Mr Secretary. Thank you so much for joining us. My pleasure. Let's talk about the fight against election fraud has in some states turned into the fight over election fraud detection. I'm talking about Eric, the electronic registration Information Center. It is *** group of states that shares data to catch double voting and people who may be registered in more than one state who move. Uh Sometimes they don't realize it and sometimes they do and it's *** fraud detection tool. Your state is still in why? Oh, it's *** tremendous resource and it's the only resource of its kind. That's the important thing. It's the way the only existing way between and among states that we can detect double voters, people who shouldn't be voting or registering in *** particular place because of *** confidential data exchange between and among the member states. We find it absolutely essential to making sure that our voter rolls are as clean and as accurate as they can be. You're here at the National Association of Secretaries of State. You are seeing some of your colleagues who have taken their states out of Eric this data sharing group. What would you say? To them. Well, I always respect their decisions, but I would say that, that I think they will find, unfortunately, that it's *** mistake. There is no alternative to Eric right now, though some are aspiring to create one. I think that's going to be very, very difficult. Certainly in the short term, certainly by the 2024 election, which is *** very important presidential election coming up. Look, it's *** non partisan politics free way to just exchange data and make our voting rules more clean and I would hope that they would revisit that decision now or soon and I wish them well always. But I think this Eric is the only game in town right now. *** way for states to clean their voter rolls through *** mutual confidential exchange of information that is politics free and not partisan. It shouldn't be one of the other issues that has come up at this National Association of Secretary of State's conference. Uh Parentally is disinformation and misinformation. And I wanna talk to you about the next frontier of disinformation which is artificial intelligence. *** I deep fakes. Are you worried that artificial intelligence, deep fakes could be used to mislead voters in your state? Yes. And I don't view *** I as necessarily *** separate category of or misinformation. I view it as *** means to enhance or augment current ways of spreading disinformation. So really the effectiveness of disinformation from where I sit is about whether the person conveying it is to the intended listener or hear *** trusted messenger. And if that trusted messenger need not speak or say *** word in favor of that disinformation, but someone can create *** message that sounds an awful lot like them or it looks an awful lot like them. That means it's more likely to penetrate and be spread again through other channels. So that's my worry. Not that *** I is this separate thing, but it's *** separate tool to basically augment and make even more effective. Unfortunately, current means of disinformation, current channels of disinformation. And that's *** real worry. How do you fight back? Well, I think we in the democracy business have to double down on leading with the truth, always saying what the truth is about our election system and trying to be as transparent as possible. Pulling back the curtain, I think particularly in light of *** presidential election and showing people not telling them, showing them that there are checks and balances and procedures in our various states. Minnesota for sure. That ought to give people confidence in our election system that ought to be *** rebuttal to those who suggest otherwise, whether it's before the election and testing the machines or whether it's after the election and having rigorous post election reviews and audits. I think that is among the ways that we're going to fight back against disinformation. Let's talk about another concern, the Brennan Center for Justice in April released survey results that found about one in five election workers 20% are thinking of quitting before next year's presidential election. That's equivalent. They said to one in two election officials, election officials quitting every day since the 2020 presidential election because of unprecedented threats because of disinformation, COVID, et cetera. Are you seeing *** higher than normal level of election workers quitting in your state? I would say this. We are seeing some attrition in our state, whether it's directly attributable to this new menacing, threatening climate. It's hard to say in Minnesota, our polling places are quite safe. There are sort of oasis of calm for the most part, but I would say Minnesota is not immune from this trend of more intimidation and threats leveled at people who do elections mostly full time year round, election administrators, not so much election workers or poll workers in the polling place in Minnesota. For example, these are real world examples as communicated directly to me. I heard from one person who runs elections in *** county who says that one of her employees was followed to her car in the parking lot after hours by someone who was very upset about an election related issue. Another one said in *** different county, the head of elections said that she was personally contacted at home on her home number repeatedly over the weekend by someone who was upset over an election issue. And finally, there's someone in Minnesota again told straight to my face, she was physically accosted at the counter in her workplace in the county courthouse by someone who was upset about an election related issue. Fortunately, she called the sheriff who happened to be in that building who came up and came to her aid. Now, those are isolated incidents, no doubt, but we want to keep them isolated. So one of the solutions in Minnesota, this last legislative session was *** bill that we pushed and is now enacted into law which provides some extra protections and penalties in law for people who target folks who administer elections. It's not about speech. Anyone in America can believe anything they want to and they can express it loudly and vigorously or even angrily. But when you veer from speech into conduct that is actually threatening or menacing or intimidating, that's another matter. And now we have the tools, at least in Minnesota to push back. And just to be clear, I've interviewed you at every one of these conferences for several years. Now, twice *** year, there was no widespread fraud in Minnesota that would have changed the result of any race. Correct. That's correct. The level of any misconduct or even attempted misconduct in Minnesota is microscopic final question. What are you doing? The top thing that you're doing to prepare for the next state wide election? I'd say the top thing we're doing is thinking about ways to push back against disinformation. Not if. But when it comes figuring out what the channels will be, what the messages will be and how we can get the right information. Good information, honest information into the hands of everyday voters. Voters. They can work, they can vote for anyone that they want. It doesn't matter. We're not interested in that, but we are interested in having all Minnesotans. All voters have accurate information about what the system is. We can always have the debate and should about what it ought to be reasonable. Patriotic, ethical, honest people can disagree about that. But when it comes to basic information about what the system is, we need to lead with the truth and push back against those who peddle lies and disinformation. Mr Secretary. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you.