[Senate Hearing 118-251]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


    .                                                      S. Hrg. 118-251

                  ADMINISTRATION OF UPCOMING ELECTIONS

=======================================================================

                                HEARING

                               BEFORE THE

                 COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION
                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS

                             SECOND SESSION

                               __________

                        TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2024

                               __________

    Printed for the use of the Committee on Rules and Administration
    
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABL IN TIFF FORMAT]    


                  Available on http://www.govinfo.gov

                                __________

                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
55-135                       WASHINGTON : 2024                    
          
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                 COMMITTEE ON RULES AND ADMINISTRATION

                             SECOND SESSION

                  AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota, Chairwoman

CHARLES E. SCHUMER, New York         DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
MARK R. WARNER, Virginia             MITCH McCONNELL, Kentucky
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon                 TED CRUZ, Texas
ALEX PADILLA, California             SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West 
JON OSSOFF, Georgia                      Virginia
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado          ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
PETER WELCH, Vermont                 CINDY HYDE-SMITH, Mississippi
LAPHONZA R. BUTLER, California       BILL HAGERTY, Tennessee
                                     KATIE BOYD BRITT, Alabama

                    Elizabeth Farrar, Staff Director
                Jackie Barber, Republican Staff Director

                         C  O  N  T  E  N  T  S

                              ----------                              
                                                                  Pages

                         Opening Statement of:

Hon. Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from the 
  State of Minnesota.............................................     1
Hon. Deb Fischer, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Nebraska.......................................................     3
Hon. Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State, State of Michigan, 
  Lansing, Michigan..............................................     5
Hon. Wes Allen, Secretary of State, State of Alabama, Montgomery, 
  Alabama........................................................     7
Isaac Cramer, Executive Director, Charleston County Board of 
  Voter Registration and Elections North Charleston, South 
  Carolina.......................................................     8
Brian Kruse, Election Commissioner, Douglas County Election 
  Commission, Omaha, Nebraska....................................    10
Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense 
  and Educational Fund, Inc., New York, New York.................    12

                         Prepared Statement of:

Hon. Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State, State of Michigan, 
  Lansing, Michigan..............................................    34
Hon. Wes Allen, Secretary of State, State of Alabama, Montgomery, 
  Alabama........................................................    39
Isaac Cramer, Executive Director, Charleston County Board of 
  Voter Registration and Elections North Charleston, South 
  Carolina.......................................................    43
Brian Kruse, Election Commissioner, Douglas County Election 
  Commission, Omaha, Nebraska....................................    48
Janai Nelson, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense 
  and Educational Fund, Inc., New York, New York.................    50

                            For the Record:

Addendum response of question to Janai Nelson from Senate Butler.    95
Testimony of Dustin M. Czarny, NYSECA Democratic Caucus Chair, 
  Election Commissioners Association of the State of New York....    96
Issue One--Election Officials Call on Congress to Pass Anti-
  Doxxing Measures...............................................    98
Southern Poverty Law Center--Summary of SPLC Actions in Alabama..   101
Legal Defense Fund, LDF--Democracy Defended, Lessons from the 
  2022 Elections and the Path Ahead in 2024......................   105

                  Questions Submitted for the Record:

Hon. Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from the 
  State of Minnesota to Hon. Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State, 
  State of Michigan, Lansing, Michigan...........................   142
Hon. Deb Fischer, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Nebraska to Hon. Jocelyn Benson, Secretary of State, State of 
  Michigan, Lansing, Michigan....................................   143
Hon. Deb Fischer, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Nebraska to Hon. Wes Allen, Secretary of State, State of 
  Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama...................................   144
Hon. Shelly Moore Capito, a United States Senator from the State 
  of West Virginia to Hon. Wes Allen, Secretary of State, State 
  of Alabama, Montgomery, Alabama................................   145

[[Page iv]]

Hon. Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from the 
  State of Minnesota to Isaac Cramer, Executive Director, 
  Charleston County Board of Voter Registration and Elections 
  North Charleston, South Carolina...............................   147
Hon. Deb Fischer, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Nebraska to Isaac Cramer, Executive Director, Charleston County 
  Board of Voter Registration and Elections North Charleston, 
  South Carolina.................................................   148
Hon. Deb Fischer, a United States Senator from the State of 
  Nebraska to Brian Kruse, Election Commissioner, Douglas County 
  Election Commission, Omaha, Nebraska...........................   150
Hon. Amy Klobuchar, Chairwoman, a United States Senator from the 
  State of Minnesota to Janai Nelson, President and Director-
  Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., New 
  York, New York.................................................   153

[[Page (1)]]
 
                  ADMINISTRATION OF UPCOMING ELECTIONS

                              ----------                              


                        TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 2024

                               United States Senate
                      Committee on Rules and Administration
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:05 p.m., in 
Room 301, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Amy Klobuchar, 
Chairwoman of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Klobuchar, Fischer, Warner, Merkley, 
Padilla, Ossoff, Bennet, Butler, Hagerty, and Britt.

         OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE AMY KLOBUCHAR,

            CHAIRWOMAN, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM

                     THE STATE OF MINNESOTA

    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Senator Fischer and I are dealing 
with votes going on, so there will be a little back and forth. 
But I call the hearing to order, and good afternoon. I would 
like to thank Ranking Member Fischer and our colleagues for 
joining us.
    Our witnesses, who I will introduce shortly, are Michigan 
Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson; Isaac Cramer, Executive 
Director of Charleston County, South Carolina's Board of Voter 
Registrations and Elections; and Janai Nelson, President and 
Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
    We are also going to hear from our other witnesses. I left 
them last not for any omission but because Senator Fischer will 
be introducing them. That includes Alabama Secretary of State 
Wes Allen and Brian Kruse, Election Commissioner for the 
Douglas County, Nebraska Election Commission.
    More Americans than ever have cast a ballot in recent 
elections, and it is in large part because of the work of state 
and local officials. These elections have run smoothly. Top 
security officials in both Republican and Democratic 
Administrations alike have confirmed the security of recent 
elections, including last week's primary elections.
    Eighteen states have already held primaries this year. In 
fact, three of our witnesses, Secretary Benson, Secretary 
Allen, and Mr. Cramer have overseen primary elections this year 
already, and there are many more to go before the general 
election in November, including three states, Georgia, 
Mississippi, and Washington, in which voters are casting 
ballots today.
    With voting already underway, we are here to discuss the 
key issues facing the state and local election officials on the 
frontlines of our democracy. One area of particular urgency is 
artificial intelligence. We have already seen how AI can be 
used to spread

[[Page 2]]

disinformation about elections, like the fake robocalls using 
the President's voice telling people not to vote in New 
Hampshire, which is now under investigation by the state's 
Republican Attorney General. We must work across the aisle to 
protect our elections from these threats.
    All of the witnesses at our hearing last fall agreed, we 
need to put guardrails in place when it comes to AI. That is 
why I am leading a bipartisan bill with Senators Hawley, Coons, 
and Collins. We have been joined by Senator Bennet and Ricketts 
and have broad support on both sides of the aisle to prohibit 
fraudulent AI-generated deepfakes in our elections.
    We do this within the framework of the Constitution, which 
of course, allows satire and the like, but we are very 
concerned about what we have seen in just snippets of ads and 
videos that have gone out, that attack candidates actually on 
both sides of the aisle, but they are complete deepfakes and 
not the actual candidate and you cannot even tell it is not the 
candidate.
    We also need to--in addition to banning deceptive 
deepfakes, we also need disclaimers when AI is used in other 
ways. Last week, I introduced a bipartisan bill with Senator 
Lisa Murkowski to require transparency in ads substantially 
generated by AI so that whether you are a Republican or a 
Democrat, voters will know if the ads they see are making use 
of this technology.
    We got some guidance from the hearing we had earlier last 
year in that we do not want those labels to apply to every 
single thing when AI is used. We have defined that in a way 
that I think will pass muster and make it easier to pass that 
bill, but I cannot emphasize how important I believe it is to 
also pass the deepfake bill.
    Finally, since AI can make it so much easier to spread 
disinformation about things like voter registration deadlines 
or polling locations, I myself called ChatGPT or wrote in a 
question I should say, and asked, well, what about this polling 
place in Bloomington, Minnesota? They often have lines. Where 
should they vote? It answered, I am making up the numbers now, 
but like 123 Elm Street. It did not even exist. Clearly they 
have work to do. We have concerns about that as well. We must 
tackle these issues head on. One way is the work Senator 
Collins and I are doing to require the Election Assistance 
Commission to issue guidelines, so election officials are 
prepared to meet these challenges.
    Six states, including my State of Minnesota and Secretary 
Benson's State of Michigan, have passed new laws to address AI 
in elections, and more than three dozen states have bills 
pending, both red and blue states, but we cannot rely on a 
patchwork of state laws and Congress must act.
    Election workers, including volunteers, also continue to 
face a barrage of threats and intimidation. We have heard 
testimony in this Committee from officials from both parties 
about threats targeting them and their families. It is no 
surprise that a survey last year found that nearly one in three 
election officials said that they have been abused, harassed, 
or threatened, and one in five said that they know someone who 
left their job due to safety concerns.
    This has a real impact on how elections are run, including 
efforts to recruit poll workers and volunteers. Last November, 
more than a dozen anonymous letters, some containing fentanyl, 
were sent to

[[Page 3]]

election offices in at least six states, leading to evacuations 
and delays in ballot counting. That is why Senator Fischer and 
I called on the Justice Department to prioritize investigating 
these incidents, and why I lead a bill with Senator Durbin and 
26 co-sponsors to protect election workers from intimidation 
and threats.
    In addition, it is critical as ever that state and local 
governments have reliable federal funding to maintain election 
infrastructure, keep pace with new technology, and combat 
cybersecurity threats. Election security is truly national 
security, and these investments must be prioritized as our 
intel agencies continue to warn about foreign adversaries 
trying to influence our elections. I have heard from officials 
in red, blue, and purple states about the need to get steady 
funding when it comes to elections.
    Finally, I will note that in many states, voters continue 
to face new laws that will make it harder to vote. We had a 
major hearing on that this morning in the Judiciary Committee, 
with Senator Warnock launching off the hearing to talk about 
the John Lewis voting rights bill.
    We also need basic federal standards like those contained 
in the Freedom to Vote Act that I lead along with many of my 
colleagues, including the Democrats on this Committee. I will 
not give up until these bills become the law of the land 
because I believe we truly need to have federal voting rights 
protections for the citizens of this country.
    I want to thank our witnesses for being here and I look 
forward to hearing your testimony about your work year-round to 
prepare for our elections. I will now turn it over to Ranking 
Member Fischer.

  OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE DEB FISCHER, A UNITED STATES 
               SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF NEBRASKA

    Senator Fischer. Good afternoon, and thank you, Chairwoman 
Klobuchar, for holding this hearing. Thank you to all of our 
witnesses for being here today. Today, while three states 
conduct elections and one week after Super Tuesday, we will 
hear from state and local election officials from across the 
country about one of the most fundamental aspects of our 
democracy, the administration of free and fair elections.
    We look forward to learning about how jurisdictions across 
the country are preparing for the upcoming elections. Election 
Day is not just the date when voters cast ballots. It is also 
the culmination of months of preparation by state and local 
election officials to ensure that every eligible voter can 
fulfill their civic duty and participate in the democratic 
process.
    Election officials maintain voter rolls, identify polling 
locations, train poll workers and volunteers, procure and test 
voting equipment, prepare ballots, and educate the public about 
the upcoming elections.
    While every four years they step into a brighter spotlight, 
these hardworking and dedicated individuals address election 
administration challenges for every election, regardless of 
what offices are on the ballot.
    On top of defending the cybersecurity and physical security 
of election infrastructure, election officials must recruit and 
train the

[[Page 4]]

next generation of poll workers, while also retaining 
experienced poll workers. They also work hard to ensure voter 
confidence in the electoral process and the ultimate outcome of 
the elections.
    I am interested in hearing from our witnesses how they 
adapt to the changing landscape to ensure election integrity. I 
also want to understand not only the challenges election 
officials face, but whether the existing federal resources are 
working as intended to ease those challenges.
    Our founding fathers provided states the primary 
responsibility of administering elections under our 
Constitution. The resulting diversity of election systems is a 
strength of our democracy.
    I look forward to a productive discussion and extend my 
sincere appreciation to our witnesses for being here today, as 
they are in the midst of preparations for the 2024 elections. 
Thank you all.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Senator Fischer. 
I will introduce three of the witnesses and then Senators 
Fischer and Britt will introduce the remaining two.
    Our first witness is Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn 
Benson, a role she has held since her election in 2018. 
Previously, she served as Dean of Wayne State Law School, and 
she received her bachelor's degree from Wellesley, her master's 
from Oxford, and her law degree from Harvard.
    Our next witness is Isaac Cramer of the Board of Voter 
Registration and Elections for Charleston County, South 
Carolina, where he has served for a decade and was appointed 
Executive Director in 2021. He is a graduate of Wheaton 
College.
    Then we have Janai Nelson, welcome again, President and 
Director-Counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. She began her 
career at LDF as an extern before she was a Fulbright Scholar 
in Ghana. She returned to LDF as Associate Director Counsel and 
assumed the role of President in March 2022. She received her 
bachelor's degree from NYU and her law degree from the 
University of California, Los Angeles. Senator Fischer.
    Senator Fischer. Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, I thank all 
of our witnesses for being here today. We have with us Mr. 
Brian Kruse from the great State of Nebraska, who serves as the 
election commissioner for Douglas County.
    Mr. Kruse has served as Douglas County's Election 
Commissioner since 2016 and was recently reappointed for a 
third term. I have had the privilege of working with him to 
serve Nebraskans for many years, and I am pleased that he has 
come all the way from Omaha, Nebraska to be with us here today, 
but we have direct flights. Thank you.
    Senator Britt. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, Ranking Member 
Fischer, for your continued leadership on this Committee. It is 
a pleasure to introduce Secretary Allen today at this hearing.
    Wes Allen serves as Alabama's 54th Secretary of State, 
where he is our state's chief election official. Prior to his 
election to his current office, Secretary Allen spent nearly a 
decade as Pike County, Alabama's Probate Judge, which is the 
county's senior election official.
    He was then elected to the Alabama House of 
Representatives, where he served as the Vice Chair of the 
Legislature's Constitution, Campaigns, and Elections 
committees.

[[Page 5]]

    I know that Secretary Allen is honored to appear before 
this Committee and offer his knowledge on matters as he has 
made it his mission to make it easy to vote in safe and secure 
elections. Thank you for being here.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much. If the witnesses 
would now please stand and raise their right hand. Do you swear 
that the testimony--give you a second. Do you swear that the 
testimony you will give before the Committee shall be the 
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you 
God?
    Ms. Benson. I do.
    Mr. Allen. I do.
    Mr. Cramer. I do.
    Mr. Kruse. I do.
    Ms. Nelson. I do.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you. You may be seated. You 
will now proceed, and we will recognize you each for a five 
minute statement, starting with Secretary Benson. Senator, I 
will leave to vote for a little bit at some point, so thanks. 
Secretary Benson.

         OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE JOCELYN BENSON,

    SECRETARY OF STATE, STATE OF MICHIGAN, LANSING, MICHIGAN

    Ms. Benson. Thank you. Chair Klobuchar, Ranking Member 
Fischer, and Members of the Committee, it is an honor to be 
joining you here today for this important hearing. These next 
eight months will define the future of our country and our 
democracy.
    As Michigan's Chief Election Officer, that reality is clear 
to me every day, both as we work to ensure our elections are 
safe and secure and in our efforts to protect every voter and 
every election official from the lies, threats, and deceptive 
tactics that continue to plague our democracy. It has been a 
challenging few years for us, but our democracy is getting 
stronger.
    First, voter turnout is on the rise from 2020, when we saw 
more citizens vote than ever before, to 2022, when Michigan led 
the Nation in youth voter turnout. Citizens are engaged and 
they are voting.
    Second, the number of ways voters can participate in our 
elections continue to expand, from the right to vote from home 
to early voting, to traditional Election Day voting places. 
Michigan's experience underscores that the expansion of options 
to vote directly leads to higher voter participation across the 
political spectrum in every election.
    But as the Chief Elections Officer of a battleground state, 
I know these successes do not tell the whole story. We go into 
this election cycle expecting bad actors to use misinformation, 
turbocharged through AI, to divide, deceive, and deter voter 
participation throughout our country. I am not just talking 
about deepfakes.
    AI will also make it easier to mislead voters about the 
voting process, or even conditions at a polling place. Imagine 
a voter receiving a text warning saying there is long lines at 
a precinct or not to go, or another seeing a social media post 
showing a polling location changing because of flooding.
    All of these could be false, and all of these could deter 
participation. The realities of AI underscore the need for 
federal investment

[[Page 6]]

in our elections. AI introduces a level of speed, scale, and 
sophistication that is difficult for under-resourced state 
agencies to handle on our own.
    Federal funds help us to support and bolster our state 
cybersecurity infrastructure and do more voter education to 
address this evolving threat. We also need the Department of 
Homeland Security and CISA to be more aggressive in identifying 
and combating threats, and in notifying local officials and 
states with critical security information, helping us ensure 
voters know what to do when they encounter deceptive election 
practices.
    At the state level in Michigan, we are doing our part. We 
have enacted laws to require disclaimers and disclosure of 
political advertisements generated with AI, and we have made it 
a crime for anyone to knowingly and deceptively distribute AI-
generated deepfakes. But now we need you to do your part.
    As United States Senators, you can protect every voter in 
this country from the harmful effects of deceptive AI-generated 
content by passing the Protect Elections from Deceptive AI Act. 
Finally, we cannot have a secure democracy if we do not protect 
the security of the people who protect our democracy.
    Our job as election administrators increasingly forces us 
to endure harassment, false and malicious attacks on our 
character, and threats of violence all because of lies about 
our work and our integrity.
    On a morning walk throughout her neighborhood, Detroit City 
Clerk Janice Winfrey was approached by a man who told her, 
``you are going to pay dearly for your actions in this 
election''. Oakland County Elections Director Joe Rozell was 
recently threatened that he would be hanged for treason.
    Former Rochester Hills Clerk Tina Barton received a 
voicemail saying, ``10 million patriots will surround you when 
you least expect it,'' and that she deserved a knife to the 
throat. These are just a few examples of what our election 
administrators endure, and as misinformation increases, so do 
the threats.
    We all have a duty to protect the people who protect 
democracy. In Michigan, we have made it a state crime to 
threaten or intimidate an election official with a specific 
intent of interfering with the officials' duties. This should 
be a federal crime. Election officials are professionals. We 
are nonpartisan. We put voters first, and we are firmly 
committed to ensuring every citizen can have rightly placed 
faith in their vote and in our elections.
    It should be your highest priority to ensure we have the 
funding, the resources, and the legal protections to make 
democracy work for everyone, because ensuring our security is 
critical to ensuring election security.
    I have spent my year defending--I have spent my career 
defending the right to vote of every eligible citizen. That 
commitment has never wavered, and it will not waver now. I am 
here today to ask you all to share that commitment and help us 
ensure we are protected so that our democracy continues to 
thrive this year and every year. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Benson was submitted for the 
record.]

[[Page 7]]

    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you so much, Secretary. 
Secretary Allen.

           OPENING STATEMENT OF HONORABLE WES ALLEN,

   SECRETARY OF STATE, STATE OF ALABAMA, MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA

    Mr. Allen. Yes, ma'am, thank you. Good afternoon, ladies 
and gentlemen. I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you 
today about election security.
    As Alabama's Secretary of State, I serve as the State's 
Chief Elections Official and work closely with the probate 
judges, circuit clerks, sheriffs, absentee election managers, 
poll workers, boards of registrars who are all an integral part 
of our elections process at the local level in each of our 67 
counties.
    When I took the oath of office 14 months ago, I made it a 
top priority to ensure that our elections are fair and secure, 
so that every eligible voter who wishes to cast a vote in any 
election in our state could do so with confidence, knowing that 
their vote would be properly counted.
    Elections are the bedrock of our Constitutional Republic, 
and it is my Constitutional duty to ensure our elections are 
conducted with integrity, honesty, and accuracy. Voter 
registration and voter file maintenance are the foundation of 
election integrity.
    Registered voters can choose to participate in elections in 
Alabama with the confidence that our elections process is fair 
and secure because Alabama has taken steps, solid steps in our 
state, to ensure election integrity.
    We have enacted legislation in Alabama that makes it 
illegal for any voting tabulator to be connected to the 
internet. Alabama state law requires the use of paper ballots 
in all elections. Each of our voters must verify their identity 
with photo identification at his or her polling place. If a 
voter does not have a valid photo ID for voting purposes, my 
office will send someone to the location of their choice, even 
their home, to issue them a voter ID upon request.
    Proper voter file maintenance is essential to instilling 
and preserving confidence in elections. Just this year, I, with 
the help of the dedicated team of the Office of Secretary of 
State, established the Alabama Voter Integrity Database, AVID.
    For the first time in our state's history, we have been 
approved to directly cross-check our voter file with the 
National Death Master Index maintained by the Social Security 
Administration, so that when an Alabama voter dies in another 
state, we are able to identify and remove that individual from 
our voter file.
    Quickly removing a deceased Alabamian from our voter file 
not only instills confidence, but also allows us to maintain a 
more accurate voter file. Every state should be able to do 
this, but excessive federal regulations make it more difficult 
than it should be for states to access this important 
information.
    You, as Members of the United States Senate, can remove 
these obstacles and make this information immediately available 
to every Secretary of State in the country. AVID also enables 
us to work with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency to receive 
notifications of Alabama licensed drivers over the age of 18 
who have received a driver's license in another state.

