emily: i am emily chang in san francisco. this is "bloomberg technology." coming up in the next hour, tesla in turmoil. the company is said to be the focus of a criminal investigation into ceo elon musk's public statements about private funding alongside another investigation by the sec. plus, a 20-year trade war? jack ma's dire prediction over the conflict between china and the u.s. after more tariffs are levied. tim cook remains optimistic there will be a resolution. a small win for apple in the

ongoing patent dispute with qualcomm. the chipmaker ceo told us exclusively he the -- he thinks the case could be settled this year. first to our top story. considering taking tesla private at $420, funding secured. those are the words that sent tesla's world into turmoil, and now the company is the subject of a federal criminal probe. the department of justice opened a fraud investigation, which means tesla is facing inquiries from the doj and sec thanks to a tweet about a plan to take them private that is no longer on the table. it was maybe never realistic at all. joining us from washington, tom, who broke the story. in new york, max chafkin, who has been covering tesla and elon musk for us for a while. tom, what do we know? tom: we know at this point, the

justice department is now asking questions of tesla regarding the tweets and what were behind it. we know that anytime the doj starts to ask questions, things have gotten serious. emily: how do these types of investigations normally play out? what are the outcomes we can expect? tom: it depends on how far the investigation goes. it is quite common for doj to run a parallel investigation to the sec. doj would be looking at whether any criminal fraud laws were broken, which would require some type of criminal -- sometimes both -- some type of intent to deceive investors. a lot of times these things can take several months to play out. if anything is found, you get into the next stage of, what evidence is there, who knew what, potential fines for the company.

company. if there was anything found. one issue is how broad this investigation could go. tesla said today they have received queries from the justice department and were hoping they could answer all of their questions, and that this will go away. yet we have seen in the past month the chief accountant for tesla abruptly resigned. that is something that not just the sec will be asking about but the doj would want to know the story behind that. emily: a number of recent departures from tesla in the finance department specifically. max, do you think this new criminal investigation will have an impact on tesla operations which are already under pressure? will it have an impact on buyers? max: i think the core tesla fans are not going to be dissuaded by this. if anything, people are attracted to the bad boy reputation of elon musk which seems to be only growing with the latest criminal probe.

i think recruiting will certainly be an issue. anytime you try to bring over experienced executives at the -- a time where the labor market is really tight like it is right now, a criminal probe will not be an enticement. on top of that, the stock price is not doing great. that is another thing. it is sort of this bunch of little things that all together could add up to a big thing for -- a big problem for tesla in the long run. investigationj happening alongside the sec investigation, or potential investigations, what is the significance that there is also civil investigations underway? tom: that is something that's -- that lawyers for tesla would be mindful of because they do not want to inadvertently harm themselves in defending against civil actions in the way they respond to regulators in the justice department.

yet the primary concern will be on that end for them, but it is always something running in the background, is you do not want to harm yourself against private action while trying to resolve a government matter. emily: max, elon musk is still tweeting, tweeting to customers about delivery. do you expect to see shift in -- any shift in musk's behavior? max: you would think his lawyers and pr people are advising him to cool it on certain subjects. his freewheeling nature has been one of the strengths of the company. this is a company spending very little on marketing, relying on its larger than life chief executive and reputation to drive customers. we are now seeing the other side of that with this probe. one problem tesla has is that if

the justice department or anyone else is trying to establish intent, they have this enormous twitter account to look at where musk has been talking for months about the short-sellers. i'm not sure that's going to add up to anything criminal or civil but there is a lot to work with. i don't know. on one hand, if you work for tesla, you would like to seem -- see him cool it. on the other hand, that has kind of been his secret sauce. i'm not sure what the best answer is. emily: we will be talking about this later, but could this be an opportunity for competitors? we will be covering the audi launch in a few moments. do you think competitors like audi, like some of these luxury car companies that have tesla in their sites could turn this to an opportunity? max: i think competitors are playing a long game. the audi car, which is still a way off from being available to customers -- i think anything that causes customers to doubt tesla is a

sensible choice is going to help the legacy players. right now tesla has been arguing, you should try this new kind of bold thing, and in fact it is a better car. but if customers start to doubt that, if they doubt the trustworthiness of the company or whether the company has staying power, that will hurt confidence and ultimately hurt sales. emily: tom, say the doj fines -- finds musk and/or tesla criminally liable, what kinds of penalties could musk face in the -- face and what about the company? tom: that is a bit down the road, but the company could face -- it would depend on how much damage was done here. those are calculations kind of always done based on the evidence found, and in terms of a lot of the settlements that come out regarding major companies, are negotiated settlements. the government is not necessarily looking to put a company out of business.

