Mr Secretary. Thank you for your time today. Thanks for having me. Let's talk about the fight against election fraud has sort of morphed *** little bit at this conference into the fight over fraud detection. And I'm speaking about Eric, the electronic registration Information Center. It's this group of states that share data and they're trying to catch people that are double voting or registered in two states, et cetera. There have has been *** move by some states to withdraw from this multi state compact and sharing your state is still in it. Although *** bill passed both houses of your legislature that would withdraw the state from the data, sharing your governor who used to be in your position as secretary of state veto that bill. Why do you think the state should stay in Eric? Well, Eric has two important components that I think folks need to realize first is the sort of cleaning of the election rolls piece that you described. But the second one is an obligation by member states to reach out to eligible but unregistered EBU voters. And so I think what is happening is quite frankly, *** political move by some folks to not reach out to those potential voters in their own states. And that's one of the things that I think is critically important because it's not just the data sharing. Uh It's just not just having that much more and better information, but it's also an outreach program on the back side. And that's where I think the political problem happens. Um We know that there are some people out there who just don't want everyone to vote. And that's part of the greater problem that we have in this country is the anti democracy movement that we are trying to fight against. So just to be clear, sir, and to put you on the spot, you are at *** conference with lots of your colleagues, lots of your secretaries of state, including some who are Republican who have taken their states out of this Eric compact. Are you saying that some of your colleagues here at this conference do not want everyone to vote? And that, that is one of the reasons that they're withdrawing? Well, I don't know uh why else they would withdraw. As *** matter of fact, we've heard some of them say they want to replace the data collection point. Uh and, and get into some other kind of *** system where that same sort of side *** of this coin. Uh the data sharing and the data security would be, would be uh part of that program but not the outreach part So one can logically surmise that that's their position on this one issue. There's *** lot of other things that we as secretaries do in business services in archiving and other services so we can agree to disagree on some things and agree on other things. Uh But I do think that uh that's part of what's happening here. We're at the annual summer conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State and almost always the topic of misinformation and disinformation comes up. So I want to ask you about this. Um There is *** new frontier now. It seems of disinformation. That's artificial intelligence. *** I deep fakes. Are you worried about *** I and deep fakes, misleading voters in your state? Absolutely. I think everybody is concerned about it. I actually brought it up in the secretary's only session yesterday. We will be paying closer attention to it as an association. Uh I also intend to bring this up at the Lieutenant Governor's Association in Iowa next month. Uh It's an incredibly important thing. The National Association of county officials over at NACO have taken *** really important leading role in addressing this with their exploratory committee. And we're hoping to be able to, we're hoping to be able to join forces among these different governmental associations to be able to attack this issue, right? We've seen def fakes of former President Obama. We've seen def fakes of all kinds of different people and it's hard for journalists as well to know what's real and what's not. Yeah. Unless you're sitting face to face with someone. Nowadays, the technology, uh, can be *** little bit, um, it can be *** little bit tough to detect sometimes and, and, and that's important for us. Uh, but the reality is this, we've got to deal with it first by knowing what it is, what it's about. Uh, there's *** lot of folks who are concerned with this. I know the European Union is already addressing it. Two of our states in the United States of America already have legislation that is either proposed or passed, dealing in some way with generative artificial intelligence, which is the one that I think we're talking about that is of concern. So it's something we're paying attention to and I want to make sure that Arizona is as well prepared. This talk about another issue facing Secretary of the State, the Brennan Center for Justice in April released survey results that found about one in five election workers. So that's 20% plan to quit before the next presidential election, which is just next year. That's equivalent. They said to 1 to 2 election officials quitting per day since the 2020 presidential election which saw unprecedented threats as you well know in Arizona disinformation, COVID, et cetera. Are you expecting higher than normal numbers of election workers to quit in your state before the next election? Well, we're already there in Arizona in 12 of our 15 counties, we've lost *** senior election official, either the elected county recorder or the appointed election director. Uh, and that's 12 out of 15 of Arizona's County and in some cases, they've lost more than one of each of those officers. We're dealing with *** plague uh, of folks leaving the profession now. Not all of them are leaving because of uh misinformation, disinformation or threats. Uh But that's not making it any easier to retain *** lot of this institutional knowledge. And the folks who actually are the ones who run our elections. Arizona as you know, is *** bottom