president obama created an election commission to reduce voting problems at polling places. after the release of their report the commission met with the president. >> i just want to say thank you publicly to all the wonderful people here who have served on

the presidential commission on election administration. i think all of us would call -- recall in the last election in 2012 we had reports around the country up tremendously long lines with people when they tried to vote and in some cases for hours they were stuck. the day of the election i said we are going to need to do something about it, and i think all of us share the belief that regardless of party affiliation that our democracy demands that our citizens can participate in a smooth and effective way, and i called on congress to work with us but i also thought it was important for us to have bipartisan independent panel that could actually dig into the facts and try to determine what can we do to improve the situation. unlike a lot of countries we have a free and complex system.

we bought a lot of them at local jurisdictions run these selections and it makes things a little bit more complicated but i was confident that if we put some good minds to work that they would come up with some recommendations. as a consequence we set up this commission. i asked my top attorney during my election campaign bob bauer to join with romney's top attorney in 2012 to cochair this commission. i think it's fair to say that they may have voted for different candidates in 2012. [laughter] but what they shared was a reputation for integrity, for smarts, and a commitment to making sure that our system works the way it's supposed to. they have now been working with the rest of this commission and have put together an outstanding series of recommendations with

an important goal which is that no american should have to wait more than half an hour to vote and they should know, they should be confident that their vote is being properly counted and is secured. a lot of the recommendations that they have made our common sense. they are ones that can be embraced by all of us. importantly, my understanding is a lot of commission recommendations are direct did not simply at congress or the federal government but rather at the state and local jurisdictions who are largely responsible for our elections. so we intend to publicize this and to then reach out to stakeholders across the country to make sure that we can implement this in part because one of the troubling aspects of the work that they did was hearing from local officials indicatinindicatin g that we

could have even more problems in the future if we don't act now. the good news is that the recommendations that are contained in this commission report are eminently doable so i just want publicly again to thank both bob and ben for taking on this largely thankless job and i want to thank all of you for being so diligent and maintaining a sense of urgency producing outstanding report in a relatively short period of time. thank you very much everybody. thank you very much everybody. thank you very much. >> now we will hear from members of the presidential commissiocommissio n on election demonstration. the commission is remmending updating older voting machines, expanding early voting and making it easier for veterans to vote. this is an hour, 15 minutes. >> let me start with a couple of thanks to spencer and gw alumni

loss society rebecca gordon for putting this together for us, which we very much appreciate and secondly to thank but also to tell you who they were, the commissioners and me personally personally -- and nate personally our research director. as bob said we are the hacks. the other commissioners were made up of five election professionals and three members of the year and private industry. chris thomas is the elections director of the state of michigan and anne worked for the texas secretary of state and ran the elections in texas for 16 years. trey grayson was the secretary of state of kentucky for two years and is now the director of the institute of politics at harvard and tammy patrick is the

federal compliance officer in maricopa county. nate personally why mention is a professor of law -- did i pronounced that right quick. >> you were one of my teachers. >> one of the great things that i've done at stanford university. we also have three folks from the private sector with us. joe was the ceo of deloitte to north america and michelle coleman mays is the general counsel of the new york city public library and allstate general counsel and a number of other fortune 500 companies for a number of years and ryan britain who when he started on the commission, i may get the title slightly wrong but he was the guy who ran theme parks for disney because if you are going to mess around with lines you

have to have a guy who does that i should say that brian's best line of the whole commission was after we were talking about long lines at the polling places he just kind of shakes his head and goes you don't even have a concession stand when you are done? >> so we sort of got to mix both traditional expertise and a bit of humor with this. so where we came at the commission from is bob and i have a somewhat checkered history for a lot of years and beating each other about the head and shoulders from opposite sides of various political wars. not least among them recounts and recounts are particularly instructed to me and i think to bob in this process because when you go through a recount you see that the elections system has some real flaws in it beneath the veneer of what we would like to think of our elections.

and so, being able to fix those fundamental flaws or you don't have to come at it from a democratic or republican perspective is what animated i think this commission. the whole agenda of what is known as voting and voting rights is far broader than this commission is charged with doing but in sticking with our charge i think we have been able to come up with a series of recommendations and best practices that is going to make the voting experience better for american voters on a bipartisan basis and both republicans and democrats agree that every legally qualified voter should be able to cast his or her ballot without undue obstacles. now we get into disagreements on some other things but on that poor fundamental principle there is agreement and that is what tammy does.

bob mentioned one size does not fit all which we take is a truism. the reality in looking at a report like this is that elections aren't ministered by 8000 separate jurisdictions around the country and that is an overwhelming number of jurisdictions put on the elections with volunteers who by and large have not received a whole lot of training and expect uniformity in elections. that is sort of a built-in contradiction in what we do and how we do our elections. a lot of the reports and recommendations and best practices are aimed at that. so let it go through a few of the top lines and then turn it over to nate for some others. one thing that we saw across the political spectrum albeit for different reasons, is that people on the left in the right believe that there should be active voter registration lines.

from the right hand point of view it's important because you've got to make sure that only legally qualified voters get to vote and go into polling places. from the lefts point of view it's important because it helps to find out who are potentially registered voters that are not registered. you have clean lines of polling places that are less likely to occur so i'm both sides as a goal. there are couple of specific recommendations to help realize that. one is that we urge the adoption in the states that don't have it now up on line registration. it is a system that provides increased accuracy because the voter is filling out the forms, without having government clerks somewhere keep punching and information. it's a much more efficient system. tammy can tell you how much the state of arizona has saved by doing on line registration and how it's sufficient.

it's much more accurate overall in terms of what the list ends up looking like so that's a laudable goal and recommendations that we adopt. secondly, there are couple of national programs out there in which some states are participating to help clean up their voter list and compare the list explains states. and so we do endorse the interstate voter crosscheck or a-gram as well as the electronic registration and information center. both of these groups allow the states to compare their list so on their own initiative they can prepare better and more accurate lists. we do look at the let. and overseas voting particularly military members serving overseas. there have been improvements in that area in the last few years but certainly more needs to be done. there are a number of recommendations about what

states can do primarily with their web sites to reduce the barriers to voting for military and overseas voters and a lot of web site improvements and reforms and gathering of best practices. there are also some simple fixes with the federal registration forms that will make things more uniform and clear to the states. another subject in which the commission felt the need to shine a really bright spotlight is the state of voting technology in this country. the reality is virtually all of the machines in the country were purchased in 2003 with half of money as a result of the florida recount i might add and those machines are about to wear out. simply put, they are --

their shelf life is about to expire. so there is not federal money, there is not $3 billion in the federal pork pro-patient on the horizon we heard again and again from state and local administration that there jurisdictions have not started budging to fill that gap. so that is going to be a problem every bit as great as what we swore after florida was never going to happen again. it's just sort of an undiscussed subject so we hope that we can get that conversation going again. part of the voting technology crisis is we did not need a single state or local administrative said god, i love my voting machine. i only wish we could keep them forever. in fact we did not run into a state or local administrator who liked his or her voting machines and thought they were good. the reality is there is a huge gap and lack of development in new voting equipment that voting

