E ladies and gentlemen we can start grabbing seats come to order please ladies and gentlemen welcome to this fantastic event sponsored by the American Bar Association you’re going to hear all about the mission of the group that has brought this to you I’ll be
Back up here in a few minutes to say a little bit about that but my first task is to thank you for being here and to introduce the president of the American Bar Association Mary [Applause] Smith well hello everyone thanks so much to everyone for being here today um this
Is really uh I think an important uh and critical occasion and thank you all for being here um as as he said I’m Mary Smith I’m president of the American Bar Association and when I was uh starting my presidency I thought what can I do during my term as president that needs
To be done and that’s impactful to be done and frankly there was no question it was the issue of our democracy because we’re seeing that our democracy is at risk and some of the statistics are very sobering less than onethird of Millennials think it’s essential to live in a democracy
51% over half think that democracy is not working on the world justic Project’s democracy index out of all countries the US is 26th um these facts are sobering and I think as lawyers we all when we become lawyers we take an oath to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law and I
Know for myself that stays with me every single day that I’m a lawyer and I’m so pleased that working um with everyone that uh judge ludig and secretary Johnson agreed to co-chair um the task force the ABA task force for American democracy so they are looking at at uh
Establishing trust in our institutions de politicizing elections emphasizing Civics and thinking about ways we can improve our system to ensure an enduring democracy in our country we’re doing these sessions uh listing sessions around the country we did the first one in Georgia about a month ago this is only the
Second one and we’re so pleased to be here in Michigan and I want to thank uh Dan quick and Dennis Archer for being the co-chairs of this event we are thrilled uh that that you all have gathered here today so thank you so much oh everyone for coming and I do want to
Say one other thing that we’re doing is um I think sometimes you think democracy is about doing sweeping bold motions and perhaps sometimes it is but more likely it’s the things that everyday people do every day think of the poll workers who work the elections think of lawyers who
Are just representing their clients so one of the things we’re going to be awarding at the ABA annual meeting in those August are some awards for the unsung heroes of democracy and we would love for you to think of some people here in Detroit or throughout Michigan
Who might be deserving of that you can nominate them through May 15 at .org democracy awward so with that thank you so much and uh we will proceed with our [Applause] program good afternoon I’m Jim towns and I’m the director of the Carl 11 Center for oversight and democracy here at
Wayne State University law school I am not Dean Rick Beach dean of Wayne State University law school unfortunately Rick has come down ill he has a very very bad cold and he sends his regrets he is not able to be with us today so he asked me
To um share with you the words he was going to U provide and welcome so this is Rick talking he’s going to say a couple nice things about the 11 Center so that’s Rick talking that’s not me that’s Rick talking on behalf of the faculty staff
And students I want to welcome you to this Gathering of community leaders in Michigan to discuss how we can ensure that our elections this year and in the future are trusted and that michiganders learn Civics and practice civility we are proud to make our home at a university that holds the highest
Classifications for both research and Community engagement scholarship and service go together at Wayne State where we work to understand the world and our neighborhood while offering a beacon of economic Mobility to the community and state we serve we are honored to host this conversation in a place where we
Train future lawyers to understand the law and their responsibilities as officers of the court to uphold the law but we strive to do more than convey the importance of the rule of law because we know that rules without a vibrant democracy lack legitimacy democracy itself depends not
Just on free and fair elections as important as they are but also effective governance that serves the people justly and equitably to that end N9 years ago we launched the Carl L Center for oversight and democracy not just to honor Michigan’s longest serving US senator who we were proud to welcome as
A colleague but to preserve and expand his legacy of ensuring that our government keeps its promises headquartered here at the law school with staff in Washington and in New York the 11 Center has has become a national leader in training lawmakers in how to mount effective investigations that expose abuses and and ensure
Effective governments the L Center is also setting a national example with education programs that enable the public to demand a more trustworthy government and give students from high school to law school the skills and knowledge to rebuild our democracy I especially want to thank mayor Dennis Archer who has a who who
Was a founding board member of our l senat Advisory board for his leadership in recommending that this critical conversation be held here in Detroit and at Wayne law we would not be having this conversation here today but for Dennis’s Vision with that let me thank you for
Coming today and let me turn things over to Mayor Dennis Archer thank you Dean very much much for those nice remarks I want to thank all of you for coming I will tell you having been a former president of the American Bar Association we could not be more blessed
We are today than to have Mary Smith as our ABA president looking for something to do to give back to our community in which we live could not have have been better and I cannot imagine how she came to rest in thinking about who could I ask to
Participate she chose 30 outstanding men and women in law outside of law and the like to answer and to give suggestions for the needed issue of democracy it is so important today and I could not think of two better outstanding people than she chose to ask to be co-chairs of this important
National work and so judge lck and to Dean J Johnson Dean Secretary of Homeland and security you two set an outstanding example and the men and women that you work with you all collegially really work at it to make something awfully different and so when we found that we
Were going to be fortunate enough in Detroit to host this session I reached out and asked a number of outstanding men and women who helped this entire state be who we are that will cause thousands of people to come to the city of Detroit in about a month or so
For the NFL draft you’re welcome to come back if you like you’ll enjoy it and um they’ve done a great job the city is on course it’s vibrant and those of you sitting in this audience and who are participating thank you so much you bring wisdom and
The L and we expect that you’ll have an opportunity beyond the outstanding speakers that we have and panel members to share your thoughts at the breakout sessions with that let me introduce to you one of the best persons that you could ever ask to help put something like this
On because you need to involve the entire legal profession and so I couldn’t think of a better person than Daniel quick who is a State Bar president and a law [Applause] partner ladies and gentlemen I appear here before you today with tremendous pride pride to be a co-host of this
Event proud to be the president of the 46,000 attorneys making up the State Bar of Michigan because it is after all attorneys who uniquely take an oath to our Constitution and who pledge to improve our judicial system and our system of justice and that’s partially what we’re doing here today I’m proud of
You for your passion about these issues for your desire to spend time being here with us today your involvment this is after all a listening tour and we will be listening to you in the breakout sessions that follow our panel so we don’t have Q&A but we ask you to hold
Those thoughts hold that discussion and give it vibrantly yet of course professionally and fairly in those breakout sessions and I am proud to introduce judge Michael Luda the judge ordered me even though he no longer has such powers to use no more than two sentences for
His introduction I’ve got it down to one albe it with a few commas the judge clerked for judge Scalia he was appointed by President Bush he was a 15-year court of appeals judge and he is now continuing to live his Oath by working to defend democracy judge Michael [Applause] Ludy all rise
No Elizabeth Yang just whispered in my ear you may have seen her she said you come here and I said I’m not going there and she said you are so uh as Dan said I I no longer have any power no one cares
What I say uh but I do have um the uh uh the most privileged uh position today uh I’ve been tasked by Mary and in the task force uh with the highest privilege only of welcoming all of you and thanking you for being here today
It’s uh uh but that in itself is a high honor for me the uh thank you Michigan thank you Detroit thank you Wayne State University thank you the Carl Levan Center and thank you uh all who are here as members of the bar and and the
Community uh as uh as Dan said and and as the mayor said and by the way thank you both especially uh for hosting us today uh as both of them said uh all the credit here goes to Aba president Mary Smith uh Mary will uh take her
Place uh in the pantheon of of ABA presidents soon when she completes her term for she will have undertaken successfully uh the greatest mission in the history of the American Bar Association uh the effort to save America’s democracy which is in grave Peril a word about the task force
Uh the task force that Mary and the ABA have assembled is literally the most impressive assemblage of of individuals uh committed to America to America’s democracy and to the rule of law that has ever been assembled for the past three or four years these task members task force
Members they have been carrying the water for America’s democracy we at the ABA task force we were just privileged to be able to uh attach ourselves to their Rising stars and collectively take my word for it the task force members under the leadership of ABA president Mary Smith they will get this job
Done lawyers lawyers the organized bar two million strong they are uniquely qualified and uniquely obligated uniquely obligated for the task that lies ahead of us lawyers take an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the rule of law they’re also uniquely qualified in position
To support and defend America’s democracy never in in the history of our nation for the past almost 250 years has our democracy been threatened at all let alone in the way that it’s being threatened today consequently it’s really never occurred to anyone in America let alone the organized bar that we would
Ever be called upon to support and defend the Constitution of the United States but we have been called now and if we don’t answer that call then all of our training and all of our responsibilities all of which we take an oath to perform will have been for
Not now that’s not what’s going to happen as evidenced by all of you here today and all of the lawyers Across the Nation and the communities of non- lawyers Across the Nation who are standing up today for the first time in America history and they’re attesting to what
They believe and what they do not believe and they are attesting to their belief in America America’s democracy her Constitution and the rule of law it’s an honor for us to welcome all of you here uh it’s a privilege for all of us to be here at Wayne State University in the
Carl 11 Center thank you all for coming I’m going to turn it over to others who actually know what they’re doing thank you so much I almost forgot I had one other assignment uh that too was a privilege uh and that assignment is to introduce Miss Joselyn Benson who’s going to join
Us now thank you secretary appreciate it uh thank you all you want me up there Okie do I’ll head up there wonderful to see you all Anthony David Becker wonderful uh Chris Thomas our great deputy secretary of State Agogo ad devier he went to a different law school
We won’t hold it against him uh I want to thank you all for being a part of today uh thank you mayor Archer for uh co-chairing uh this important Gathering uh I really appreciate you uh Mary it’s wonderful to see where’s Mary there you are Mary wonderful to see you here uh as
Well uh and I’m really pleased that we’re joined by not one but two of our great County clerks and Lisa postumus Lions as well as Justin robu good to see you both uh and I know you’ll be hearing from them later uh but you’ve got no shortage of really great conversations to have
Today uh I also want to recognize uh I mean you you know it’s great to be home I’ll just say that it’s great to be here uh hi to all my former former colleagues and great to see Jim Townson shepherding the leev center under such great
Leadership as we try to honor and and preserve his legacy uh and I also want to recognize uh my chief legal counsel Mike Brady uh who uh was a student of mine here 20 years ago or so 15 10 uh I don’t mean to to Aid you but uh but uh
You know there’s a great community that comes out of Wayne State that continues to lead in our state and Mike has been a trusted voice and councel for me since day one of my Administration uh and so great to have um Mike have you back here
As well as well as Jonathan Brer our director of Elections uh also went to a different Law School that’s okay you’re doing great work so we accept that that you you weren’t uh that you’re an honorary Warrior and um honored to just pay a few words offer a few words today
Uh about this moment that we’re in and to pick up where judge leig left off and talk specifically about what the N next eight months look look like not just here in Michigan not just for me as the chief election officer but also for our nation and for our democracy uh because
We are at a precipice we are at a historic moment in the history of our democracy it’s not lost on any of us I know that’s why you’re here uh and I’m thankful for the ABA for being here today uh to uh recognize uh Michigan’s
Role as well as uh all of the experts here uh in being here to similarly underscore uh our preparation and our commitment to meeting this moment with fair and transparent and professionally run elections all across the state and you will hear again from two of our most professional election administrators as
Well as our uh former director of Elections who continues to be active in in helping our work uh to underscore that point uh but that said uh it shouldn’t be lost on any of us that every single one of us have a role to play In This Moment In ensuring that the
Basic principles that our country was founded on that our state reflects and seeks to emulate of equality of justice of uh promise of one person one vote that that’s a reality for every citizen in our state and our country and that only can we administer Fair secure free
And safe elections but that also we ensure the citizens of our state know they can have rightly placed faith in our processes uh and in the results of our election now uh here in Michigan uh we have undergone a great transformation over the last several years in our
Democracy and the infrastructure of our elections has in my view never been stronger and that’s because we have great Clerks that’s because we have great leadership have great faith leaders who are also here today uh who you’ll also hear from uh but we also have citizens who are engaged and who
Have demanded a better democracy and have succeeded in seeking that better democracy you all know in 2018 our citizens amended our state constitution to implement among other things election day registration automatic voter registration no reason absentee voting enabling any citizen to vote from home and then in 2022 they follow that up
With adding early voting nine days of early voting to our system here in Michigan which were really just the precipice of seeing how successful and how how much of an opportunity that can be for our citizens to have not just an election day where they can personally
Cast a ballot and see it run through the machine but a series of election days two Sundays two Saturdays and a week in between where you can go to an election uh voting Center an early voting Center in your community and participate and we’ve got lots of plans including with
Pastor stepen fland and Reverend Anthony that we cooking up to make sure citizens know the power of having that access point but it it is really inspirational to me that the reason we have early voting is because citizens demanded it and enacted it and it’s our honor as
Lawmakers as clerks as uh as the chief election administrator of the state to implement that will and make it real for every citizen so our path as well this year is really goes along three pillars and it always has one is building the system building the infrastructure implementing early voting getting our
Clerks the funding they need and would love your help in pushing our federal government to support that funding to make sure they can essentially cover the costs of meeting this constitutional mandate hiring the additional people renting the additional sites for a full nine days at least they can go beyond
That but certainly nine days uh leading up to election day uh among among other things we also have a more robust absentee voting system or vote from home system than we did in 2020 due to this Constitutional Amendment uh because of two additions to that infrastructure one
We now pay for the postage of every piece of election mail including those ballots that get sent back if they choose to use the mail as well as the ballots that get sent to and the request forms that can be sent through the mail everything is covered through prepaid