up state, not *** top down state. So we regulate, but the counties run the elections. Is it *** concern? Absolutely. It's *** concern. My problem is that the Maga grifters out there who are continuing to push the lie, who are continuing to push this miss and disinformation are hurting their own voters, they're hurting their own constituents because what you're going to end up with is actual issues in elections where none really existed in the past. We have manufactured concocted problems that are causing these threats to emerge, that's chasing experienced folks away. Now, you're replacing them with inexperienced folks who are more prone probably to make mistakes and that hurts our voters across the political spectrum. So this counterproductive nonsense by these maga grifters, these folks who are out there just trying to destroy our systems. That's the real problem here. Well, the secretary just before you Al Schmidt from Pennsylvania, he mentioned that he's worried that inp inexperienced election workers could make *** honest mistake that is then blown up, you know, disinformation and twisted to something that it's not, again, it's more likely that you're gonna, I mean, look, this is *** human system, it's more likely that you're gonna make *** mistake if you don't have that long time experience and those folks who are out there mentoring and coaching all these other folks uh who may be newer into the system and, and again, but we don't just look at the problem here, right? The problem is people leaving the cause is people are still lying about American elections. And the, the worst thing is they're having us lose faith in one another as Americans because the people who run American elections are not elected officials like me, they're not the supervisors or the, the directors. It's those folks who come in and do the work, these election workers that we're talking about. It's the folks who are working at the polling places and in the warehouses and dealing with the the ballots by hand. Those are the folks who are leaving, that's you and me, our neighbors and by killing the faith that we have in one another as Americans, we're really destroying sort of that fabric of our society. And that's *** problem. That's what we have to solve. And for the people watching at home. This interview, I've spoken to dozens of secretaries of state since the 2020 presidential election. Every single one have told me there was no widespread fraud that would have affected the results of the election in their state. You have said the same. Absolutely. Absolutely. And the shame is on those folks who continue to push the lie. The shame is on those folks who continue to fight against the American people themselves, tearing us apart from one another based on nonsense perpetuated by one guy and his political aspirations. Uh That's the problem that we have in our society greater than any Mr Secretary. Thank you for your time today. Thank you so much. Mr Secretary. Thank you for your time today. Thanks for having me. Let's talk about the fight against election fraud has sort of morphed *** little bit at this conference into the fight over fraud detection. And I'm speaking about Eric, the electronic registration Information Center. It's this group of states that share data and they're trying to catch people that are double voting or registered in two states, et cetera. There have has been *** move by some states to withdraw from this multi state compact and sharing your state is still in it. Although *** bill passed both houses of your legislature that would withdraw the state from the data, sharing your governor who used to be in your position as secretary of state veto that bill. Why do you think the state should stay in Eric? Well, Eric has two important components that I think folks need to realize first is the sort of cleaning of the election rolls piece that you described. But the second one is an obligation by member states to reach out to eligible but unregistered EBU voters. And so I think what is happening is quite frankly, *** political move by some folks to not reach out to those potential voters in their own states. And that's one of the things that I think is critically important because it's not just the data sharing. Uh It's just not just having that much more and better information, but it's also an outreach program on the back side. And that's where I think the political problem happens. Um We know that there are some people out there who just don't want everyone to vote. And that's part of the greater problem that we have in this country is the anti democracy movement that we are trying to fight against. So just to be clear, sir, and to put you on the spot, you are at *** conference with lots of your colleagues, lots of your secretaries of state, including some who are Republican who have taken their states out of this Eric compact. Are you saying that some of your colleagues here at this conference do not want everyone to vote? And that, that is one of the reasons that they're withdrawing? Well, I don't know uh why else they would withdraw. As *** matter of fact, we've heard some of them say they want to replace the data collection point. Uh and, and get into some other kind of *** system where that same sort of side *** of this coin. Uh the data sharing and the data security would be, would be uh part of that program but not the outreach part So one can logically surmise that that's their position on this one issue. There's *** lot of other things that we as secretaries do in business services in archiving and other services so we can agree to disagree on some things and agree on other things. Uh But I do think that uh that's part of what's happening here. We're at the annual summer conference of the National Association of Secretaries of State and almost always the topic of misinformation and disinformation comes up. So I want to ask you about