equipment simply as not keeping up with the technology. we have come to rely on in our everyday lives. there are any number of reasons for that but primary among them that the standards and certification process is completely broken down. we are using standards set in 2005 and 2007. that was before there were ipod so there's a bit of a gap. it's currently housed in the eac. there is not a bright prospect for the eac to be resurrected anytime soon and we disagree on some about the truism of that statement. it has become a political quagmire. whatever political solution there is to fix the eac or to get rid of the eac something has got to be done about the

certification process and standards process with the agency. the machines are going to wear out most likely before there is any solution to the more global question of the eac. with that i would like to turn it over to nate for some other highlights. >> so as bob mentioned in the executive order, one thing the executive order does is it doesn't just describe the problems but also describes specific populations that are affected by difficulties in voting. military voters, voters with disabilities and english deficiency voters. with effective military voters we looked at the web sites in states and through the research that was done by some outside groups to show a woeful state of state web sites and getting

information to military voters in order to assist them in voting. and there was a lot also on military voting with respect to pieces of legislation that have not been complied with. secondly, with respect to voters with disabilities, and limited english speaking deficiency voters having local jurisdictions in order to get these groups in the process early to help them meet the needs of those communities. as well as audits and polling places to make sure that they are accessible and to really, the commission's report is accessible. i should say based on the testimony we heard from voters with disabilities in the meetings we had we took the approach and are reported not just singling out, although there are special recommendations for persons with

disabilities and limited english proficiency that the conditions whether you're talking about technology we look at it from the perspective of the general population but also how it's going to effects pacific populations to take something like the recommendation of polling places so if voters are waiting in line don't have to stand up and that also has a particular effect for voters with disabilities. with regard to specific populations one other aspect particular tube voters with disabilities that has a greater effect nationwide is the disappearance of schools this polling places and ben mentioned the crisis with respect to voting technologies and there also is this looming crisis with the decline in the number of schools that are serving as polling places. that is because of the wake of the sandy hook massacre. there are all kinds of school boards that are closing themselves off from outsiders who are not say students or

teachers and that has effects on elections, something that has happened outside of the electoral elections and schools are the most ubiquitous and successful polling places out there. if you lose schools you lose a huge number of polling places and that something we tried to draw attention to. the schools that are concerned about security issues we encourage and states localities to adopt in-service days for teachers on those days so there is not a security election trade-off. finally the commission endorses expanded opportunities to vote before election day. whether that is no excuse absentee voting or in-person early voting. it was unanimous among those who testified whether democrat or republican that channeling all of the election into one day just magnifies the potential for administrative disaster. and so while there are good ways and bad ways to do early voting as well as absentee voting and

there cautions in the report about things that local administrators have to pay attention to, it was clear regardless of party affiliation that the localities were endorsing early and absentee voting. let me just conclude by saying that there is more than the report. as bob mentioned there these on line tools that we are publicizing in the project. some of these are ones that will allow local officials to manage their resources and to combat the problem of lines. others which are popular lives by rock the boat vote are on line voter registration tools that are open source and downloadable to local and state officials to use. there are 26 appendices on line at support the voter.gov. one of them is, includes a survey of local elected officials that was performed and given to the commission of over 3000 local elections so we can

see what their concerns were. and so this was more than a report. it's a project. it will have a life beyond this commission and we look forward to going out into the field and advocating for it. >> i think it might be helpful, where spencer overton? oh there he is. to have commissioners on the form as you wish but give commissioners an opportunity to comment on what you said and opened it up. tammy do you have any initial thoughts you'd like to offer? >> i guess just to say that this whole process has been such a privilege and an honor to serve with my colleagues on the commission and what was really critical to me was to make sure that the voice of the local administrator was heard. in the context of how elections are at ministered, what those administrative decisions are as

an impact on our voting population and one of the things that we talked about throughout the course of the last six months, although it seems much longer and much shorter than six months, was that when you have a usable system that takes usability into account at all levels whether it's access to registration, the ability to obtain a ballot that you can understand, it really raises the tide and all boats rise with it so it was really important for us to make sure that we include, when you read this some of it if you are not clear with the election administration is going to sound like we are so far down in the weeds, and we are but then there are also big picture ideas in here as well. and so we are just very hopeful as has been mentioned that some of these recommendations can be put in place. they are already in place in some areas of the country and so we know that they can work when

applied correctly. >> i want to echo what tammy has said. almost everything has been implemented somewhere and is in a good working order and does have a plug ability to other jurisdictions around the country i am one on the commission he does believe that there is more commonality than there are differences between jurisdictions. election day as the report indicates we are now looking at a polling place, a precinct and a voting machine good solid accurate list of everything that goes along with that. this whole effort has been enhancing the experience of the voter and really that is where it begins as at that level. obviously there's a lot behind it. i very strongly endorse the professionalization of election administration. it is a profession even though politicians may be those that we

answer to. it is a profession that needs to find its way into public administration in a formal sense. it's not just learning on the job but there is actually much that can be brought from the academic community. so it's been a great experience. i've i have been around for a number of years as director of the election since 1981 initiative. its amazing come you learn so much when you go out and see what's going on around the country and every year i learn something new. so it's a great field. >> thanks very much for having us today. i hope i don't -- i don't have too much to add really. one comment i would make is this is not intended to be filed as a bill necessarily. it may result in legislation but it's really intended for voters to read as well so there are a lot of. ideas inherently hope you ask your election officials and hold

them accountable to some of the benchmarks that are in this report. i hope itself all. see i will conclude by saying a lot of times we see media reports and here elected officials and politicians, and i used to be one and we fight a lot about how our election should be run. to me one of the most important takeaways is we had a commission of 10 people who voted differently to have different ideological views but who found common ground on a bunch of ideas. i guarantee you it will make it work a lot better if they are implemented across the country and local jurisdictions in state jurisdictions. my biggest take away is that this report doesn't gather dust in its recommendations are adopted, that those who care about elections and maybe citizens asked their elected officials and election administrators to adopt these and let's stop playing partisan

political games and work on making elections better. this is a good manual to help do just that. >> i just want to conclude this segment by saying because trey ended on the note of partisanship, we looked at public administrations as our guidance and voters across the political spectrum as the light we had to continuously keep our eye on as the standard to keep reporting about. as ben said at the outset i don't know if we have ever voted the same way. before you turn to the dark side [laughter] >> before i became wise. >> yes he puts it before he matured and we are going to go off and fight each other some more now. this is kind of what we do. we just fight each other all the time. you will call --

no exit in no way out. we will be fighting continuously but we were able and i can't thank n enough as cochair of this commission, we were able to acknowledge this agreement and where there was disagreement but keeping in mind the standards that i think justly guided the report and the reported report of this commission and of nate personally we were able if thing to get something done. last but not least i see some representatives here of organizations in secretaries of states and others who hosted us and provided extraordinary cooperation to us, information and various discussions, bringing together stakeholders and interested groups and i can't thank them enough either. >> with that. >> we will open it up for questions and discussions. >> and talking about having recommendations we hope the

election officials will read and take to heart and implement, where necessary some of these things may involve legislative changes and i was wondering if there would be any outreach to state that just leaders and county legislatures for the implementation of some of these recommendations and what form that outreach would take? >> in general everybody on this commission, we want to go and become evangelists for this project so in general we did during the process, we did go to cso. that is our goal going forward is to go to the same groups that one gave us information but are the decision-makers. csl has their big meeting this year and we would love to give them an agenda to talk about that in our perspective states we want and gauger local