Postage that our office manages and and in partnership with the clerks and in addition to that there is now a guaranteed Dropbox a secure monitor drop box one for every 15,000 citizens in our state you’re going to see in every Statewide election these drop boxes in place they are monitored they are secure
And they are repositories for citizens to return their ballots up till 8:00 pm on Election Day so our way of voting from home is more accessible than ever before going into this election cycle our way of voting early is is a is an addition that uh that we are working
With our clerks to make real uh and uh and I can go into the details uh about that essentially clerks can choose if they want to run it at the county level if they run it want to in partnership with other communities like if if uh
Leonia and Redford wanted to team up and have one election center for both communities or cities like Detroit and other communities can go it alone and just host their own early voting sites however they choose we’re working to make sure that they have significant and sufficient funding to cover their model
In not just August’s election but also in November’s election so the infrastructure and building that out well also not losing Bas on the or not not losing sight of the election day piece two and continuing that piece on Precinct day voting uh all of which uh remains part of our secure
Infrastructure where we’re shining as much sunlight as we can on that however that’s just one of three pillars of our preparation for the fall the second is education proactive education positive education to Citizens so that they know their rights and they know how to exercise them and they know as much as
They want to about the nitty-gritty of the security of our system as our clerks are going to tell you later we’ve got so many layers of election Security in part because of our decentralized uh setup in Michigan we’ve got 83 counties and within that 1520 local jurisdictions all of which
Play different roles in administering elections but that uh that that that diversity of of uh and and decentralized uh setup enables us to maximize our ability to meet the needs of every V whether they are in hon uh and Marquette or whether they in Lake County or whether they are in Detroit or
Whether they’re on the west side of the state because of that however we have a responsibility proactively to make sure citizens know the rules the regulations and also that the security level levers in place to protect their vote and uh I’m really grateful for the clerks we
Have here today because they have really stepped up as many of our election administrators have shining even a greater light and opening their doors even wider to Ed citizens about the processes that go into administering elections and enabling citizens to have a greater Glimpse than ever before on
Just how secure our systems are but educating citizens about that proactively is key for the third pillar as well which is countering misinformation uh and I know we could spend a whole day just talking about that the biggest threat to election Security in this cycle is misinformation is disinformation is lies and deceptive
Tactics that will be turbocharged through the use of artificial intelligence and that will be uh I think more of of a of an issue than ever before because our foreign adversaries Russia China and Iran in particular have more of an incentive than ever before in Rec in modern
Presidential election history and I know secretary Johnson probably uh talk at Great length about this but certainly than ever before in in recent history these foreign adversaries will have a greater incentive to intervene or interfere with our elections in Michigan in particular and in every Battleground
State in our country and if those from the national ABA take anything with you today I hope it recognizes not just that our infrastructure is strong and we’ve got a team-based approach to educating citizens about our elections but that we need as much support as possible protecting our system and protecting our
Voters against misinformation and deceptive tactics that we believe believe domestic and foreign adversaries will be leveraging because the outcome of the presidential election will directly affect their own plans uh internationally uh for their own efforts that they’re involved in we’ll just leave it at that uh so recognizing that and recognizing that we
Are up against foreign adversaries we need to have a nationally coordinated approach to protecting our citizens from efforts to hack their minds we know and David Becker and many of the experts here will tell you just how secure the infrastructure of our systems are from cyber security attacks or from other
Types of Hardware attacks and that’s why the greatest threat to our election security is not necessarily interference with our processes it’s interference with our voters understanding of how to exercise their vote and whether to believe and have faith in the results of the election we are already anticipating
Artificial intelligence could be used to disseminate false images of ping places being flooded or worse uh to deter people from participating we already anticipate artificial intelligence and other mechanisms being used to further divide voters and disincentivize them from participating but demobilizing our citizens deceiving them and trying to
Divide our American populace is the tactics that we need to expect to be leveraged to our citizenry and that we all have a responsibility to protect our voters from uh one last thing on that front in Michigan we have launched a really Innovative strategy to addressing not just the need to proactively educate
Citizens about these new election policies but protect them from misinformation and deceptive tactics and that is our voter confidence Council uh we recognized in 20120 that we’ve got the truth the law and all the content needed to protect citizens against being fooled by the lies and deceptive tactics
But getting the information to Citizens and making sure they know where to go for information where those trusted voices are is not as easy uh as one might assume in 2020 we thought well if election officials are the trusted voices then we’ve got it covered we’ve
Got the content we’ll deliver it out and what did our adversaries do adversaries to democracy I guess you could say they try to discredit us as election officials so that people don’t know if they can trust us that’s a tactic so we have developed more trusted Messengers through our voter confidence Council
Here in Michigan we’ve got a Statewide Council in which Reverend Anthony and Pastor Bland and many others are a part of and we’ve got 10 local councils that involve Mayors local city council and County Commission members local Faith leaders local educational leaders local Business Leaders and again we have a
Statewide effort as well uh all collectively creating these individuals who are already trusted voices to the voters that they reach enabling and empowering them with all the information we have about our elections and also positioning them to help not just proactively deliver it but to work with
Us and be our eyes and ears on the ground so that we can quickly respond when they hear of an issue in their communities or they can respond and be empowered to respond themselves so our voter confidence councils are already being replicated in Wisconsin and many other states but here in Michigan we’re
Leading the way at creating this very um I mean it’s not rocket science but it is a um new uh method for developing trust and voices empow folks who are already trying to do this work effectively and collaborating with our partners in the field to protect citizens from misinformation and from lies and
Deceptive tactics and proactively educa them about their rights so stay tuned but I would encourage you if any of you want to be a part of that effort every single one of you can be an ambassador for truth in this moment and so I hope
Many of you choose to be part of this work because every one of you have people who look to you people who trust you people who respect you that’s why you’re here and we need you in this moment to also be part of our efforts to proactively uh educate and protect our
Citizens from misinformation over these next several months uh and so we can dive more into that U but the last thing I’ll say uh is this in my view and I’ve said this many times and I think many of us know this that’s why we’re here the next eight months are going to
Define the future of our country and the next the actions we take in the next eight months will Define not just the future of our country but in my view the strength of our democracy moving forward and I believe our work here in Michigan will be a critical component if
Not one of the most driving factors in how our democracy in our nation are defined for years to come and it’s the actions that we take in these next eight months and particularly around the November election that will Define that will we still be a country where that
One person one vote promise is something that our leaders believe in and work to enforce or will we not will we abandon that ideal and move in a different direction that to me is ultimately what voters need to be a part of not just deciding with their ballots this year
But actively participating in throughout this year and I have great hope based on my work that started right here in Michigan at Wayne State law school and with judge Keith and many others in this room that in this moment we have all the tools we need to ensure that we Define
Our democracy moving forward in a way that is stronger and more robust and healthier than ever before and that is really the story of Michigan over these last eight years yes we have faced challenges yes the 2020 election was was was um was still keeping us up at night
In terms of what we just barely overcame uh and you know the trauma of January 6th the on my son of having people with guns outside my home and we can go on and on about what 2020 was but what it also did was energized citizens
To come back in 2022 and say democracy is on the ballot we’re going to protect it and we’re going to amend our constitution again to expand it even more and so when you look at this time in our history 10 20 30 years from now you will find that up until this point
In Michigan and I believe in many other states as well we have met this moment and we have protected our democracy but we’ve also Al Ed this challenge to get better and stronger as a populace and as a democracy and so my hope and our opportunity after these next eight
Months in my view is to leverage these challenges to grow our democracy even more and really recognize the moment that we’re in which is will we successfully transition into a true multi-racial multi-ethnic Multicultural democracy here in Michigan and Nationwide that I believe is the battle that we’re in as our country transitions
Into that beautiful promise that our Founders had 200 years ago and that to me is the work that we’re actually engaged in nationally and here in Michigan so I’m proud to be a part of that work I have great optimism that we will succeed in ensuring we have a true multi-racial Multicultural and
Multiethnic democracy here in Michigan and Nationwide but the steps we take and the work we do over the next eight months will ultimately determine that so thank you for being here and uh look forward to the discussion to follow thanks [Applause] uh thank you secretary Benson um thanks
To uh the ABA and Mary and chairs judge ludig and secretary Johnson mayor Archer to Dan and also to Elizabeth Yang and Bill ID who this event couldn’t have been put on with uh without uh I’m David Becker um I am a former justice department attorney who
Worked in the voting section of the Civil Rights Division and now I run a nonpartisan nonprofit called the center for election Innovation and research we work with election officials all over the country Republicans and Democrats to help support them in their work of putting on elections that voters should trust and do
Trust and unfortunately never has there been a greater Chasm between those two things the fact of the matter is our elections are more today are more secure transparent and verified than they’ve ever been in American history um the 2020 election was the most secure transparent and verified presidential
Election that we’ve ever held in American history and that’s just that’s not just me saying that you don’t have to take my word for it you don’t have to take the word of the former administration’s DHS who said that the former administrations doj who said that you don’t have to take
The word of a group of conservative legal experts including judge ludig Ben Ginsburg Ted Olsen who wrote a report called Lost notot stolen which you can find at lost not stolen. org which looked at the elections in all of the Battleground States and reach that conclusion you don’t have to take the
Word of the conservative Hoover institution at Stanford University that looked at all of the claims of election fraud and debunked every single one of them in a report you don’t have to take the word of the over 60 courts that reviewed all of the cases around the 2020 election
And came to the same conclusion that there was absolutely no evidence to sustain a claim of fraud including judges appointed by the losing presidential candidate himself it’s just objective fact when you look at the procedures we have in place around our elections today right now today we have better
Voter lists than we’ve ever had in American history and that’s largely due to leadership from States especially Michigan as one of them who have used better data practices who are cooperating with States more who are cooperating with their own Motor Vehicles to keep voter lists accurate
And up to date and remove out ofd records from those lists we have more paper ballots auditable verifiable paper ballots than we’ve ever had in American history 95% of all voters vote on paper ballots in the United States today including all of the voters in every single Battleground State including
Michigan that’s the highest percentage we’ve ever seen the only states that still have some non-paper ballots are non- Battleground States like Louisiana Mississippi and Tennessee the percentage in 2016 for comparison was around 75 to 80% States like Pennsylvania Virginia North Carolina South Carolina Georgia all moved entirely to paper ballots
Between 2016 and 2020 and importantly the states audited those paper ballots they that meant they went to a hand count of those ballots a statistical sampling to confirm that the machines counted the ballots correctly and they did 43 States audited their ballots we had more pre-election litigation than
We had ever seen in American history clarifying the rules when we got to election day every candidate every campaign every political party knew the rules that they were playing under it didn’t mean they liked all the rules you don’t have to like all the rules there are people that love the Electoral
College there are people that hate the electoral college but they knew what the rules were on that day and those were the rules that applied and then we had more postelection litigation which I referred to confirming the results that’s remarkable and the 2024 election will be even better than the 2020 election
Thanks to all of those checks and balances those procedures that have evolved over nearly 250 years in our democracy to ensure that the correct winner is announced we know who won the 2020 presidential election we also know who won the 2016 presidential election and the winners of both those elections
Took office as was appropriate this is issue that we don’t ever know who wins these elections because we don’t have adequate procedures in place is just simply not true um and that’s largely due to the men and women the public servants all over the country hundreds of thousands
Of them millions if you count pole workers who answer the calling of serving our democracy putting our elections on and giving voice to our voters um like the four people here that I’m about to introduce um I’d like to take a moment just to think about the 2020 election for a moment
Because it seems like it’s a long time ago and it it is it’s over three years ago it’s over 12200 days somehow we managed the highest turnout we as a nation managed the highest turnout in American history by a huge margin 160 million ballots that’s more than 20 million more ballots that had
Ever been cast in any election in American history with the high highest percentage turnout we had ever had in American history since universal suffrage 67% two out of every three eligible voters somehow showed up in the middle of a global pandemic the election workers who were working that election facilitating all
This democracy we showing up at work every day because you cannot run an election socially distant they were risking illness to themselves to their staffs to their families and they somehow made it work with all of those voters all of those ballots and that election has withstood the most extreme scrutiny that anyone
Has ever placed on any election perhaps in world history for more than three years there’s still not been a shred of evidence presented to any Court anywhere in this country that would cast out on the outcome of the 2020 election that doesn’t mean people don’t make claims on social
Media but they every time it comes to presenting them to court they back away and when I think about the people who ran that election um I think we should have thrown them a parade they somehow pulled off this moonshot of American democracy in the middle of a global
Pandemic and instead um they’ve been subjected to pretty much endless abuse threats and harassment for well over three years public servants um um and so perhaps as some soulless we’ve invited you guys to be on a panel here today I guess um and so I’m now going to
Um turn it over to uh four people I just admire a great deal for their public service and their competence and passion for this work work from closest to me on aogo adav adier uh deputy secretary of state Justin robu County Clerk for Ottawa County Michigan Lisa pimus Lions County Clerk
For Kent County m Michigan and the person I know the longest on this panel Chris Thomas um I don’t know what title I should give you um master of Michigan state election um former state state election director um and someone I’ve relied upon for a long time and what