they are looking at making sure companies are operating aboveboard. a lot of companies will spend a lot of money on new compliance programs. just ask walmart, which has spent $1 billion on compliance and legal fees in a long-running investigation revolving around their matter. emily: great job breaking that story, tom schoenberg, and matt -- max chafkin. great to have you both with us. coming up, washington and beijing are upping the ante in their trade dispute. two of tech's biggest leaders are weighing in. that's next. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: china wasted no time in retaliating against trump's next -- latest escalation in the trade dispute. beijing announced tariffs on $60

billion worth of u.s. made goods taking effect on september 24. this came after monday's announcement by president and trump -- president trump that his administration will levy 10% tariffs on $200 billion in chinese goods which will also take effect on september 24. on tuesday morning, apple ceo tim cook told abc he has hope this will end soon. >> trade is one thing where it is not a zero sum game. you and i can trade something and both win. i am optimistic the two countries will sort this out, and life will go on. emily: alibaba chair, jack ma, was less optimistic and he told -- when he told investors that "this thing will last long. if you want a short-term solution, there is no solution." to discuss, we go to hong kong were we have a managing partner of nsa capital standing by and in l.a., mark gurman. mark, jack ma said this trade

war could last 20 years. obviously tim cook and jack ma , have different incentives. how could their opinions be so different? mark: tim cook has a responsibility to be optimistic about this. he is the chief executive to one -- of one of the largest companies and one of the most valuable companies. he has to show optimism to investors because apple is the -- at the center of this thing. they are a u.s. based company manufacturing 90% of goods overseas. emily: apple products were spared in this latest round of tariffs, but that does not mean they could be spared in upcoming rounds. ben, what is your take on the view from jack ma? 20 years? ben: i think he is wise to say that. regardless of whether trump is in office or not, we will see a continued amount of pressure from both sides of the u.s. political spectrum to change the

existing relationship and dynamic between china and the united states, both on the economic and on a political level. i think he saw that folks even said that the hillary campaign were also looking to shape that relationship. just because trump loses the house in the november elections, or ultimately is not voted in 2 1/2 years from now, i think still this type of policy will continue indefinitely. emily: the war of words continues as well. president trump saying in a statement, "we have given china every opportunity to treat us more fairly but so far, china has been unwilling to change its practices." meantime, the china commerce ministry says we hope the u.s. side will recognize the negative consequences of such acts and take convincing measures to correct them in a timely manner. who is in a better position here? the u.s. or china?

ben: it is an interesting one. at the offset of this, i think there was a view china was well insulated against this and had a lot of other options for trade partners. they were going to work on their own native industries and build consumer demand locally, but in the short term they missed the -- misjudged their capabilities to weather this storm. the a share market has taken a dive to do with deleveraging and the abolition of shadow banking institutions. ultimately, i think the effects of this will be seen about a year from now when these policies and the damage in order books take effect. i think, in the short-term, the united states, farmers, and some suppliers of products into china will be hurting. in the long-term, china will struggle with the ramifications

of this, particularly if the 25% tax hits on january 1. emily: talk to us about the impact on tech products and the potential impact from the additional $267 billion in goods that the president could tax and has threatened to. mark: just a little history, on september 5, without a letter indicating -- apple put out a letter indicating which products could be impacted by the previous set of proposals from the trump administration. the two highlights were the air pods and the apple watch. those were the two most revenue driving, profitable products from apple. yesterday we broke news on bloomberg that the apple watch and the airpods were no longer affected because of a technology related code being modified. as far as the tech industry as a whole, anyone who makes smart

watches like fitbit, carmen, and -- garmin, apple, they caught a big break yesterday. that was good news for the tech industry. in terms of the $267 billion plan you mentioned that would be upcoming and still in the early development stages, there is no reason to believe that smartphones would be affected. obviously that can and will probably change depending on the -- what the trump administration gleans from the comments they receive from these tech companies. it's important to know the tech companies have the opportunity to give their feedback. i think that was one of the driving factors for the smart watch tariff code to be removed yesterday. emily: then, how is the trade war being covered by chinese media and viewed by chinese citizens? ben: it is interesting. it varies depending on whether it is coming from government or people. certainly i think there is an overarching view that there is an attempt to slow chinese development.

