whether she intends to appear. you can listen with the free c-span radio app. >> what does it mean to be american? that is this year's studentcam competition question. we are asking middle and high school students to answer it by producing a short documentary about a constitutional right, national characteristic, or historic event and explain how it defines the american experience. we are awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes including a grand prize of $5,000 for it the deadline is january 20, 2019. for more information go to our website studentcam.org. with a former counterterrorism senior director of the national security council during the obama administration, now at georgetown university here to talk about election

security. where do we stand right now with the midterms right around the corner, could our election werems be hacked compromised? >> i think there is reason for concern. first we have threats to the integrity of data itself. who should show up and be able , and then you have threats to the integrity of the discourse leading up to election day. that is more in line with what we saw in 2016 during the when therel campaign was a russian directed campaign to polarize american voters and spread misinformation on candidates. there are steps that have been taken since 2016 to help on both fronts but both remain real threats. is that discourse on social media platforms still happening?

by foreign actors, is it still happening at the level it was leading up to 20 team? -- 2016? >> it is still happening. we know that from leaders of the intelligence community, journalist counts, and tech companies themselves. facebook has said they have seen the sort of campaigns unfolding in advance of the 2018 midterms. whether it is happening at the same scale is tupper to say. --h companies of a debate tech companies have interrupted some activity but that may lead a lot of activity still , even as election day gets close. -- what are these tech companies doing and are they doing enough on their own, does washington need to act? >> they are doing some stuff but there is more that needs to be done. they have looked for what facebook calls inauthentic behavior. accounts that seem to be designed to spread disinformation and the ways that russia spread that in 2016.

not real americans expressing political views or objecting to others. paul, polarizing discourse by people sitting in russia or elsewhere. even developing fake identities. i think the disruption the tech companies have done so far is too little and too late. even when facebook revealed its efforts to block some of those accounts hadhose already spread their disinformation widely, hundreds of thousands of views of some of what they had spread. >> last week facebook, google, microsoft representatives discuss their efforts and the work they are doing on camping syverson ready. here is what they represent -- campaign cyber security. >> you mentioned meeting with dhs, i know that you have obviously talk to them every day , what sort of guidance does the government give you guys now on this from the federal side? the collaborations have been

less about either of us telling the other one what to do, even from an innocent guidance in just makingre connections and opening communication. i have not heard anything that would be guidance for us to roughly from them. makings more just about a connection and having a conversation. >> i think they are happy to hear that our outreach efforts and sometimes magnifying outreach efforts and our products. that is really beneficial. >> what do you make of them saying they are giving us guidance? channels of communication between governments and the private sector including the tech sector are tough. that is something we worked hard to do on counterterrorism issues. directing tech companies what to do especially in the area of speech is not whether u.s. government wants to be or should be given the first amendment.

there is something in between having a channel and direction. that is providing a steady stream of information. government u.s. seeing in terms of the latest tactics by kremlin backed actors or others? what can the u.s. government informed the tech sector about so that there are steps the tech sector is trying to take our optimize. >> you wrote a piece in the foreign affairs magazine, how washington can prevent midterm election interference, explain. >> that does go to information sharing. my co-author and i were trying to get at the concern that this information was not flowing from washington to silicon valley. we pivoted from some recent reporting of the time. the first meeting was only a few months before the midterm elections to talk about midterm election interference. the tech sector according to these reports began the meeting by sharing what the government

was excited to be seeing. that's expected to be seeing. representatives said they are here to listen and they didn't have anything to say. the government is very good at ingesting information on national security threats and not so good on sharing that information. with the right will and right structures, even information that is classified, certainly information from the open internet, the best of intelligence communities and law enforcement analysts can go back to silicon valley engineers, lawyers, policy folks and informed their efforts. >> rene in mississippi, independent. you're up first. caller: high. i work elections in mississippi. are crazy.nes we have had these machines for 17 or 18 years. you have to physically come in when there is a problem -- the

companies themselves have to come in and physically alter or fix the machines when we have a problem. any possibility that anyone could possibly tamper with these machines using some , ande technology out there facebook and twitter did not exist when these machines were adopted for our election. i would like you to comment on that. >> the caller raises an important point which is, the social media campaign is one aspect of this. as i mentioned at the outset, altering data is a different beast. we found that some of the best protections are to disconnect in the blood. i am -- disconnect and unplugged. paper ballots may be the safest because they are vulnerabilities internet can generate, that is why people think that is the safest way to go.