We’re going to talk about today is about some of those processes so voters don’t need to have Blind Faith that their elections are secure these these processes are transparent the there are no better experts we could bring to talk about this so they can have so voters know
They should have the confidence in those processes and the first part I’d like to talk about is the voter list that’s been in the news a little bit lately here in Michigan um I have been working on voter list issues for a long time it’s one of my great passions and because voter
Lists are so important to facilitating the voter’s voice one of the one of the biggest challenges you can have in elections process is if a voter’s record is out of date it can lead to problems all the way down the process and Michigan has actually been perhaps the biggest leader amongst all
Of the states in making sure that they have accurate voter lists that are easy for eligible voters to get on to with accurate information and Chris I’m gonna I’m going to start with you if you can kind of put this into historical perspective and talk about kind of how
Michigan evolved to where it is today um with regard to the the the accuracy of his voter list so I’m the [Laughter] historical so Michigan was first in the nation with a Motor Voter back in 1975 a democratic Secretary of State Republican Governor uh got it done and
It was 1993 when uh Congress enacted it the national voter registration act but think about it every time a person registers a vote in a branch office this person has proven their citizenship their identity through uh documents that are necessary to get a driver’s license so the substance is there and
The second thing that happened uh later in the 1990s was the combination the The Hitching together of the driver’s license address and the voter registration address no other state in this country does that and that caused there was some concern here there were issues raed about that but it has uh
Persevered for these years and so now every time you change your driver’s license your um voter registration is automatically uh updated you don’t have to sign a separate piece of paper you don’t have to go to a separate office every time you go into a clerk’s office and change your voter
Registration your driver’s license is updated so these are Services of state and local and County governments working together one for the benefit of the driver’s license process and two for certain the benefit of the voters in this state of keeping them on the files um we are one of the early ones to
Have a Statewide voter registration file um my successor Jonathan braer has uh maintained that and expanded that and uh provided more and more services to to uh election officials all the way through for absent voter balloting is now all track through there everyone who is issued an absent voter ballot that is
Included in this file so the security is there and the ease of access is there and that’s really the key the security to our system are the voters who actually show up the vote now some people have a problem when they act of voter registration file is in the 90
Percentile some reason that’s a problem I think that’s a great accomplishment and uh it has been carried on uh through secretaries of State all the way from the mid 70s uh to the current Secretary of State and Terry ly land is here um and uh uh she carried it on during her
Tenure uh and improved the system of voter registration and so now um election day registration those that have gotten totally lost through the process there’s your last option to get in the door everybody thought that’d be a terrible thing very insecure it has worked beautifully um there’s ID that is shown
There’s not a security issue it brings a lot of young people in on University campuses to vote uh it’s a great way to extend the hand of government to make sure that voters uh have that opportunity on Election Day um some people put things off and this is a way
That we make sure they’re in so we are now moving uh shortly secretary is implementing and Mr Raider is working on pre-registration of 16 and 17 year old so they will be pre-registered when they turn 18 they’re ready to go they don’t normally come into Secretary of State’s office when
They’re 18 that’s not a normal um uh change of of the driver’s license so they’ll be set they’ll be ready to go and of course our automatic voter registration has worked beautifully in terms of keeping our registration levels as high as they are yeah thanks Chris
And and you raised a point I think it’s really important that you know if you look at Michigan’s voter registration rate which is probably in the low 90s in terms of active registered voters um it is among the highest in the country but there are other states that are in that
Range too and I think of a state that’s led by Republicans like Georgia that has a registration rate right around that same number and this is and it’s and it’s due to a lot of the similar policies the integration with DMV the ease of registration that they encourage
Um the this is this is something that’s not that unusual and it should be celebrated as a model for other states which is why I want to go to you next to goo um the um we heard from secretary Benson about some of the recent Innovations and also Chris mentioned uh
Same day registration automatic voter registration can you talk a little bit about the implementation of those and uh how it’s gone so far yeah so uh back in 2020 no back in 2018 we passed proposal three which implemented uh same day voter registration beforehand had to register
To vote 30 days before the election which was highly inconvenient for people just living their regular lives uh but it really came into practice in that general election in 2020 where voters all across the state in the midst of a pandemic were really attempting to assert their voices in the middle of a
Crisis uh and so we have had a number of people over the course of these uh last few general election Cycles register to vote on Election Day cast their ballot absentee at their Clerk’s offices and uh get their voices heard I think in the last presidential primary that we just
Had in in February we had about, 1600 voters on Election Day register to vote and cast their ballot so it’s a it’s a One-Stop shot and the one Innovation that we’re going to have this year particularly on our college campuses where we see a lot of long lines uh with
Students who are waiting and procrastinating till the last minute we obviously don’t encourage that but we all were young once I’m still a little young I think uh we’re gonna have uh election day centers where a voter can go into their uh clerk’s office their satellite clerk’s office register to vote cast
Their ballot and actually put it in the tabulator so it’s a great Innovation for clerks uh on our college campuses in in Michigan great um now I want to go to Lisa and Justin I’ll go to you first Lisa um because you two actually run elections I mean I it’s you’re you’re
The ones who find polling sites you’re the ones who recruit co-workers you work with your municipalities your local election officials do all that um what are you seeing on the ground I mentioned before that bad voter registrations can lead to problems they lead to long lines provisional ballots delays in counting
Things like that um what are you seeing on the ground with regard to how easy it is for voters to register and then whether it’s keeping your that you’re making your job easier in terms of uh actually um allowing for casting and Counting of ballots Lisa let’s start
With you well the first thing I would say is that our elections can only be as secure as our voter list is accurate and functional and so that’s why it’s just so incredibly critical to make sure that we’re maintaining uh and maintaining our list that we’re cleaning up the roles
And administratively a lot of our clerks um to to put the election on we use that voter file for pretty much every single step and so to make sure that that list is and the qvf is functioning properly so our clerks can do their job efficiently that’s critical um one other
Very important component of an accurate and upto-date list is Michigan is now moving to automatic ballots automatic absentee ballots uh when somebody um when somebody signs an application they have the option to check a box that says yes I want to receive a ballot in all future elections and there’s no end date
On that and so the fact that um ballots will be going out automatically to voters makes it that much more important that our list is accurate One Challenge I think we do see um with with our voter list is sometimes sometimes you have different iterations of Nam when
Somebody registers to vote or then moves or what have you so will have like a Jonathan A Smith or a Jonathan Smith and they’re they’re the same people but there’s they’re in there twice so that kind of vigilance is really important our clerks do a great job and I will say
Some of the members of our public have been um just making making clerks aware hey could you check this could you check this record this could possibly be a duplicate and that’s that has been a help um another another challenge we face is making sure that voters um that voters I
Think the term these days is adulting right uh there is a there’s a certain level that of responsibility that our voters need need to be aware of and and take on themselves and and that is if you’re if you’re moving don’t wait forever to change your driver’s license
Because that will the second you change your driver’s license uh that will update your voter registration so so really making sure voters are kind of playing their part in the process too yeah I I think that’s a really good point it’s one of the reasons I think you all in Michigan probably feel
Particularly um comfortable because we know this from research voters when they have a life event they don’t think to go to their election office they they usually wait until right before the election go goes point about about same day registration but they they are most likely to think about
Going to motor vehicles and knowing that motor vehicles record is going to going to update it right away way and also with regard to the duplicates it struck me and Justin maybe you can talk about this along with some of the other points that Lisa raised um the the Eric data
Does identify often with fuzzy name matching to the people who might have similar names I learned a statistic um if not the most common name one of the most common names in the United States is Muhammad and there are about 140 different ways to spell it in the
English language and finding making sure that you can identify when two records reflect the same person but not do that badly so you don’t act accidentally disenfranchise them when they’re when they’re different Justin do you have any just general thoughts about that yeah and I think do your point David too I
Mean we are we are at a better place now today than we ever have been in terms of being able to use some of the tools to better serve voters I think you know for election officials on the on the front lines of things when you’re working you
Know both on the advocacy and on the um the administrative end I think it’s really important that we balance we have to have two things right access and security and there’s always a balance where we are constantly making sure that our voters that we’re meeting voters needs that we’re meeting voters needs
And I and I would argue too I think it’s human nature probably yeah college kids are a great example but human nature is not as cool as we think we are unfortunately I am not the first call when someone is moving right as an as an election official and people do wait
Until election day when they realize oh yeah today’s an election day I need to vote and so the ability that we’ve had just over the past you know obviously the 1970s with Motor Voter was huge for us and set us up for success in so many
Ways but the ability that we have today the same day registration system as Chris was talking about a little bit where you know that’s a live connected secure database where a voter is coming in have to bring multiple forms of ID they have to prove who they who they are
Before they are allowed onto the system we can see the last time they registered and where that was cancel that registration and a live day database um and likewise I think the qualified voter file is getting better and better with continual improvements as well we’ve seen with this early voting um you know
Launch in February the the the uh the pole book the electronic pole book system which is a live database is doing a lot of that work for us and I think we just need to continue utilizing those tools that we have in front of us both on the convenience and the security end
And that’s why it’s so important to engage in those tools so with those eole books for instance which you were using for the first time if a voter has cast a ballot at an early voting site or has already requested a mail ballot and they show up at an early voting site that
Shows up in the in the E poll book right correct it’s it’s showing up there live it’s it’s a it’s a nonstarter you know we can see the voter profile but there’s no way to issue that voter a ballot because it’s identified in the system
That they voted in in a you know in a database that’s updating every 20 seconds and I think security around that database is critical and I know the state I will put in a plug for um for additional resources for our our Michigan Bureau of Elections and for the
Secretary of State’s office I think it is so critical that we make the right Investments and I think there have been the right Investments made but we need to continue making sure that those resources are there on the tech side um but it’s it’s a pretty complex process
To even log in and and and get get into the place where you are able to see the voter database in this live you’re saying that that that’s a good thing that’s a success yeah that’s a security feature right if it’s okay I want to stay with with you both for a second
Justin um you had alluded to the the other form uh ways of voting early voting male voting least referred to the uh even kind of permanent absentee option that voters are going to have which is something that that that’s true in many other states um how’s that working out with the implementation um
Do you anticipate particularly and we expect November to be a fairly High turnout election I don’t know if it’s going to be as 2020 but it’s going to be a high turnout election um do you anticipate that spreading voting out over a number of days is going to yield benefits in terms
Of the administration and security of election uh either one of you J you want I I I think that ultimately we saw this a lot in 2020 right was really the first time that we had an election in the state of Michigan where vast majority of
Well all of our all of our residents and as Citizens had the option to vote absentee right so that that option was so expanded and then of course we had that little Global pandemic thing and and that you know was a real impetus for people to want to vote by mail maybe
With who hadn’t you know normally even thought about it before and we I think that was a major contributing factor to the success of our election day process um I got to tell you you know I had administered many elections prior to 2020 and election day the presidential
Election was so smooth I mean it’s remarkable um and it was because our lines were were we didn’t we didn’t have significant lines right I mean that that percentage and I think you know in my County we were roughly 46% absentee for the November presidential our state
Primary was higher we were almost 70% absentee for that and so I think with early voting that’s going to be another example right of how we uh lessen the strain I think that’s a security issue as well right when there are more options you are eliminating certain risk
Factors and allowing that process to flow more smoothly over mult multiple days and I think that will be a successful yeah kind of reducing the single point of failure that could occur on an election day and spread I mean if you have a if you have a catastropic
Failure in a particular polling place on the first or second day of early voting worst case scenario is people come back the next day right as opposed to if it happens an election least so what what’s your expence um well I would say there are with our multiple methods of voting
Whether it’s early voting election day voting or absente voting um voters need to know what their options are so they can plan ahead and decide how are they going to cast their ballots uh early voting was first implemented Statewide in this past presidential primary um Ottawa County where Justin is
Clerk and pent County where I’m clerk uh we did two we did this two different ways um they centralized in Ottawa County where the county kind of ran the early voting sites I love a decentralized Michigan election system and at this time because it’s the first
Time we have no Baseline uh to know what to expect with early voting we decid exced to continue on and have our local jurisdictions operate their own sites so um this this first time around it was it was I think they were overwhelmed and stressed our local clerks were certainly
Uh but they they are professionals and they are heroes and they did such a great job um only for us in Kut County to have 8% of our over half a million voters utilize early voting and so of that that’s uh 3% of those who actually
Participated in the election so it was a very low turnout and you know that could have been very that could have been very frustrating given the uh the energy the effort and the expense that goes into early voting um but I think the jury’s I think the jury’s still out I think it’s
A little too soon to it’s a little too soon to write off early voting I think it’s going to become more and more popular uh over over the next certainly the next couple elections but definitely the next several Cycles the question is who’s going to make up our early voting