legislative leaders. >> we have an invitation ben and die on the senate side next month at the federal level. we certainly would welcome all of the commissions and an opportunity to engage with state legislators. like for example the polling places in the role that schools play. a huge issue, very controversial in some respects but we would be happy to engage with the ultimate decision-makers. >> we will be visiting next month with the national cessation of secretaries of state and the national association of state election directors when they have their washington meetings is another example of that. we go to a lot of meetings. i thought people had a lot of meetings -- [inaudible] ski i was wondering whether you found any of the problems

resulting from the fact that there were no -- [inaudible] did any problems result from back? >> well i mean you can take the first shot. >> looked we took the situation and the eac has certain functions. as you look at the rep port take it for example the best practices, we found them extraordinarily helpful. we read through them. we included them in our tendencies so the eac has done some very important and good work. also it has a research function. the conflicts about which we are not as a commission expected to express an opinion that of left the eac currently without the ability to function you have to take as a given when we look at something like the pending

crisis. you can have the view that you won't eac to be in its current form or strengthen or abandon altogethealtogethe r but you have to accept is the event that in the meantime while that issue gets played out we are falling further and further behind the curve if you will in attending to what we need in voting technology to administer elections. so obviously the condition of the eac at any given point is going to set issues up and you address one of them but it doesn't mean that all of the share the same view and we don't all share the same view as the eac is a federal commission is properly structured and functioning correctly. there's a question that simply has to be addressed recognizing that there needs to be potential a significant alternatives standard-setting and certification.

>> i basically agree with that. it has become a problem and fixing the problem is beyond what we can do as a commission. for machines and as i said before the machines are going to run out of time to operate as machines before the eac gets to them i would guess as we move technology forward in the short-run. yes. [inaudible] >> again the business of telling congress what it should or should not do is thankfully outside of our charge. obviously we made notifications this morning. we hope they will will read the report and answer questions. we will be glad to brief and then we will leave it there. as i said there are 8000

jurisdictions that actually administer elections and this is historically a state and local function. most of what we are talking about, virtually everything we are talking about has to be done at the state and local level. i think. >> regarding that. point you think the recommendations that would help of would help with a long line such as providing a polling place resource formula in florida since you are florida experts should be taken at the local level at the state level because florida has 67 different counties. i thank you so much for your recommendations. that would be very helpful at they are all implemented but should they be implemented at the state level so there they would be consistency among the counties and have a greater impact? >> as a native floridian.

elections are in my blood. the way these formulas work, and there are three different ones and we are not putting a -- and one in particular is that you have to assess how long it takes to vote on a ballot. you have to have estimates of the number of machines you will be placing in polling places could you have to have an idea the number of people. those variables will, depends on the state but will often be contingent on the county so that the formula that they use actually really just depends on for example the voting technology you're using so so for the state to mandate one might end up being counterproductive because if it's not sensitive to the differences within the counties. in other states where they have more uniform architecture for elections those types of formulas will work out any more uniform way.

but one of the things as you play around with them on line you will see that they do somewhat different things. i encourage you to look at marks which is the third one on the tools which will predict for you how long the line is if you put only two polling machines and three staff at a polling place and you expect this many people to come throughout the day. it really does depend on a lot of those other aspects of the electoral ecosystem as to what's going to happen. we put those out there in order for them to be improved. different states are going to take things and improve on it and that is our goal. >> it's worthwhile repeating something that happened that one of our hearings. we did have hearings in miami in june and not january unfortunately.

and we had the county officials in charge of voting and all the counties that have the major lines. one of them that had really long lines said to us you know i guess turnout exactly on the nose. so if you can figure out what you're turnout is going to be exact, knows how to knows how do you end up having lines at your polling places? but it wasn't just at the polling places. in fact in the counties in florida where there were long lines it was a small percentage, less than 1% of the actual polling places in the county that headlines. about 100% of reporters but not 100% by any stretch of the voters. so that's a question question of having individual polling places where the resources to that polling place were not allocated properly within the county for not having a big enough facility

to handle things. but if you you are an election administrator on the county level you are the one who is going to be closest to seeing how many registrations you have in the months before the election and figure out how you are going to allocate your resources. you have 100 machines and you say i'm going to put 10 in each polling place that's probably not a sound administrative decision because you are going to have different numbers of voters at each of those 10 places. i'm not sure but to do it right the granularity of detail has to be folks actually on the ground in a location. >> it think back to the training we did when i was a secretary of state in kentucky. if i had one of these tools i would want to train on these and expose it to the county election clerks. one of my former county clerks came to cincinnati and we talked

about the selection calculators. he was ecstatic to have this tool. he said this is great and i'm going to use this in my next election. kentucky is one of those states that have different types of systems in each county. nate said it would be hard to mandate but it's not hard to train. the other part of this is for voters to know that these tools are out there readily accessible and not being used to raise a stink to high like maybe some of the administrators who want taking advantage of the resources that are out there to allocate limited resources they do have. there's a bit of a voter and advocate responsibility as well. that's another part of this. some things will be mandated that some will just be through advocacy. some of these recommendations will be implemented that way too >> it think it will be crucial for states to take the lead to make sure that this is imposed across the state through training and not, not necessarily imposing one tool

over another. but if we are going to shoot for a 30 minute standard there is a lot of work that is going to have to be done to get there and as someone pointed out earlier today, we went around to a lot of these places and it was always the other guy having the problem and not the person testifying. so there is sort of vast sums that people accept what they are doing is okay. that is not always the case. there is a state role here but the bottom line is the local units. they're the ones that are going to have to apply it and use it. >> one issue might be the inference by certain states like arizona and kansas to enact more stringent voter registration requirements just for their state elections as opposed to federal. i was just wondering if that was an issue that you have looked at and if so a future any conclusions or?

>> you are talking about for example the current issues around arizona? >> no, we did not address that issue. >> thank you for having us all here and for noting that the npra is the least complied with voting rights statute. my thanks also for the dmv's seamlessly incorporating their voter registration for many of these other elements. i wonder, why did you stop them recognizing that public service agencies which of course do such an important job transacting with possible eligible voters also seamlessly transition their information and also for example the federal aca and the medicaid exchanges that are also coming? >> i think there's a reference

in there about public service agencies. my role on this commission was to make problems for dmv's. . [laughter] >> you always said do your job, do your job. >> it pestle under your job in the same goes for the agency. we highlighted the dmv because it crosses so many different populations within the state and just about every population is hit there is some form or another. the same thing is true for the public service agency. this law needs to be implemented there are organizations that do actively seek implementation through enforcement and other nefarious means against state agencies that there is nobody out there doing that with regard to dmv's. you can look at the eac data and it clearly shows that most

states are not doing their job and their number of applications well under 50% in most states. any state that is doing and mbr a voter adds would be well above 50%. so that's something that hits every population but in no way is meant to diminish the public agency. >> you mention some specific populations that have ballot access issues and let. voters and i was wondering if you found any racial or socioeconomic disparities in ballot access and if you did did you consider annie results to target that? >> the contexts in which we discussed enforcement of these particular statute was the context in which we do have

