, connecticut secretary of state who will talk about the issues facing her state as part of c-span's 50 capitals to work along with governor dannel malloy. washington journal is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is wednesday, october 10, 2018. the senate is in at 10:00 a.m. with the first votes set for 11:30. we will begin with the unexpected announcement yesterday that u.n. ambassador nikki haley will step down from her post at the end of the year. she has not said what she will be doing next. the one-time critic of president trump says she has no plans to run for office in 2020 and plans to campaign for trump's reelection. we want to hear about your

thoughts. republicans can call in at (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can also catch up with us on social media, on twitter at c-span wj and on facebook.com/c-span. a very good wednesday morning to you. wanted to get you to start calling in now as we show you ms. haley yesterday at the white , for her intentions to step down. >> my goal is that we make sure everything is in a good place for the next ambassador to come in. it is a great day in the united states and i'm proud to have been part of the team. i do not have anything set on where i'm going to go. the main thing was, i was governor for six years and we dealt with a hurricane, a

thousand year flood, a church and school shooting, and then to come in and do two years of russia and iran and north korea, it has been eight years of intense time and i am a believer in term limits. i think you need to know when to step aside and allow someone to do the job. thank you, mr. president. it has been the honor of a lifetime. for all of you who will ask about 2020, no, i will not be running. i will be campaigning for this one. i look forward to supporting the president. host: that was nikki haley. here are some of the headlines this morning. "trump loses foreign policy star at the u.n." diplomats see this as a hard-line approach. haley to leave post as envoy to the united states, noting that she served almost as a shadow secretary of state during the

first year of administration, and winning the confidence of president trump with her strong defense of his policies. influence has been curtailed in recent months and now new national security adviser bolton and secretary of state -- but she report -- departs with the relationship with trump intact. phone lines split as usual, republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. we will start with mark in maryland, find for republicans. good desk line for republicans. -- line for republicans. caller: i tend to agree with the commentary that she did a very good job as u.n. ambassador but

a more pertinent issue is why she is resigning now. prior to the elections, instead of waiting until after, and this may be a situation similar to what president johnson did in 1965, if you recall. he appointed a sitting supreme court justice as u.n. ambassador to stabilize our relationships and foreign affairs. i think there is probably a good chance he might consider appointing retired supreme court justice anthony kennedy who has been very vocal in recent forums about stabilizing our relationships in europe. anthony you think kennedy would want to go back into public service after stepping down? caller: yes, it was sort of interesting. he was very vocal and strong about the need for us to improve our relationships in europe,

particularly among our allies. you know, the job is a very important job but if you recall, president trump was very congratulatory with respect to kennedy's public service. as a cabinet secretary, he would have a sizable staff and that might be something he would be interested in doing. host: hattie is next, houston, texas. caller: good morning. i would like to make a common. i think that this lady is really -- you know, and everything. the way the democrats should do is go on and vote and vote and vote so they can get rid of all of this hatred and everything that is going on. i just know right now, the supreme court gentlemen, he is

on the supreme court and he is supposed to do what is right for everybody, not for one party. he is not so. it was a sham. say our country is just going down, down, down the hill. houston, texas comic you mentioned the supreme court, brett kavanaugh joining the exclusive club of 117th supreme court justices since the beginning. the new york times with their graphic showing the members of the supreme court over the years , and brett kavanaugh becoming the 114th member. talking about nikki haley this morning, her announcement yesterday that she will be stepping down as u.n. ambassador for the united states. elizabeth is in the louisiana. to know who is

paying for trump's air force one trips everywhere. as far as ms. haley is concerned, she is just a puppet like the rest of them. host: republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. paul ryan, speaker of the house saying nikki haley has been a clear, consistent, and powerful voice for america's interest on the world stage. we challenge friends and foes to be brother and are saddened at she is leaving the administration but we are so grateful for her service. futurehaley has a bright . she has done an outstanding job as the united states ambassador

to the u.n. and has showed a level of effectiveness rarely seen by someone in this position." bob menendez is a democratic member of the senate, the ranking member on the foreign relations committee. he is deeplyday -- concerned about the leadership vacuum ambassador nikki haley leaves and the impact of her departure at a time of did discontinue disarray for the administration. chaotic foreign policy and a setback for promoting american values. brendan boyle is a democrat member of the foreign relations committee in the house -- president trump cannot put together a more coherent foreign policy, the next you're an ambassador will be set up to fail when it comes to promoting -- u.n. ambassador will be setup to fail when it comes to promoting american values overseas. hidden genius,

playing a ivanka trump is doing a lot of things behind the scenes, that they may be haley's replacement. it would be the worst active nepotism perpetrated by potus to date, with or without salary. vanka said it is an honor to serve in the white house along with so many great colleagues and the president will nominate a formidable -- formidable replacement. that replacement will not be me. we want to hear from you this morning, your thoughts on that and this unexpected announcement . karl is in oxford, massachusetts, a democrat. caller: thank you for c-span. c-span is the only good program on tv. , i don'tke nikki haley know how they sleep at night, but could i offer some criticism?