Population is it going to be the is it going to be the hundreds of thousands of absentee voters that we have which now make up I don’t know that we’re going to go back to lower than 40% most of the time we’ll probably see 50% so is it going to be
Our absentee voters or is it going to be our election day voters who are just they’re going to get it done they’re going to get it out of the way because who knows what could happen on Election Day maybe a snowstorm I don’t know so um
Really I think I think early voting has a lot of potential and I really believe we can do it right and we can do it securely it’s got the same the same systems that we put in place you know bipartisan election workers the ability for poll Challengers to be there um so I
Think I think takeoff and popularity I just don’t know from from where or is it going to bring in a whole new set of Voters yeah what what other states have seen is that um uh first of all um as long as one side doesn’t try to delegitimize one of these forms of
Voting they don’t really have a partisan effect you’re you’re not you know Most states will say they don’t see a strongly Democratic or republican Trend in early voting but that um you’re G to you’re going to see turn out much much higher in November than you did for the
Primaries of course and and they’ve what I think every state has seen is that um it probably comes from both to some degree but it does shrink the number of people wait till the last minute on election day in Nevada in 2022 you might remember there were some candidates who
Told everyone to wait for the last minute and the problem was there was a huge snowstorm in Western Nevada which prevented some people from voting so um most voters vote with their feet and many of them choose early I want to I want to shift to the counting process as
We’re as we’re moving on and go to you Chris because you were working with the city of Detroit in 2020 correct and um you were at the TCF Center um uh that year and there were all there was all kinds of rumors spread about what was going on in some of these counting
Centers and those of us who work in elections know that counting is one of the most transparent bipartisan observe processes that happens in every single jurisdiction um Nationwide Chris can you talk a little bit about that and why voters should should trust the the counting process here in Michigan
Absolutely um I’ve had a long history of being in Detroit on election days in their absent voter accounting board originally coobo Hall in September 11th 2001 I was there and mayor Archer was on the stage uh talking to the workers on that terrible day uh bolstering them
About the job they were doing for democracy and to keep their focus on the work that was in front of them it was a primary election in Detroit that day as there was in New York City that day and uh that I’ll always remember and your words were
Eloquent uh the abson voter County Board in Detroit is something that no other County or uh jurisdiction can even come close to with the exception of Oakland County who’s taken it on to count countywide in 2020 we processed 174,000 mail ballots and I dare say there’s not many
Jurisdictions close to that and it was done of course we had 10 hours of kind of a marginal pre processing we couldn’t count them but we could open the envelopes and do a few things but essentially it came down to okay we got it’s election day the expectation is
You’re going to count all these ballots on Election Day and then people step back and go oh but there are errors in balancing well no kidding uh you take 174,000 ballots and try to shove them through a process uh and we went well into Wednesday uh with our
Counting um that’s no longer the case uh the Michigan legislature has given us eight days of pre- tabulation where we can actually put ballots in the tabulators for eight days so instead of having this cavernous room um in uh now Huntington Place formerly TCF center with a 140 separate counting boards we’ll now
Have 50 and we will process those for eight days plus election day in a very orderly businesslike uh setting and that’s what we did in the presidential primary and that’s what we’re going to do for the remainder of the year as are many of the other larger jurisdictions in Michigan
And that’s a godsent because accuracy is what we want now there’s a lot of nonsense that went on on and has been been passed around about the TCF Center yes they did put cardboard up on the Windows because people were banging on single pane glass and there were workers in close
Proximity no the the uh um Challengers had not been removed from the room some had left for their lunch we had already talked with the both sides Republicans and Democrats on their numbers they were both in excess of the minimum number or the maximum number that they were
Allowed um there were groups of um Republican and Democratic Challengers moving around the room uh the entire afternoon uh there was never a time when there were no Challengers present to look at a particular table uh and in fact by that time about half of the tables were done and
That’s what resulted in the groups did we have a truck full of ballots come in at 3:30 in the morning yeah we did everybody thinks that’s a big deal they were the last ballots of the day they came in we we processed them or the runs are turned late on
Election Day they’re late they come in they have to be entirely processed down at the clerk’s office let’s clarify they’re not turned in late they’re subed by a but it takes that long yes thank you go through the important point yeah there’s a lot of work that has to
Be done before they go into tabulator signatures have to be checked you have to make sure uh that it’s a registered voter that they are the ones that uh were issued the ballot before they can even be brought down to Huntington place to be counted needless to say we’ve
Taken a lot of steps uh in terms of the control of that facility uh we will not have a repeat of that um Janice Winfrey’s done a great job at along with Daniel Baxter of organizing that and putting together a very nice program now uh so I’m proud to be associated with
Them uh it’s a critical piece of the election in 2020 we had 68% of the Detroit voters voted by mail um so that’s leveled out into the 50 percentiles now but uh it’s an important ingredient so and and we know we’re targeted and as you noted yeah blunt we are
Targeted um so we we we’re ready you know we’re confident we can handle whatever comes our way and I’ll say also that the RNC worked last in 2022 to um get Republican Challengers and Republican workers and my hats off to them they were good Challengers they were good
Workers um major cities have a hard time getting Republican workers just like some of the rural areas have hard time getting Democratic workers and so when they work in that vein it’s a it’s a a good step forward if I could kind of add
To that I think I think you hit the nail on the head what happened in 2020 at TCF it was it was awful and I I think that what we saw was almost a perfect storm so Challengers are really important part of the process extremely important in helping to ensure accountability and
Helping to the laws Ure the laws followed but what we saw in 2020 I think was confusion and I think was chaos and those two things breed uh you know just kind of breed a very tense atmosphere because everybody’s misunderstanding you had um for these election or these poll
Challengers they have to be credential they are trained and credentialed to be present in a accounting board or in a in a voting location but you had these very concerned citizens who were sent an email a call to action if you will get down there we need Challengers we need
You there and so they didn’t I I think genuinely many of them didn’t really know what they were doing and they didn’t they didn’t know what they didn’t know so they get there and there’s a process that has to be followed there’s laws in place and there are already
Credential Challengers there and so they don’t they don’t understand the process and so they’re feeling rejected they’re feeling disenfranchised themselves and then you had workers especially in Detroit who are who are full I mean truly fearful of covid and so you have this uh social distancing that they
Wanted to do and and just to keep safe well when you’re challenging sometimes you have to get close to to view the monitor you know the adjudication and so so there was just all of this all of this the storm that we just have never faced before I hope we don’t face it
Again but it it was it was ripe and then when you’re when you’re Justified or not when you’re covering up you know the the polling or the accounting board it’s not a good look uh for you know it’s not a good screenshot or you know so so there
Were a lot of things that we can explain but I’m hopeful that because these things aren’t going to be in place just like what you experienced in 2022 I’m hopeful will restore order in that process can I can I just go ahead go ahead go yeah I just want to add one
Thing on the poll Challenger piece that’s actually how I started my career in uh 2010 I was a pole Challenger in an arbor and you’re just supposed to observe the process and if there’s an issue then you challenge and yes there was chaos in in 2020 at TCF but that chaos was purposeful
Each poll Challenger is sponsored by an organization and when I was with all voting as local we sponsored some pole Challengers and it’s on our on on the sponsoring organization to train those pole Challengers and what they’re supposed to do so when a group is sending people to a location without any
Training or credentials or credentials they’re doing it for a reason and we’ve seen this through the January 6 commission we’ve seen this through the various lawsuits through the criminal uh procedures that were taking place in this country right now that this was a purposeful decision to try and destabilize our democracy and I
Think it’s important to remember that aspect as we face what is going to be a very critical presidential election this November because it’s it’s going to happen again and we just have to keep our eyes open we’ve got to wrap up but I just want to end on a quick point and
There was a those last two comments were Lisa You’ mentioned the the confusion that a lot of citizens felt about the process and I think we’d be remiss and go go you Pro you pretty much mentioned this if we didn’t say that that was fueled by rumors and lies that were
Being spread um at that time and one of the things I keep coming back to is one of the best antidotes against that confusion and misunderstanding of the process is volunteering to be a pole worker yourself and being trained trained and learning on this and i’ just
Like to go down the line anyone who wants to chime in on that if you want to talk about the importance of volunteering to be a pole worker and learning about all the checks and balances and processes in place and why they’re there so that is a a major thing
That people ought to be doing and in 2020 is a good example so the Detroit process was basically staffed by senior citizens um it’s no you know no no mystery it’s like that in a lot of areas and Janice Winfrey went out to the Divine n um sororities attorneys said
Hey we need young people and so we got young people that came in they came in for the general election realized that uh these senior citizens you know really didn’t need to be exposed to the covid situation and we ran that for 10 hours on Monday all the way through 7even or 8
O’clock on Wednesday and one thing I want to make very clear there was never any chaos in the tabulation and Counting of the ballots that was not chaotic that was methodically done the chaos were from those who came in and they were credential they got credentialed on the
Spot uh that afternoon we wouldn’t have let them in without credentials and that’s where the chaos came in so we got all the way into Wednesday uh afternoon it was run very well Challengers had questions it was not chaotic it became chaotic anyone else on the co workers in
Particular I would just say you know I think um honestly there’s one reason why I’m still doing this job um and I I think 2020 in the past four years as I’m sure Lisa can attest to and probably everyone up here um has been brutal it’s been a
Really challenging season to be you know in this in this role but I think it is so critical because we’re here I’m here to build trust in our system people trust information from sources that they trust and I think my job is to be somebody people in my Community Trust and so I
Think there’s the the great conversations that we’ve been able to have with folks who have questions and concerns about the system is hey if you have a question or a concern about how ballots are sealed up you could do it you know you could actually step up to
This plate and sign off on the the you know on the seal process you could be the person who is actually guaranteeing your piece of election integrity and I think that is so critical and I don’t think it it it should go without saying that we in the election Administration
Community have a role and have work to do in building trust I think 2020 was a really great example of some of the things that ultimately needed to change uh sequestration of absentee uh ballot counting boards where it just it was kind of an outmoded you know uh Statute
In Michigan based on the fact when people used to be physically counting and people would see all these votes right sequestration didn’t need to be there and now we’ve moved on from that process which is really great uh as Chris was mentioning the pret tabulation of ballots where we’re counting we’re
We’re lending more transparency to that process where you know I’m a political party or an active organization I don’t have to call somebody at 3: in the morning and say hey you should probably get down to the counting Center I could say why don’t you show up at Monday at
10:00 a.m. and we can schedule that out because this process is more transparent than before um and I think you know making public our audit process post elction audits in the state of Michigan did not use to be public until the Constitutional Amendment changed that
Right that is huge and I think those are Lessons Learned because I want I I I want to say it’s really important as an election administrator not to say wo is me we are being you know bombarded by all sides and sometimes we are but we do have a role in ensuring public
Confidence in the process and that is so important and I’m I’m so encouraged by some of the things that have really happened along I think education transparency and participation those are the keys to establishing bolstering and sustaining public trust in our process because you know elections are the
Bedrock of our Republic public so I always tell people we have so many so many checks and balances built into our law we have so many transparent opportunities for people to participate and truly I say don’t just take my word for it see for yourself and it’s not
Just becoming an election worker my two oldest kids they’re 18 and 17 well I’m sorry 19 and 17 mother of the year uh they since 2020 they’ve now uh taken on working our elections as pre as election inspectors and so that kind of participation is important becoming a
Poll Challenger is important but I’m telling you attend these checks and balances we test all of our equipment before every election every election to make sure it’s functioning properly it’s it’s accurate and those are open to the public we have after the election um after the election we’ve got the county
Canvas and I might be biased but I get so excited about that I think it’s truly I think it’s a one of our crown jewels and and that’s where Democrats and Republicans meet to review all of the election material paper ballots paper tapes paper reports paper paper paper is
Another another key there but they meet and they review Precinct by precinct for every single voter site the election results that we reported the election results that were printed they make sure the number of ballots mat uh cast match the number of ballots that were issued
It is a very thorough process and guess what it’s open to the public are you sensing a theme right and pent County was the first to open up our audits uh to the public we rolled out the red carpet in 2020 to help dispel any concerns uh just to let them come and
Watch and those are all opportunities to participate we did it that too just oh not that there’s any friendly company hey no no no no copy cat goo do you have any final thoughts yeah I we uh have a wonderful website michigan.gov democracy MVP where anyone
In this audience can sign up to be a pole worker and serve and learn about the process firsthand and and that was put in place in the 2020 election cycle and I don’t think it’s ironic to think that the voting tools that we have of early voting and absentee voting have
Helped people become a PO worker because it used to be well you had to figure out how you’re going to vote on election day so you have to kind of be a pole worker at your own Precinct now you can vote ahead of time and you have that
Flexibility to be a public servant uh and every election cycle in this job I’ve gone to different precincts all around the state and what I’ve noticed is that there’s you know you typically have some pole workers who have been doing it for 20 years they they really
This is just thing that they do every election cycle and then there’s a next group as Lisa alluded to of people who started volunteering in 2020 and were refreshing the roles of co-workers so it’s really exciting for us to see that Resurgence of Public Service uh as we head into a a really
Challenging year um that’s amazing so um Justin mentioned that the re the one reason he’s still in this job is the people that he gets to work with and I just have to tell you the one reason I’m still doing the work that I do is because of public servant like the four
People here and there are hundreds of thousands of colleagues all over the country who work full-time in elections or part-time and the millions of people who volunteer to be pole workers um so I hope you will all join them and let’s join in a round of applause for the four of these
Folks and now I am lucky enough to be able to tell you we have a f minute break I know that’s a little short but um we’ll start up again in five minutes with the next panel yeah very hot e e e e e e e e e e e e e e