certainly targeting programs like china 2025 which was a -- has become a rallying cry particularly in washington with , some of this rhetoric stating we're trying to prevent china from developing those native industries and providing a lot of components that ultimately might be used by those companies. or ip being used. i think there is a view that the united states is trying to stymie that growth and prevent the achievement of the chinese dream in the long run. a mediaot seeing blowback in terms of chinese consumers boycotting u.s. products, certainly nothing out right from individuals in the streets, but i think the local government pr machine has galvanized on this point. i think it has emboldened the hawks locally who are already advocating a change in their relationship with the u.s. and advocating greater independence with the folks in the belt and road countries and the new trading partners.

in the short-term, there is a lot of negative sentiment on the aim of this program, and much less coverage around key talking points coming from the u.s. side around fairness and reciprocity the need that certain , institutions and the wto needs -- agreements be respected. that companies on 301 list cease actions around ip theft and around forced technology transfer. it is quite a different message here. emily: ben, fascinating to hear the view from china and our very own mark gurman in l.a. thank you both. in a race around the moon, will it be the hare or the tortoise who comes out on top russian top?t on "bloomberg technology" is livestreaming on twitter. you can follow us and follow our global news network, tictoc, on twitter. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: to some more positive news for elon musk, his rocket and space expiration company spacex has announced that this japanese billionaire will be the first private customer to hitch a ride around the moon and back on the falcon rocket. the mission is scheduled for 2023 and will take four to five days to complete, but he will not be going alone. he wants to take six to eight of his favorite artists with him. it is a project called #dearmoon. take a listen. say, i'm veryan glad to be here. i'm really excited. really honored. i really appreciate to be able to share this announcement with you and the people all over the world. emily: one man who knows a thing or two about space travel is a

former nasa administrator who spoke to me from north carolina and shared his view of spacex and his own experience. >> it is a continuation of passenger flight. we have had an american company that had worked with the russians for a number of years, up to about 2009, and flew paying passengers, so we have had civilians fly before. nasa had the payload specialist program during the early days of shuttle. i look at this as a continuation. it is pretty big time when you do what spacex is about to do. emily: this trip is going to happen in 2023, but the rocket has yet to be built. what are the biggest challenges, concerns, and risks? >> the biggest challenges is the -- for anything that involves human spaceflight is the life-support system. elon talked a little bit about it yesterday in his announcement

when he talked about the water -- the closed loop on the water systems and the like when going to somewhere as far as the moon. although it is only days, you can't go in and just take a couple bottles of water along with them. they have to have some way to either recycle water or produce it on the shuttle. we used the fuel cells with oxygen and hydrogen and one of the byproducts was water. you're looking at closed loops life-support systems. you want to make sure your systems are as reliable as possible. that is the biggest challenge. emily: only two dozen astronauts made that journey in the apollo era. why is it taking so long to go back to the moon? charles: a couple of things. you will get one opinion that when we went to the moon, there was an incredible geopolitical

imperative. we had to beat the soviets. i think people will start to see in all of the documentaries about apollo 11 and how we got there that there was this space race, a real race, and the matter, back then we thought it was a matter of the survival of the nation against the soviet threat. that was the big thing that we don't have any more. we don't have an arch enemy as far as space is concerned and it's because we partner with almost everybody that we can. as much as we cannot get along with the russians on earth, in space, they are probably our number one partner on the international space station. the two primary partners there are the u.s. and the russian space agency. emily: you have had the opportunity to visit spacex competitors. blue origin, virgin galactic. how do you compare the efforts of spacex to what you have seen at blue origin and elsewhere?