[[Page 8]]

    Additionally, by comparing the National Change of Address 
Database maintained by the United States Postal Service to our 
voter file, we identified registered Alabama voters who have 
requested to have their mail forwarded due to moving to a 
location outside of the state.
    For the first time in our state's history, we have entered 
into agreements with each of our border states, allowing us to 
identify people who are registered to vote in Alabama and in a 
border state.
    Voters who are identified as possibly relocating through 
any of these methods receive a mailer from their county boards 
of registrars asking them to confirm their relocation or update 
their Alabama voter registration information. To date, we have, 
through AVID, identified 109,709 Alabama voters who have likely 
relocated outside of the state.
    But unlike deceased voters, we cannot quickly remove them 
from the Alabama voter file. The National Voter Registration 
Act of 1993, also known as the NVRA, mandates that we wait four 
years to make such removal.
    If I can make a recommendation to this body to increase 
confidence in our elections, it would be to shorten the four 
year waiting period mandated by the NVRA, especially 
considering the fact that state-to-state movers account for 
19.9 percent of all relocations, according to the United States 
Census Bureau.
    The four year waiting period allows an individual to remain 
in a voter file in a state in which they no longer live for 
several elections, including a Presidential election, a United 
States Senate election, a gubernatorial election, two 
congressional elections, and numerous local elections. Four 
years, quite frankly, is too long.
    This federal law requires Secretaries of State to knowingly 
maintain bloated, inaccurate voter lists. Amending the NVRA to 
shorten the four year waiting period would certainly increase 
voter confidence, decrease bloated voter files, and result in 
more accurate voter files across the country.
    Again, thank you for your time. It has been an honor and a 
privilege to appear before you today. Thank you.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Allen was submitted for the 
record.]
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much. Mr. Cramer.

    OPENING STATEMENT OF ISAAC CRAMER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 
                CHARLESTON COUNTY BOARD OF VOTER

  REGISTRATION AND ELECTIONS NORTH CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

    Mr. Cramer. Chairwoman Klobuchar, Ranking Member Fischer, 
and Members of the Committee, I want to thank you for having me 
here today.
    As was mentioned, I am the Executive Director of the 
Charleston County Board of Elections. But also, I have the 
privilege of serving as a Vice Chair of the Elections 
Subcommittee for the National Association of Counties and as a 
member of the United States Election Assistance Commission 
Board of Advisors.
    I cannot overstate the significance of the county 
perspective in any topic involving election administration. We 
are the frontline workers responsible for ensuring smooth 
elections nationwide. Ad

[[Page 9]]

ministering elections in Charleston County is a responsibility 
I hold with the utmost seriousness.
    But my journey is also very personal to me. It is rooted in 
my mother's dream of becoming a United States citizen. When I 
was a child, witnessing her exercise her right to vote left a 
permanent mark on my life, igniting in me a passion for 
politics and then election administration. I am here testifying 
before you because of her hard work and determination.
    As we stand on the threshold of another crucial election 
cycle, it is important for us as election administrators to 
draw from the lessons of the past to strengthen the foundation 
of our democracy for the future.
    When we reflect on the preparations for this upcoming year, 
in Charleston County, our main concerns revolve around three 
pivotal needs and these are crucial: the protection of election 
officials, the security of our polling places, and the 
assurance of adequate federal funding.
    The safety and well-being of our election personnel is at 
the heart of our operational concerns. During the June 2022 
primaries, our polling places became battlegrounds for these 
disruptive elements to the democratic process. A local group 
traveled to each polling place on Election Day. They harassed 
our poll workers. They claimed they were breaking the law and 
at several locations they actually called law enforcement to 
arrest our poll workers. Just to be clear, South Carolina law 
does not allow us to have law enforcement enter a polling place 
unless they have been summoned by the majority of poll workers.
    Then one of the leaders on social media posted this, ``for 
all of you on the team tomorrow observing the polls, good 
hunting. You know what you are looking for. We have the enemy 
on their back foot, press the attack forward.'' The enemies he 
is referring to were his neighbors, good people who are just 
trying to carry out the duty, their civic duty of the 
democratic process. As our lead poll manager to return on that 
night, many of them expressed to me personally they felt 
unsafe.
    I believe Charleston County can be a model though for other 
election officials across the country trying to see how they 
can make their polling places safe and their voters safe. Our 
office meets monthly with our counter threat manager, our local 
law enforcement, emergency management, and public safety.
    Together, we are enhancing our training for active shooters 
and also how to mitigate any disturbance at the polls and how 
to communicate in highly stressful situations. We hosted our 
first ever election security workshop last year, and we created 
a law enforcement guide that we give to all our law enforcement 
partners so they know what they do if they get a call on 
Election Day.
    Charleston County has made substantial investments to the 
election process through building upgrades, surveillance 
systems, and also giving us access control mechanisms that are 
imperative to mitigate any potential threats in our election 
operations.
    However, I want to say this clear, not every county can 
make similar investments. Numerous counties in South Carolina, 
rural and urban, need an infusion of federal funds to improve 
the security of their election infrastructure, and that is very 
vital to the se

[[Page 10]]

curity of our elections. South Carolina is one of several 
states that does not pass HAVA grant money to the county level. 
This needs to change.
    Congress needs to give us the ability, the counties, those 
funds so we can have a direct access, because we are the ones 
who run elections day to day. This year, we have a huge effort 
to recruit the next generation of poll workers, as many of them 
have left due to threats and harassment.
    To demonstrate that it is possible that counties can apply 
directly for funding, the EAC awarded $1 million to support the 
Help America Vote College Program. Charleston County applied 
and received $76,000 for an innovative program aimed at 
recruiting college students to serve as poll workers.
    In addition, we have created the Day for Democracy Program, 
which allows county employees to serve on Election Day. County 
employees who participate, they also get poll worker pay on top 
of administrative leave with pay.
    Over 15 percent of our poll workers in 2023 were county 
employees. Having trusted public officials serving as poll 
workers greatly boosts public trust in the election process. 
Many of our poll workers remember a day when elections were 
simple. They have now become more complex.
    The stakes have never been higher, and we need Congress's 
help. You can pass Senator Klobuchar's Election Protection--
Election Worker Protection Act or other proposals that will 
strengthen election worker safety. Also, we must impose 
penalties on anyone who would threaten, pressure, or dox 
election officials.
    Without increased funding and action to protect election 
workers, counties will continue to see increased resignations 
of career election officials and struggle to recruit and retain 
seasonal poll workers.
    In South Carolina, over 70 percent of election directors 
have left their posts since 2020, and I am often asked, why am 
I still in this profession? It is a really a simple answer for 
me. I believe in the United States of America and the freedoms 
we enjoy. I am able to serve this great country by providing 
the mechanism by which our country was founded, the ability to 
give everyone a voice in shaping the future and direction of 
our country through voting.
    Election administrators need the support of Congress now 
more than ever to protect and fund our elections.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Cramer was submitted for the 
record.]
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Thank you, Mr. Cramer. Mr. 
Kruse

           OPENING STATEMENT OF BRIAN KRUSE, ELECTION

   COMMISSIONER, DOUGLAS COUNTY ELECTION COMMISSION, OMAHA, 
                            NEBRASKA

    Mr. Kruse. Chairwoman Klobuchar and Ranking Member Fischer, 
I appreciate the invitation before the Committee this 
afternoon. My name is Brian Kruse. I am the Douglas County 
Election Commissioner.

[[Page 11]]

    One of the most important aspects of election 
administration is trust and fairness in conducting and managing 
elections. In Nebraska, we have the gold standard for election 
administration.
    First and foremost, we use paper ballots. Voters receive a 
paper ballot, whether it be for early voting or Election Day 
voting. The tabulating machines that count ballots are never 
connected to the internet or to each other, and these machines 
are used only after numerous pre-election tests.
    Following the election and before results are official, a 
thorough canvass or audit process is conducted, as well as a 
manual audit directed by the Nebraska Secretary of State's 
Office. There is a paper trail.
    Our office prepares for every election cycle by reviewing 
and updating procedures for each department to ensure that each 
voter registration, candidate filing, early voting request 
ballot, or petition signature is processed according to the 
statutes and using consistent rules and guidelines.
    When processing thousands of records and training seasonal 
staff, it is important to ensure that correct procedures are 
being followed. Early voting by mail can be a secure and 
accurate method of voting if administered properly.
    For polling place elections, Nebraska law requires voters 
in the majority of counties who choose to vote by mail to 
request an early voting or absentee ballot prior to each 
election, as ballots cannot automatically be sent.
    Signatures, and now voter ID requirements, are checked at 
the time each request is processed. If these requirements are 
not met, a ballot will not be sent. Upon ballots being 
returned, signatures are checked again. Drop boxes in Douglas 
County are secured under 24/7 surveillance cameras and emptied 
each weekday by two individuals of differing parties.
    I encourage voters to use one of our drop boxes, as they 
are the most direct way to return election mail. The voter 
places the item in the box and election workers pick them up. 
There are no third parties involved.
    Voters in Douglas County, across all political spectrums, 
have embraced the drop boxes. On average, 77 percent of all 
vote by mail ballots are returned via one of our drop boxes. 
Bolstering public confidence in our elections is vital to 
successful elections. Local election officials are the trusted 
source for getting the message out about elections.
    I am fortunate and grateful that I have a good relationship 
with the local media, TV, radio, and print as they assist my 
office in disseminating accurate and timely information. The 
big task this election cycle for Nebraska is the implementation 
of voter ID and making sure voters know what is needed both for 
by mail, early voting, and Election Day voting in order for 
their ballot to be accepted and their voices to be heard.
    The media is also a vital partner in reminding voters of 
deadlines and other helpful guides to make the process 
successful. For instance, working with their office to create 
an infographic or flowchart of the voter ID options.
    My Chief Deputy Election Commissioner and myself attend as 
many community events as possible to provide election 
education,

[[Page 12]]

answer questions, and build relationships. These relationships 
have forged trust and have been instrumental for my office in 
correctly informing voters of changes related to elections.
    In Nebraska, we are also unique in the fact that we have a 
state law, the only state which allows for poll workers to be 
drafted, similar to jury duty. Douglas County was the only 
county in Nebraska that conducted a draft for many years.
    Some advantages to drafting poll workers are increased 
community awareness of the election process, less difficulty in 
securing election workers, and a younger work force with an 
average age in the mid 50's, while the majority of poll workers 
nationwide are over 60.
    In conclusion, it is my privilege to serve the voters of 
Douglas County and an honor to be here representing the 93 
county election officials in Nebraska who work diligently to 
conduct accurate elections.
    I encourage all citizens from coast to coast to go and have 
your voices heard on Election Day. Thank you for inviting me 
today, Senator Fischer, and thank you to the Committee for your 
time.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Kruse was submitted for the 
record.]
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Mr. Kruse. Ms. 
Nelson.