statutory requirements for the protection of those populations of voters that simply need them improvement and compliance. beyond that, i think it's fair to say that our view is that for the populations you are talking about and others across-the-board the implementation of these recommendations will be highly beneficial. i think everybody is aware that in presidential election years you are going to find some of these breakdowns and jurisdictions where voters in his socioeconomic base that you are referring to resign. what we are proposing is a significant difference to access. >> it why did the commission not say anything about voter i.d.s and voter i.d. laws and that is

not recommended or did you not find it to be part of -- >> it was not part of the charge in their are her federal state and legislative matters and now it's in active legislation. it's not within our charge to address so that in a few others like the voting rights act and enforcement were not ones that the commission expressed their view. >> thank you for doing this briefing andrew. you said you wanted to be an evangelist for this project which is great and you also said you received unanimously i think advice from election ministry fears expanding early voting was the key way of reducing lines and generally improving the election experience. as you know there are efforts in states to reduce rather than expand early voting opportunities. understand you don't want to get into the political --

but given what you've found in your reporting characterized it can we count on you to oppose it may be then condemn those efforts? [laughter] >> the report does not get into the business of individual states in terms of what they may choose or not choose to do. early voting is something that is prevalent in the majority of states. 32 states plus the district of columbia have early in person absentee voting. 25 of those states will no doubt be surprised to know have republican governors are secretaries of state or chief election official so there is pretty much bipartisan agreement in those states. another 32 states plus the district of columbia have early in-person voting.

i'm sorry. no excuse absentee voting in 27 states and 21 of those have republican governors or chief election officer's so early voting is something that has taken flight in the country as a whole but it is up to those individual states to decide the days in the times to allocate their resources as they see fit. >> i would just like to add in the scope of that recommendation is also again setting expectations that states like washington and oregon have a -- arrangement and that is what they think is the best alternative to election day in terms of voting process. our basic position is the traditional voting day model 12 hours for the entire country to vote for example in a presidential election is not feasible anymore.

there are number of options states have to provide additional opportunities to vote. i think voters expect them and i think there will be a significant accountability on the part of them to survive them and that is what we are trying to push forward is this notion very strongly that whatever form they wind up taking there will have to be multiple opportunities available for voters to petition for a -- >> if i could add what are the precautions we have an import is for jurisdictions that shift some of their voting population to the early period that they don't reduce the services they are making available to voters on election day to dramatically. you can reduce but you don't want to do so in such a fashion that now you are creating a bottleneck on election day and you may be still have long lines during the early voting period. there are certainly some cautionary tales on how early voting is done and how it affects your voting process on election day as well.

>> one specific question one brought her one. the specific question is whether there were any particular ideas that you hadn't heard about a year ago that you hear today like a nifty new thing that the commission learned and you expect to move across the country and in the broader one is there were broad resolutions in 2000 the fact that maybe -- we may be repeating some the same problems there. if you look at the 2012 election and think about it ohio -- be quite likely would have had a similar unsatisfied outcome so what do you think you are recommending here that in 2024 we will be in a similar position? what did the carter ford commission's and various groups that have been looking at this,

what are we now getting to that we might be getting too still? >> let's talk about what we have learned that was nifty. the extent of the voting technology crisis is not something i appreciated the front end of this. we are that clearing call from all groups involved which is to say the states locality defenders and others that the process is broken to certified new technology and that there is a real risk of massive simultaneous breakdown in a particular jurisdiction because so many machines are aging and becoming, reaching the end of their natural life at the same time. that was something i didn't quite appreciate that these schools point that i mentioned before and a serious reduction

in polling places as a result of that. i should say both of those points are related to the early voting conversation. if you are losing machines and losing polling places you have to expand the amount of time that people are going to have to vote so you can get them through the process before election day. this is an honest assessment and i hope you will agree in the report about the problems that people have been paying attention to them the problems that are on the horizon. it is possible these problems unless they act on them are going to get worse, not better and these are examples of those situations where it might be getting worse. and then the nifty points looking at the technology and looking at the changes that are possible out there. we had a whole day at a hearing in cincinnacincinna ti where we looked at the different types of voting machines which are possible so the commission endorses the move to commercial

off-the-shelf devices in order to for till -- facilitate that. as long as you have verified paper trail there's no reason you can't vote on the same types of technology we use for everything else in our lives. we are pushing in that direction in ways that maybe weren't expected. >> you teetered off per -- perfectly for me. one of the things that is exciting experts in the field that computer experts have been working on is shifting where the ballot gets actually cast or where it gets marked and for instance you can download a ballot onto any smart device. it embeds your choices in your selections in a code. you going to hold polling place in your able to scan that qr code and on a screen you can verify it sohtz compliant and you verify that is what you want you can cast a ballot by the

printing it out and taking it over and having it scanned in which cuts down the amount of time people are spending at the polling place. this type of technology can be used by military and overseas voters and it can be used at home by voters that have their own accessible software on their home pc or smart devices and across-the-board it would shift some of the voting but not the actual casting of the ballot in the counting of the ballots from the polling place. it will alleviate some of the security issues because someone is verifying what's being done and counting. with that said there are still some concerns about qr and what if a voter has a second chance option so they are some things that still need to be completely flushed out. there's a lot of excitement there and we talk about communities that are underserved and you don't want to ship everything, not that everyone

has on line resources that when you look at the research the percentage of our population that have some sort of smart device in their pocket is ever-increasing and it is what our younger the voters are demanding of us. i think as election administrators we need to be thinking about how we are going to cat be casting our ballots and having the ballots and counted in the next 10 or 20 years. i think that's exciting. >> he i think about the opportunity we have for the rise of technology and the processors and data. also after the 2000 election most states didn't have a single registration database so out of the first commission came the recommendation to unify that. i found it flabbergasting.

i just assumed everyone had that and it was striking that it didn't exist or the ability now with technology, the speed and the technology to do that eric like projects to do on line voter registration to have an ipad at the polling places, there's a real opportunity in tech knowledge of that didn't exist in 04 for carter baker that we have now for voter registration modernization. that is something that my top hope and i have lots of hopes for this commission but my top hope is that we can accelerate that. there's momentum behind it and it's surely bipartisan. that is something that could have been done or recommended after the 04 election. >> something i had very little appreciation of his the lack of uniform data collection about elections. you would think that would not

be difficult to collect and i would have assumed that you could figure out in a uniform way all the various data points about casting and counting ballots. it's not sure at all. one of the things we do call for in the report is a much much more uniformly together all the data to be able to really assess the problems and address them. it's in a really disorganized state. >> the number of young people that vote still lags behind almost any other constituency and i'm wondering if any of the recommendations you look at tried to deal with the question about where young people get their ideas and vote and the other thing about what's trey grayson said did you look at the question of statewide

portability is a way to implement some of the election day problems? >> the first part of your question, i think the general modernization will go a long way to helping out young voters and we also have to reconcile the statistics. steven is one of our professors that we have leaned heavily upon. he argues that part of the reason why you see much lower younger turnout is just because the data is so bad. they are registered to vote but they are really there. they are some morals and we also use a mobile population anyway. even if they are registered they are not in the right spot. they use technology. they are using their smartphones so to the extent that we can make that process work better i think that will help. we will never get up to the point of equality but i think that will go a long way. as the portability of data other than in the context of the -- i