E e e e e e be have for position and once the case was over the lawyers were talking about community and family and there was no animosity because they had different positions if if everybody could take their seats we’re going to try to get our second panel underway I’m glad they
We talked about well you know the Michigan leadership 12 Republicans 12 Democrats other’s weddings I mean you know anyway Gary hey Gary well oh he as well see you’re without you’re without notes I got all these notes Here I have a just one card that’s I started to do
That but I didn’t have enough time just go right so nice to be with you you as well thank you you uh you’re quite uh quite busy please everyone let’s take our seats so we can uh keep our program on time so happy about it how are you quick see you again thank
Hon I hope you can follow up sometime we love it thank you good I will follow up with you I’m well yeah how are you good to see you oh it’s good to be here water water is good pleasure oh we had an incredible experience really forever how have you been all
Judge how you been man trying to make hey how are you I’m sure doing well I’m doing okay good good heavy practice practicing heavy practicing heavy yeah a little busy these days busy with uh M1 Rail and a bunch of ELC yeah I actually try to get him as one of
The panel members but they have whatever they had yeah I’m not sure how I made the cut but well because brother so we have to I’m glad he’s here because when I talk everybody could take their seats we’re going to get started in just a minute now I used to uh
Used to give Chris Thomas a hard time ago when iace everybody please sit down we’re going to get started now a good thing all right good afternoon have two or three minutes of my time if you were not here at the beginning I’m Jim towns and I’m the director of the car 11
Center for oversight and democracy and uh I appreciate everybody uh coming back and I know that was a short break I am so thrilled to be uh able to uh moderate this second panel which will talk about the work we need to do to strengthen Civics education in this state and civility in
This state um I’m going to spend a few minutes just doing a little attempt at a kind of state of civic education as best I can um sharing some some some facts with you about civic education um then I’m going to introduce the panel and uh we’re going to get into some questions
And then we very much like the first panel hope that these discussions are really going to prompt you all when you get into the breakouts to talk about ideas about Solutions about steps we can take this year certainly with relation to the election uh and in years now and
In the future around civic education so few facts I just want to share with you at least one important fact roughly three4 of Michigan 11 graders are not proficient in social studies that was the most recent data that we have uh social studies includes things like civics history and economics
All three of which are required for anybody who wants to get a a high school diploma in a public high school in our state so it’s very clear that mandating the teaching of civics is not enough we need to find more effective means of engaging students with how the
Democratic system works and how it affects their lives now the good news is there is a growing Statewide alliance called the Miss called the my Civics Coalition and it is bringing together together Educators Community leaders nonprofits from all over the state to strengthen civic education to build linkages to
Figure out best practices and put them into into practice in the breakout rooms you’re going to see a couple of pieces of paper uh on this topic one of them is a summary of a uh the results of a 2022 listening tour that the my Civic Coalition conducted they went around the
State and interviewed teachers and students and folks involved in the system about what is working what is not working what they need to build a better Civic Civics education system um so what I’d like to do is quote a few of the findings a few of some of the words that
Came directly from the people in the in the uh civic education system we have one student said so much of what we learn isn’t real at least it doesn’t feel real because it is so far away and focused on the federal government while that’s important we need more opportunities to
Demystify and invite us as students into the real local and state opportunities a teacher said I’m scared I live in fear every day for what I might be misinterpreted as to what I’m teaching self-censorship and daily stress is real I need more learning and finally another student
Said that was a teacher a student said my school did not do any progr programs that required me to learn or interact with other students or with my government so the this is the sort of information we’re dealing with and this is part of the state of civic education in our
State now I don’t want you to think that the state of civic education is all you know bad it’s actually there’s a lot of great work going on I want to talk about it for just a minute um the Michigan Center for civic education administers three extracurricular programs prams that enable students to
Build and demonstrate their knowledge in Civics they include a mock trial program uh a program called We the People and project citizen uh I’ve got another sheet that you’re that’s also going to be in every breakout room that summarizes uh some of these highlights of what is going on in civic education
So you have some information you can work with in your breakout groups um there’s also a program that the YMCA runs called youth in government and that is a program where students stage a mock legislature in the state capital in Lancing twice a year and I remember when I was a member
Of the legislature the cleanest my desk ever got was when they asked me to clear my desk off so a student could sit in my seat in Lancing as impactful though as these programs are extracurricular efforts are no substitute for additional investment in Innovative programs and in supporting and equipping our teachers
One example of of of an investment is something we’re we’re trying to stand up here at at the Levan center with the support of the state of Michigan it’s called learning by hearings and it is a set of classroom materials that will enable high school students to learn
About us and Civics US history and Civics by adopting the lens of a legislative investigator so it’s as if Carl Levan with his reading glasses perched on his nose is inspiring a 10 grader to become an investigator of American history and American Civics so that’s the program
That we’re still working on there’s a lot of work to do but we think it has potential but it’s not the only program there are many other programs that deserve support and that summary we’ll we’ll share uh information about them finally there are some really important programs uh and the Secretary
Of State’s office really really deserves credit for this to engage students and get them involved with voting and I want to make you know about these one is called the Collegiate student advisory task force and the other is the my vote matters program both of these programs deal with high school selectively with
High school and college and what they do is they get students to know about how how they can get involved with the electoral process and it’s awfully important that we get students engaged because it is our youngest voters are the ones who have the least amount of faith in our democracy they
Are the ones who are most inclined to uh have doubts about whether it’s all worth it so we’ve got a tremendous amount of work to do as to how we can restore civility to our political culture we’re going to talk about this on the panel I’ll just say uh I’d like
To quote my 11th grade Latin teacher Mr Moore who used to say when he was trying to persuade us of the value of learning a dead language you are down on what you’re up on in other words the people places and cultures that we know least about we are
Most likely to fear and loath and even dehumanize I began with education because I think civility starts with learning and learning is something all of us can do no matter how old we are we can also use the amazing tools that we have the technologies that we
Have to share fact rather than deep fakes and to learn about each other and our all two common struggles and with that in the spirit of civil discourse I’m going to stop my filibuster and turn things over to our four panelists who are going to discuss what we can do to
Make progress on Civics education and Civility and I’m going go in alphabetical order starting with Reverend Dr Wendell Anthony Reverend Anthony is the pastor of the Fellowship Chapel and he is the president of Detroit branch of the NAACP he’s also the originator of the take your souls to the polls voter
Registration program and mobilization program next we have an Mervin an was a special advisor to Governor John angler she has had an extensive career in public affairs Consulting and leading the Michigan political leadership program on the end is Gary TGO he chairs the board of Huntington bank and is
Among many many other positions and Boards he serves and leads he’s chairman of Business Leaders from Michigan um I have to say he is a graduate of Wayne State University law school and we are very proud that he is a member of the Lev centers Advisory Board and finally
We have Curtis Wilder Curtis is a former Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court immediate past chair of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce and a shareholder at the butel law firm so I’m going to kick things off with a question that I’d like all of you to to consider and that is
Given what you know about Civics education here in Michigan uh and civil and sort of our general literacy of civics in our communities what do you see as our best opportunities to strengthen civic education anybody want to just take a swing at that I’ll go ahead and start um again my
Name is Ann Morven and I I’m uh co-director Meritus of the Michigan political leadership program which I um had the privilege of co-directing for 20 years along with some very distinguished Democrat colleagues and and um and it’s a bipartisan program housed at Michigan State University and I’ve trained as many
Democrats how to run and hold office as I have Republicans um and it’s been a real privilege many of those graduates are here in this room and uh for that I’m grateful to see you and for your continued engagement in politics and civilian in our
State um so the um I’ll just talk a little do you want me to talk about mplp for a sure I mean okay whatever you want so the uh Michigan political leadership program and Terry land has been a key adviser in West Michigan for our program
Um it’s it’s uh 24 fellows from all over the state 12 Republicans 12 Democrats 12 women 12 men and um they learn as much from each other as they do from anything that the co-directors uh coordinate as far as presenters and um exercises and Leadership and things like that uh for
Example for the 10 weekends um we intentionally have people uh share a room from another part of the state from another party and some of these some of these um relationships have gotten to the point where at at one wedding of an NLP fellow she had the bride’s family gave comments the Grooms
Family and the MLP classmates elected a representative to give a toast at her wedding she had gone through a tough divorce tough problems and she would become a family so I have 600 uh mentees Slash family members all over the state of Michigan uh for which I’m
Grateful and as part of our process we’ve had exercises where we’ve had Republicans become democrats for a day and see what kind of pressure points um those individuals have to in uh go through as far as this is what it’s like to be a legislator who’s going to have to lobby for
Labor and uh you Democrats this is what it’s like to be I assume G Jim in the back and my friend here uh been active in the chamber represent business so they they walk in other people’s shoes both uh rural areas uh urban areas just
To get a feel for what other parts of the state people share it with me all the time and i’ had never been to Grand Rapids before I had never been to Detroit before never been to the up so um that’s how we try to create civilities building through
Relationships as well as the content we uh present on on campaign Finance running campaigns with an emphasis on um ethics and compliance and so we talk a lot about the legal structure of running and how that ensures Integrity of Elections Jim you mentioned the young person who said it didn’t feel
Real and I think that experiential learning is key I’m uh the board chair at interlock and have been associated with interlocking since 2006 uh when my daughter graduated from there and their uh uh Civics education their government program really get students involved visiting the capital seeing actually what happens uh they have opportunities
To interact with local legislators you mentioned Youth and government one of the uh students there actually wrote A bill uh one of the interlocking students participated in Youth and government wrote A bill on um uh on uh access to financial uh data by uh and transparency for all legislators he actually sent it
To the Michigan legislature and said I think you ought to pass this transparency bill but he got very energized about talking to me talking to others on how to write a piece of legislation and how to imp impact uh what’s happening in our community so I think experiential learning is critical
For for young people to to get involved and see how there’s a difference that can be made I got involved because I went to Buckeye boy State we recovered Buckeye I’m a Michigan guy now uh but uh having gone through boy State having actually tried mock trials
Having a Court rule against me and then tell me the reasons and I didn’t believe the reason were appropriate spurred me to go to law school that’s what our young people need opportunities to participate I um first of all let me thank mayor Archard for convincing me of the necessity to be
A part of this and uh it’s hard to tell uh Dennis no uh but we’re glad to be here uh and I feel empowered being around all you lawyers and judges I know if something happened I got some lawyers around me I went to Central High School not Casa of
Renaissance or any of the others and before you left the sea you had to take Civics you had to take government you had to be engaged in that and I’m so glad I did that’s not necessarily the case today it’s interesting that uh last week I had a
Conversation with the head of the uh Detroit Board of Education on this very issue relative to the necessity for civics social studies and training um a lot of our young people don’t even know the the differences in the branches of government um they don’t know the legislative executive and judicial branches of government
That’s not their fault that’s our fault because we have allowed this to fested there’s no African proverb that says one does not begin the journey on the day the Journey Begins this journey is to where we are right now began years ago and it really has manifested itself
And the chickens have come home to roost and they’re roosting on us because we have allowed it to occur we are literally in a War we’re literally in a war for the preservation of our quality of life whether not we going to be who we
Is or whether not we going to be who we ain’t and that has to do with going forward as a democracy or an autocracy and it really was in hands when Barack Obama became president and all hell broke loose and everybody went crazy and began to develop tea partyism
And whole lot of other isms to prevent him from being successful and to make sure that never would happen again it also was enhanced as a result of when Shelby versus holder became the law of the land and the Rights Act was gutted and States went crazy trying to develop laws to prevent
Black and brown people and others from voting the largest voting block I’m told is those young people 18 to 29 and yet laws have being created and crafted to keep them from voting so when you couple the fact that we’re not teaching civic’s education and it’s not
Being engaged in our country and we have the fact that we have to fight daily to misdirect the miscommunication and misinformation and disinformation that comes from those who would be our leaders it makes the job very difficult when you got a guy who should be in jail right
Now who still running to be the president of the United States of America our young people see that they not stupid let catch it be in jail we all know that and so we have to deal with that when we see the fact that people are using laws to keep them from
Voting hundreds of bills in legislators all legislative bodies across the country that we have to fight here in Michigan we’re blessed because we happen to have a governor Secretary of State and a legislative body that was able to redirect that and the people stood up and say oh no this ain’t going to
Go and and supposed to being at the bottom we came to the top so how do we engage all of that we engag about still pushing and mandating as much as books are being banned laws are being crafted and college districts are being gerrymandered and Congressional lines have been
Redrawn and we got to fight all that at the same time we fight on several fronts at the same time we have no choice and so how do we deal with that we engage our young people we engage our school districts we cannot allow them to go back we must insist upon civic
Education here and I our church and our communities we teach it from our church we have classes we have mock trials where young people through our rights of Passage program everybody don’t do it but we do it our rights of Passage programs are boys and girls because we know they
Ain’t getting it in school so it’s uncomfort upon us to teach it through a Christian education school we do the ocean sweet trial and I know I’ll be doing a minute Gary gave me two two three minutes of his time I do I want to come back to it though then you