that does create other problems. even if it doesn't create cyber ball or relive these -- cyber vulnerabilities. sometimes you have lines that are so long that people have to get to work or pick up children from school or day care. getting people to exercise their constitutional right to vote is a critical priority. there is work to be done in ensuring there are enough machines, working machines, another people to fix the machines when they do break. the cyber piece is somewhat ameliorated if there is not that internet connection. in newport, republican. caller: hello. i just want to see if you can respond to a statement or clarify something. bill nelson in the state of florida came out and said there was a situation where the russians were going to be

hacking machines and that was dispelled because the democratic party or whoever did not verify that actually happened or is going to happen. -- just came out with an article in the paper regarding something that was disseminated from washington dc that looked like a paper ballot early voting system. it was put out by an activist group there and it looked absolutely real. saying -- theyt are very nervous at these election offices in florida about not only electronic things but these other means of people trying to persuade in our own country will nelson. he's a senator. caller raises an important aspect of how elections happen in this

country. broader point is that elections are better, handled at the state level unlike a lot of national security challenges. i got the election as a national security challenge. they are administered by a single federal agency. --ncies are handled elections are handled by the states. states need to understand the prepared andto be ensure the integrity of elections in that state. of ais also something challenge, coordinating that activity and insuring those who work on issues of the federal level are in communication and sharing information with and learning from the state level. that is what makes this issue hard. >> diana in indiana, independent. you how the ask -- what arearty

they going to do with them wanted to register undocumented workers? are don't see the issues we talking about this morning being about one party or the other. it is the updated me of a bipartisan issue, standing up for free and fair election -- of a bipartisan issue, standing up for free and fair elections. foreign backed activity designed to corrupt those elections. -- partlyading up to by affecting discourse leading up to them and by altering the data associated. >> the president signed an thattive order recently imposes sanctions on individuals and entities that medal in the u.s. elections are this applies -- does this go

far enough? what does this do to her? -- deter. >> i don't like it does enough. those are objectives that are worthwhile. this into the white house to forestall or root out legislation that had been gathering momentum on the hill that would have been tougher and offered more comprehensive protections on this issue. me as to what people would not want the toughest forms of protection. there is work legislatively to be done here. there is a way to criminalize sharing of deliberately hacked information to influence an election. it would be helpful for those who investigate and prosecute these issues. russia and the bilateral relationship and this issue with china. bipartisan piece of

legislation sponsored by marco , called therida it aims to prevent election interference by foreign countries by establishing reporting requirements for the intelligence community and authorizes broad sanctions against russian businesses and imposes financial penalties on senior political officials and oligarchs. in addition to barring entry from the usa for biz the -- what is it about this language that you like that you think could help these her -- deter future interference? >> it begins to respond to the -- 2016 russia interference in a way this administration has not --

you will recall that congress passed a bill authorizing additional sanctions against russia. the white house threatened to veto that it became clear that -- house intothe white sanctions that are overdue. i think the information sharing these is critical. a protection of classified information but at the level it can be shared, making sure the executive branch is informing the congress and the country to these threats that are gathering for the 2018 midterm. sean in connecticut, republican. caller: good morning. i have a question on the voting

machines. are going to assume they not have to double -- hackable. i want to know if they are hacka ble or not. the other thing was absentee voting. recently my mother had dementia and she was getting absentee ballots in the mail. i could have used it and signed her name if i wanted to, but i didn't. i am more curious about voting machines. >> let me start with the question about voting machines. it is hard because there are different voting machines across the country.