        OPENING STATEMENT OF JANAI NELSON, PRESIDENT AND

  DIRECTOR-COUNSEL, NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, 
                    INC., NEW YORK, NEW YORK

    Ms. Nelson. Chair Klobuchar, Ranking Member Fischer, and 
Committee Members.
    My name is Janai Nelson, I am the President and Director-
Counsel of LDF, formally the NAACP Legal Defense and 
Educational Fund. Thank you for the opportunity to testify 
about the state of voting rights for Black Americans, both on 
the ground and in the courts, and about the urgent need for 
congressional action to protect and secure the fundamental 
freedom to vote.
    My testimony is informed by LDF's extensive experience over 
80 years protecting and advancing voting rights for Black 
Americans since our founding by Thurgood Marshall in 1940. My 
testimony is also informed by the on the ground election 
protection work we must do every election cycle in order to 
ensure that Black voters can cast a ballot and have it counted.
    Last week was the 59th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, when 
patriots like John Lewis were brutally beaten in Selma, Alabama 
for simply demanding the right to vote. Their courage and 
action led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and 
the true start of our multiracial democracy.
    We need Congress to follow in the steps of those foot 
soldiers with courage and action today. It has been more than a 
decade since the Shelby County decision, where the Supreme 
Court gutted the heart of the Voting Rights Act, and Congress 
still has yet to act. But in that decade of congressional 
inaction, states that were previously subject to preclearance 
have aggressively and systematically trampled on voting rights, 
especially those of Black citizens.

[[Page 13]]

    Alabama, North Carolina, Texas, and other states with 
histories of discrimination advanced harsh voting restrictions 
within days, even hours of the Shelby decision, and a wave of 
voter suppression laws followed across the country.
    More recently, the Big Lie and other myths to undermine 
faith in our elections have stoked a backlash against voters of 
color. Some states have targeted the precise pathways to the 
polls that Black voters have used in recent years, whether it 
is eliminating or limiting drop boxes in Florida, early voting 
in Georgia, or vote by mail in Texas.
    Artificial intelligence is being weaponized to advance 
frivolous mass challenges to registered voters in Georgia, and 
this is gaining traction through programs like Eagle AI as a 
nationwide strategy to distort the electorate.
    The increased use of AI also threatens to turbocharge 
disinformation campaigns historically targeted at Black voters.
    Despite decades of progress toward becoming a more 
inclusive, just, and equal democracy, we are swiftly moving in 
the opposite direction. In Alabama Black and white voter 
turnout was nearly equal in 2012, but a decade after Shelby, 
Black voter turnout now lags nearly eight percentage points 
behind white voter turnout. Georgia had the largest racial 
disparity in turnout in 2022 at any point in the last decade.
    The 2020 redistricting cycle was rife with discrimination. 
Of the nine states previously subject to preclearance, six, 
two-thirds, have faced lawsuits challenging their maps for 
racial discrimination.
    Federal courts have already found in three of our recent 
cases, Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana, that the states 
created racially discriminatory congressional maps.
    Let us be clear, while LDF is fighting in the courts, along 
with our other civil rights sisters and brothers, we cannot 
litigate our way out of this problem. But Congress can 
legislate.
    Black Americans are headed into November with a shredded 
shield as a result of the Shelby County and Brnovich v. DNC 
decisions. The Voting Rights Act is a shadow of its former 
self. Precisely when we need strong voting rights protections 
in the face of rising authoritarianism, destructive court 
decisions, combined with inaction by Congress have stripped 
them away.
    The state of voting rights for Black Americans is tenuous, 
and that is an urgent crisis for our democracy and for this 
Congress. The President issued a powerful call to action in 
last week's State of the Union address, and he named the 
specific solutions that were recently reintroduced in both 
chambers, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and 
the Freedom to Vote Act, both of which we call on Congress to 
pass.
    The right to vote preserves every right that we hold dear. 
It is an effective nonviolent means of expressing our will. 
Protecting the right to vote should not be a matter of partisan 
politics. It is the duty of all elected officials to honor and 
protect the sacred act that has enabled them to serve. Thank 
you, and I look forward to your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Nelson was submitted for the 
record.]

[[Page 14]]

    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much, Ms. Nelson. 
Senator Warner is going to take my spot because he has to leave 
and is chair of the Intel Committee, so he has some interest in 
protecting our elections. Then we will turn it over to Senator 
Fischer, and then we will go from there. Thank you.
    Senator Warner. Well, thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Thank 
you, for holding this critically important hearing. I 
appreciate our panel here. Senator Klobuchar is right, I am 
Chairman of the Intelligence Committee.
    Yesterday, we had the worldwide threats briefing from FBI, 
CIA, ODNI, NSA, all of our intelligence community across the 
board in law enforcement. They indicate--and I believe that we 
need more hearings like this, and I appreciate Senator Fischer 
is involved in this as well--that in many ways we are 
potentially less protected as we go into 2024, in terms of the 
security of our elections, than we were during 2020.
    That is a pretty stunning fact. There are four reasons why 
this is the case. I am talking about now interference from 
foreign malign influence. Number one, a number of our 
adversaries have seen how cheap and effective it is to 
interfere in our elections. The template that was laid out by 
Russia in 2016 was literally pennies on the dollar.
    If you are thinking about trying to disrupt, it is a heck 
of a lot cheaper to use technology to disrupt and undermine 
another nation states elections than it is to buy airplanes, 
submarines, and tanks.
    Russia continues, and not just in our elections but 
elections around Europe, around the world, intervening. China 
has picked up some of these techniques as well. Iran, other 
nation states as well. We have a series of nations, and in 
particular led by Russia, who realize that interfering in our 
elections can--could have dramatic effects on America's 
position in terms of support of Ukraine.
    Their interest level is higher, number one. Number two, and 
this is just the nature of our politics today, Americans on 
either end of the political agenda have much less faith in many 
of our institutions, and unfortunately, much less faith in 
particular in the integrity of our electoral--of our election 
system.
    Number three, there was a case, Murthy vs. Missouri, that 
the Fifth Circuit put out a ruling in last July I think ill-
suited, and the Supreme Court is reviewing it now. While they 
have put a stay on this, that literally prevents voluntary 
communication between our Government and social media 
companies.
    I remember in the aftermath of the 2016 incursion, the CEO 
of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said repeatedly in public, you 
know, if the Federal Government has got evidence of Russians or 
other entities being on Facebook, please share that with us.
    Well, in a bipartisan fashion led by then Chairman Richard 
Burr of the Intelligence Committee shared that information. I 
have to say, all throughout actually the Trump Administration, 
and in this case the Trump Administration did right, there was 
voluntary sharing that went back and forth on a regular basis.
    If NSA or CISA found evidence of foreign maligned 
influence, that could be shared on a voluntary basis with the 
other companies and vice versa. As of last July, and literally 
until about two weeks ago, there had been no communication 
between those social media

[[Page 15]]

platforms where a lot of this foreign misinformation, 
disinformation, takes place, and the Government.
    Then finally, and I know the panel has talked about this a 
bit already, we have the whole new advent of artificial 
intelligence. AI brings at a scale and speed tools to 
interfere, misinform, and disinform.
    We all know about deepfakes in terms of our images and our 
voices. It can happen at a scale and speed in which--and I have 
an appreciation for all of the Secretaries of States here. But 
you guys, there is no way you can keep up with. I feel it is 
critically important that we do a better job in a bipartisan 
fashion of educating the American public that this problem has 
not gone away. That our adversaries wish us ill.
    Lord knows we have enough divisions between Americans in 
terms of our political views, that we ought to argue amongst 
ourselves. That is appropriate. But to somehow have this overly 
influenced, amplified, misinformed, disinformed by foreign 
maligned influence is incredibly problematic.
    I know my clock is about out, but Secretary Benson, if you 
could just briefly, ERIC was a system that was voluntarily set 
up, again, by folks from the Trump Administration that, 
unfortunately, states have exited. You decided in Michigan to 
come into that system. Could you briefly address--and I thank 
the Ranking Member for allowing to put my question in.
    Ms. Benson. Yes. I want to also address what you were 
talking about with the threats of misinformation.
    But yes, Michigan has been a member of ERIC since 2019, and 
we found it to be a really effective method to collaborate with 
24--the current membership is 24 other states as well as 
Washington, DC, to ensure, you know, a lot of what my colleague 
from Alabama was talking about with his state system, that we 
are actually able to do collaboratively with states around the 
country, quite effectively, increasing the accuracy of our 
voter rolls, through what heretofore has been the most secure 
and effective bipartisan collaboration of states to protect the 
integrity of our elections and our election administration 
system has ever seen.
    It has been victimized by a lot of misinformation. I 
actually want to--which really underscores how lies around our 
democracy harms the security of our democracy. As you just 
said, very clearly, and one thing we are not talking enough 
about is that our foreign adversaries, foreign adversaries to 
this country, have a greater incentive than ever before in this 
election cycle to interfere with our elections processes.
    The way they will interfere with our processes is not 
through trying to harm our infrastructure. Our elections are 
secure. We all use paper ballots. We all have audits. We all 
have several layers of security in place to protect every voice 
and every vote, and ensure every eligible vote, and only 
eligible votes, are counted.
    Where misinformation and where foreign threats will affect 
our elections are not just through AI but are in multiple 
multiscale attempts to fool voters about their rights in an 
effort to cause confusion and chaos and instill fear, in an 
effort to deceive voters, to divide us as Americans, and to 
deter us from believing in our voice and in our votes.