Then you didn’t you I did I did I did absolutely okay I want ask later about specific T but let me just say this okay you asked me man so I’m just my you did say something about the Holy Spirit the other day I will come back to you I want to I
Want everybody to hear more about you’ve done locally uh and how they might apply to this question but I do want to uh recognize Gary to talk about things from his perspective thank you very much first it’s great to be here and rev you can have as much of my time as you
Want uh first just being in this room uh I’m a graduate of Wayne law it certainly didn’t look like this when I was around and I think the secretary of state had a lot to do with this and we’re grateful to you for everything you did and in the
Room I probably could say that I learned the creation or the combination of civics and civility uh from a few people that are sitting in the room and some that are not Carl Levan who is one of my dearest friends I once asked him if I
Should run for public office and he said absolutely just not for the US Senate in Michigan uh mayor Archer who is one of my mentors I’m here today because of him uh really taught us the the sort of the creation of a um an institution and a
Community that can teach Civics and can be civil and can be in political office you talk about those that aren’t civil and don’t act with civility um and uh it really is in so many ways uh that creation of or a combination of civics and civility um I
Have the privilege of supporting a project called the civility project uh which is today a uh well-established program in Michigan that is run by Nolan Finley and Steven Henderson two people who couldn’t agree on almost anything in the world and came to visit with me and
Said you know we want to we want to have a project that that really can perform uh together a community of Civility from two people who almost can’t agree on anything but really like each other and that really is the foundation for civility and when you have political
People that can work together maybe at oppos ends of the spectrum but can get together and work together that’s really what we should be doing in our education for children today uh I work in business and businesses with a purpose have a much better chance of success than those
That don’t civility is really a code word for kindness and and unity and doing the right thing and when you teach our young people today about those sort of opportunities you could teach them to do anything when they can work with each other they could talk to each other they
Come from very different backgrounds uh our bank supports a a program called the swag award students wired for achievement and greatness where we give scholarships to young people in Detroit to go to college and I have the privilege of interviewing them and we also give a a scholarship program in
Dearborn and Dearborn Heights and we teach we teach those students that if they want our scholarships they need to practice civility amongst each other um we give them internships to come to the bank and we teach them how to perform business in a civil way um I see I’m in
The banking business today the banking business is very complicated but the truth is that Banks really are in so many ways the stepping stone to opportunity for people and it’s our job to make sure that people have that opportunity and when they come in
Front of us for a loan and they show us there are three C’s of banking there’s cash and there’s credit and in most respects there’s character and character is really built from the kinds of things that Reverend Anthony has is talking about so bringing together this room to talk about civility Civics political
Office the kinds of things that an talks about every day are really the opportunity for us to change the society that we live in to bring people to the level of leadership who understand that if you do it in the right way you can think very differently but if you behave
In a way that creates a Civility and a society that is civil with each other much more can get accomplished and those are the mental that I have in the room here today and you wanted to I just wanted to um first uh all the all these com comments have been very very
Powerful I wanted to share that when I Was preparing for this yesterday at home I came across this notebook and it’s a notebook of uh training that I did for Moroccan women almost 19 years ago when the Moroccan uh government King as kings can do um said
That 25% of their Parliament must be women and I flipped open a page and the first thing I see is item number one that I have shared not only with the Moroccan women women from Syria Cambodia other International work I’ve done personal integrity and that that is a very um
It’s a value I learned from my parents and from Den knew my dad at Dickinson right and um Let me let me push back a little bit not on you personally but just right personal Integrity what do we do whether we’re a corporate you know in a leadership role in a corporation or
From the pulpit or from the court or from the Civic space when we have people in public life who are not demonstrating even the basics of of Integrity who are misleading us they don’t seem to be paying a price what can we do to change that so they do see
Some kind of consequence for that it’s it’s little doing even little things of holding them to account in letters to the editor um public comments uh social media it’s it’s um we make little I went to a an event last night at the Gerald Ford uh library and
There was one yesterday too in the museum where the the Carter Center and the Gerald art Ford Library people are coming together to talk about how those two presidents worked together and so we have to share examples of how there have been leaders that disagreed but could do it in a way
That had Integrity an intellectual point of view that they argued and not the personal attacks that we have going on today I can tell you one one of the things that we did here in Detroit um right after the George Floyd murder um brought a number of corporate leaders
Together to address that issue of what we could do Dei and what they were doing to offset them because they were just as upset as we were in addition to that there a couple of years ago there was a a move to develop 33 bills in Michigan voter suppression bill the mean
33 uh and we pulled together corporate leaders because corporate leaders in businesses have political action committees you fund these people you provide money to them so when people are trying to suppress the right to vote not the black vote that too but the vote everybody has a stake in voting and
So when you suppress the right to vote you’re hurting everybody so we got them to sign on to uh a an agreement where they would contact the folk that they support in the legislative body to say no we don’t support that and we are monitoring you we’re looking at you
That’s a tangible action that corporate and Business Leaders can take we know there are Republicans and Democrats and independents in every company that we have here fine everybody has a state in voting and so when you’re trying to suppress the right to vote there’s an Avenue for you to
Assert yourself without calling any name just send it out there and say we’re monitoring what we’re saying and they backed off and that was not passed and that’s a tangible act in addition to writing letters sometime a letter just don’t do it you got to bring them in uh
And to let them know that you’re monitoring my my grandmother to send me a note um but sometimes she showed me a strap and to the degree that uh a note won’t do it and I’m just simply saying that sometime we got to show them a
Strap your strap is how you support them financially they depend up on that that’s a tangible action that companies and corporations can take Curtis I want to I want to turn the conversation stay on leadership because and then I want to talk about more of the Grassroots um
Actions that can be taken but I want to talk about the legal profession you’ve served in you know in many capacities where you’ve been involved and seen lawyers behave and misbehave what is your assessment of of what’s taken place in the last few years here in Michigan particularly where we’ve had lawyers
Attorneys who have misused their position as officers of the Court have there been adequate consequences do you think the system is working if not what might we do to to create consequences so that people don’t misuse their power in that way well the system is slow uh
Perhaps slower than it should be be but the things that should happen are happening people are being sanctioned as they should be people are uh in some instances disbarred as they should be in some instances criminal charges have been filed uh and that process will play itself out you know lawyers have a
Responsibility to zealously Advocate on behalf of their clients uh and they do that even when the causes are unpopular but they also have an obligation sometimes to say no uh we can’t do this this isn’t consistent the facts aren’t there the law isn’t there so there’s a dual responsibility for lawyers and the
Courts will act when they should but there’s also a process there’s due process everyone has due process to retain their law license everyone has due process if you’re sanctioned you can appeal that and there are multiple appeals and we just saw and appeal end up at the Supreme Court where
The Supreme Court declined to hear the case but that took two years three years for that case to wind its way through the process so it does work uh and I think courts have to continue to insist on appropriate conduct and step forward when the lawyers have violated their o of
Office I mean but that process does take such a long time that the damage can be can wreak havoc on our system and it doesn’t seem at least I think there’s a wide perception that the attorneys at least so far some have been sanctioned some have lost their licenses but it
Does seem like it’s somewhat out of proportion to to the uh to the harm that’s being done I think the courts can also speak when they’re not on a particular case they can also talk about that in their written opinions uh I know that a lot of judges are out there
Speaking about uh ility and an appropriate conduct uh on behalf of lawyers in addition uh I think it’s a it’s appropriate to watch and maybe broadcast how the judges treat each other uh not only in their written opinions but also in their interactions during oral argument uh the court can
Serve as as an example of appropriate behavior and it’s appropriate to disagree but there’s a way to do it and uh and you should model that the court should model that are there ways in which the legal profession we’ve got many representatives of the legal profession
Here in the audience and going to be in breakout groups are there are there ways in which lawyers can get directly involved in strengthening civic education or civility I mean these two things support each other but what what sorts of ideas I’m opening up to everybody you’ve talked about some of
Right I mean the State Bar is involved in uh a lot of civics organizations there’s mock trials there’s mood Court uh there’s uh the Michigan chamber is involved this year with a Civics B where they’re having students right on particular projects and lawyers who are members of the chambers can get involved
In that and they should be involved uh I think again U having the the students have experiential learning uh in the courtrooms to see how things are done and see how they aren’t done is a critical way for the courts to to educate on the appropriate way uh to to have
Disputes Gary how do you see the business Community viewing the issue of of of civic education what do you think or do you think there is kind of a business case for strengthening this system and if there is I there seem to be some some solid efforts that you’re very involved
With but are there ways to get a greater group of businesses involved larger numbers of businesses really getting involved in trying to strengthen the system you know um business people have um a great effect on who becomes our political leaders uh there’s a system that we have in America where people in
Order to win offices have to get elected and those elected officials are the people that choose judges in many ways and I think it’s up to the business Community to encourage uh those that they’re supporting to have those conversations before they get elected and then before they’re making these
Choices and to be able to say to them you know we’re looking for a certain brand of Civility we’re looking for a certain brand of leadership I remember I had a conversation with the Prime Minister of Great Britain Tony Blair and I said tell me what was the best lesson
You learned as prime minister and he said the best lesson I learned was not to make any enemies on purpose because you make a lot of them by accident and I think that’s a a great lesson the leaders of our community if we want to encourage the right people we have to
Have the right dialogue before they come into office office we have to have a conversation with those that are choosing judges and making decisions about the kinds of people they want on the bench they don’t always have to be the person that is going to represent the best partisanship it’s the kind of
Person that’s going to represent the best qualities that our young people are going to see uh when we I work for a very large company we hire a lot of lawyers we have conversations with the lawyers we hire all the time to tell them we’re not just looking to win we’re
Looking to be able to do things things appropriately and sometimes we make mistakes and we want you to represent us not to be the greatest advocate only but to be the fairest person to be able to show the kinds of qualities that we want
To be as a company and we say it to our colleagues all the time for us it’s not just um getting the best interest rate it’s not just making the most money it’s not getting our shareholders to have the highest prices of stocks it’s us for us
To do the right thing and I have seen in my business I’ve seen in my life that when companies do the right thing they encourage people to behave in a certain way it’s good for business you make money I was having a conversation with Reverend Anthony recently the whole concept of diversity and
Inclusion um business people are starting to understand and realize that it’s not just our civic duty it’s good for business it makes a difference when people see that you’ve got a diverse environment where you see that you’re trying to do the right things where you’re not just trying to make the last
Dollar it’s an encouragement for people to behave in a certain way so when our politicians are elected before they get elected we have these conversations I’ve sat in a couple of committees that choose judges same conversation when you’re interviewing that person it’s not necessarily what party you emanate from
It’s how you’re going to behave when you now have that black robe on and how you see people The Compassion the requirements to have compassion it makes a huge difference and I think that’s really where business can have greatest influence and I want to ask you a little more
About the Michigan political leadership program and and maybe some other programs that you work with um we’ve see a lot of of people in public life people and I’m not sure how many of them have been through MLP but there are people who campaign and use rhetoric in such a
Way that that really make it hard to govern you know they they Scorch the Earth either with the with other people they’re serving with or they uh create an environment where compromise is just absolutely unimaginable and yet our system is really not built that way our system is
Built around the idea that you’ve got to have compromise are there are there things that you think at that leadership level we can do to try to help these folks see that when they are elected it’s going to be a lot harder to govern if they get to
Office that way if they enter office by creating these kind by destroying relationships and not acting in a system way is that is that naive or or is there some way we can move forward to try to try to build that notion oh gosh um don’t ask me any hard
Questions I know um I’m sorry these are just hard questions this is hard stuff yeah it is hard stuff and I guess through my experience having worked in the legislature and the legislative process for 30 some years and in in a in a small way it comes down to building
Relationships and getting to know people and you know one of the things I’ve I’ve seen over the years um from both when both parties were in in control one year or the next year it’s changed you know in in Lancing but people coming from West Michigan Northern Michigan coming
Spending a day in Detroit and going oh my gosh you know I’m learning some things I’m meeting some amazing people that I never knew about taking people from uh all parts of the state and legislators um do that they go visit each other and it’s but it’s very it’s
An intentional process it doesn’t happen all the time organically has to be intentional and it comes down to who is sitting in the legislature that’s going to lead with that intentionality that’s been my experience now we’re starting to run short of time uh we’ve got about five minutes left um
But Rend Anthony I do want to turn to you but I really want the entire group to talk about this issue which is which what can we do at a more Grassroots level are there some things that have worked in your experience in the many programs that you’ve been involved with
That have tried to change people’s lives how could we scale some of those things up I mentioned at the beginning a bunch of really terrific civic education programs that are this big and could be much bigger just talk a little bit about your experience what what seems to work
At the local level that might have some some potential to scale one of the things I would suggest a person to think about uh the nacp uh we have what we call ask the lawyer uh that’s a program of Engagement that lawyers participate in with people in the community
Grassroots folk in the community you take an hour of your time and you come and people come and you talk to them they talk to you about their situation that’s Direct engagement and that and you don’t have to take their case but you can show them how they can be on the