you, i: i will tell think everybody is doing their utmost and working at breakneck speed. we were talking beforehand and i referred to spacex and the other -- and blue origin as the tortoise and hare. spacex is very visible, very vocal sets great goals. , you have a company like blue origin that has many of the same goals and aspirations but they , are very quiet, don't talk about it. they are following a measured schedule of activities. i think you will see they will be side by side when we finally start talking about humans routinely in space on a commercial spacecraft. my expectation is that blue origin and spacex will be out front alongside each other. that is why i refer to them as the tortoise and hare. emily: you have been in space, was it worth it? charles: was it worth it?

i got a free -- all i had to do was be a marine which was easy for me. it is incredibly worth it for anybody. the opportunity to see this planet from that vantage point is unlike anything else a human can or will experience. i'm excited about seeing this -- him decide he wants to take artists. because because people like me, astronauts, are not good at storytelling. i work on it hard but i use the word awesome for earth. the view of earth from space. but awesome is an overused word. i think artists, musicians, visual artists, writers, they will help us understand this incredible planet on which we live far better than any scientist, mathematician, or engineer can do. emily: that was former nasa administrator and retired astronaut charles bolden talking to me about the spacex big falcon rocket mission to the

moon and back. coming up can qualcomm and apple , make nice? the qualcomm ceo seems to think so, but can he convince apple? that is next. this is bloomberg. ♪ to rent a movie?

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emily: this is "bloomberg technology." i'm emily chang. on monday, the iphone maker won the backing of the staff attorneys at the u.s. international trade commission, who took apple's side, saying it did not infringe on three qualcomm patents. this does not mean the judge presiding over the suit may not -- will follow that recommendation. the qualcomm ceo told us in an upcoming episode of bloomberg "studio 1.0" that he thinks there's a chance the case will be settled this year. >> we have a dispute over the price of i.p. we think it's moving into a time when our strategy is unfolding

and the environment is such that i think you are in a position where a deal can get done. at the same time, i think there is probably no better opportunity and partner for qualcomm than to work with apple. it makes sense that the technology leader in mobile should partner with the product leader in mobile. those things tend to work out. the way that we think about the business is eventually you get the disputes figured out and you move on to a different period. emily: so, you believe apple will remain a customer. steve: i think so. i always believe if you have leadership technology, that your roadmap will eventually dominate the business relationship between companies and there's no reason why that should be the -- should not be the case here. emily: that said you are taking , on the world's most viable -- valuable company. they have stopped putting your chips in their phone. they say the patents they are paying you for are invalid. how does something so bitter get resolved favorably for qualcomm?

steve: i think bitter may be the wrong term. we've had disputes in the past over the price of ip. it's really no different from that here. it's just bigger companies. remember, we are both be -- big companies. we are not a small company in terms of being able to ask you this -- to execute the strategy that we have. those things will get resolved. sometimes they get resolved on the courtroom steps, sometimes they don't. the strategy is playing forward kind of the way we always thought. emily: so, can qualcomm and apple eventually make nice and settle the dispute? ian king covers qualcomm and all things chips. and we have matt larson. first of all, is "bitter" the wrong term for this dispute? ian: if you read the filings and the accusations made by qualcomm thatally, it's hard to use

word or even stronger ones. they took the strategy of throwing everything against the wall to see what will stick, damage qualcomm, box them into a corner and force them to negotiate and give us the prices that we want. qualcomm obviously struck back. it's hard not to see this as a protracted and deeply ingrained process. emily: so, do you think they are -- this year is too optimistic? ian: what we heard steve say is what he has said all along. he said a lot of milestones are coming up. it's one thing to throw it -- out accusations and another to go in arguing in front of a jury and judge. now apple has got to do that. does anybody want to roll the dice and have a binding decision given to them by a court? there is a chance of that coming this year. emily: tell us about what happened at the trial, which obviously was swayed in apple's favor. >> you need to take a look at whether or not the apple devices, the iphones should be