guess that what you addressinaddressin g the second part of your question. it's the one the main reasons young people don't vote is because they are the most mobile population. in the u.s. we require that you reregister every time you move. very moving every year or two. one fourth of the population moves every year or two. we are the most mobile population in the world. because we require reregistration every time we move the barrier of the registration process necessarily will affect some populations more than others. the more you can get the registration problem solved which is to say make it as easy as possible with other databases and make sure sure that it's as fluid as possible and an on line environment like the one we discussed the more likely it is those populations will -- offers flavored with respect to interest and other things of lead to lower turnout is beyond

the scope of the commission but registration is a large part spirit. >> one more point on that we do have recommendations with regards to poll workers and for jurisdictions that have the ability to recruit 16 and 17-year-olds as poll workers which we have done in my home jurisdiction now for more than 10 years so they are of the age of voters. i've actually done some research looking to see are they more likely to register at the point they turn 18 and when they register do they vote? not only that it is the frequency of their voting more than their counterparts and it's all very positive results. once you get them engaged and they understand the process is and they have a vested interest in it they continue to be encouraged. >> speaking as the younger voter who likes a lot of the nifty things we have talked talked about has it been discussed at all to have a guest and

electronic polling ability where to find it virginia i can still go to my home state of michigan if i'm here for college or are there too many cybersecurity concerns to have people deeming their votes 800 miles over the internet? spierer you talking about on line voting? >> on line voting in the poll place where you take the qr and swipe a driver's license and say michigan 12th district and not virginia. >> i think we talked a little bit about that. that'll be the next commission. ..

>> the moral of those signed the better. arguments in the face of what works best for a variety of reasons, but we may arrive at different conclusions about how much it gives the orders. >> did you identify overall and other ancillary or direct for the federal election commission to play in advancing a directing the goals he set out, particularly in the after.

>> presidential election, at least the perception was glen echo those of you looked into it , the in other areas that were also underserved in the voting experience has certain populations were impacted more than others. is that something you looked into at all? your so, were you able to come down with reasons why certain areas have long realize that others? i think looking at different reason why you might, there is no question of issues of resources to have an impact are

a variety of factors have an impact, in some cases go multiple factors will be produced, the long line problem. simonson's to an earlier question, we are confident that if we take the specific recommendations paths we will significantly collapse the different experiences that they have. improve the release variants six regardless of the trachea -- socio-economic range. we will have an equalizing impact. >> we talked to generally representing these jurisdictions . >> individuals with different looks that illustrate this conflict. i was wondering if you had a felt sort of limited by coming up with this unanimous

bipartisan recommendations that really arbor political. no wonder if you fell limited as individuals below but maybe you would have had very strong recommendations they did not agree on. the narrowing your focus, you felt like he could focus more and come up with better ideas. >> i don't think our focus is narrow. think the voters who experience guessing about this venture will see different and better if the recommendations are adopted. i think if that -- the best way to do things. the answer is to of the question you're asking is if i thought about all voting rights issues in the united states and i were entirely in charge of that, if he felt them.

>> the entertainer. >> i read a report. no. probably not. because we cannot agree on everything is up mean. the of a compass anything less. we still are going to be bringing. this is set aside provisions of ballots. a huge issue. provisional ballots and that relates to inaccuracies in voter rolls, of a host of issues. the machines are working. 10 million voters in the united states who waited in line the mouth of the blogger than a half an hour, family longer than an hour, and where trying to do something for it disabled

voters, the proficiency voters, military voters, reduce the jurisdiction so that you don't have some that are just running below resources and well-managed and so fred think we will all be committed to voters in that don't think it means the contentious issues. the ones that we are defining as the issues of fundamental public administrations we were able to find common ground. >> i would like to give credit for getting s a lot of issues to address believing in a couple that had -- and probably would not have been able to agree in that would have been the story. rather than lease. so i think that was great direction the pilot. >> we have a report with a lot

of ideas and details. >> that to this and that the most controversial issues of the most controversial. >> the best races system can crack the code. it will have downstream payoffs drug dealer charles system. of the ceiling with a long lines. we have the data from the last election. simply that the recommendations to maguey more information about what did this happen in poland playoffs. inaccurate picture of the types of problems going for the weekend dress. the machine issues that we talked about that are of real concern. so if you weigh the importance of an issue not by how much, you know, air time is getting but how many voters it will be affecting, these are the shoes

of going to have a serious impact. >> know the answer to this. deasy were to what extent did you look at emergency planning in the wake of yesterday's election in virginia? >> we looked at it carefully. in paris, what is actually already out there was a really good job of a of highlighting that issue. it is all contained in the appendix, the national association to the secretary of the state as a particularly good program. we did look at it. we were impressed by what others had done before us this. >> one thing that we said is in the value of the report what the contingency plans are so that for rescheduling election in that event, sometimes the ball

was going to drop and you don't actually have an answer, the same as with having someone in charge to make a call to whether an election has to be rescheduled, but does the national association taskforce this of the referenced in report that we appoint people to. >> many of us in that area. certain parts of the country, but first responders came from all over. and given us responders flexibility and other states back, love and said those absentee to give them the ability to do that is something that is an eyeopener. the folks in a hiring came to help out, they need some help as well. >> and that was cynical because many states already have in place where if a natural disaster or the issue it's their own state they and then place and what will happen just in their state, but in arizona we were sending people to the east coast. there is a real,.

we talked about not only what has to happen the date of the election the year infrastructure is impacted. and so it is critical that everybody has a contingency plan in place and the plan e, f, g as well. >> recommendations for military. >> well, first, we have the move back to. there are still challenges. one of them is that if you are a military voter in your charge a figure of a register and vote the minority your state website will often be not available to you. and so we go through it in detail this about what the states need to do.

second, and this does get into the leaves demoted he stuck to military and overseas voters and as we did commit is clear to them that different states are implementing in their ways. the federal right absentee ballot which supposedly fail-safe are meeting different things in different states. you have to uniformity in that regard in order to make sure that two soldiers similarly situated their not having different rules apply to the. there are other aspects of the recommendation that have disproportionate value the was something like, and voter registration. obviously it's better for those are farther away. so all of those recommendations says.

also many best practices. one thing we heard is that the insulation funding assistance officers are on even participation so that you need to integrate the voter registration process into the into a processor soldiers and-basis the they can register as seamlessly as possible. >> speaker little bit about some of the work that you did working fix that poll workers because they aren't important part of election day. when i have heard is their criminal 16 and 70 year-old. amaral of research went into that aspect of the report and then if there were any limitations be noted. >> we have all long list of recommendations in reference to the recruitment, training, retention.

and we do for a lot of that to the work of the election assistance commission which has election management guidelines include star guidelines. but a few of the things that we highlighted have to do with the recruitment of not only 16 and 17-year-old star but also sponsorship the polling places, groups and organizations, whether it is a business or a paternal organization, and a lion's clubs. recruiting from within counties and state government allowing government employees to have the day off to work the poll. until we get into training, making sure across the country there are some jurisdictions are the first time you receive training and never have to be trained again. other jurisdictions and the other end of the spectrum is that you have to be trained for every election with which to work. so there is an in frequency, the talk to a quality, duration. we have tried to touch on all those.