[[Page 16]]

    In that effort, to combat that effort, we must invest in 
efforts to educate our citizens, boost trusted messengers from 
all sectors and all parties, and collaborate more than we ever 
have before to ensure we are marching forward, arms locked, to 
protect every citizens' voice in this election from efforts to 
fool them about their voice and about their votes.
    The Federal Government must be a partner in that effort. 
CISA must be a collaborative partner in that effort, working 
with all of us to ensure that we are recognizing what maligns 
our election system is not really left or right.
    It is this foreign interference that could cause every 
citizen in this country to stop believing, not just in their 
institutions of government, but in their own voice. Against 
that, we can all fight proudly, I believe, and we can be 
successful if we do it together.
    Senator Fischer. Thank you, Senator Warner. As a Member of 
the Armed Services Committee, I am well aware of the maligned 
activities that we see from our foreign adversaries. But I know 
that election officials also still worry about infrastructure 
and still worry about the increase that we see from 
cybersecurity threats.
    Whether it is threats to the infrastructure itself or 
government websites or voter registration databases, the poll 
books. Secretary Allen, could you tell us about how Alabama has 
worked to mitigate potential cybersecurity threats and whether 
you have encountered any unique challenges in this process, and 
whether you see some of those threats changing over time as 
well.
    Mr. Allen. Yes, ma'am. Thank you. We work very closely with 
our Office of Information and Technology that oversees our 
statewide agencies and the backbone of our IT department.
    We have an in-house IT department as well, but we 
collaborate with these agencies, with the FBI, with the DHS, 
quite frequently, especially over the last several months, 
getting prepared for the primary that we had last week and 
obviously getting prepared for the runoff coming up in certain 
parts of Alabama in April, and then to the general election in 
November.
    We have many conversations on cyber. That is one thing we 
take very seriously. As a matter of fact, on election night, we 
have someone there from our Office of Information Technology, 
the statewide office.
    We have someone from our own IT department in our office as 
returns, unofficial returns come in the evening. To make sure 
if there is ever anything that pops up on our radar that we are 
able to answer them very, very quickly and to mitigate any kind 
of potential threats that are out there with us or may be 
targeting Alabama.
    We work across the many platforms to make sure that we are 
ready to fend off any type of cyber-attacks in Alabama.
    Senator Fischer. Thank you. Mr. Kruse, what are some of the 
unique challenges that local election officials face in 
mitigating those cybersecurity threats? If you turn your mic 
on. There you go.
    Mr. Kruse. Sorry. You know, the big one, I think, obviously 
would be the disinformation, if someone were to hack a website 
of ours and try and change information or results or something 
of that nature. Also, the AI of impersonating myself, perhaps 
polling place changes, or deadline changes, things of that 
nature.

[[Page 17]]

    We are fortunate in the fact, that in Douglas County, we 
have a group called DOT Comm, the Douglas Omaha Technology 
Commission, which is a joint venture between the city and 
county. They really are the experts on technology, 
cybersecurity, and things of that nature. They provide all of 
that for me.
    I also do have two gentlemen in-house in our election 
system and technology department. They created our website and 
maintain the website. If something were to happen, we hopefully 
could fix it in-house fairly quickly. We do not contract with a 
third party for that.
    We can also change things on it, instantly using them to 
get messages out. I think, from the local election official 
perspective, we hear all the time that voters trust their local 
election officials, and we hear a lot that we believe maybe 
there was fraud or misinformation or something in someplace 
else, but not our jurisdiction.
    Really, having trust with your community, with your voters, 
and with media outlets so when issues do occur, you can contact 
them and get the correct information out quickly.
    Senator Fischer. You had talked about in your opening 
statement about the information that you provide to voters in 
Douglas County and your good relationship with the media. You 
also mentioned the post-election audit process. Could talk a 
little bit about the benefits of--that these audits provide to 
the voters in your jurisdiction?
    Mr. Kruse. Absolutely. That is administered by the 
Secretary of State's Office. The morning after the election, 
the Secretary of State's Office randomly picks certain 
precincts and certain races for counties to audit. Larger 
counties like myself have three of them, but every county has 
at least one in a statewide general.
    Last time we had the three races in the three precincts, 
the races were the Congressional race, the Governor's race, and 
then the Sheriff's race. We had 2,325 votes cast amongst the 
three races in the three precincts. We go, get the ballots out 
of the vault. We sit down, we literally then hand tally them, 
make sure they match up with what the machine count had been, 
which they did.
    We were perfect last time. This instills confidence in the 
voters. It is another level of check and balance. It is another 
level of proof to show that our machines are counting the 
ballots correctly, to not only the voters but to the workers 
who worked there as well, who were then great Ambassadors for 
our office.
    Senator Fischer. Great. Thank you very much. Thank you, 
Madam Chair.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Thank you. Secretary 
Benson, as you mentioned in your testimony, Michigan 
implemented in-person early voting during last month's primary. 
Can you share more information about how you worked with local 
officials about these and other reforms that expand access to 
voting, and why these efforts are important?
    Ms. Benson. I am happy to. Thank you, Senator and 
Chairwoman. I am proud in Michigan that both in 2018 and in 
2022, voters themselves amended our State Constitution to 
implement automatic voter registration, Election Day 
registration, enhanced audits and protections, as well as 
enhanced opportunities for military and overseas citizens to 
vote.

[[Page 18]]

    They also gave every citizen a right to vote from home, a 
right to have a drop box for every--one for every 15,000 voters 
in our state that is secure and monitored and checked daily, 
and nine days of early voting in every statewide election.
    Our Presidential primary, held just last month, was the 
first statewide election in which we held early voting, and we 
found it to be a game changer in how citizens have access to 
cast their ballot, not just on Election Day, but in-person 
voting.
    Two Saturdays and two Sundays and a full week before 
Election Day can dramatically increase voter engagement and 
turnout and address the fact that when we look at who is not 
voting, a lot of the reasons why, according to various surveys 
and data, is because of inconvenience, because they cannot get 
to the polls in a certain time, in a certain day.
    But expanding the number of election days we have has 
dramatically given more citizens opportunities to participate 
and has given more democracy partners opportunities to engage 
citizens in becoming fully educated and informed voters.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you. I mentioned AI, and we 
know that we already have misinformation out there and how 
viral it can go. Ms. Nelson, can you speak briefly on how 
disinformation targets voters to suppress the vote, number one, 
and then how AI would make it even easier for disinformation to 
go viral.
    Ms. Nelson. Yes. Disinformation is something that is not 
new to our election system. Unfortunately, Black voters in 
particular have been targeted throughout the time they have 
enjoyed the right to vote with information that would mislead 
them as to where to cast a ballot, whether they were eligible. 
There have been many barriers based on false information, but 
with AI, we see those efforts multiplied and exacerbated in 
extremely dangerous ways.
    For example, we look at the current practice of doxxing. 
That is something that harkens back to when Black people would 
vote in the Jim Crow era, and they would have their names and 
information broadcast to the community so that they might 
suffer violent repercussions for exercising their right to 
vote.
    Similarly, today we see doxxing and people's information 
being spread, but now at warp speed across the country, into 
the dark web, and permeating some of the most dangerous spaces 
because of technology. We also see manipulated images of voters 
and communities that misrepresent what their choices are.
    It is quite dangerous, and it is hard to detect, and we 
certainly need legislation to improve that. But importantly, we 
need protections for the right to vote to enable voters to cast 
a ballot that will be counted.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Thank you. Along the same 
lines, briefly, Mr. Cramer. Senator Collins and I called on the 
EAC to take action following the fake robocalls in New 
Hampshire. It voted unanimously to allow state and local 
officials to use federal funds to combat AI-generated 
disinformation. Can you talk about efforts from local officials 
to take this on?
    Mr. Cramer. Yes. Thank you. I think the first thing is 
using that example in New Hampshire, we were next in line with 
the Republican primaries--sorry, the Democratic being the first 
in the Nation. It was a little confusing in New Hampshire 
there, but----

[[Page 19]]

    Chairwoman Klobuchar. But Mr. Kruse was ready to, you 
know--and, so go ahead.
    Mr. Cramer. But at the end of the day, the first thing as 
election officials we do is plan and getting--making sure that 
our local partners--and one thing I am very thankful for, we 
have a counter threat manager in Charleston County who is 
monitoring all the threats that are coming in across the Nation 
and using that information to then inform our decisionmaking 
process.
    You have to get everybody on board with this. One of the 
things with the elections, we rely on so many different 
processes countywide, municipality wide, statewide. There is so 
much overlap that communication is so important. When we have 
something going on at the local level, we can push that 
information to our fusion center, which then goes to the 
national level.
    When it comes to AI and funding specifically, you know, the 
counties have to have an ability to participate in the 
application of those funds if they were available, and using 
those funds proactively to mitigate any AI threats that we 
would encounter. In Charleston--I am sorry, go ahead, yes.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. No, good. Thanks. I just want a 
quick--Mr. Allen, can you talk about how, you know, we work 
hard to get some federal funding for elections, it has been 
helpful for equipment and the like. Could you, talk--address 
how the way--the ways your state has been able to put federal 
election funds to use.
    Mr. Allen. Yes, ma'am, thank you. We used HAVA funds to 
make available to all of our 67 counties, GIS software, mapping 
software, that is able to be used in all of our boards of 
registrars offices.
    When they are getting folks registered to vote and when 
they are implementing new county commission lines, school board 
district lines, congressional lines, that the voters are making 
sure that they are put in their correct voting precinct in the 
correct district.
    We have made that available, and it is being utilized right 
now, and we are happy and pleased with the implementation of 
how that is going so far.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much. I will save a 
question, my colleagues are all here, for you Mr. Kruse, on 
recruiting poll workers and the like. With that, we turn it 
over to Senator Britt.
    Senator Britt. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman. Secretary 
Allen, this Committee has heard testimony before regarding 
nationwide challenges with recruiting and retaining poll 
workers.
    I know that earlier this year, you launched the Heroes to 
the Polls initiative in Alabama to help recruit poll workers in 
our state. Can you explain more about what that initiative is 
and how it has been implemented, and how it is going at this 
point?
    Mr. Allen. Thank you, Senator. Who better than veterans to 
protect our elections? You know, they have protected our 
Constitutional right to vote with their service through the 
military. We wanted to launch this program to help recruit poll 
workers.
    I can tell you, as a former probate judge who stayed on the 
phone a lot recruiting poll workers, that is one thing we 
wanted to make available and help our local election officials 
who run our elections.

