be rich and exciting but at a time in our country at a time to feel anger and disaffection with so many citizens have their basic rights challenged with Public Institutions simply cannot meet the challenges readers here to discuss and celebrate our you run our elections and how democracy works and this is the core american story. I did that start last year. That was the ideal from the very beginning. They didnt live up to it then. We dont live up to it now but its been our best moments and its been a struggle. We have strug lynn move forward and we have moved backward. When Voter Registration systems were first put in place all around the country in the beginning of the 20th century they brought significant improvements in how elections were run but they were also implemented in a manner that made it harder for poor people, for working people for nonenglish speakers to vote. We sought to expand that right, we sought to improve it but by 2001 in the wake of the fiasco in florida or more president jimmy carter and gerald ford studied this issue and they wrote them that the registration laws in force throughout the United States are as they put it among the worlds most demanding and are a big reason why voter turnout in the u. S. Is near the bottom of the developed world. Challenging showing diagnosis. As many of you know, many been part of this there actually has been significant progress all over the country since then. The real move to modernize our election systems with things such as on line registration in a whole host of other ways that it made no progress in the Lessons Learned from those incremental steps have created this opportunity for a big breakthrough for bold reform for something that can actually transform the way we run elections, automatic registration. This is a time where we are seeing a breakthrough for this change and its very exciting. Now as so many of you know automatic registration, what is it . It represents a paradigm shift in how we register voters and how elections are run. For the first time in a meaningful way the government takes the responsibility to ensure that all eligible citizens are on the roles that they want to be for the first time the right to vote for all americans as guaranteed in that way. Every time a citizen is eligible interact with the dmv or eventually other Government Agencies they would automatically register to vote unless they choose not to be. We moved past the paper records that clog our system today to take full advantage to harness the digital revolution to transfer the information and take these lists real and for the lifetime of a voter. Its a big deal. Its a big deal. Fully implemented nationwide, this would add 50 Million People to the roles. It would cost less and it would curb the potential for fraud and abuse and error. It solves in a lot of ways the problems of left and right. Its a breakthrough and its happening and all of you have so much to do with it and we are thankful to all of you for being a part of this. Its the waive of the future but its not not going to future comments actually something thats happening as we speak. As so many of you know over the last year and a half or again, california, West Virginia and vermont enacted automatic Voter Registration at the dmv. Yesterday in connecticut Election Officials announced that they will be implementing automatic Voter Registration by 2018 at dmvs. We know also and you are going to hear in greater detail that this policy works. The first tested in oregon work Voter Registration rates are as many as three times higher under the system than under the previous system. Its hard to think of a policy that is as positive, is as hopeful, is as imminent and tested as this is. Thats why this conference couldnt come at a better time. This is the First National conference on this topic bringing together people from all over the country and all backgrounds into this field. We have folks from 23 states. Election officials, activists, scholars, experts and the elegy and immigration and Voter Mobilization and citizenship. Ordinary people who want to learn more and be part of the Rock National movement. In the morning we are going to focus especially on why this matters and what the benefits are of this kind of change. We will be hearing later in the morning from the former attorney general of the United States eric holder. We will be having in the afternoon a working session where we are going to be as we are all day learning from each other, learning lessons of how this reform has been at it, what works what are the pitfalls to avoid, how can we broaden this burgeoning movement . And i should say on behalf of all of us at the Brennan Center how proud we are to not only host to you today but to be part of this effort. The Brennan Center for those of you who dont know is a law and policy institute that works to reform and revitalize the systems of democracy and justice in america. We were started two decades ago by the family and clerks of the late Great Supreme CourtJustice William brennan and are dedicated to his ideals that the constitution needs to be a document that works for every generation for the challenge of its time. We have been proud to be very much a part of this effort for the past decade. It was almost a decade ago when we first issued a report in proposals for automatic registration and a lot of these things are available in outside area. I want to introduce several of my colleagues who not only work on this issue day in and day out but makes us conference possible. Their names and emails of nothing else but i want to thank them and introduce you to them. Wendy weiser, general clarke and sophie please stand up and waive your arms around so that folks know who you are. [applause] there is a hashtag i have been told to tell you. I will not try to explain to you what you were supposed to do with it but it is hashtag abr for all for those of you who are tweeting or posting about this. There is wifi. I declined the opportunity to. To you the very lengthy, very lengthy password. They are waiving pieces of paper around so there must be important news. They have the wifi password and anybody who wants access to it its back there and we will be happy to share it. We are eager to work with you to continue as we do providing expertise to work with the incredible coalitions and states all across the country have made this happen with the officials who are bringing this to life. So many here have been supportive of this effort so on behalf of the Brennan Center and on behalf of our board we say thank you to all of you. We are thrilled to begin our conversation by hearing from one of the leaders in the country on this movement and this breakthrough. The honorable alex padilla the secretary of state of california. Secretary padilla is one of the rising and bright stars in our country not just on this issue. He is a graduate of m. I. T. And engineering. He left his job writing software and uses electronics to enter Public Service. You dont have to actually be a Rocket Scientist to understand automatic Voter Registration but it turns out it doesnt hurt. At age 26 he was elected to the Los Angeles City council. By age 28 he was the president of