it will all be available for jurisdictions to look debt and improve there training. coupled with that we recommend that states take a look at the training being done by the localities in their jurisdictions of the state if they currently don't have anything to do with that training to is sure there is uniformity from one local jurisdiction to the next because an estate wide rig count that is where any discrepancies will certainly come to light. it is best to have uniform trading practices. >> for those of us would like to comment in detail on the actual report from ms. webb said going to have a place for people can send in comments and suggestions the your recommendations so that people in follow-up with their thoughts and experience? with seemed to be to useful

thing. >> you can e-mail anyone unless directly, but they're is a comment section on the website. , good months ago. maybe longer. >> if you what is going to be a resource delays seems to me the comments section should continue to be up there so people can continue to comment on it as they actually triose some of your suggestions and see if they work in the real world. >> hosted at caltech mit. and let's be clear about what these tools are and what we think. they to be perfected and tailored to jurisdictions. said these are the first l.a.'s. they're encouraging people to send their identifying information, comments, and so you will see that on the website

. >> going back to early voting there a suggestion as to what that would detail or is it more of a blank idea? >> a good idea to expand voting before election day, understanding that voters don't want to be submitted said to our traditional election day without specifying, for example, early voting lot to be two and a half weeks. it ought to be from nine a.m. to 7:00 p.m. as you know, there are a lot of differences of opinion. some of the savages of midi this issue's. since. >> is a part of the commission report, you can't administer elections appropriately by building on that. you need to provide multiple opportunities for voting. in person is one of them.

and there are other forms of voting that can be provided as well. that is the appropriate. >> one of the highlights, the shoes with the postal service. in the future of six day week mail what that means for voting. really did know weigh in on what that means other than it is a concern. in some states, we talked about it earlier, some states are have by mail, some states allow some level. there are linkages in the current system about the lost. it is really high. much higher. a lot of concern about individual votes in the 2000. think about as we go through the challenges will impact elections, and not just in oregon and washington. >> you mentioned that there is a

lack of online resources from military and overseas voters. you also find a lack of on-line resources for the voting on a whole, and what can recommendations do you afford of what they include on their web sites to make voting more accessible. >> that we provide some of that commentary in the field guide in the appendices about what -- how to design and make manageable your local and state election websites. a game for those in have developed these guides. a state voter website. >> he mentioned to states that have guns of mail voting. was there any discussion among the commissioners are testimony received or in the report about the virtue of the state

retaining its one option among his other early voting options with things like that, but retaining as one option the voting day, you know, first tuesday after the first monday. federal elections as decided to not entitled to. retaining that one day for voting just because of the civic virtue value of having that opportunity to exercise. i noted, not reducing the resources that i needed for that one day. netting some of us feel it is very important to have that one day. going to all male is a mistake. i just wondered if you discuss that. >> the abolition of election. >> debated it. >> debated it. >> by the second thing is that

we don't critique. to raise all sorts of issues about the vulnerabilities of the postal system and what that says about potential problems. we certainly did not critique in add there or in washington state. again talking about the election

>> pro-life demonstrators met in washington today on the 41st anniversary of the u.s. supreme court roe v. wade decision. one of the speakers was house majority leader eric cantor. here is part of what he said. >> thank you. thank you very much for all being here today. thank you for braving these unbelievably cold temperatures.

thank you for coming to give voice to our cause of protecting life. saugh i especially want to welcome those from the commonwealth of virginia, the seventh district in particular. i believe that one day in the not too distant future our movement will be victorious because we will prevail and secure a culture of life in america. [applause] i believe this for one very simple reason. the truth is, there is an inalienable right to life, and this right extends to the unborn this is not a political truth subject to the winds of man. it is a moral truth and was written as one famous for jean noted, by our creator all

attempts to rewrite or obscure this truth prevail as a moment's that will ultimately fail. you saugh, the advocates ago monday and hiring the worst weather washington did throw a chip in for the opportunity to change one hard, one mind, you are movement, not so secret weapon. you are our strongest advocates and those of us in public office are merely fortunate to stand on your shoulders. now, i stand to today with colleagues, with others, with macho. some of the have been marching for over 40 years and have endured many setbacks, including the recent expansion of a full -- abortion coverage in

obamacare says. but it is important morgan never that we remain strong and stand together. we cannot allow the opponent of life to continue to weaken the moral fabric of our country. they need to know that they need to understand that we will continue to march. we will continue to educate the uribe will continue to advocate, and we will continue to fight. [applause] because it is the right and moral thing to do. the those of us the house of representatives will be right there beside you. last year the house for the first time passed the paid capable and more child protection act.

this bill is an utterly decent and moral proposal that would recognize in law the physical pain and would protect. this remains a top priority for me and for my colleagues says. i am also proud to announce the next week nows will vote once and for all to end taxpayer funding. [applause] then the taxpayer funds that written by our good friend and colleague chris smith will respect the morals and millions of americans and the elderly will save lives. giving this bill through the senate and signed by the president will be a much tougher

it -- much tougher task. that can make you this promise, the people's house will stand for life. and we will do everything in our power to make sure that our values and the sanctity of life are reflected in the law land. they steven a break -- greater pro-life community with the help of pro-life theaters and my colleague terrier with me today cars and know we will continue to make progress so that one day every child in america will be protected by law and welcome to life. thank you all very, very much

>> unfortunately many americans have hope. some because of there. all too many because about. our task is to help replace the despair with opportunity. this is an illustration to the

day here and now, unconditional war. >> looking back five decades erodible said of the union addresses from lbj to george w. bush sunday at 3:00 p.m. eastern , part of american history tv is weekend. live tuesday on c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org. >> elected the feature of the data and this tree. this is two hours and 15 minutes. >> we are here at the food section of the washington of no-show.

the group vice president for government relations. >> good morning. >> how would you describe your job to others to back directions where we do business hair, world . >> what is ford motor company most concern themselves with? >> so much to talk about. some cited to cut some sort of road map. tax reform is another issue. we need to have -- the number one exporting company serbs so there are trade agreements that work for us like the u.s. eu agreement entered agreements that don't work necessarily force like the trans-pacific partnership. the biggest issue is scarce and manipulation. there we stand with the majority of congress, house and senate to try to get some kind of currency

discipline inside of trade agreements because of currency discipline means is trying to figure out a way to stop subsidizing foreign product. >> i would also think you would say fuel mileage standards would be a concern. >> very important and having a good road map, and we're pleased to work with the administration on a road map. the midterm review. such data points and share with and the data so that it to work together a midterm review. largely made of aluminum partly because of your standard? >> it is a big part of it. it is a fabulous product costs. you will see built ford tough, 700 pounds lighter. grade fuel economy, but it's also getting better towing,

better hauling, is going to accelerate faster. this is a lean, mean, fighting machine. the aluminum on this vehicle. >> shows suggest you give aluminum was an issue for durability of its impact. >> not at all. it is great, military grade aluminum the comes from the on the. so you will see this and military applications they're is a car in a folksy eventually but of solar panels on the top. >> great sought to have great concept. the latest research. it is looking at other ways that we can be energy independent in the long term. we have looked better internal combustion engines, electrification and all of the applications, fuel cells. now we are looking at tv coming

off of the electricity grid in seeing whether we can do this by solar panel. maybe not on a day like this where it is 7 degrees outside, but it has some good application so we are studying it, researching it, and seeing what is the possibility is of. >> for the larger idea of alternative vehicles where is the government help or hinder you as far as laying of standards? >> the government provides a role in providing some kind of an incentive for an approach to alternative vehicles. electrification serbs. the government has seen fit to provide incentives. there it should be some kind of an incentive, but not some kind of overall never-ending subsidy. the marketplace has to determine whether these vehicles can really take root. >> for your job levels of government you interact with?

