[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] please welcome the executive director and founder for the center of innovation and research, david becker. [applause] thank you all. Welcome here to beautiful International Spy museum in washington d. C. And those of you watching remotely dont get to see the beautiful views that we see in washington on a gorgeous day in may. Its wonderful to see so many people here in person. Many friends and colleagues ive known for a long time and many people i havent seen for years or ever met in person ever. Thank you all for being here today. When i founded ceir almost seven years ago in the summer of 2016, the field of election was different. Cyber threats were at the forefront and experts concerned mainly concerned of foreign actors illegally attempting to access voter bases or spread disinformation overseas. Election officials were not only free from threat of harassment, Election Officials had a hard time getting anyone to notice them or understand what they did. Election conferences across the country were boring, wed discuss recruiting and tracking poll workers and focused primarily on nuts and bolts of election and voter list maintenance. 2016, one in four ballots nationally had no paper records. Entire states of georgia and South Carolina, had only unauditable digital ballots, as well as most of north carolina, pennsylvania, virginia and other states as well. Effective audits of paper ballots were relatively rare. And over months for the first time in our history in 2016, a major partys candidate for president began using language even before the election that the election would be rigged. When President Trump won, there were some supporters of secretary of clinton who raised concerns with possible tampering of voting machines. While she did know the pursue those claims, but others did, and every investigation confirmed the results. I was among the first to state publicly there was no problem with ballot counting in the 2016 election counting and the fact remains that President Trump won the election. Many supporters of secretary clinton were disappointed, but the election was conducted fairly according to the rules prior to election day. Over the next four years, as we all know a lot changed in the democracy space. False claims about widespread voter fraud were amplified by the white house itself. Once again, no evidence of fraud could be found or produced. While that was happening, Election Officials, many happening in the room right now were improving and professionalizing to the highest level ever achieved. States without paper ballots moved on a bipartisan basis towards paper ballots and stronger audits than the nation has seen before. By 2020, 95 of ballots were paper and entire states of georgia, north carolina, pennsylvania, South Carolina and virginia. Additional states came together to ensure their voter lists were more accurate. And our work evolved as well. We conducted more research and engaged with the media more often to ensure voters were aware of these improvements, and the overall integrity of the election system. Despite major challenges like insufficient funding and resources, Election Officials were ready heading into the 2020 election. And then covid. It was a crisis Election Officials never experienced before and could never plan for. It began as the primaries were heating up and voters were concerned for safety of their loved ones, and how to run an election in a global pandemic. And this was the critical election function, voting. While accommodating social distancing. Somehow against all odds hundreds of thousands of Election Officials and volunteers in thousands of jurisdictions, pulled it off. When they had problems during the primaries, they learned their lessons and planned accordingly for the general election. When legislators at federal and state level failed to provide needed funding for new spendses that couldnt be anticipated, elected officials had philanthropy. Elected officials worked with states to expand the options. When huge numbers of experienced poll workers couldnt work because they were at higher risk of contracting the virus, Election Officials recruited and trained new ones from lower risk groups. When Election Officials needed larger voting locations to accommodate social distancing, they partnered with sports arenas and other venues to assure that their voters and workers were comfortable and as safe as possible and pulled this off when rules and procedures were constantly in flux, changing under their feet. Often challenged in court as both Political Parties sought an advantage. As it turned out, republicans won approximately 85 of the preelection litigation, but whatever side you were on, everyone knew the rules on election day. And the Election Officials around the country were ready. In november 2020, nearly 160 million americans turned out to vote. Thats 20 million more ballots than had ever been cast in an election in American History. Two out of three eligible voters showed up. The highest turnout the nation had seen since well before the women were turned out to vote. Even with unprecedented scrutiny and unsubstantiated claims of fraud, the Election Officials withstood that. And the november 2020 election was simply put the most secure, transparent and verified president ial election in American History and its not close. Despite being held in the middle of a global pandemic, the 2020 election stands as one of the great accomplishments of american resilience and knowhow. This remains true regardless of whether one is happy with the results. But like many of our nations greatest achievement there are those who seek