[[Page 20]]

That is really, really important that we make that available to 
them. You know, we want to give another tool to the probate 
judges, circuit clerks, and sheriffs.
    When they are appointing those election officials--and when 
I am speaking to groups, one thing I always try to encourage 
these groups to do is I ask them, I say, raise your hand if you 
have ever served as a poll worker, and sometimes you have some, 
sometimes you do not.
    I always encourage them to get involved because that is how 
they can help their local communities. With our Heroes at the 
Polls program, we think that is important. We have also 
launched, Lawyers for Liberty, which is, we work with the 
Alabama State Bar, to give attorneys and to recruit attorneys.
    If they sign up, get trained, and work on Election Day, 
they get four hours of continuing education----
    Senator Britt. Oh, that is great.
    Mr. Allen ----out of the State Bar. We want to make that 
tool available to them as well. We are taking steps to help 
these local officials to recruit poll workers.
    Senator Britt. Excellent. Thank you for your work on that. 
Additionally, as you know, federal law bans non-citizens from 
voting in federal elections. That being the case, it is 
important that states be given the tools that they need to 
ensure non-citizens are not able to register or vote in our 
elections.
    Last year, I introduced the Citizen Ballot Protection Act 
here in the Senate, and I appreciate all of my Republican 
colleagues on this Committee joining me in that effort. 
Congressman Gary Palmer of Alabama introduced the House version 
of that bill earlier last summer; and it was voted out of House 
Committee on Administration in November. I hope to see both 
chambers pass this, and it become law.
    The bill is simple. It amends the National Voter 
Registration Act to allow states to put in place a proof of 
citizenship requirement for both the federal mail voter 
registration form and any state mail voter registration form 
that they might be able to develop.
    Secretary Allen, in that vein, can you explain what 
resources Secretaries of State around the country have at their 
disposal to provide their state or local election officials the 
ability to verify citizenship when individuals attempt to 
register to vote?
    Mr. Allen. Thank you for the question. The simple answer is 
we do not have really anything at our disposal to verify 
citizenship. Really when a man or woman goes in to register to 
vote and they sign their name, they are attesting that they are 
telling the truth, that they are a citizen of the country.
    Just recently, back in December, we asked the United States 
Citizenship and Immigration Services for a list of non-citizens 
so we could cross-check our voter file in Alabama. We were 
denied that list from the Federal Government, and they told us 
to use the SAVE program, which is the Systematic Alien 
Verification Entitlement program database.
    But the thing is, the SAVE program database does not allow 
states to verify citizenship through that database. That is 
really all we have. We tried it. You know, the Federal 
Government, federal courts have blocked previous efforts by 
states to verify citizenship.

[[Page 21]]

    I think it is important now more than ever, especially 
given what is happening at our Southern border.
    Senator Britt. Do you--are there any other additional 
barriers that hinder citizenship verification that you can 
think of or--sounds like they are significant?
    Mr. Allen. There are significant challenges to verifying 
citizenship. You know, we have tried everything--making 
telephone calls and so forth----
    Senator Britt. I only have 30 seconds left, just quickly. 
You mentioned this in your opening testimony, but you talked 
about if an Alabama voter needs identification, that you will 
go to their home.
    Mr. Allen. Sure.
    Senator Britt. Free of charge. Can you explain to the 
Committee here the efforts that we make in the state to be able 
to make that available to every citizen?
    Mr. Allen. Sure. We require photo identification to vote, 
but we will give anyone that needs a photo identification to 
vote in Alabama one free of charge. We will go to their home. 
If they call and request that, we will go to their house to 
make sure they have a photo identification. We want everybody, 
every eligible Alabama citizen, to be able to vote, Senator.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. Thank you. Senator Merkley.
    Senator Merkley. Thank you very much, Madam Chairwoman. 
Secretary Benson, you had several examples in your testimony of 
the intimidation of poll workers, and one was an election 
director was threatened to be hanged for treason, and I believe 
in Rochester Hills, a voicemail saying 10 million patriots will 
surround you when you least expect it directed toward Tina 
Barton.
    Another in Detroit city, Detroit city saying you are going 
to pay dearly. This is all across the country. This is an 
example of the threats that were put forward in Oregon, being 
written on the parking lot. As you can see, it was basically 
done right after the election. Vote do not work, translated 
elections do not work, next time, bullets.
    I must say, I have been hearing from clerks all over my 
state that they are having difficulty recruiting poll workers 
due to these threats, which have basically been inspired by 
Trump's argument that the election was stolen. Is this 
happening all over the country?
    Ms. Benson. Yes. It has since the 2020 election cycle. In 
terms of the threats and the challenges--and my colleagues on 
this panel have talked about some of the solutions of anti-
doxxing legislation.
    I think Michigan has gone a long way to pass state laws to 
very clearly draw a line in the sand about what is and is not 
appropriate in terms of threats to election workers. I would 
just add one thing. I think the absence of any clarity from the 
Federal Government that this is not appropriate and that it is 
a crime to threaten an election official in their line of 
official duties is--well, I would say passing a law to clearly 
make it a crime.
    As you know, Senator Ossoff and others have proposed, would 
send a very clear message of support and protection to these 
individuals who have borne a lot of the brunt of the 
misinformation and lies and deception that has plagued our 
democracy for the last several years.

[[Page 22]]

    The other thing I will underscore is, one thing I am 
particularly proud of in Michigan, where we launched the 
democracy MVP program in 2020 to partners with Vote Our Vet--to 
recruit veterans into partners with the ABA, nationally, and in 
our state to recruit attorneys.
    What we have seen as a result also is a new generation of 
election workers step up to the plate, determined to protect 
our democracy despite the threats, yet at the same time, these 
threat are still----
    Senator Merkley. Thank you. I am going to try and get a 
couple other questions here, but that was a very comprehensive 
answer. Thank you. As Secretary Allen mentioned the importance 
of making sure that non-citizens do not vote.
    This has been a point of some discussion as to whether 
these strategies are intended to essentially intimidate people 
and whether this is addressing a real problem. Have you seen a 
significant number of non-citizens attempting to vote in your 
state?
    Ms. Benson. No.
    Senator Merkley. If I recall that Michigan did some audits 
to try to examine that. What did those audits find?
    Ms. Benson. Yes. We take the importance of ensuring every 
eligible vote is counted, and only eligible votes are counted, 
very seriously.
    We have several layers of protection where we implemented 
automatic voter registration, in particular to ensure 
documentation, and also make clear to folks that the 
consequences, legal consequences, of lying on these forms.
    But at the same time as we have done our work and done our 
investigations, we have consistently found that our voter rolls 
are clean and that non-citizens are not voting to the extent 
that some would allege.
    Senator Merkley. There is many ways to approach this that 
have worked very well. Ms. Nelson, would you affirm that that 
is the case?
    Ms. Nelson. Yes, Senator, it is correct that it is not the 
case--that there are non-citizens attempting to vote in any 
substantial or even notable number.
    Senator Merkley. Just say, I hate to see people trying to 
address a non-problem and disguise it as a problem when they 
are really trying to intimidate people from voting. Ms. Nelson, 
I wanted to turn to your testimony, and you mentioned it.
    Several things that are done to discourage people from 
voting, and I have heard about these all across the country. If 
you have a section of the state that you do not want to vote, 
like a certain city, a certain poor area, certain Native Indian 
reservation, changes in polling location, you move it, you 
consolidate it.
    You proceed to open the voting place late. You proceed to 
understaff so that there is a long line. You proceed to put the 
voting place where there is no parking, so people get very 
frustrated. You proceed to run out of ballots, which was one I 
had not heard about before, when you are talking about 
Mississippi. These strategies, how do we tackle these?
    Ms. Nelson. Well, the way we are tackling them is we have 
25 poll monitors on the ground right now in Mississippi 
addressing

[[Page 23]]

those very issues that you just laid out. I have a real-time 
email from my team telling me that that is what they are 
seeing.
    There are also signage issues. There are many potential 
barriers that are not easily detectable until you are in the 
middle of an election, and voters are being disenfranchised, 
where there is a clear targeting and a clear disregard for 
certain communities when they are attempting to cast a ballot.
    What we need is, in addition to our election protection 
efforts, we need strong legislation that will prevent some of 
these changes from happening without there being some 
preclearance, some authority that says it is okay for you to do 
this, it will not disproportionately harm certain voters.
    Senator Merkley. Yes. I really want to just emphasize that 
in closing, because these things sound like legitimate 
operations moving to low polling location and so forth, but 
they can be used in extremely prejudicial manner. Thank you.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Very good. Senator Hagerty, and then 
Senator Padilla.
    Senator Hagerty. Thank you. I want to thank all of you for 
being here today. Your work overseeing our elections is 
extremely important. The founders tasked the states with 
conducting elections to help ensure the integrity of and the 
confidence in our election system. I want you all know I 
appreciate your service.
    Secretary Allen, I am going to direct all of my questions 
to you, however, because we have a limited amount of time. I am 
going to ask you to keep your answers brief, yes or no, if 
appropriate, sort of answers.
    Let us get started. Are you familiar with President Biden's 
Executive Order 14019, which directs Federal Government 
agencies to engage in voter mobilization, including helping 
with completing vote by mail materials and finding third party 
organizations to help provide voter services on federal 
property?
    Mr. Allen. Yes, sir.
    Senator Hagerty. Secretary Allen, are you aware of any 
authority in federal law that permits the Executive Branch 
agencies to engage in this sort of voter mobilization activity?
    Mr. Allen. I am not.
    Senator Hagerty. Nor am I. In fact, it seems like this 
activity actually may very well violate the Hatch Act. It may 
violate the Anti Deficiency Act, which prohibits spending funds 
in a manner that is not authorized by Congress. Secretary 
Allen, does it seem problematic to you for taxpayer funded 
federal agencies to ``assist applicants in completing vote by 
mail ballot forms'' and bringing outside organizations to help 
do that?
    Mr. Allen. Yes, sir. It is problematic.
    Senator Hagerty. This Biden Executive Order says that any 
outside organizations brought in to help with voter 
mobilization must be ``nonpartisan.'' Let us take a look at who 
is helping the Biden Administration with this order.
    Last year, an agency within the Department of Health and 
Human Services acknowledged that it was working with groups 
like the ACLU and Demos to implement this voting executive 
order, the latter of which describes its mission as, 
``pioneering bold, progressive ideas.''