>> everybody. anybody and everybody. we talked to everybody from the local levels on up to the highest level of. we haven't trashes the governments of only here in the united states will run the world . >> one more thing, one of the things i see here says, the idea of self automation, with cameras built on top and apparently this is something that they're working as far as a mass-market bit of. >> is a great vehicle. we are doing a lot of research in the area and future viability and it is something we care deeply about. it is all about the future of gridlock is, global gridlock. i would say something that we care about your the nation's capital six, rated as one of the toughest areas to get around. we are doing a lot of research at the vehicles can talk to one another. airplanes can talk to one another. vehicles should be able to talk to one another in the will to

solve some of the traffic problems of recommence when a daily basis. that is one of the things that we are doing with those vehicles we hope everyone can come down to the show and see that in the solar vehicle and the new f150 in the 50th anniversary mustang which is important to see. what is not to live above the mustang. >> one more question about self automation, the kind of lead time. do we see a production mode? >> a tuned. >> one more thing has. what other things do you think are on the rise in in the government will have to face as far as automobiles or auto policy overall? >> the whole area still has energy independence. we have a role to play as a partner in working together with the government because there are a lot of areas where we can contribute and ford continues to contribute. think it is so important that we all work together on that discussion. >> we are at the fort of part of the washington on the show here in washington d.c. talking with

the group vice president for government relations. the key for your time. >> thanks. >> and we are joined back in our studio on capitol hill by david shepherd's in, washington bureau chief for the detroit news. wanted to begin with the news coming yesterday from fiat that it had completed its acquisition of chrysler. al is this deal changing the u.s. auto industry? >> for the second time chrysler is now a wholly-owned foreign unit. fiat, back in 2009 the obama administration said there would only agree to additional bailout funds that chrysler could reach a tap to the fiat. per that deal the uaw health care trust which is it possible for paying for retiree benefits for chrysler uaw workers at 55 percent of chrysler. over these last few years fiat received part of the company for

meeting certain requirements. they bought some shares back from the trust and then in recent weeks they're reached a deal to buy the remaining part of chrysler. as of yesterday chrysler is a wholly-owned arm of the italian automaker fiat. >> with his feet of water from this deal in terms of what is happening right now in the european auto market compared to what a 70 in the u.s. of a market? >> it is striking. when chrysler was in trouble cn was much stronger. today it is in essence surviving because of all the profits that chrysler is generating here from the sales of pickups and suvs primarily. the european auto market has been a terrible thing in the 30-year low. this started to pick up slightly, because of the depression -- recession

throughout much of europe, of those sales are still really recovering. a big dragon both ford and gm profits. so many this deal to create a global brand and also because of the profits from chrysler. >> the european on the market sets the, story from last week, the european union new car registrations totaled about 12 million vehicles for the year , the smallest number since 1995 says. the annual decline was smaller than predicted. a gain of 13% from 1 year earlier was the biggest monthly increase since 2009. also been talking with our viewers this morning about the of the bailout, asking them whether they thought it was worth their not. can you talk about the companies involved in the bailout and what

their sales were in 2013 in the state of their business right now? >> sure. so preprimary companies got funds from the on a bailout. gm, chrysler, and allied financial which was the set the lending arm of gm, gmac, during the of bailout crisis was tapped to provide loans to both gm and chrysler. both gm and chrysler are doing very well, making billions of dollars in profits. chrysler has reported for four years of increasing sales in the u.s. their up about 98% since 2009. it basically doubled their sales. gm is also about 35 percent since 2009. these companies, smaller. gm shed half of its brands and more than 1,000 dealers during a bankruptcy. chrysler also got much smaller. these companies basically became

size of that they could be profitable with a much smaller overall on the market says. since 2009 industry sales are up last year was 15 million, the best in six years. the market will be above 16 million which will be the first time since 2007 and really back to the new normal for the industry. >> there is a chart talking about the rebound in auto sales. you can see the there a vehicle sales up until 2013. been talking about gm and that's the questions, some of the many of the treasury department lost since torn government efforts. as gm said anything about whether there will repaid at $10 billion of the government lost? says. >> this id will not repay

because there're required to. 2009 -- it began during the bush administration, 25 billion president bush put into gm, chrysler, of finance companies. president obama added 60 billion. for gm to buy gm received about 50 billion from the u.s. government and the 10 billion from the canadian government. in the case of the u.s. rather than require gm to repay that 50 billion, the obama administration decided to swap 42 billion of that for stock and the company. gm was only required to repay 8 billion of the 50 billion. over the past four years they sold the shares off to make more money, but in the end the shares are only worth about $30 billion which accounted for a $10 billion loss. >> why not hold on long receive you could make more money. >> in effect the stock is gone up quite a bit since the government got out, the government decided early on it did not want to own part of an

auto company forever as, in fact , some european countries still on parts of european automakers. they wanted to get out as quickly as possible. however, during the 2012 campaign, governor romney made an issue of gm's central losses. this in billion dollars figure. the administration opted not to sell the rest of the shares during the campaign, waited until december of 2012 to release talk to sell the rest. there was a concern about the impact on the $10 billion loss on the overall assessment of the bailout. but the reality is it would have taken potentially years for the remaining shares to get to that a high-level moment. canada has opted not to sell all the shares waiting for the price to go up to try to make more money. >> for talking with david shepherd's and, the washington bureau chief of detroit news. if you have questions for him,

the u.s. of industry, give us a ring. foul lines are open. if you are outside the u.s. it is 202-58-5383. you will also look for your tweets and the mills as well. john is waiting out of line for other republicans this morning. jonathan from silver spring maryland. good morning. >> says detroit as a large population which has been affected by the post 9/11 world serving your readers as part of your papers, d.c. bureau means covering all aspects of the that there is scientific evidence proving that the building seven which was not hit by a plane was brought down with pre -- pre pledge explosives. >> you will hold off on the 9/11

calls right now. you stick to the other industry. the have a question for mr. shepard's in on that? >> where you're afraid to talk about building seven? >> and not afraid to talk about about to stick with the subjects as we have a guest to as an expert on it. you will go to ray in clinton, pennsylvania on the line for independence. good morning. >> good morning. we are in touch done this. obama should be brought up on charges. what he did was a quid pro quo. he saved gm by giving taxpayer money away. even given shares of the stock, the union, the uaw. they then kicked back to his campaign heavily. this ceos and those people. elsie the difference between the obama. i will buy another uaw made car,

another will my family. ford, chrysler, or gm. these union thugs kick back to this guy in the white house. is that different than what mcdonald's did in virginia. they should be brought the charges. >> cell has the bailout impacted unions for the auto company? >> it has been a mixed bag. certainly it has been good that the company said survived sahara, but as part of the bailout the unions took very dramatic exceptions. a family of four, a uaw worker would qualify for food stamps. in the most recent contract it is started to go up, they are dramatically lower than the older workers, several significant concessions, but the caller certainly raises the

inner thigh with the unions will put ahead of other creditors. enjoying a lot of anger about the bailout. >> melissa waiting in north olmsted no i/o on airline for democrats. good morning. >> the morning. i wanted to reach out. actually have been in the automotive industry for a rough four years. what i've learned in the last four years is how far-reaching the automotive industry is. a lot of people think it is just in terms of the manufacturers are dealerships, but we partner with so many different industries for supplying services and goods and products. the automotive industry and the big three, if even one are two of them would have failed, the job loss would have been horrendous. i can appreciate why people would know what the intergovernmental beat involved, but at the same time we have the support.

