During Tuesday’s House Administration Committee hearing, Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) questioned Secretaries of State about their respective measures to safeguard elections and ballot collection.
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NewsTranscript
00:00We now recognize Ranking Member Morelli of our full committee for five minutes of questioning our witnesses.
00:07Thank you, Madam Chair, and again, thanks to the Secretaries for being here.
00:13I want to start, Secretary Thomas, with you.
00:16As I understand it, you allowed for the first time in-person early voting in the state of Connecticut.
00:25And as you look back on the election, what tools and techniques did you use?
00:32Particularly, I'm sort of interested, too, as it relates to misinformation and disinformation.
00:37But did you have any challenges with information as it related to early voting for the first time?
00:43And are there any challenges that you think you'll face moving forward that you have to adjust to?
00:49Thank you for the question.
00:50Yeah, we definitely, I think, like states around the country, were struggling to explain how elections worked.
00:59There's this narrative that they are not safe, et cetera.
01:03So we did many things.
01:05We proactively, as I said, reached out to many communities, over 100 grassroots organizations.
01:12We also held regular media activities for the press, answering commonly misunderstood aspects about election administration.
01:25With our Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, we got together and put together a social media campaign in all communities
01:36to make sure that people understood where to go for trusted information.
01:42But as you say, I still think no matter what safeguards have been put in place, there's still this narrative.
01:51Most Connecticut residents think our elections are great.
01:55But feeding into the national news media, like I get emails all the time saying, disconnect our election machines from the Internet, although they never have been.
02:07So I think we have this conflation of fear and mistrust that is often not well placed.
02:16Gotcha.
02:17Secretary Allen, I noted in your testimony, you said we do not, in Alabama, we do not accept any ballot received after Election Day,
02:28with the exception of ULCAVA ballots, which must be postmarked no later than the date of the election.
02:33What's wrong in your mind with the idea of taking ballots that have been postmarked before the end of in-person voting on Election Day?
02:42Because I believe in Election Day.
02:44Election Day is Election Day.
02:45We set it out in state law.
02:46It's set out in federal law.
02:48And the further we deviate from that, I think it can lead.
02:51It's a very slippery slope.
02:54Is it that you don't trust the U.S. Postal Service?
02:56We've had problems with the U.S. Postal Service in the past.
02:59Really?
02:59So when you file taxes with the IRS on April 15th, which is the filing deadline, if you file it, if it's postmarked, should you be fined for,
03:11or should you in some way pay a penalty for filing your taxes late?
03:14Well, fortunately, I filed my taxes early this year.
03:18Yeah, but April 15th is the deadline.
03:21So if you, but I mean, we accept, I'm just, honestly, I don't even mean to be argumentative.
03:25I just find this sort of a strange argument that voters in America could vote on or before Election Day, but vote in mail.
03:33But if it's received after Election Day, you could, you could have, to your point, you could have sent it in early.
03:38You could send it in three days before Election Day.
03:40But the post office, and you could send it by absentee ballot in most states, postmarked days before Election Day.
03:47And if it doesn't get to the post office by Election Day, why is, I don't understand the theory of that.
03:53I mean, I don't understand why that's an issue.
03:54Again, Representative, I just believe that we have rules for a reason.
04:00The further we deviate from that, it's a very, very slippery slope.
04:03And if we start accepting, I mean, the date's the date.
04:07But the date is the date.
04:08So if you did it two days before Election Day, you've done it, you've complied with the date.
04:12There's no way that you're changing the outcome of the election after the end of the election period.
04:19I don't, I mean, unless you don't, you believe somehow the United States Postal Service is doing something to the balance.
04:26I think we generally accept for all kinds of business things, tax purposes.
04:30I mean, postmarks actually mean something in America.
04:32Does anybody disagree with me?
04:33I mean, I'm sorry, I hate to belabor the point in my last minute.
04:37But Secretary Landry, do you subscribe to the same view?
04:41I think the ballots should be in by Election Day.
04:44And that, you know, manipulation can occur once you start reporting results, that people can go out and gather more ballots.
04:52No, not if it's postmarked.
04:53I mean, you could not, I mean, I hate to, this is like a physical impossibility.
04:58You can't affect the election after Election Day if you submitted the ballot prior to the deadline.
05:04It's just physically impossible.
05:06Unless you go back in time or do something like that.
05:08I think we should have an end date to the election, and the end date to the election should be Election Day.
05:12Do you feel the same way about taxes also?
05:14The IRS should not accept anything that's postmarked before Election Day?
05:18I don't think the IRS is the same thing because they're not waiting to report a result of income tax collections,
05:25whereas the whole state is waiting for us to report the results of an election,
05:30and we need to give them the timely results to secure the confidence in our elections.
05:35Let's go.
05:36Let's go.