[[Page 24]]

    A FOIA request also revealed that Demos is working with the 
Department of Agriculture on this matter. Secretary Allen, do 
the ACLU and Demos sound like nonpartizan groups to you?
    Mr. Allen. No, sir.
    Senator Hagerty. They obviously are not nonpartisan. Their 
priorities are openly partisan. Secretary Allen, Biden agencies 
are using openly left-wing groups to conduct get out the vote 
activity. It sounds like the Federal Government is being used 
as an arm of the Biden campaign, doesn't it?
    Mr. Allen. Yes, sir.
    Senator Hagerty. This is like a Republican Administration 
hiring the Heritage Foundation to engage in, ``nonpartisan 
voter mobilization activities.'' A couple of weeks ago, Vice 
President Harris announced that the Biden Administration is 
paying college students to reach out to voters and serve as, 
``nonpartisan poll workers.''
    Then the Vice President provided an example of the 
nonpartisan poll workers that she was talking about, that the 
person that she gave as an example previously worked for the 
ACLU and the Alliance for Justice, which is a partisan group. 
Secretary Allen, does this inspire confidence that the Biden 
Administration's voter activity is nonpartisan?
    Mr. Allen. It does not sound like it, sir.
    Senator Hagerty. No, it does not. One way the Biden 
Administration could alleviate some of this concern concerns by 
revealing what they are using these taxpayer dollars to do. 
Under Executive Order 14019, the Biden Administration required 
each federal agency to come up with a plan for driving voter 
mobilization and submit that plan to the White House.
    Yet the Biden Administration refuses to disclose these 
plans, and that is despite Congressional inquiries. That is 
despite FOIA requests to do so. Coming back to your experience 
here, Secretary Allen, is it normal for a President, or even a 
Governor for that matter, to require government agencies to 
engage in voter mobilization and develop secret plans for doing 
that, and keep that all secret from the public?
    Mr. Allen. I do not think that is normal.
    Senator Hagerty. I certainly do not either. I think it is 
understandable that many Americans are concerned about these 
secret, taxpayer funded voter mobilization plans, and the Biden 
Administration needs to release these plans. Thank you. I yield 
back my time.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Senator Padilla.
    Senator Padilla. Thank you, Madam Chair. Before I get to my 
questions, let me just share with my colleagues in the 
Committee and the witnesses in front of us just one of many 
examples.
    The exchange I just witnessed fails to point to any 
partisan language in the directives that were referenced. If 
anything, I will call your attention to the National Voter 
Registration Act, which was passed on an overwhelming 
bipartisan basis in 1993.
    Before we get to the substance of the Act, just find under 
section two, findings and purposes, findings to Congress, 
again, on a bipartisan basis, finds that one, the right of 
citizens of the United States to vote is a fundamental right. 
Number two, it is the duty of the

[[Page 25]]

federal, state, and local governments to promote the exercise 
of that right.
    It goes on from there. For anybody looking for where in 
statute we might find the opening for the Federal Government, 
not in a partisan basis, on a nonpartisan basis, to encourage, 
actually accept a role and responsibility in encouraging 
citizens of the United States to exercise their fundamental 
right to vote, here is one example. Moving on.
    I know we can or should have longer term conversations 
about modernizing elections and what you all need to continue 
to protect the integrity of the bedrock of our democracy. I 
know that threats to election workers and poll workers has 
already been covered in this hearing.
    But recognizing that--we are well deep into the primary 
season of 2024, November is on the horizon, let us talk about 
some practical here and now things that can and should be done. 
Just two examples from my home state.
    At the county level, Santa Clara County, one the larger 
counties in my state, hosted an annual media--every election 
has a media day to help inform voters--but excuse me, the press 
and by extension the public of the voting process. The more 
understanding there is, the more we can follow the news and 
maintain faith and confidence in the process.
    Post-primary, they are not doing the vote counting because 
it takes a while in California because of the high levels of 
participation. Statewide, California has implemented a ballot 
tracking system where people can sign up to receive text 
messages, email messages in multiple languages, by the way, on 
the status of their ballot on the way to the voter, on the way 
back to the county, when this is processed, when it is being 
counted.
    Questions for Mr. Cramer, what systems are in place for 
state and local officials to learn what either federal 
resources or university resources are available to them, and 
maybe even a sharing of information system to share these best 
practices?
    Mr. Cramer. Thank you for the question, Senator. The great 
honor we have in Charleston County is election sharing with our 
state partners. We hold a state conference every year.
    But one thing I am proud of is we are launching the Voter 
Ambassador Program in Charleston County, and we are the trusted 
election information source. We are going to empower other 
organizations within Charleston County to be our Ambassadors 
under strict guidelines, but it helps give that official 
information.
    When we do a program like that, we have to be able to share 
that with other counties and states. The EAC has a great 
clearinghouse program that we are now being able to tap into, 
and that is a resource sharing where we can ask questions, what 
are you doing to be effective in election administration? It is 
a tool that I actually applaud the EAC for introducing, and it 
helps election officials.
    Senator Padilla. Wonderful. Thank you. Now, on a very 
specific topic, recently the Department of Education clarified 
rules around the federal work study program, making it clear 
that, yes, it is legal for students on work study jobs to work 
in election offices.
    I actually encouraged the department to make this 
clarification last October, because somehow it is a question in 
the minds of

[[Page 26]]

some, and I am glad it happened. I think it is a terrific way 
to bring dedicated younger Americans into elections offices, to 
see their democracy up close and personal, and imagine being 
inspired to pursue a career in that area.
    But in the short term, possibly help alleviate some 
staffing concerns. Question for Mr. Cramer, you have previously 
had high school and college age poll workers and election 
workers, correct? How did they perform?
    Mr. Cramer. They are amazing. They bring a fresh breath of 
air to the polling places. Our lead poll workers love when they 
see high school students and college students participating.
    One of the things we see is then they continue serving 
after they have done it once. That is the remarkable thing 
about bringing young kids into the process. Then in South 
Carolina, you can serve as young as 16.
    They get really conflict resolution. They are able to do 
team building. This is a really great resume builder. I look 
forward to actually working with the College of Charleston. We 
have the EAC grant money that we are going to introduce some 
programing through that, so we are excited.
    Senator Padilla. Secretary Benson, is this something you 
can adopt or expand on in Michigan?
    Ms. Benson. Well, Senator Padilla, you know, we are already 
doing this in Michigan.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Padilla. Softball. It is called a softball.
    Ms. Benson. But, yes, I mean, I am grateful for my 
colleague in South Carolina, for his leadership. But truly 
partnerships and Make Democracy Work, and it is a team sport. 
We welcome, you know, people of all backgrounds, left, right, 
and middle serving as election workers. It is a great way to 
see just how secure our system is.
    Senator Padilla. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you very much. Senator Ossoff, 
and then the ever patient Senator Butler. Senator Ossoff.
    Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Senator 
Butler. Thank you to the panel. Secretary Benson, the former 
President called Georgia Secretary of State, and this is in the 
immediate aftermath of the 2020 election and said, ``so, look, 
all they want to do is this, I just want to find 11,780 votes, 
which is one more than we have.'' You ever gotten a call from a 
Presidential candidate asking you to find precisely the number 
of votes they need to win the election?
    Ms. Benson. No, I have never gotten a call from any 
candidate for any race asking for such a--making such an 
inappropriate request of an election official.
    Senator Ossoff. How about you, Secretary Allen. Have you 
ever gotten a call from a candidate asking you to find 
precisely the number of votes they need to win?
    Mr. Allen. I have not received a telephone call.
    Senator Ossoff. Does it strike you as proper?
    Mr. Allen. Excuse me?
    Senator Ossoff. Does it strike you as proper?

[[Page 27]]

    Mr. Allen. No. Listen, it--I can only take care of what we 
have in Alabama.
    Senator Ossoff. The question is, does it strike you as 
proper for the President of the United States to call a State 
Secretary of State and ask them to find the exact number of 
votes they need to win the state?
    Mr. Allen. I do not know exactly what he meant by finding 
those votes, but I was not Secretary at the time----
    Senator Ossoff. Secretary Allen, does it strike you as 
proper for the President of the United States to call a State 
Secretary of State and ask them to find precisely the number of 
votes they need to win, yes or no?
    Mr. Allen. I can tell you that as Secretary in Alabama, I 
am going to follow the law that Alabama Legislatures laid out 
for me to follow when administering the elections.
    Senator Ossoff. Your fear answering that question does not 
inspire confidence. Let me ask you, Secretary Benson, about the 
intimidation of election workers. You had noted legislation 
that I am introducing this week, the Election Worker and 
Polling Place Protection Act.
    It would create criminal penalties for threats of violence 
to intimidate voters or election officials. Appreciate you 
expressing support for the legislation. What effects do threats 
on election workers and efforts to intimidate election workers 
have on election administration?
    Ms. Benson. I mean, not only does it cause us to fear going 
to work and feel even though we do important work and do it 
with pride, that somehow there are people who wish to harm us, 
our staff, or our families for simply doing our patriotic duty. 
But in addition to that, it makes it a lot harder for us to do 
that duty.
    It makes it--it takes us away from the actual work of 
administering elections every time we need to issue protections 
or think about our own safety. I think, and I could say, 
speaking with our election workers, having a very clear 
statement in the law that it is not okay, that it is a crime to 
threaten us in our workplace for simply just doing the job of 
making elections work for everyone.
    It is long overdue to see that federal legislation passed, 
and I can say with experience of passing similar legislation in 
Michigan, it goes a long way to send a message that type of 
behavior is not approved or appropriate in our state.
    Senator Ossoff. Mr. Cramer, what do you think? What is the 
impact on election administration when there are threats and 
intimidation of election workers, which as we saw in 2020, or 
we saw in Georgia--in fact, I would note, Madam Chair, the 
Republican election officials in Georgia were begging, begging 
in public that the former President cease spreading baseless 
conspiracy theories about the theft of the election in Georgia 
because it put lives at risk. What is the impact, Mr. Cramer, 
on the capacity of election workers to do their jobs when they 
face those kinds of threats and when those threats are based 
upon baseless conspiracies about election fraud?
    Mr. Cramer. It is keeping the good people still running 
elections for this country. In South Carolina, we are losing a 
wealth of knowledge, hardworking, professional men and women 
who serve

[[Page 28]]

this country by performing this duty. They are leaving. That 
wealth of knowledge leaving is a bad thing for the United 
States.
    These are people who swear to uphold the Constitution of 
the state and of the United States. No, it is a bad thing, and 
it is one thing that I actually, when asked, what keeps me up 
at night, it is this protection of these workers. When they 
wake up in the morning and they get a threat to their safety, 
that concerns me. It should concern everyone.
    Senator Ossoff. Thank you, Mr. Cramer. Ms. Nelson, in 
Georgia in the aftermath of a 2020 election--by the way, I want 
to note there is a lengthy Op-Ed that was written by a guy 
named Ken Block.
    He was hired by the Trump campaign to find fraud in 
Georgia. Found none and wrote a lengthy editorial about how he 
found none and the impact of these conspiracy theories. 
Nevertheless, on the basis of those conspiracy theories, the 
Georgia State Legislature passed a law that, for example, cuts 
the available time for runoff elections in half, driving up 
wait times in runoff elections. What is the impact of that kind 
of policy on ensuring access to the ballot for all eligible 
voters?
    Ms. Nelson. Well, Georgia passed a very harmful omnibus 
voter suppression law. What it does is exacerbates the issues 
that Black voters in particular face, like long lines.
    We know that Georgia has a very, very, horrible reputation 
for disproportionate lines that Black voters face. We know that 
part of their law attempted to actually prevent people from 
providing basic sustenance to those people who have to wait in 
disproportionately long lines, like water and snacks.
    We were fortunate enough to be able to beat back part of 
that law and some of the other aspects of that law that would 
have disenfranchised many Black voters. But good portions of 
that law still exist. We know that we have to redouble our 
efforts in order to have a fair shot at casting a ballot in the 
upcoming elections.
    Senator Ossoff. I believe the research is six times longer 
waiting in line for Black voters in Georgia. Thank you, Ms. 
Nelson. Thank you all for your testimony.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Thank you, Senator Ossoff. Senator 
Butler.
    Senator Butler. The gift of being number 100. Thank you----
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. I remember that time you went first 
on this Committee.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Butler. I totally did. That is why I say it works 
in all kinds of ways, and particularly depending on your Chair. 
Definitely appreciate you all for your testimony and for being 
here. Ms. Nelson, if you would not mind, would love to start 
with you. You have submitted in your written testimony the 
challenges that the LDF, sort of at worst facing and working 
with--in Hinds County, Mississippi--Jackson.
    In particular, I think there was some specific data that 
you shared in that written testimony saying that Hinds County 
is approximately 70 percent Black, experienced extensive ballot 
shortages during the 2023 Mississippi statewide election.