that is part of the nonuniform nature of the system that i mentioned earlier. ways in which those who worry about hacking of the systems worry about that. one could hack the voter rolls so that people who shop entitled to vote on election day are told, based on what the election volunteers see that they are not in fact duly registered to vote there. that is a real problem. then there is the actual changing of votes after they have been cast. the channel recommendation seems to be the paper ballots that are safer. we can determine what security practices are sufficient. just mentioning quickly absentee ballots. there was a commission set up by the president and the vice president and secretary of state on the voter fraud issue. it was seen not to be at issue by groups that have looked into it.

there is widespread litigation suggesting it was endangering sanctity of american elections by pulling together a lot of information on american voters. i think the focus right now as we worry about our elections should not be on voter fraud which does not seem to be widespread but more on interference by possible hostile actors with our election. >> patricia and minneapolis, republican. >> good morning. duty, that ison when the supposedly in hacking happened through the 2016 election. president obama mocked president trump for being concerned about meddling in the election. he didn't do anything about it. we are concerned about an illegal immigrant voting. they are being given

and there is no way to check. they can go vote. we understand they could be voting democrat. it is nottell us that a concern illegal immigrants voting. fraud absolutely there is fraud. >> i think most people would say this is an issue that could have been handled that they're going back to 2016. certainly as we learned in the wake of the campaign. one that i helped him become a bipartisan issue, the legislation that has been worked on on the hill has been bipartisan. it would be nice to see elections turn into something that something both parties believe is worth protecting and use the private sector protect

and let the chips fall where they may. [laughter] -- >> i have a question for you. what is behind the white house going so easy on russian issues for hacking? it makes no sense. i think it is bipartisan. we definitely want fair elections. there is always a hands-off when it comes to russia. they have been doing this for years. what is behind it? >> i think the caller is asking a question that a lot of us wonder. i do not have a great answer. there seems to be some sense that there is a reluctance to take this on. whether that can be seen to cast out on the validity of 2016 results or whether it is because of a different view of

washington moscow relations, i don't have a clear sense. i think what is important is to see a consensus building outside of and around the white house. congress consensus in and it is a consensus in the tech sector that more needs to be done. i hope the american people, want to vote for in november, protecting our election discourse and results are real priorities. >> tim and minnesota, republican. >> i appreciate you taking my call. what i'm wondering is, with paper ballots, they are a communities in the process. obviously some type of computer system that can be hacked. do they ever go back and do a double check on the paper sure that thee

numbers are coming inappropriately? -- coming in appropriately? >> the answer is that things differ state-by-state. they differ depending on how close elections are. you would probably be familiar given how close a lot of our elections have been, with states going back and when a certain margin seems to be different recounting that gets triggered by various rules in different states. it depends on the circumstances and on the state. the paper ballots are there to be rechecked. that is part of why they seem less honorable now than some of the electronic voting systems. >> peter in connecticut independent, high you are on the air. you're just made a statement a few minutes ago speaking about .hatever the measures may be voter identification.

i currently live in connecticut but formerly living for years in new haven. i was able to vote and i found it shopping at the time, i had no idea whatsoever. my hand a promise lover i said i was and gave them my paper ballot. when the guests speak of the strongest possible measures, wouldn't he be speaking of that kind of security? >> generally you want security measures to respond to real threats and real problems. there has been a lot of work done, a lot of research done into whether voter fraud is in fact a problem in this country. fairly exhaustive canvassing has risk field -- revealed statistically negligent attempts to vote fraudulently.

there have been voter id laws passed in places like north carolina, they were not passed out of an attempt to protect elections but a partisan attempt to skew elections and keep certain constituencies from being able to get to vote on election day. i begin with the threat, what is the real challenge. what does seem to be a real challenge is the corruption of discourse and conceivably the hacking of data related to our elections. that is where i think more work needs to be done. >> let's go to linda and south carolina. >> thank you. with all of this flooding and too many people being displaced and north carolina and south carolina, how are they going to handle the voting and actually , assessing with the gerrymandering they have