Case and what they need to do that’s a direct level of Engagement I think the Secretary of State Vincent talked about uh The Advisory committees that she set up around uh the state where uh we can talk about election uh protection and engagement um our take your souls to the
PO program is not just a phrase It’s a program it deals with education motivation protection and participation and engagement of the community information for the community protection once you vote uh and participation to get out to vote and so it’s being used all around the country
Now and so there’s a and and part of that is lawyers being engaged just being on duty and available uh to engage in the process and make sure the rights of the people are respected so it really is up to you in terms of what it is you
Want to do um if there’s a willing heart there’s a willing head Curtis how does that sound to you I mean he’s obviously Reverend Anthony’s talking about lawyers and and how they can do more does that sound feasible are there ways are there some Avenues you
Can imagine there are a lot of bar associations that do exactly that uh have uh ask a lawyer day that’s that’s useful uh you know I was at uh Huntington place in 2022 there were handful of lawyers there and the process worked well because when there was an
Issue people talked to the lawyers and the lawyers worked it out conversations with Chris Thomas and there was no drama because people could hear from lawyers this is appropriate what they’re doing you don’t have an objection or if there was a question there was a conversation
In and it got worked out so there’s the old saying if if you want to get something done ask a busy person a lot of people are busy but there’s another way to engage and we need to engage even more in the process and the last thing I
Would say yeah uh there was talk about integrity and empathy we don’t talk about that enough and our students should be taught about integrity and empathy because having empathy is is different than just I have my position you have to hear somebody else’s position seek first to understand then
To be understood this is how we’re going to change the current coarseness of our society well I think our time is up uh please join me in thanking our panelists to take up taking up these really difficult issues thank you so much uh Dan quick is
Going to come up and talk about the breakout groups Reverend all right you’ve done a lot of listening now it is time to do some talking uh if you look on your name badges you all have a little dot that is a color when you step outside this room there will be
Some very nice chaperon with sheets of paper with colors and they will escort you to the breakout rooms that you are assigned to we tried to Shake It Up in terms of uh geography and uh Walk of Life Etc and these break groups um you
Have a sheet to use to help guide you in your discussions obviously you’ve heard the the pillars of of this presentation and that’s the focus of those groups and we’re really focused on hearing from you what can be done institutionally on a long-term basis to promote these goals
Of uh belief in our election system and Civics and uh civility uh we want you back here in this room at 4ish is that right Elizabeth okay around about four your chaperon will gather you up now no Dilly dallying we want to get you back here
There are cocktails at the end of the day but before that we have secretary Johnson uh to hear from uh and we more importantly want to hear all of your thoughts so gather up thank you folks where do you want us right here in front FR of our names e you e okay E e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e
E e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e yeah thir if I could have your attention if everybody can return to their seats we’re going to hear from breakout groups
And then we’re going to hear from secretary Johnson if you could please return to your seats as soon as possible e okay I’m going to ask everybody who was the you know moderator or spokesperson for their breakout group to come and sit in the front row go go is modeling this Behavior by
Sitting in the front row I didn’t either all right keep coming we really want to uh get everybody up and sharing their thoughts as soon as possible okay I’m gonna wait one more minute all right all right I’m not I’m gonna go in no particular order because I don’t have
One um does the red team have a representative who wants to stand up and share what your team talked about blue team ah go go you have the mic you have one minute one minute because we’ve got a one minute uh so no fill Busters here today no uh so
One of the main takeaways that uh we took from our discussions is that uh bipartisan Solutions are will be key we also had a special emphasis on freedom of press because we understand getting information that’s clear and accurate out to the public is going to be very key in the election cycle
Um but there are different ways to do that uh there’s through social media peer-to-peer Communications and through school extracurricular activities um we also discussed a number of barriers to getting out this information there’s misinformation that’s taking place uh throughout our citizenry right now there’s a digital divide uh ele elected
Officials are performing for the gram but not actually engaging with the community um we need elected officials to get out of the community and listen we need to tie the issues of the day to what it means to vote so that everyone understands what’s on the
Ballot what’s at stake uh there’s a need to talk about the importance of local government because that makes it easier for voters to understand why voting matters and then that kind of spreads to the importance for federal elections and Statewide elections um in terms of what
Wasn’t covered here today uh more of a focus on the law and legal Concepts um education on voting has to be ongoing not just you know sporadic type things and uh I think that was about it from our group is that a minute thank you that was a minute perfect
Okay anybody from the orange group right I’m the orange group so our um our group talking about the the top three takeaways the importance of organizing and acting both at the Grassroots level as you know Civic engagement and Civic organizations but also as individuals getting involved in ways other than just the voting
Process so working through the process as well um civic education and the importance of starting that process when kids are young and really reinvesting and re engaging in the civic education of our young people and how much of a difference that makes in in their perception uh and the ways that
Elections are transparent and accessible um I think it’s some of the things we talked about in terms of how do we best increase the trust of people in Michigan um we need to get to people where they are in terms of multiple touch points uh engaging them and in the need to use
Different Tools in which to do that that uh and then encouraging participation in the process again kind of reemphasizing the fact that it’s really important to work through the process if you have questions and engaging people in that way um I talk about this a lot as an
Election official but I think election officials are normally nerds I know I am your datadriven kind of a mentality right want to get things done um but over the past several years we’ve also had to be communication experts and the importance of really engaging and the public confidence level and and making
Sure that we are uh focusing on that but also we have the resources to focus on that oh my gosh it’s up all right thank you all right sorry I have to be I have to be this way uh yellow team team yellow we have a team yellow Andy come
On up so uh we ended our conversation with uh trying to understand the degree to which uh the polarization is the fault of the public or is it the fault of our leaders or both and to what degree and we I think thought that was at least an interesting
Important uh thing to think about when addressing uh remedies uh we started our conversation with going over root causes of um the polarization and the nonpartisanship or the extreme dysfunction uh in our politics uh one of them was just a failure of leadership standards um another was um the tendency
To look backward and retiga the past rather than looking uh forward uh another one is this new idea that there is a winner take all mentality uh another one is just social media and too much access to too much information that is just is that me too much
Orientation uh and so what are our Solutions our Solutions are uh building uh you know intergenerational communication and uh greater uh accountability by the voters thank you Andy all right purple team purple come on up Aon thank you all right purple let’s do it all right ER Morell dickon right in Detroit
We had a lively discussion for our purple team first uh start them when they are young we emphasize that it’s very important that this educational process begins at the very early stages of Education accountability was absolutely critical uh and actually not just having education for our children but democracy Academy for adults we
Talked about uh what didn’t come up the obligation as lawyers to uh prevent cases coming in that have absolutely no merit and the obligation is professional it’s something that we should emphasize more of the fact that there are substantial problems at Huntington bank or Huntington place but those are
Bipartisan notun Bank hunon Place certainly those were bipartisan and I think that that needs to be emphasized hero pope did a good job of talking about that more training for election Challengers specifically uh election Challengers need specific guidance or as to what their role is and how best to
Execute that uh we talked about transparency civic education and making sure that people ultimately have a voice having a voice is the most significant barrier we that people ultimately feel that the Ed the election system is working on their behalf that’s what we need the most thank you very much appreciate it
Wonder all right Team Pink very timely does the walk up here take away from my time no I haven’t started the clock all right good um Team Pink came up with a lot of the same emphases that we’ve already heard but um we we had a lot of discussion about the need to
Break down the silos and communication um in order to rebuild trust in our institutions and that that trust can only come through transparency and consistency we went sort of from the micro level like how do we use trusted in institutions that already exist churches Scouts um Boy Scouts and Girl
Scouts to take uh take their credibility and take their participants to the voting places to the to the public events such as we heard from our elections panel we also our big audacious idea was that the institutions themselves that have uh been drained of some trust um need some sort of structural re
Rehabilitation um over time and this is going to be a a long process and that we want to break down the silos between the legal community and the academic community and and government in terms of how to address these problems thank okay team black well we had a very diverse group a
A Township Clerk circuit court judge um an attorney engaged in election law voters not politicians volunteer and a secretary of state office representative and the group was very supportive of what we heard today um a lot of conversation about the importance of experiential learning for our kids but
One comment was um we need to celebrate our history yes we have a flawed American history but there’s much to celebrate about how our constitution was created has been preserved and needs to be strengthened and that reminded all of us that it’s not just our teachers that
We need to work with it’s all of us in our families parents grandparents those of us who are helping to raise our children getting them uh informed about history engaged in the election process finally Justin robach is my uh County Clerk um and I had to put in a word
About the need to support our local clerks um they are trusted voices for the most part around the state and if we encourage them to get out and interact with citizens we can help to offset the kind of social media information that is really misinformation about our
Elections um so it was a great conversation final word when I looked at our group we’ve all filled out volunteer forms we need to keep the conversation going and do networking about how we can support each other in our various roles thank you great thank you Paul okay team Brown say that’s
You okay all right I’m John Paris I’m a citizen I guess is the best way to describe me um what we talked a lot about was the audience that the we got a lot out of the presentation today and a younger younger audience would have would have really added to this kids
Need to to understand what’s going on I guess the other thing we talked a lot about was what really comes home is how intentional you know all this uh disinformation the rest of it how how you know that was something that really struck us um things that came up that
Shouldn’t have or that should have rather um were were some of the impacts in our politics like um for example the um Israel Israel and Palestine how that’s now you know in addition to threats from other countries there’s also these things in Impact our internal
Politics as well um the best for uh to get more trust in election I think is to tape the the gentlemen that were on this panel talking about the election interference and the lack or you know election um what’s the word I’m looking here fraud and lack thereof I think
That’s a powerful thing you do I would upload that on uh Facebook tomorrow I I put it out there every single day um and that’s another thing um we think that Civics education that it’s in the schools uh is not in the schools that’s insane every kid should have to take it
They made me take jym they made me take typing they can make me take Civics um it’s you know we are really blessed in this country and our kids you know somehow that’s gotten lost and I think we can bring it back to them um the other way to educate we had
Another good one um getting people more involved to being an election inspector I myself have become one recently and when you see how the process works you you realize in about 10 seconds that um the election stuff is just false um that’s all thank you thank you thank you so
Much okay team red great David So team red completely ignored the instructions just had a really nice conversation about democracy for 30 plus minutes um but some common themes were the need for civic education um the need to incorporate disagreeing with those that we disagree with politically civil
Like not seeing these people as our enemies um and then another theme was is the idea that we are constantly being inundated with messages it’s not just the other guys it’s us who are being inundated with messages that are designed to anger us and get us to share
Them people are farming our rage and we should be aware of that and people should avoid falling victim to that and with that I yield the rest of my time all right um we have one more team um but the spokesperson for that team had to
Leave uh it’s it’s green team so do we have anybody from the green team that feels comfortable sharing oh it looks like we do I have the sheet if you want to okay great I won’t need the timer then just to end it on a light note we
Decided that the return of School House Rock was really the answer to everything well we at the 11 Center are big fans of Schoolhouse Rock except it doesn’t talk about oversight which is a minor a minor problem um one thing I would clarify is that actually Civics is
Required for graduation in the state of Michigan the Challen yes the Civics teachers up there are are now applauding um but the problem is that um for good or bad we have a very decentralized system here in Michigan there is no State curriculum the State Board the State Department of Education cannot and
Do not even recommend curriculum that is the system we have now we can talk about changing that system but that is the system we operate in so it really does call upon us to uh elevate really effective practices and programs and yes Linda I just want to make com
Excellent point Linda thank you for that um I think many of the folks gathered here who are going to pick up all of this information uh should bear that mind and with that I will say thank you so much and I think I’m now going to recognize mayor Archer
No I’m not going to recognize mayor oh yes but I thought you were gonna introduce him I’m sorry uh secretary Johnson is somebody else gonna I thought are you gonna introduce so that’s what I thought you were gonna do okay thank you let me just say as it
Relates to the comment about the um what to do now that something you’d hope might have been said as opposed to waiting for something the reason why we’re having this hearing in the first place is because the Democracy task force said we need to hear what’s going on around the
Country what does each state and there’s seven seven states we’re the seven states that were looked at when there was some concern about where were the votes being countered where the Machines working Etc and we are blessed to have two of the co-chairs here and we’ve
Heard from je Ludy but now I want you to hear from secretary Jay Johnson he has been where many of us would like to have had an opportunity and when he got the opportunity he delivered for our country and he did an outstanding job was a great example and there was a lot
Of working together cross-pollination of everything when he was the Secretary of Homeland Security under President Obama it’s been my honor to know him and know about him and what he’s accomplished and after he finished I’m gonna come up with another comment Jay [Applause] please thank you mayor Archer who’s been
A uh a friend and a family friend um to my late uncle and my wife and his wife um I I’m a citizen like you I’m a concerned citizen you know we say in this democracy that the status of Citizen is the most powerful position to occupy I’m