[[Page 29]]

    Now, this was one of the first times, in my recent memory 
as a Mississippian that there was a competitive Governor's 
race. There was not an opportunity for Mississippi to elect 
their first Democratic Governor in, again, very long time. But 
you at your written testimony also noted that there were up to 
nine polling locations in Hinds County that ran out of ballots 
multiple times during Election Day.
    Some of them before 12:00 noon. Now, I know that LDF was a 
part of some investigative work and steps to help to find out 
in Hinds County what went wrong in efforts to offer that--those 
learnings to other advocacy organizations across the state, and 
across the country and those who are doing that work.
    Can you just share with the Committee, quickly, what you 
learned from the investigation of what--your investigation of 
what happened in Hinds County?
    Ms. Nelson. Sure. Some of it is still ongoing. In fact, you 
know, I mentioned the elections in Mississippi today.
    Unfortunately, we did not get an answer before today's 
election as to whether there was any threat of ballots running 
out, again, based on what we learned in the previous election. 
We are still investigating that.
    That is why we have people on the ground, and that is why 
we are documenting in a new report, Democracy Defended, all of 
the different incursions on the right to vote that we are 
finding, so that there is a record that can support the federal 
legislation that we are here to demand Congress pass.
    The suggestion that there are no modern conditions that 
should give rise to federal intervention is just patently 
false. The work that we do, along with our civil rights 
colleagues, every election on the ground, establishes that 
record to support federal legislation like the Freedom to Vote 
Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
    Senator Butler. Thank you, Ms. Nelson. Mr. Allen, I 
actually had the pleasure of being down in Alabama just a week 
ago.
    Being on the campus of Alabama State University, as a 
Member of this body conducting a field hearing in Alabama, 
talking to Alabama voters about just that point, the modern 
discrimination that Alabamians are experiencing and that we are 
seeing happen across the country, I would like to actually 
instead of landing there--you said something in your testimony 
just a few minutes ago in response to an earlier question and I 
would love to just press on just a little bit to understand 
more.
    You made mention of some HAVA funds, you said that your 
office uses to get mapping software for counties and 
municipalities. Am I just--am I capturing that accurately?
    Mr. Allen. It is for the county boards of registrars.
    Senator Butler. That is really helpful because I noted that 
just earlier this month, there is 6,000 voters in Alabama's 
newly drawn second congressional district that received 
election postcards listing incorrect voter information.
    I appreciate that your office has said before that you were 
not involved in sending out those postcards. Can you talk a 
little bit about the intersection between the challenges of 
Alabama voters not getting the correct information, the tools 
that you say that your

[[Page 30]]

office helps to provide and facilitate for county elections, 
and why you think that your office had nothing to do with 
voters in Alabama getting the incorrect information for their 
polling location?
    Mr. Allen. Sure. It is up to the boards of registrars in 
every county to make sure that the voters are placed in the 
correct district. It is not the Secretary's role or the 
Secretary's Office's role to conduct any of the voter 
assignments. That is solely left up to the county.
    All the Southern Poverty Law Center had to do was to place 
a phone call to us and we could have made sure we got on the 
telephone with the county in question to make sure we got it 
right.
    But instead, what they chose to do was to send out a press 
release that Monday afternoon before the primary, which 
caused--introduced confusion and introduced chaos right before 
the primary election.
    You know, it was something that was not appreciated by my 
office. You know, open communication would have been, I think 
would have been best for the day to do that, but it was on 
Montgomery County and those boards of registrars to make sure 
they had those voters in the correct district and make sure 
that everyone was in the correct precinct.
    Everyone that voted on Election Day got the correct ballot. 
I want everybody to understand that they got the correct ballot 
to vote in Congressional District 2.
    Senator Butler. Thank you, Secretary Allen. I find it 
interesting, and I will--I know there is another Senator 
waiting. I find it interesting that the response goes to what 
an advocacy group was doing or not doing in Alabama, in SB1.
    Those very same advocacy groups are prohibited from 
actually helping people get the information that they need. I 
find that an interesting contradiction, but thank you. I yield 
my time, Chairwoman.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Okay. Senator Bennet.
    Senator Bennet. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you for 
holding this hearing. To all of you, thank you for your 
willingness to be here today to testify. Secretary Benson, I 
had a couple questions for you, if that is okay.
    We heard yesterday on the Intelligence Committee from 
leaders of the intelligence community the not very surprising 
news about the continuing threat that social media platforms 
pose to our democracy.
    Every single one of these platforms, I think, virtually has 
been used to spread election related disinformation, not just 
here, but all around the world, sometimes to a violent and 
deadly effect. In the lead up to the 2022 elections, online 
mentions of voter fraud just absolutely skyrocketed.
    In 2020, we saw our fellow citizens storming the Capitol, 
which is well known, to save an election that had not been 
stolen. Their rage amplified by relentless algorithms that were 
engineered really for profit to sell advertising not for the 
sake of our democracy.
    Certainly in 2016, it is well-established, this is not a 
political view that, Vladimir Putin interfered with our 
election, as he has repeatedly with elections in other 
countries around the world, here playing both sides of every 
single issue with 10 million tweets.

[[Page 31]]

    No, that is not an exaggeration, to quote Joe Biden, that 
is the reality of what was happening there. I think, you know, 
there is a lot going on, as the Chair knows, today on TikTok 
and in the Capitol.
    I do not want to get distracted by that today, except to 
say probably good things are not going to happen if one of the 
sources of major information in terms of our electoral process 
is coming from a platform that is controlled by the Chinese 
Communist Party. One can imagine that that is going to end in a 
bad way for the United States.
    I think it would be really self-defeating of us to assume 
that happened in 2022, and in 2020, and in 2016, is not going 
to happen again this year. You have stated that misinformation 
is the top concern in 2024, even more than in 2020.
    Could you talk a little bit about what national standards 
you think we ought to be able to put in place to help safeguard 
our elections from online information campaigns?
    Ms. Benson. Thank you, Senator. Yes, we have been working 
in Michigan to emphasize that there is a greater incentive than 
ever before for foreign actors to interfere with our elections.
    The mechanism through which they will interfere is to try 
and to deceive our voters. Particularly with this being a first 
election in which artificial intelligence is on the rise as an 
evolving threat, we believe that will be one of the more likely 
tactics that they will utilize, particularly through social 
media and elsewhere.
    I do think, first and foremost, for the Senate to pass 
Senator Klobuchar's bill against deceptive practices with AI 
will be key to helping every state be prepared. We have state 
legislation.
    We are one of six states that have passed state legislation 
to that effect. But secondly, I would argue that as I often 
say, democracy is a team sport. These statements saying what is 
okay and what is not, what is illegal and what is not with 
regards to deception and elections is one piece, but it is not 
the whole piece of the puzzle.
    We also have to equip trusted voices, faith leaders, 
business leaders, community leaders, labor leaders, and many 
others, which we are doing in our state, and I think we need to 
do nationwide.
    I think every Senator could be a convener of these trusted 
voices to equip them with truthful information about our 
elections, help us to get that out ahead of the misinformation 
hitting our states, and that will help us to ensure voters do 
not get fooled because they have already been educated ahead of 
time about the truth in our elections and where to get trusted 
information if they need more.
    Senator Bennet. I have got one minute left. Can I ask one 
more question quickly, Madam Chair? Is that all right? Thank 
you.
    Next week, as you know, the Supreme Court is going to hear 
the case of Murthy vs. Missouri, which addresses a district 
court decision preventing the Federal Government from 
communicating with social media companies about the content on 
their sites. This decision, the lower court decision has had a 
disastrous effect on our ability to combat foreign influence 
operations and protect the integrity of our elections.

[[Page 32]]

    It affects the government's ability to coordinate with the 
platforms, you know, on public health information that 
threatens to undermine the efforts undertaken across multiple 
Presidential Administrations to hold the platforms accountable 
for their own--you know, to have their own sets of policies.
    The Washington Post has reported that the Federal 
Government has basically stopped warning some platforms about 
foreign disinformation campaigns altogether. As a result of 
that, legal experts have called the injunction strikingly 
broad.
    They have pointed to flaws in its logic, its confuse legal 
arguments, and the alarming conclusions it draws about the 
Federal Government's role. But I just wonder how you are 
navigating these challenges, in this changing legal environment 
when it comes to communicating with platforms and the, you 
know, the clear and present danger to Michigan's elections.
    Ms. Benson. It is difficult. Certainly, the court ruling 
makes it a lot more challenging to collaborate, with social 
media companies that have an important role to play in 
protecting their users from deceptive tactics and 
misinformation.
    We will be eagerly awaiting the outcome of that particular 
case. But in the interim, working with citizens to help them 
become critical consumers of the information they do receive, 
helping them understand the way in which the misinformation 
causes chaos, and confusion, and disruption to our elections 
has been our focus, so that we can empower the citizens in our 
state to spot the deepfakes, to spot people trying to fool 
them, to spot the bad information on social media, and not only 
not send it or forward it, but instead respond with truthful 
information to help us counter that in every way in our state.
    Senator Bennet. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank 
you again to everybody on the panel.
    Chairwoman Klobuchar. Well, thank you very much. Thank you 
all our witnesses for a very good hearing. I am grateful to the 
election officials here today and for your work to ensure our 
elections are administered securely and safely.
    I also want to thank Ms. Nelson for her continued work to 
ensure equal access on the ballot, and I look forward to 
continuing our work on this Committee to support election 
officials and protect our free and fair elections.
    The hearing record will remain open for one week. With 
that, we are adjourned. Thank you.
    [Whereupon, at 4:47 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]


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