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ased to have secretary of state jay ashcroft to talk about some of the issues facing that state and particularly, voter security. secretary ashcroft, what does the secretary of state do? first of all, let me thank you for having me on. in missouri, the secretary of state's office has many duties. all of your securities regulation, your state archives, the keeping of those historical documents regarding the government goes to the secretary of state's office. think people are most interested in, i am the chief election authority of the state. i work with local authorities in the state, county clerks and boards of elections, to help make sure elections are run

smoothly and that though we have partisan candidates, we have a nonpartisan board of elections. system do youd of use? guest: every authority gets to decide which voting system they use. we have some base criteria that any voting system must meet and they have to be approved by our office, but we actually have several different types of voting systems across the state. we have some localities where virtually everyone uses a paper except for those who need special accessible voting equipment. local areas, it is all done on electronic voting machines and we have a number of different manufacturers and machines in the state. a very distributed, spread out, almost chaotic system if you were to try to inappropriately

affect changes in it. host: what are your concerns, if any about voter security? guest: we are always concerned that when people go to vote, that they can be sure that if they are a legally registered voter, that they will be able to vote, that their vote will count. they will not have their vote disenfranchised by bad actors who try to hack into the system or do some sort of registration fraud to allow people to vote that shouldn't. it is something we take seriously. the secretary of state's computer systems are separate from the rest of the state and our election systems are actually separate from those. we have every type of security you can think about, from firewalls to intrusion detection systems, to the regular auditing of systems and off-site

distributed backups. we encrypt our data at rest and in motion. with 116aling different election officials across the state that have the equipment you vote on, in their position -- in their possession. up withssouri just came a new voter id law, didn't it? guest: we did. 1, the missouri law was changed with regard to what id you can show to get your ballot. we are quite proud of that. before the law went into effect, we had legally registered voters that went to the polling place on the right day and they were turned away because they did not necessarily have the id that was required. requesting the people use a government issued photo id, but we actually increased the safeguards so we made sure we can say with finality and honesty that if you

are a registered voter in this state, you can vote on election day. we have actually had about 60 elections under that law and more than a handful of individuals that would not have been allowed to vote under the law. because of changes to make sure we knew who was voting, those people were able to go ahead and vote anyway. we made it more safe to protect against fraud with standard access to make sure that every registered voter can vote. host: secretary of state of missouri, jay ashcroft is our guest. we are in jefferson city, which sits along the missouri river, pretty much in the middle of the state. is the number if you want to participate. .or all others, (202)-748-8001 the name in the face might look familiar to you. former missouri

senator john ashcroft, but you did not come into the family business in a typical manner. guest: probably not. i grew up in politics and decided i wanted nothing to do with it. i went into engineering. i have a couple degrees from the university of missouri of science and technology. i practiced as a engineer for four years. some people would say i went over to the dark side, law school and became an attorney. i jumped into a race and it was by the grace of the people of the state, they allowed me the privilege of serving as their secretary of state. i cannot thank them enough. host: what does it cost the state to put on an election? guest: the best numbers i could give you would be going back to

the presidential preference primary in 2016. , inou look at that missouri, you are looking at a hat -- looking at about $7.5 million. we have been looking at the cost of that election. we believe we could probably drop that cost by $1 million in the future, and we will continue to work on that. why did you decide to participate with the presidential voting integrity commission? the majority of states did not send information. guest: what you are seeing is the majority's -- majority of states are undergoing the process of sending information to the commission. it was a very easy answer for me. under missouri statute, i am required to. we have the sunshine act. most people think of it as

analogous to the federal open records or freedom of information act. under that law, any individual who requests voter registration data, it is limited to what we give. we don't give out social security numbers, party affiliation or how they voted. we don't know that information and we cannot give that out. we are required to collect data under state law and we are required to give that out to , that that asks for it promises and affirms they will not use it for commercial purposes and if they do, we turned that over to the attorney general to go after them and pay a $35 fee. this is the exact same information we have been giving out for years, to newspapers and any citizen or resident or anyone in the state that requests it.