going on this is going to be another excuse for them to try to corrupt the elections. how will they handle this? ofthere is an immense amount work to do to rebuild after these horrific storms. as the color indicates, the midterm elections are not far away. i suspect this is one of many priorities that local, state, and federal officials have been rebuilding after what we have all seen. >> eric is next from baltimore, democrat. good morning, you are on the air. >> thank you for c-span and having me on this call. aboutcalling to comment foreign interferences in our election and computer hacking. all of these foreign actress. georgia deletein the election data after a lawsuit was filed to look at it. we need to look into our own

systems internally as well to make sure we are not swinging votes in different ways. approaching boating data and many other means like gerrymandering. >> the caller is referencing some interesting litigation that has gotten some national coverage over the past week really in which some residents have essentially gone to court and asked for judge mandated improvements to the security of elections or it that is complicated. these issues are not ones that have been litigated in this way onask for judicial rulings what cyber security standards are efficient -- sufficient and how they might be achieved. what you see there is a valid impulse. that not enough has been done to protect the foundational elements of our democracy and whether the recourse is to go

through executive, legislature, or the courts. that our government needs to do more to protect these. caller: i have a question. the democrats hacking into our system, but the value of the hack means they're going to be controlling who is controlling our government. have we looked into whether the republicans or the democrats are hacking the election? the stakes are much higher. if a party were to be hacking into the elections. the russians are not that much smarter than our own people. if any of the parties wanted to control the united states, i would hack the election. have we looked and anything like that? guest: i am not sure what the question is referencing in terms of one or both of our own parties hacking our elections.

there is discourse coming from both parties. that is always the case in advance of a critical election like these midterms. like these midterms but i hope even as the parties duke it out in the midterm elections, they can in termsome together of protecting the election process it self. in the midterms, there is a lot riding on them. will turned our sites on the 2020 election which will not feel that far away. the hope that both those here in washington and those in the tech sector and elsewhere can work together and do more to protect those elections, that strikes me as a critical priority. host: what do you think about a poll that showed one in three americans think a foreign country will change midterm votes? guest: it is hard to kno guest: one can change votes by

affecting discourse, it is all worth being concerned about. times did a comprehensive look about what happened in 2016. the report argues that election was so close it is hard to see what tipped the scales. the idea that there is a valid reason to be concerned is what plays, unfortunately. guest: let's get 1 -- host: let's get one last call from kevin in michigan. , arer: could our parties the russians just a red herring. we are using them to manipulate our own control of the united states? i am not a paranoid schizophrenic. i'm asking the question. we have had evidence of corruption and part of these things -- when it be through --

one of our be who own parties to manipulate one of the citizens in devoting their way so they may contain control of the money that controls the united states. the russians, if they hacked the election within control something. i'm not sure whether benefits come from and the destruction of democracy, but internally the control of each of the parties control the money in the united states, which controls the power. you would think the value, if you chase the money down, the value goes to a much larger internally corrupted than externally. you can be using the external means as a way of hiding your own internal means. that inee anything like your security investigation background? guest: what the caller is putting a finger on is a key point. this is not something that can only happen beyond our borders. the internet is reachable from

within our borders. perhaps this is a question that can be directed not at a party but at a campaign. this is an ongoing investigation by the special counsel as to whether there was collusion between that campaign and russian actors. that is something all of us are watching carefully. there are prosecutions that continue and ultimately we expect some sort of report at the end. that is a piece of this issue. host: the executive director at georgetown your -- georgetown university law school's director for constitutional advocacy and protection. you for the conversation. guest: thank you for having me on this morning. , formerg up later today obama and bush administration officials discuss u.s.-north korea relations.

it is hosted by the korean economic institute of america. you can see live coverage starting at noon eastern. after that it is a look at the 2019 pentagon budget. coverage starts at 3:30 eastern on c-span. later, democratic senator tim kaine of virginia faces his republican challenger corey stewart in the first of two townhall events hosted by liberty university and hampton university. the topic will be domestic policy and the economy. see live coverage at 7:00 eastern on c-span. the senate judiciary committee has postponed its scheduled vote on brett kavanaugh's nomination to the supreme court. chuck grassley has called a hearing for this coming monday to give judge kavanaugh, along with christine blasey ford, a chance to testify. her lawyer says the fbi should investigate before she appears.