to profit from spreading conspiracy theories that deny the facts. Its been over 30 months since that 2020 election, 917 days to be exact. While there are debunked claims of german servers, and bamboo ballots around the internet, theres not one shred of efforts to a court. Conservative scholars have looked at the evidence and concluded that the 2020 election was lost, not stolen. Even efforts by wellfunded and motivated supporters of a losing president ial candidate in arizona, wisconsin, could not find or manufacture evidence that the election was not legitimate. Yet the lies have not let up. Even after over 900 days, even after election denial has proven to be a strategy. Losing every contested race in 2022. Not only are the lies continuing, were seeing them ramp up. Threats and harassment of Election Officials continue. And were experiencing an unprecedented exodus from the field. From california to pennsylvania and everywhere in between, dedicated Public Servants are asking themselves whether its worth it. Is it worth the constant unrelenting harassment and abuse just to serve as a civil servant. And yet, most of them are still answering, yes. It inspires me every single day. And our work at cir will continue to work and meet this moment. No matter what well meet the needs. Our team has grown, we plan to release several reports to be able to look out for them later this month and even later this week. On topics as diverse as quality of voter lists. The security of Voter Registration systems. The effect of new laws on Election Officials and the depth of election denial amongst some americans. Were working with the public and holding a Public Focus Group in arizona with citizens who doubt the integrity of elections. Were responding to elections by election deniers to bully and from their networks, with this and other efforts. And we are working to protect those men and women, our neighbors, family members, who serve as Election Officials, whether its a secretary of state or down to volunteer poll workers through our election Legal Defense networks which provides pro bono and legal advice to all Election Officials across the country. Cochaired by former Obama White House counsel, and former bush campaign. Im crowd that and ill say while im proud of ceir. They remain committed to the ideal that facts matters, Integrity Matters and the will of the voters matters. Even when we disagree with the voters will, perhaps particularly when we disagree with the voters will. In this room we have Election Officials from maine to california. We invited every chief election official across the country, republican and democrat, conservative and liberal to this convening. We have republicans and democrats here. We have trump voters and biden voters in this room and over the next day and a half well come together to discuss challenges, best practices, and longterm solutions. While there may be disagreements about policy in this room and we invite these disagreements, theres one thing that unites us all, the belief that democracy must persist and thrive, and that it must reflect the will of the people. Thank you all for being here, i really appreciate it. It is wonderful to be in a room with you all. Thank you. [applause]. And i particularly want to thank those who serve as a role, there are secretary of states here, county officials, local officials, many people dont recognize the fact that you dont show up on the monday before an election and set up the machines. That youre working 365 to prepare for elections and honestly working harder than ever and despite the attacks, your work still is withstanding any scrutiny anyone wants to apply. Its remarkable and youre being held to an unprecedented standard of perfection and coming as close as anyone could reasonably expect. Again, your work inspires me every day, its why i do what i do. With that, were going to head to our first panel so you dont have to keep listening to me talk. Our first panel is Lessons Learned from the 20 and 22 elections so id like to welcome to the stage first, my friend and coauthor, cbs news correspondent Major Garrett. Major, come on up. [applause]. Paige alexander, ceo of the Carter Center. [applause] Justin LevittLoyola University school of law. [applause] charles stewart, professor of Political Science at Massachusetts Institute of technology. [applause] and shortly, they will be joined wait, one more, stephanie thomas, secretary of state of connecticut. [applause] thank you, thank you. And lastly well be joined by secretary of state Brad Raffensperger of georgia. His flight was delayed so hell be joining us shortly. Major. And thank you for being here. Brad will be making a dramatic entrance any moment and make sure to be prepared for that. I want to get started off the top and start with paige. 2020 was a traumatic event for the country and projections what would happen in the mid terms, some of which were realized and some of which were not. The first question on the panel, netnet after the midterms are you netoptimistic where this is going or pessimistic . An easy one. No, im optimistic, but its because you wouldnt be in this business if you werent optimistic. It would be difficult to continue doing the work that we do. Weve learned the Carter Center got involved in u. S. Domestic election work because weve done this overseas in 40 Different Countries and see similarities that we felt needed to be addressed and i think were learning and iterrating what levers need to be pulled to make this a free and transparent set of elections. Let me stop you there. I think thats a moment worth pausing to consider. The Carter Center now involving itself in observation