for me, it was i am going to fall -- follow the law. i swore an oath that i would be true to the constitution of the united states and the state of missouri. host: let's hear from some of our viewers. first up is neil in-house springs, missouri. caller: how are you doing? i would guest: doing -- guest: doing well, thank you. caller: you touched upon a subject i called about. you are not going to tell me it is the law for the state of missouri to turn around and give our information to the feds. i want to know how come you right to workng down our throat without bringing it to the voters when it has been in front of the voters since 1970? and gotblicans got in it back in like they did in wisconsin and indiana. i would like to understand why

you are dragging the working thele in this state down tubes and making it right to work like the rest of the southern states because right to work has not worked out for them. host: i think we got the point. secretary ashcroft? guest: on the first question with regard to voter information. chapter one,n section 115 of the revised statutes, it defines what information is a public record and it refers you directly to 610, which requires we divulge that information to anyone that swears they will not use it for commercial purposes and pays the fee. our legislators and talked to the speaker of the house and i think it would be great frost to have a conversation about what should be public information because there has been a lot of discussion and a lot of people have come up to talk to me about that.

, am going to follow the law that is simple for me. secondly, with regard to write to work, that was passed by the general assembly, in missouri earlier this year and signed by the governor. a referendum petition has been filed and signatures have been filed with my office pursuant to that. we are reviewing those signatures with the local election authority and if there are enough, i cannot officially take sides on it, they will referee on -- the referee on referendums. if there are enough signatures, that law will go to the people to vote on. enough, it will be approved. if you are concerned about that issue, stay tuned, it is not

over yet. host: what are the rules for getting a ballot initiative? let me back up a second and say a referendum is slightly different. that is where the people decide to take something that is passed by the legislature and they want to put that to a general vote of the people, regardless of whether or not it is signed by the governor. once that is passed by the house and the senate, individuals may submit that language to the secretary of state's office. we check to make sure it is correct to perform and it is sent off to a couple different parts of the state. let's say they have gotten everything right. rewrite some language. we call it simple ballot language so people can easily understand what they would be voting on if it makes it to the ballot.

individuals go out and collect signatures for an initiative petition. eighteed from six of our districts, they need a number of signatures equal to 5% of the number that voted for the governor. they have a short time period to do that. august 28 of the same legislative session that it was passed. with initiative positions to either change the law or change the constitution, they file with our office in much the same way. we make sure that they meet the criteria, they are checked by the attorney general and the state auditor. we write a simple ballot summary so that people are looking at that initiative petition change, they can read our summary to see what it really means and then

the people can go ahead and collect signatures once we release that, signatures are going to be due for this two-year term in may of next year. for an initiative position that petition that a statutory, many 5% of the people that voted for governor to sign those petitions in six of the eight congressional districts. for a constitutional change, they will need 8% of the people that voted for governor. you will see people that need to turn in anywhere from 200,000 to 300,000 signatures for constitutional measures because they will lose some of those signatures. some people won't be registered to vote, some people will have signed multiple times. when they turn in those signatures, our office makes copies of those petitions. we send them out to the local election authorities who use voter registrations to check the signatures. if there are enough, they send

it back to us in that matter will appeal on the jeep -- appear on the general ballot for the people to make their own decision on. host: let's hear next from illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. -- guest: good morning. host: i think he had his phone up and was getting a bit of a delay. we are going to move on to greg in st. louis, missouri. good morning to you. caller: good morning. host: please go ahead. hello? host: go ahead and state your question we are listening. we are going to let greg go at this point. ashcroft, is there are same-day voter registration in there same-day voter registration in missouri? caller: weaver -- guest: we

require people to register in advance, it makes it easy for local authorities to make sure their registration information is correct. election day is a big day. 6:00 in theween morning and 7:00 at night to vote. there are a lot of moving pieces , and we just like to get that taken care of, ahead of time so we can have registration books done in paper or electronically. that is just one less thing they have to worry about on election day, to make sure that every registered voter can vote. what are the deadlines for an election, say in the 2018 congressional elections? secretary ashcroft: in 2018, in november, your deadline, i would have to look at a calendar, let orsee, it is november 8 november 7.