this. Um There is *** new frontier now. It seems of disinformation. That's artificial intelligence. *** I deep fakes. Are you worried about *** I and deep fakes, misleading voters in your state? Absolutely. I think everybody is concerned about it. I actually brought it up in the secretary's only session yesterday. We will be paying closer attention to it as an association. Uh I also intend to bring this up at the Lieutenant Governor's Association in Iowa next month. Uh It's an incredibly important thing. The National Association of county officials over at NACO have taken *** really important leading role in addressing this with their exploratory committee. And we're hoping to be able to, we're hoping to be able to join forces among these different governmental associations to be able to attack this issue, right? We've seen def fakes of former President Obama. We've seen def fakes of all kinds of different people and it's hard for journalists as well to know what's real and what's not. Yeah. Unless you're sitting face to face with someone. Nowadays, the technology, uh, can be *** little bit, um, it can be *** little bit tough to detect sometimes and, and, and that's important for us. Uh, but the reality is this, we've got to deal with it first by knowing what it is, what it's about. Uh, there's *** lot of folks who are concerned with this. I know the European Union is already addressing it. Two of our states in the United States of America already have legislation that is either proposed or passed, dealing in some way with generative artificial intelligence, which is the one that I think we're talking about that is of concern. So it's something we're paying attention to and I want to make sure that Arizona is as well prepared. This talk about another issue facing Secretary of the State, the Brennan Center for Justice in April released survey results that found about one in five election workers. So that's 20% plan to quit before the next presidential election, which is just next year. That's equivalent. They said to 1 to 2 election officials quitting per day since the 2020 presidential election which saw unprecedented threats as you well know in Arizona disinformation, COVID, et cetera. Are you expecting higher than normal numbers of election workers to quit in your state before the next election? Well, we're already there in Arizona in 12 of our 15 counties, we've lost *** senior election official, either the elected county recorder or the appointed election director. Uh, and that's 12 out of 15 of Arizona's County and in some cases, they've lost more than one of each of those officers. We're dealing with *** plague uh, of folks leaving the profession now. Not all of them are leaving because of uh misinformation, disinformation or threats. Uh But that's not making it any easier to retain *** lot of this institutional knowledge. And the folks who actually are the ones who run our elections. Arizona as you know, is *** bottom up state, not *** top down state. So we regulate, but the counties run the elections. Is it *** concern? Absolutely. It's *** concern. My problem is that the Maga grifters out there who are continuing to push the lie, who are continuing to push this miss and disinformation are hurting their own voters, they're hurting their own constituents because what you're going to end up with is actual issues in elections where none really existed in the past. We have manufactured concocted problems that are causing these threats to emerge, that's chasing experienced folks away. Now, you're replacing them with inexperienced folks who are more prone probably to make mistakes and that hurts our voters across the political spectrum. So this counterproductive nonsense by these maga grifters, these folks who are out there just trying to destroy our systems. That's the real problem here. Well, the secretary just before you Al Schmidt from Pennsylvania, he mentioned that he's worried that inp inexperienced election workers could make *** honest mistake that is then blown up, you know, disinformation and twisted to something that it's not, again, it's more likely that you're gonna, I mean, look, this is *** human system, it's more likely that you're gonna make *** mistake if you don't have that long time experience and those folks who are out there mentoring and coaching all these other folks uh who may be newer into the system and, and again, but we don't just look at the problem here, right? The problem is people leaving the cause is people are still lying about American elections. And the, the worst thing is they're having us lose faith in one another as Americans because the people who run American elections are not elected officials like me, they're not the supervisors or the, the directors. It's those folks who come in and do the work, these election workers that we're talking about. It's the folks who are working at the polling places and in the warehouses and dealing with the the ballots by hand. Those are the folks who are leaving, that's you and me, our neighbors and by killing the faith that we have in one another as Americans, we're really destroying sort of that fabric of our society. And that's *** problem. That's what we have to solve. And for the people watching at home. This interview, I've spoken to dozens of secretaries of state since the 2020 presidential election. Every single one have told me there was no widespread fraud that would have affected the results of the election in their state. You have said the same. Absolutely. Absolutely. And the shame is on those folks who continue to push the lie. The shame is on those folks who continue to fight against the American people themselves, tearing us apart from one another based on nonsense perpetuated by one guy and his political aspirations. Uh That's the problem that we have in our society greater than any Mr Secretary. Thank you for your time today. Thank you so much.