blocked from u.s. markets. based on infringing a handful of qualcomm patents. international trade commission staff attorneys participated in the investigation and said through that depositions and discovery -- they advise the presiding judge on where they think the case will turn out. in this case, the staff took a look at everything on infringement and they advised the judge on that. the hearing is continuing through this week and after a few months after the evidence is presented, the judge will author an opinion based on everything that was presented. incrementally, it's a good thing for apple, the staff is the only party that has seen the whole dispute from the inside. it's kind of a leading indicator of what the likely outcome is or -- for the judge. emily: if it is a good sign for apple, is it a bad sign for qualcomm? ian: obviously. at the same time, qualcomm has a number of cases notably in , germany and china, where they

could possibly get an junction -- injunction that says no more iphone sales. anything like that is what qualcomm believes give it the leverage to force apple to come to the table. on the flipside, if the cases keep going against qualcomm, if judges and juries keep saying, no, qualcomm, we are not interested, we don't believe apple is infringing then apple , is in a strong position to push forward. emily: put it in the context of the broader dispute that has been going on around the world between qualcomm and apple and threatens a huge part of their business, the licensing business. looking at the licensing business, before the apple dispute was about one third of qualcomm's revenue and about two thirds of profitability. it's very high-margin business. it is critical to qualcomm's financial performance. in terms of the legal dispute, we have counted up over 100 individual legal proceedings that make up the patent litigation. there are administrative

proceedings challenging the past -- patents that qualcomm has asserted. it's looking at the standard essential portion of qualcomm's patent portfolio, which has to do with wireless interoperability's standards and , which ise add-ons kind of optional. a wide sweeping dispute across a lot of jurisdictions, and i think the timing from a litigation perspective is about right when you see something up -- tee something up for resolution. a lot of these jurisdictions were expecting to see decisions at the beginning of this quarter, next quarter. once those start to play out, everybody gets a sense of where the case is going, and reasonable minds are usually able to arrive at a settlement, once some clarity is provided by the courts. emily: steve was pretty clear that he believes apple and qualcomm will still be customers after this, yet apple is making its own chips, and all the stuff that we mentioned. is it realistic to think that they will still be up to work -- able to work together after this and that their relationship will be as strong?

>> if you believe in technology like steve does, there's no reason that wouldn't be the case. qualcomm have got the best mode ms. that's the key component that allows the phone to connect to the network. why wouldn't they want an experience that was as good as huawei can have? if you look at a subjective perspective, you might say apple wants the best profits it can get, and clearly because qualcomm is expensive because you have to pay licensing, why wouldn't they try to do it themselves and maximize their own profits? so, there is a competing technology versus business argument going on here. it depends on whether the qualcomm technology can be push that pushed far enough to force -- can be pushed far enough to force apple to go with it, if the consequences of not using qualcomm are so great that it cannot afford not to do that. i need to be an engineer or civics major to tell you if that would happen. emily: qualcomm has been involved in licensing disputes before and not just with apple.

is that the case that two parties come back to the table and end up working together and the relationship is just as fruitful? >> that tends to be these -- the case it's always darkest before . the dawn. both qualcomm and apple have been in similar disputes as well, with nokia and ericsson, both those cases involved multi jurisdictional disputes. there was bitter arguing in front of the lawyers and in the case of ericsson, i recall apple's lawyer saying ericsson's technology was old and not relevant anymore. in the weeks following trial, they resolved for a huge settlement and forward license moving ahead. so, we do see these disputes resolved and the companies kind of shaking hands and proceeding with a fruitful business moving forward. some of the rhetoric is heightened during a legal dispute. certainly you have to make your case and there is a lot of zealous advocacy going on. but a lot of companies are able to move past that once a

reasonable business deal is done and look forward to future opportunities. emily: matt larson in new york and ian king in san francisco, thank you both. you can catch the rest of that conversation on bloomberg "studio 1.0" next week, september 26. we talk about much, much more. you don't want to miss it. coming up, the electric car wars have begun. audi takes aim at tesla, unveiling a brand-new all electric suv. plus, the countdown to the u.s. midterms is on, but will this november just be a repeat of 2016? how officials are cracking down on election security and foreign meddling, ahead. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: the justice department's investigation into tesla isn't the only problem facing the electric carmaker. companies like mercedes are tailing tesla with their own electric cars. audi also joined the race. take a look. tesla customers are getting anxious. >> i noticed this popping up on twitter quite a lot. where is my model three? >> and while it on musk promises to deliver -- deliver, promises to the company is facing new competition in the luxury electric car race. it is not just coming from within silicon valley. instead, a raft of traditional luxury manufactures are targeting tesla and one of them