the Los Angeles City council. He served in the state senate and now elected statewide as the secretary of state of california. He was the architect of that states reform, drafted it. We got a chance to work with him, let the fight and persuaded the legislature the public and the governor that this was the right thing to do and is now charged with implementing it. He is the chair of the National Association of latino elected officials and on the board of overseers of m. I. T. And many other things. We will be hearing more from him in years to come and we are thrilled to be hearing from him right now, secretary padilla. [applause] good morning everybody. I heard that introduction. Thank you michael for the very kind, kind introduction and for all of you for your commitment to the issues in your commitment to the work of the Brennan Center. Its an honor to be with all of you this morning. Before i begin with my presentation a couple of acknowledge mens two colleagues in the effort. My colleague from West Virginia will be well be hearing from her later today. Amber reynolds who has visited denver and will talk about colorado election reforms and part of my remarks as well but most importantly please welcome a nice new york welcome and help me give thanks to my wife lets me do all of this stuff, angela who is with me here today. [applause] i stand there for all of you and i get goosebumps with audiences like this because i feel so much my life is really living the American Dream frankly. My parents are immigrants to the United States. They came to california and to los angeles specifically in the late 60s from different parts of mexico. They met in los angeles and fell in love and decided to seek residency, start a family and there may be a disney movie about that. In the meantime they raised three of us. I have an older sister who is in education principles that its bull of Unified School District and the other brother who works for the Los Angeles City council so you can see theres a Public Service theme that runs through our veins. Some folks who are recently retired my father is a short order cook in diners throughout los angeles. My mother used to clean houses for that same amount of time. Hard work, humble work but like so many immigrants they do it in pursuit of a better life and not even so much for them but the next generation had a better opportunity and hopefully a better life. One generation from our family being immigrants and the cooks in the house cleaners to now may be standing before he is the secretary of state for the most popular state in the nation, what a story. The American Dream is alive and well and our family has been blessed in large part because of what this country makes possible , that opportunity for education, that opportunity for being able to be whatever you want to be all made possible because of the strength of our democracy that should never be taken for granted trait so its a tremendous privilege for me to work in this space at this time to try to not just defend this democracy but to advance this democracy and keep those doors of opportunity open for generations to calm. When i think about democracy, we know that theres a very popular metrics, some points of measurement that we were for two whether his Voter Registration numbers and rates or voter turnout numbers and rates but i see it more broadly than that. If you look at participation in our democracy is more of a pipeline or a flowchart. We can point to things like immigration and naturalization and of course Voter Registration and voting as actions by citizens and that democracy. I think on it day in and day out basis it should include things like parents being involved in their Childrens School or so since testifying at the citys planning or landuse or zoning hearing and all these things to the keeper daily democracy alive and well in between elections. Elections are clearly critical and it takes my message of participation to every audience that will have me not just here at nyu but to high schools throughout california to Community Colleges throughout california to every naturalization ceremony that will have me. By the way of you have never observed or witnessed hundreds or thousands of people becoming United States citizens at one time, you should. It will move you like few other experiences will. Its in those audiences and in places like the high schools that i speak in california where im reminded that everybody grows up with the lessons being instilled from one generation to the other about the importance of being a registered voter and the importance of voting in each and every election. There are a number of reasons as we all know why not everybody registers and not everybody votes. Chief among them and not well enough understood this poverty. We can debate whether its correlation or causation. The consistency between communities that dont register or vote is high and has high rates with communities that are on the lower scales of income. And we can chalk it up to commutes and job schedules or having multiple jobs and why working in this day and age doesnt align anymore with having run elections. But we will get to that of the minute. We have, before we get to the voting part this Voter Registration piece. Voter registration as a process has been put in place to help pick up the voter rolls and ease of administration but far too often our nation has served as a barrier to participation because the burden is on the citizen to sign up. The burden is on the citizen to register and to vote. Unfortunately it has created a scenario where too many people are left out of the election process. In the year and a half almost that ive been in texas and travel the state and talk to as many groups as i can and theres an observation. As i was talking to one of the high schools in Salinas Californian not too far from moderate, with the local mayor or School Board Member of the School Principal will introduce us and far more often than not i hear their story about growing up in the households where their parents instilled in them being aired the importance of being a registered voter and voting and talk about whos on the ballot and talk about at the dinner table. They went to every other november to the polls and they were brought up with this tradition. I looked into the eyes of the kids in the audience and i see a little bit of a disconnect. I feel a disconnect because i wasnt brought up with those traditions. I wasnt brought up with that experience not because my parents didnt want to instill that in may me or teach made that but as you recall me mentioning a few minutes ago my parents were immigrants to the United States. They didnt vote because they werent eligible to vote. It wasnt until years later that they became citizens. They had never missed an election sense but growing up we didnt talk all it takes at the dinner table and we didnt go with them to the polls in november. So many young people today not just in california but throughout the nation have that in common whether their parents arent eligible or their parents arent as active and they need to do more than rely on parents to teach their kids about the importance of registering and voting. In ca