i haven't looked at it recently. so, your deadline is going to be right at the beginning of october or the end of september. back and check the law and count the days myself. i'm sorry, i haven't checked yet for next year's november election. secretary ashcroft: a little over a month. cairo.jim in stager question. question.our the stateseen ads in about the new voter id law and this man has a stood there on camera and said, if you are registered, you can vote. id, it you need a photo has been said you can vote with your electric bill. what is the purpose of a lot that you all have passed, when it doesn't mean anything? peter: are you supportive of the

voter id law? >> no, i'm not. i believe we need paper ballots delivered to every mailbox. peter: secretary ashcroft? let me breakcroft: that up into two parts. if you are registered, you can vote. one thing we have done with this law is, there are a couple of extra safeguards when people come in to vote. we want people to use that government issued photo id. it helps us with some of the padsology, like the poll that we use. but if you do not have that, if you do need one, or if you need more information about the law at sos.isit our website vote.gov. not have that government-issued photo id, you can go ahead and use one of the

other forms of identification you have been allowed to use before. however, you will be required to sign a statement. they changed it from being called a statement because they thought it would scare people away. they used to call it an affidavit. under that statement it informs you that under missouri law you are supposed to use a government issued voter id to vote. currentlyo not possess one and that the state will provide you one for free for the purposes of voting if you do not have one. once you sign that it will be cap 422 months. you will get a letter from our office offering to assist you or , a you a photo id government issued photo id. government authorities can decide that anyone that comes into vote, that doesn't have that government-issued photo id, they can simply take a head shot

of them, in case there are a regulators -- in case there are irregularities, they know who to look for. we have seen every type of vote fraud you can think of, in missouri. and it is generally not the person coming up with their passport, this is really who i am that is causing that. so, what we have tried to do, and i think it is entirely appropriate, is to make sure we do two things with regard to the slot. one, we nature of you are registered you can vote. because that is your right. it is also a privilege and responsibility but it is your right. and number two, we have already try to make it more difficult to cheat and make it easier to go after people that they do cheat, so we can prosecute the nature they don't cheat again. under the old lot we didn't have the availability to do that, and we believe every missouri and should have confidence that their vote counts, that they won't beat this enfranchised -- that they won't be disenfranchised. peter: do think voter fraud is

widespread in missouri? secretary ashcroft: unfortunately, there has never been a very comprehensive look at voter fraud. it is one of the things i think his most interesting about the president's committee and voter fraud. whether there is widespread voter fraud is something that different sides of the political spectrum well, i will say politely, disagree about. we did have an individual who won his primary and a heavily democrat district and it doesn't matter if it was a heavily democratic district, it could have happened in a heavily republican district. he won his primary by one vote and then to members of his family pled guilty. they admitted in a court of law that they had the illegal voted in that the election, and their nephew was the candidate and he

was elected by one vote. two illegal votes, that makes the difference. but going back to this idea, there has never been a comprehensive look at exactly how much vote fraud there is in missouri. a statutory been requirement for reports or investigations to flow through the secretary of state's office. we are working to make sure there is a common ground for looking at those investigations, and a one-stop repository for that information. but i think it is great we finally have a task force, commission, whatever he went to collect, that is bipartisan, that is going to look at this information and tell us once and for all, is this a problem or is it not? i would think if you are on the side that said i it doesn't should want to comprehensive investigation. and you should be able to stand up and say, see, i told you so. but if you believe that vote

fraud is a problem then you should also look forward to having a commission to investigate this to find exactly how big a problem it is and how we can mitigate it and how we can make sure that people have confidence in their elections. so i'm really happy where taking this look. i understand it's a controversial issue but frankly, controversial issues are the ones with need to get to the bottom of. and if there is to really a toblem, we need to find ways fix it, and if there isn't, we need to move onto something else. peter: let's hear from brenda, and indiana, pennsylvania. >> about the issue of same-day registration, what about the people that have birthdays on election day, and are turning voter age on election day. this disenfranchises them from being allowed to vote. i have, ontion election night i watched the coverage of election night and