is in its own backyard. audi launched a battery-powered crossover that is due to hit showrooms at the end of the year. with a price tag of $75,000, it gives the model x a run for its money. >> we want to merge the new world of electric mobility together with 100 years of experience of manufacturing and -- premium cars. >> bmw showed off its concept car this month. the world's largest maker of luxury cars, your cities has , announced its plan to develop a range of vehicles for its electric line with more than $12 billion already invested in the project. >> we started investing early in electric, and we believe sometimes that technology is now ready for the very first all electric suv from mercedes benz. >> and we can expect to see more high-end rivals enter the market, some saying the industry could be worth $500 billion by 2025. but carmakers don't just need to meet shifting tastes they also

, need to meet increasingly stringent emission standards. some countries are working toward banning combustion engines altogether in coming decades. emily: bloomberg's david westin caught up with the audi ceo. -- audi's president of america. he started by asking, why now? >> i think we've hit the perfect time. in my mind there are three things that have come together. the market acceptance is one, building each and every day. the second thing, of course, we wanted to launch with what we call a proper audi, not a quirky car, a full stop audi that is electric. and the third is the cost situation. with the cost of batteries and the technology, we can put ourselves in a position to make a profit as well. those three things came together, so that's why we feel good about the timing. >> what is the price point roughly on this vehicle and why , did you pick that price point? >> because we want to sell this

vehicle. that's why we picked that price point. we want to make a little bit of profit, but the car is $74,800. it competes in what we call the c-suv segment. that is cars like the x5, q7, q8, things like that. that is where the market is. it is the largest chunk of vehicles. we want to make sure we put one right in the sweet spot of where the consumer is. >> this is not the last audi all electric. you have a whole plan to ramp up several over the next few years. are you going to go directly after the more inexpensive models, the model three, if you forgive me to mention your competitor? scott: our first three vehicles will compete on the higher in. -- end. we would like to establish ourselves as the premium player in electric before moving downstream. there are three vehicles that will be launching in the next year or two. the one you see behind me. we will then launch a sportback. then we will have a magnificent gt. it's not a pure play volume

game. we would rather get the prestige, the brand, the recognition, and theme -- then we will work our way down stream with more b-segment cars. >> -- >> i do not. there a lot of hype about people saying there are cars, but physical luxury premium cars on the ground, the air is quite thin. there is tesla and nothing else has really hit the ground. the jack hasn't come yet. -- the jag hasn't come yet. but we will basically be the second car on the market. i think we are time perfectly, and frankly, the market is growing. we anticipate upwards of 300,000 plus electric premium vehicles by 2023. we want to get a big chunk of that. i think we can. >> this is costing companies a fair amount of money. we seen various arrangements made for capital investment. you saw the softbank investment into gm.

you saw the saudi public investment fund yesterday just announced a big announcement into a different electric vehicle. do you have enough resources to make a huge capital investment required for electric vehicles? scott: we do. if you look at our outlay and a -- our plan audi has announced , outwards of 12 electric vehicles and funded ourselves. the key thing to that is to be a successful company. if you are successful, you generate the revenues to reinvest. make no mistake, these are huge technologies that cost a lot of money from autonomous to electrification, but we believe we can fund it. frankly, these are technologies we want to have in-house and the -- be able to support because these will be future technologies, which means you have to have them under your wing. we feel we have the capital to develop this with a properly scaled business at a properly -- and a properly scaled company. >> what about the autonomous part of it? what does this new vehicle have that goes towards autonomous?