>> you raise a really good point. remember march 2009 when the obama administration was deciding if they say both chrysler and gm. the economy was shedding 600,000 jobs per month. and you're absolutely right that the impact of the auto industry is staggering. the largest purchaser of steel, electronics, and other raw materials, and in every part of the kutcher people are -- dealerships, repair shops to model parts, the massive impact of the auto industry is felt way beyond detroit and the industrial midwest. you know, certainly the collapse of the industry would have been dealt. as some argued, it could have pushed the u.s. into depression. >> we have been showing of view is live shots of the washington of no-show, the financial times had a story. the industry's drive by

sideshows. just to redo a little bit from that story. cars become more tech -- technologically advanced. the importance of the traditional car show has begun to fade. a lot to get your thoughts on the importance. >> i think there is lot of hurdles. number one, a lot of these events are being live streamed. but as many reporters are going. they do their own presentation. a lot of companies are going to the consumer electronics show to introduce new vehicles, but still, like the detroit show you have five dozen journalists. it really is moment when the financial press focuses on lottos. i feel like there's a role, but you do wonder long-term, are there other ways of the companies will actually get the new products out? >> of the big innovations that people are waiting to hear about this year were actually announced at the consumer electronics show, correct.

>> absolutely. the focused autonomous vehicles, fuel cells, that is sitting introduced. so focused on politics, the green initiative. a lot of different places to do it. >> the financial times knows that the car industry will roll through 86 different global car shows from detroit last week to a salon in december in beijing. all over the world. all over the country. monroe georgia on our line for independence this morning. >> good morning. >> go ahead. >> i would like to state that this state of the uaw and the state of gm, retire from gm for 31 years. right now they are doing great. i would just like to state that the retirees, they have sort of

thrown a cell with the bathwater. >> all right. marty is waiting in mineral city, ohio, on the line for republicans. you're on with david shepherd's in a detroit news. >> the key for taking my call. one of the biggest misconceptions was mitt romney. he proposed a government bankruptcy versus the government -- >> we can hear you. go ahead with your comment intended tv don't. >> verses a government bailout. the big differences of bankruptcy would have made all the union contracts going for null and void. some of these cmos make $6 million a year salary.

you'll start trimming the fat. they keep. >> playing got here in d.c. the washington bureau chief. >> certainly the impacts of the bill will be continued to be felt. there will never be a consensus, i good or bad thing, especially among republicans. so angry about how the bill happened. it is important to remember the budget ministration did consider requiring gm and chrysler the stop psst then try bankruptcy first. in paris, they did go through bankruptcy and the government watch. the problem was they could have been in for years. the concern was it would not have bought cars from bankrupt companies. the administration's plan cabin in and out in 40 days six. i think the passions are cooling a little bit given that we are now five years away from the bailout.

>> as we look forward to 2014, what are some of the projections that we know at this points in january of 2014 for the auto industry this year? six. >> it is like pop open the champagne. the industry, the detroit show, the d.c. show, everybody is pretty happy because the market's expected rise. six are 7%. a lot of new models. the big concern is will companies go back to bad habits, putting in more incentives, cutting prices and increasing production was lisa this vicious circle of fire protection, lower prices, lower profits. a lot of discipline. the average new-car price today is a buck said -- about $30,000. companies are making more money per vehicle in night keeping the factories running in the old days like they did, even if it meant losing money and vehicles. >> and the comparisons to other barriers around the world costs.

>> the u.s. is not the largest and more so. it is the most profitable. china, but 20 million vehicles sold last year, but far less profitable cheaper vehicles. europe is still a problem, so you have these other fast-growing like india, russia, brazil, but there is also the larger world wide question about what other countries adopt of those as fast as the u.s. and china, the same sales rate as the u.s. did on a per-capita basis that would have bought about 70 million vehicles last year. opposes a lot of questions for emissions as well as traffic, the automobile continues to be adopted fiscal, sort of a rethinking. >> and how much are some of these other countries getting involved in the u.s. auto

industry. you mention it is the most profitable market. here's a question about why china is stepping up its presence. notes that the chief real estate is a draw for chinese investment >> i want to ask you a question from twitter. the airlines have been bankrupt several times to mandated not stop flying planes. is a dishonest to buy the car industry would collapse? >> the difference of an airplane

ticket is a you buy an airplane ticket and that asset disappears almost in this @booktv is to link. you're pretty confident that the play will be there. the argument was that people would not buy the second-biggest purchase the ever make if a company was bankrupt because where they stand by the warranty, the parts their says. you know, that really drove this idea that the administration had to build up quickly or face a lot of uncertainty. >> riding in and the subjects that people most certainly would buy cars from bankrupt companies. they do that all the time fits. we're talking with david sheppard said. we want to get to timothy noah and spoken in washington. >> good morning. i think your guests for being sharp. he keeps hitting the points the want to make which is absolutely

incredible. the numbers that were showing a positive toward the auto industry bailout and all of the personal grudges. i like contractor. i drive a truck. i'm going to make a simple. another ad redneck because i drive a truck to work in all material. if i can't cope by review material to pay at your home, supposed to get a truck to get services to. it is so bottom-line whatever anybody call in and say, we would be better off without our auto industry. i think obama can fix that. is he going to come to us all right? in it's just absolutely bottom-line we have to have our cars. it is transport for our troops, from world war two on up. it is incredible. is what america is known for, and it is a shame that it has gone that far everyone as a side of what you have to keep your eyes and the price.

i am not mad at anybody in this country in a star to about the investments, it's a gift she

breakable of appearances. chasing around. the talk to her. add think she is the first kind of break from the government appointed directors who became ceos. she was not made by the government as the prior ceo or

prior to ceos about government directors who had gone tap for the job. a good chance the company's break from all of the bailout talk and folks in the future. then she is definitely a fresh face for that. .. freshfreshfaced -- any initiatives coming from her? gm the lastuest: couple of weeks been a lot of housekeeping. off paid a dividend, sold assets they did not want anymore. they announced they were selling off the australian market. the old leadership did the uncomfortable things and try to clean the slate, so the new ceo has only been on the job about one week now, so no big initiatives from her. host: is she expected at the washington auto show? guest: this show does not draw as many high-level executives as

the detroit one. this is more of a policy on. i assume she'll be in d.c. in the coming months. host: ralph is in north carolina on our line for democrats. ralph, you are on with david shepardson of "the detroit news ." c: yes, good morning. yes,proud of -- caller: good morning. i am proud of president obama's decision to bailout the auto and i am said some people took a loss because of it. i'm a proud african-american. japan,t live in china or and one caller spoke of charges being brought up on president obama. where is the return on my tax for the war in iraq, when we should've been given an oil