of u. S. Elections. Did you ever imagine that would come to be and why do you feel its necessary to start now. When president carter started the Carter Center the intent was to just work internationally, one president at a time and thats what he believed. And i started i came to town in 2020. I took this job and i had been living overseas and to see the Political Polarization that had happened while i was overseas and happening in georgia, in particular, i went down and talked to him in plains and just said, you know, were not going to be credible overseas if were not looking in our own back yard. Thats why we ended up getting involved. I dont i also said, what are you saving your money for . And he said a rainy day. I said its pouring outside. Theres no way that we cannot address and jump in so we jumped in in 2020 looking at the same polarization that wed seen overseas that got us involved in elections, but, in the United States, you know, unlike overseas, you have a National Election commission, you work with one central election commission, in the u. S. Even in georgia, 159 different counties, there are different rules for many of those counties and stephanie and i were just talking about, connecticuts one of four states that doesnt have early voting. Like, so every single state is different. So to work in four states for us is like working in four countries. Yeah, it seemed necessary so president carter was supportive and thats why were involved. Justin. Thank you, major, and thank you to david and ceir. I have a very similar answer to paige. I consider myself a civil rights lawyer by training and were steeped in living amongst the worst of the worst and some of us are excited for fact patterns and makes a great case. You wont find a Broader Group of cynics in the world, but like paige, we wouldnt be doing this work if we were optimistic in the long run. And i look at the troubles ahead and mirrors some behind unfortunately, but i have fundamental faith in the majority of human nature that people ultimately want a democracy that responds to them. And we ultimately have agency in that process to both create and keep a democracy that responds to the people and i think its going to take a lot of work, including a lot of work by a lot of people in this room, but, yes, im optimistic that well continue to get there. As david mentioned, the graph is going in the right direction. If you look over the history of the u. S. At the percentage of adult citizens who are participating in the electoral process, its only going up and to the right, which is exactly where it should be and youd rather be living today than 50 years ago or 100 years ago or 150 years ago. Doesnt mean there arent bumps ahead, but im optimistic. Charles, many in the room rely on the data sets that you provide and analysis you add to the data. About how the election was administered. Amidst the pandemic, all of the metrics pointed in the same direction which is to say that despite the fact that, for instance, there was a tsunami wave of absentee ballots, we sell historic low levels of rejected mail ballots. We sell boulders pivot and learn how to do a new thing. By most of the metrics, and 2020, things went well. They have the same results. All of that is good. 2022 was also good. The data is still coming in and i think we have to remember that a Midterm Election does not have the same strains that a president ial election does. We should not rest on 2022. The data tells us where to be concerned. In 2022, we saw in the outcomes improving. And digging down on an improvedt more trusting, but still a few states, and you can probably guess who those are. The platitude, we are not out of the woods yet, we always have work to do, but in addition to that, particular places where we are looking still not concerned about the Election Administration in this state, but knowing that there is a special work to be done in some states and dealing with levels. Some of the states that we were worried about in 2020. Secretary thomas, in addition, i would last like you to share your story. I want to join. I want to get involved. There is a dramatic [laughter] secretary thomas. I am literally doubting thomas, but i am optimistic. [laughter] to your point, part of my optimization comes from other people like me. I was never involved in politics and in 2016 i just started getting more involved in my town i ran for the state house in 2020 and i one. Here i am. So, the optimism is i look to the people and i have never seen , many of us took our democracy for granted. Now i see people across people in our state wanting to learn more. I see people understanding as david alluded. Everyone thought that an election happen and there were not people working all year. You have a seat and demystify the process, teaching people about the civics is the reason for my optimism so i feel good. What is the atmosphere and connection on this question . Like everywhere, it is mixed. It is very purple. I think the good old new england reasonability, you share the data and let them know how things really work. You are appreciative. Hopefully asked me to get a 2024. The mac secretary, the question is after the 2022 midterm, Optimistic Pessimistic about this debate. Georgia, i think it is positive. They are out there talking to everyone. I think that that is really good. Answering the questions, giving them the facts. Unfortunately, the governor in arizona was term limited. He was not out there making that case. Lowerlevel Election Officials. They did the best that they can. Would you say the temperature about election denial has gone down in georgia . Not as big of a problem as two years ago . No matte