when will you really be autonomous? scott: this vehicle is a level two. it has tremendous amounts of safety systems, brake guard, lane assist. it allows you to cruise hands-free. that is dramatically from autonomous. autonomous means technically there is no steering wheel, no pedals at all, you could be sitting in the back seat. frankly, it will be a while before that is happening on american roads. emily: scott keogh there with david westin. well, the electric car wars are heating up and we will be covering that more in coming weeks. coming up, november midterms are just around the corner, but as both parties fight to win control of congress, the threat of outside forces meddling with results remain. we will discuss how well prepared the u.s. is with less than 50 days to go. this is bloomberg. ♪

emily: the primetime emmy awards

saw netflix top the table for nominations, which provided plenty of fodder for jokes. >> netflix had the most nominations tonight. [applause] >> that's right. and if you are a network executive, that's the scariest thing you could possibly here, except maybe, sir, ronan farrow is on line one. [laughter] emily: the streaming service took away seven awards and a record 23 awards overall, not bad for a company that started out as a mail-order dvd service. it's less than 50 days until the u.s. midterm elections and the results will largely impact the next two years of donald trump's presidency. democrats are hoping to take back control of congress while voters will get their first chance to express discontent with the president. for those in the military and overseas, voting will begin this friday. but as the intelligence community continues to investigate russian interference in the 2016 election, the

question remains what could go , wrong this year? joining us now to discuss, the deputy decide -- deputy director at thisemocracy program university. lawrence, we've already seen evidence there are attempts to meddle happening already by state actors. how well prepared are we now with less than 50 days to go? lawrence: we are in pretty good shape. people should know that the department of homeland security, the fbi, the federal election assistance commission, all these agencies have been working with state and local officials to prepare for cyberattacks and in particular, to detect and if something happens, to recover from those kind of attacks. so, in the next 49 days, election officials will be looking at those plans, reviewing them, and making sure they are well implemented. emily: there have been some problems in the primaries so far.

--nevada, candidates names candidates' names were missing. some of the machines malfunctioned or didn't work at all. how concerning are these issues? lawrence: no election is perfect. the fact that we saw these kind of typical problems that we see in elections, they give us a little bit of a clue as to what could go wrong on election day this november. many things that happened by accident can happen because of a bad actor, and obviously were -- when you are talking about a cyberattack, the worry is that it could be much more widespread. the key is to be prepared for those kind of things ahead of time and make sure that you can recover if we do see that kind of thing on election day. emily: what kind of training have election officials undergone up to this point? lawrence: there have been a lot of things like tabletop exercises where the department of homeland security or the fbi will run through various scenarios of the kind of things that can go wrong and asking

election officials what procedures do you have in place to recover, if, for instance, a bunch of voting machines are not working. what do you do at that point? that has been a big focus over the last few months, and just basic cybersecurity training as well. one of the things the brennan center has done, we have put out a checklist for election officials and we are hoping this is useful to them as they are reviewing in the next few weeks to make sure they are ready for any kind of problems. emily: we've talked in the past about problems with the election websites, with registration in general. last night at the emmys, one actress implored everyone to register right then, bring a friend to the polls. that's more about making sure everyone has a voice, but what can voters do to do their part to make sure that democracy is not threatened? lawrence: first of all, i mentioned the checklist that the brennan center put out.

we sent that to 2000 election officials. we got back really positive responses. just calling your election official -- they want to hear from folks to talk about what they're doing and asking about that checklist is something that would be very helpful. another thing you mentioned his -- is registration. most states you can check your , registration online. that can be an early warning sign. we know the russians in the 2016 elections tried to access registration databases. if people see their information is wrong, letting officials know can be an early warning signal that something may be up. that is certain something that -- certainly something that people should do, and of course, go vote. emily: absolutely. over the next 48, 49 days, what are you and your team going to be doing? lawrence: the big thing is checking in with election officials, making sure contingency plans are in place. we want to make sure, for instance in the 21 states using , electronic voting machines, sometimes called direct electronic recording machines have emergency paper ballots , available so if machines are

not functioning, people can still vote. we saw this in the primaries, where emergency paper ballots were there, people could still vote. where they were not, people were turned away. that's a huge thing. making sure all the plans are in place and that we can carry them out and that voters have confidence they can go vote and trust in the outcomes when they come down. emily: lawrence, thank you so much for the work you are doing and for joining us here on the show. that does it for this edition of "bloomberg technology." i'm emily chang from san francisco. this is bloomberg. ♪

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