between the hours of 8:00-10:00, brian williams and chuck todd mentioned some states were experiencing computer glitches, and that's why some of the returns were coming in slowly. and i wonder if an investigation is being done into what chuck todd and brian williams said were these computer glitches, and this being the reason why some of the state returns were coming in so slowly. peter: thank you, brenda. secretary ashcroft. secretary ashcroft: your first question is a great question because that is a real concern. what if someone turns 18 on the day of the election, or the day before, and you have to register ahead of time? missouri, we allow people to register before they are 18 if they would turn 18 by the date of the election. we want to make sure that everyone who would otherwise be eligible to vote on election day, can get registered and can vote.

we work with high schools and other organizations to make sure we get those people registered to vote, and they know they can register before they are 18. individual that is allowed under the law, to participate. because that is how we find the best solutions. that is how we elect the best people, when we have people from every walk of life looking at the angle and the problem and coming to a conclusion. great question. secondly, regarding computer glitches, i can't speak to what happened in other states. i focus my efforts on what is happening in missouri. we work with every local election authority before and after elections, on their processes and procedures. we do auditing after elections to look for problems, not just somewhere where there appears to be a problem, but we do spot checks with that. i'm very confident with what we have seen with elections recently, regarding the reporting mechanism in missouri. at that confidence does not stop us from looking at how we can

make it better and more secure, but i am confident in the efforts that we have seen in missouri, recently. jim from cairo, missouri, talked about voting by mail. oregon does this. what are your thoughts? if youry ashcroft: well, look at states that have done that you have also seen large numbers of over-sending of ballots and an inability to keep track of those ballots to make sure people have only voted once. i think our system works well here in missouri. under the law, you are required to get three days off on free days off- and election day, if you need that. we have absentee ballots of people are traveling on election day. if pull workers can't go to their poll to vote, they use

absentee ballots. it is pretty easy to vote in missouri so i feel confident, that people want to vote they have that opportunity. also i love the idea when election day is we the people, we the people in the state of missouri and this country get together on one day to decide who will lead us, to give them direction, who will no longer lead us because we don't like what they are doing. maybe i watched "mr. smith goes to washington" twoo much as a child. peter: let's hear from one final caller. kristen, in annapolis, maryland. the discussion was around showing a form of id. and i actually support paper voting mechanisms over the hack electronic voting mechanisms. as far as showing voter id, every person should have a photo

id, government issued, because it is required when you go to see any doctor. so, the federal regulations for phi are to show a state or federal id to identify yourself. so, it not something that is difficult to obtain. peter: secretary ashcroft. heretary ashcroft: i think for her call and i would suggest that under missouri law it is easy to obtain. if people want to go to our website, we have already given up to triple digits. free ids for people that want you use them for the purposes of a voting and anything else they would use and 94. those are free of charge. we don't charge for the id. we don't charge for the underlying documents. you may need to answer couple of questions for us but we will reach out to other states, we have reached out across the country to help individuals. we want to make sure every individual can use the

government-issued photo id to vote. but i also think it is a great way to bring a small segment of our society more fully into society. how often don't think we have to use the government-issued photo id. and, those things we wouldn't be able to do if we didn't have that. not only are we protecting our elections when making sure every registered voter can vote, but we are making individuals that don't have that photo id become more into society and it is a great thing we have done it in missouri and we are really proud of our voter id law and that we have increased the number of people allowed to vote. be. is the way it ought to if you are registered to vote, you can vote and your vote will count. secretary ashcroft, how did jefferson city become the

capital of missouri? originally,hcroft: the capital was farther east along the missouri river but when they were picking a capital, they wanted to find something that was centrally located. obviously, the water was important and jefferson city is right on the banks of the missouri river, right in the center of the state, so it was just a great location to have the government. didn't wantple just politicians near where they were. peter: secretary ashcroft, thank our "50joining us on capitals tour." will take you to the heritage foundation in washington dc. we expect remarks from president trump, momentarily. introductory remarks are being made here at the heritage foundation and we will continue with live coverage here on c-span. >>