A concerned citizen I’m concerned about the future of our democracy we learned in the last four eight years that our democracy really is fragile we’d like to say that we have the most enduring democracy on Earth and we like to brag we least used to like to brag that we always have peaceful
Transfers of power we can’t say that anymore I decided to wait until I got here and listened to some of the speakers before I settled on what I would say I’m in the unenviable position of being last before the cocktail hour you may need a drink after you’re done listening to
Me um it’s a pleasure to be here with some friends it’s pleasure to be back in Detroit I am the proud owner of a Shinola watch uh no matter how old I get I’ll always be able to read the face of that watch because it’s so
Large um I had the honor of once doing an event with John Conor John Dingle and Debbie Dingle they stood right next to me and I said to the audience standing to my right is over 120 years of distinguished public service and Debbie did not hesitate to say but she was only
One of those [Laughter] years um so this issue that we talked about here today transcends politics democracy is like water we all benefit every day in our lives by water we don’t always wake up in the morning and say thank you water but as soon as somebody ever tried to
Take it away we would be desperate to get it back democracy Is Like Oxygen we don’t you know bless the oxygen every morning when we get up either but our lives depend on it and if someone tried to take away your oxygen you’d be desperate to get it back democracy is
Freedom freedom to assemble like we are doing today freedom of speech freedom of religion where you worship freedom to pick your leaders and if someone tried to take that away we would be desperate to get back our freedom just like we’d be desperate to get back our democracy but
We don’t appreciate ated every single day this is why I as busy as I am now in my private life I’m I said yes when I got the call from Mary Smith the president of the ABA to join judge ludig in this important Endeavor I’m a Democrat he’s a republican I’m tall he’s
Short I’m bald he is not he is from Texas I am from New York but we both took that oath to support and defend the Constitution like a number of you did in this room the very same oath and we rever that very same Constitution it’s the same words for
Every person in this room we rever and respect our constitution our laws and our constitutional norms most important I was also a pleasur it was a pleasure for me to meet Joselyn Benson today in the flesh since I’ve been in private life seven years I have endorsed exactly one person for exact elective
Office and that was Joselyn Benson because of her dedication to election security um so there’s bad and good in the current situation we Face the good news is is levels of voter participation cycle after cycle in recent years has been going up in many respects in our free Society
Our greatest strengths are also our greatest weaknesses I’m convinced that one of the reasons voter participation levels have been going up is because of social media people are more informed because they have more places to go to be informed the bad news is that a lot of what people consume have no
Barriers for entry or standards for exit there are no there are very few journalistic standards for anybody who can get on the internet with a keyboard the result of which are some of these very alarming poll numbers we see about how some 70% of Americans think maybe we
Should try something else which skews Young by the way alarming alarmingly High high percentage percentages of Americans uh don’t believe 9/11 happened don’t believe Sandy Hook happened believed somehow a government conspiracy that’s a dangerous place to be so there’s bad and good I believe I have come to
Believe you I’m I’m on the board of directors of the 911 Memorial Museum in New York City I have come to believe that that if we had another 911 in this country we could not respond in the way we did after 911 many of you will remember how this nation after
911 just nine months after a very very contentious election came together levels of enlistment in the US military surged American flags were everywhere we came together Republicans and Democrats I work because of the division in our politics today we had another 911 we could not come together in the same
Way we all like to say we used to say it would take a crisis to get us together guess what we had a crisis called covid did it bring us together no we had fights and debates about the cause about masks about vaccinations the result of which in the
Most sophisticated Nation on Earth in terms of our health our health care far too many people died unnecessarily because we could not mobilize and rally around a common message a common solution so we have a lot of work to do and at the national level and at the
Local level um given the way our presidential election eltion work given the division in our politics given the Electoral College a system frankly where losers win and winners lose this presidential election well over 150 million people are going to vote but this President this presidential election will be
Decided it’s going to be close it will be decided in four or maybe five States including this one right here in key districts in in this one right here my vote in New Jersey is irrelevant anyone here from California your vote for president is irrelevant even your vote in Virginia is probably
Irrelevant a small percentage of us will will decide this election which is why a presidential election is very vulnerable to accusations of being rigged somehow and so it’s so important even for national results for us to focus on what we do not a decade from now but this fall this
Summer to ensure a fair and safe national election in terms of legislative districts Congress state and local because of safe seeks because of geram mandering because of political geram mandering we have the representatives who pick their voters not the voters picking their representatives which is the source for a lot of the political
Polarization we see in Washington for example because something like 400 435 seats in Congress are safe districts the Democrat is more concerned about looking over his or her left shoulder and the Republican is more concerned about looking over his right shoulder for an attack from the extreme right so
Compromise in Washington is a dirty word bipartisanship is a dirty word and the best illustration of that today is a very conservative senator from Oklahoma Jim lenford came together with a very Progressive senator from Connecticut named Chris Murphy along with Kristen Cinema and negotiated a very strong robust border
Security Bill the strongest one we’ve had in decades and the politics of that issue mandate that the politicians would rather have it as an issue unsolved that they could complain about versus fixing the problem versus actually fixing the problem people ask me how do you fix our
Border security this is a problem I owned for three years how do you fix our border security well the solution is at hand it’s been negotiated but they won’t vote on it they don’t want to vote on it they’d rather have it as an issue because too few of our politicians depend
Upon the middle the great middle of our electorate they depend upon the extremes to get reelected over and over again there are too many safe districts I am focused on our task force most notably on how we fix legislative district lines and how we create incentives for our elected
Representatives to appeal to the center and not to the extremes I’ve been heartened to see that there are a number of initiatives including right here in Michigan uh for citizens to draw District Lines versus politicians drawing their own District Lines here in Michigan Ohio California does it already
Uh that is a path to a solution here in in my in my judg the problem that I see right here in this room frankly a lot of good energy in this room um judge ludig and I Mary the other members of their task force Bill idy who’s Vice chairman we’ve been heartened
By the number of organizations Nationwide that have come forward to say how can we help you how can we partner with you we want to help this room is filled with people concerned about our democracy which is which is heartening for us it’s encouraging there’s a lot of
Interest but the problem I see looking out at this room is that the mean age of people in this room while it’s younger than me I’m 66 it’s not that much younger than me as has been alluded to now several times we need to get young people behind
This issue we need to get young people interested in this issue in colleges we’re on the campus of a college a university colleges universities getting young people as concerned about the future of our democracy as we are um people of my generation lived through
Vietnam I mean I was a I was a kid in the early 60s during the Civil Rights Movement but we live through Vietnam we live through Watergate we lived through Richard Nixon we lived through Barack Obama and we lived through Trump my kids are 2829 they started voting in 2016 they
Started voting in 2016 the only presidential ballot they know since they’ve been voting has Donald Trump on it and so they come from a different place as do anybody in America younger than 28 29 how do we get them engaged that is our our great challenge we talk
About Civics in education you’ll be interested to know that a naturalized American citizen has to learn more than what we probably teach in social studies today I am convinced that if you gave a social studies test to a naturalized American versus a a 21y old who was born here the
Naturalized American would do far better I’ve helped people get prepared for the test and it’s they ask a lot of tough questions on that test so you know we we talk about going back to basics but I think it’s more than that and this is
The this is the thought I want to leave you with um we need to teach young people about heroes of democracy not just the basics but hero who are the heroes and in this country we are suckers for Heroes I have my heroes Dennis has his Heroes judge lck
Has his Heroes we all have our heroes we’re suckers for Heroes Heroes like you know Fanny Lou hamr or John Lewis I recently some of you may not know this among my many hobbies I have a radio show back home in northern New Jersey I’m a huge classic R&B fan Reverend
One Saturday a month not Sunday one Saturday a month I go on wbgo FM 88.3 and I play my favorite classic R&B for two hours they let me do this um I someone told me you have a radio voice and so once a month I play the Dells glattus Knight Luther Teddy pinegrass
Um Dramatics um Patty Lael and I have one interview per show my first interview two years ago was a saxophonist from Arkansas named Bill Clinton um he loved it but I also recently interviewed Charlene Hunter G who desegregated the University of Georgia system and I asked her in the
Interview what when she had to walk out on campus with this angry mob this angry white mob screaming at her and just as a 19-year-old 18-year-old girl how did she do it and she said my grandmother used to force me to memorize a Bible verse every day a new
Bible verse every day before I went to bed and I hated I just wanted to swing on the mango tree I didn’t want to learn the Bible but she forced me to learn a Bible verse every single day and I said well what did you what about that got
You through it she said said I remembered one VI one B verse in particular yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Darkness I will feel no evil that’s one of my heroes so we should we need to remind people of the heroes in this country including
People that some people maybe have never heard of and then on a global scale as well what about you know telling high school students about Alexi naly or Malala the Pakistani girl who was the Taliban tried to assassinate at age 15 by shooting her in the face who then
Went to the UN and proclaimed her courage so we’re suckers for Heroes so let’s Inspire young people with the reasons and the virtue of our democracy but also the heroes of our democracy and I believe we will get through this um because we will all do the right
Thing in the end as Winston Churchill said Americans um they try everything first but in the end they do the right thing and so that’s what we’re going to do here thank you all and thank you for organizing this conference now I’ve been looking out at all of
You and I can’t tell you how pleased and thankful I am that you all came and looking at some who are in the room it reminded me for example Bill iy who is a former president of the American Bar Association with whom I worked with and served when he was
President there was a program that all young lawyers who belong to the ABA had to go back home and to work with the local Board of Education where we would agree to come in and teach a civics class for two weeks to explain the Constitution president Senators the
House Supreme Court and things of that nature and we’ve lost that but guess what we may have found it thanks to all of you and your ideas we can make a difference and Atlanta had a meeting on the 13th and I watched them on television and they did a beautiful job
In sharing their thoughts and their views and they did did not have time for what the person who helped put that program together bill iyed then because we needed to get something done right away and let’s get something out there what can we learn from it and so his suggestion
Was do you think you all might be able to have time for breakout sessions and I said we’re GNA make time for breakout sessions and I’ve heard from you and and you’ve shared your thoughts and your views and that makes a big difference I’d like to end by just saying something real
Personal on 911 I was watching television and Judy and I were getting ready to go vote because there was a new election coming up for whoever was going to be mayor and I having to turn on television and saw that there was a fire in one of the
Towers and I thought well how could that be it’s not cloudy how can an airplane go into that big a building and as we watch and try to figure it out another plane came in and then a plane went into the Pentagon and then some very brave
Americans took over an airplane so it could not come to what they thought might have been to Washington DC into the White House during that time or before that occurred there was some concern expressed from time to time we are very fortunate in the Detroit area to have the largest Middle Eastern
Population outside of the Middle East itself and there had been some misunderstandings some disagreements in some anger that was had occurred between the some of the African-American community and the Middle Eastern Community and I had gone to a number of schools and churches Etc to speak and to
See what we could do to bring that temperature down and one of the first group of people to open up their door door was Sher edic the temple three Mayors came together the mayor of Detroit the mayor of Dearborn and the mayor of um Windsor and we made it very clear
Because at that time it had been prominent that we as African-Americans would be um from time to time the subject of stop police and Etc and how we might be treated we came together and made it very clear because we found out that the people who had planned the
Attack happen to be from the Middle East we made it very clear that we in Detroit care deeply about our Middle Eastern friends and neighbors as did the Jewish Community who said we’re not going to tolerate anything like that and the mayor from Windsor we all came
Together we did not have a problem in Detroit as a result of that there was a reverend wend anony and others who spoke up and I looked out at the audience as I was watching you today one of my main men and one of the guys who got involved in my campaign who
Helped me whenn and then came on to work at my Administration he was in law school and I told him take time off to study for the bar he did he passed but Mike sarafa is sitting back there and reminded me of how we all came together because we
Cared and we need to care but we need to understand that there are a lot of issues over which we have no control and we can’t deal with but I think about what we’ve achieved and I see Cynthia Ford whose husband etel was a guy I went to to see if we
Couldn’t celebrate the 300th anniversary of the city of Detroit and he raised the money to make that happen and brought all the businesses who had been here for a long time we could celebrate them in the L we have a waterfront today that we can thank etel for helping to
Build a walkway that went from Co Hall to Har Plaza and we had two statutes that were put up one was in Windsor and one in Detroit because Detroit was a stop on the Underground Railroad there was a big big effort made in what we developed in this city collectively together
Nobody really at the time thought we would see what we see today but nobody thought we would ever have a chance of having or to be chosen for an empowerment Zone I worked with John Dingle and all of the members of Congress Republican and Democrat and we needed to raise money so
We could put a proposal before Congress to be considered in the audience today Brenda Snider who was a senior vice president of Comerica Bank I said Brenda nobody gave us a chance but I think we might be able to do it if we could show we could raise the
Money and Brenda raised and put online we had to be raised and committed to be spent if we made a proposal whether we wanted or not we raised she raised a commitment from all the banks of over a billion dollars and then the automotives came up and said this is
What we’ll give back and then people like Curtis blessing and others were talking to businesses and lawyers and people gave back we made a difference today you made a difference going forward thanks to the two co-chairs that we have and thanks to Bill I thinking about we ought to have a breakout
Session and we made it better because all of you attended my message is watch out because I’m telling you we’re coming back it’s going to make a difference we’re going to have the kind of education for our young people it’s going to make a difference and you made it possible thank you for
[Applause] coming
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