why can't you have people like vanessa dealey or eva bartlett or medea benjamin or somebody like chris hedges, journalists who have been in the ground on all of these hotspots, let them come on and take the heat from the people? that is all i have to say really. thank you. host: appreciate the recommendation. if you look back at the c-span archives, several folks that you have mentioned we have had on c-span before, some for pretty in-depth interviews. always appreciate more suggestions as we go forward. it takes a lot to fill three hours of programming so we are looking for suggestions from you . linda is in california, an independent. caller: i just heard the person you were just talking to. i agree with him. why don't you have chris hedges, garrett porter, some people who know what is going on in the world?

ism very happy to hear haley stepping down. previous par with her ambassador, u.s. ambassador to the united nations. they seem to know nothing about what is going on in the world. why aren't we getting more about who know something united states warmaking, around making so many lives miserable? androke up yugoslavia attempted to break up completely baghdad, which we have broken it as a nation. we have not formed it into sections yet. libyaen our breaking up israel -- just as well, a journalist wrote the

plans for breaking up the secular nations in the middle east so that israel could take over and have that greater israel that would bring basically a pox israel to the area. please, bring some people onto c-span who talk about united states foreign-policy. host: we try to bring people on this program from a variety of viewpoints to talk about foreign policy, domestic policy from all sides. we will keep working to do that. andrew is in west point, mississippi, an independent. caller: hello? host: go ahead. just speak their your phone. caller: i am calling about nikki haley. she is leaving her position on account of donald trump.

his talk about woman, having no respect for women. host: do you think if that was the reason, she should've been more clear about that reason? caller: yes, that is the reason i believe she is leaving on account of him disrespecting women and all of that, saying things he should not say. host: what signaled that to you yesterday when she was in that meeting and we played that clip? caller: she just don't want to come on and say why she is leaving her position. for me, this is why she is leaving, on account of donald trump. , kids't care what he said be watching the news. what they need to do, they need to get rid of donald trump. more reaction yesterday, including from defense secretary james mattis, on ambassador

haley's resignation announcement. ambassador haley has been a wonderful representative for our country and she has been just a tremendous asset for those of us here in the department of defense. we have a very close working relationship. on many occasions collaborated together on how we would deal with certain issues alongside the secretary of state . she has done human's -- yellow work. yeoman's she is moving on but not losing our respect. >> did you know she was retiring? >> i do not get into private discussions. she has been a wonderful -- ambassador haley has been a wonderful representative for our country and she has been a tremendous asset to those of us

here in the department of defense. we have a close working relationship. we saw ourselves on many occasions collaborating together on how we would deal with certain issues alongside the secretary of state. work and ie yeoman's will tell you that she may be moving on, but she is not losing our respect one bit. >> did you know she was retiring? did you know she was going to step down? >> i don't get into private discussions. host: secretary mattis yesterday. taking your calls and tweets. here are a few that have come in. richards rogers writes -- nikki haley has a 16-year-old daughter and son, carol writes, and i can understand why she felt the need to stay at home

and have more time for her children who are at crucial stages. trump firedection, sessions, graham slithers into the post, and haley goes four grams senate seat -- graham's senate seat. it looks too obvious. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. leo, baltimore, maryland, republican. caller: i have to say i like shei haley and i think might be a presidential candidate in 2020. .he would be more effective one thing i would like to say to all of the people calling every morning complaining about the i come from the

former soviet union and you guys do not know how lucky you are. host: ken in columbus, ohio, democrat. caller: hello. i would like to ask why the timing of this resignation is happening. likea democrat but i ambassador haley and i thought she was one of the bright spots in trump's administration. i am just wondering about her motivations. couldwhat do you think it be? what is your speculation? caller: i don't know. is it a protest against the past she did the fact that not like the supreme court situation or the politics happening in the trump administration? nita is a republican in

wyoming, good morning. caller: i would like to wantinglate nikki for to be home with her family at this time, and all of the kids that are committing suicide and the schools that are having the shootings, i think she is doing a good thing. i would like to congratulate our president for doing such a good job, and all of our united states. i thank you and i want you to really live this is nothing but brawl like we had in the 1960's. hold on, guys. we will get you some relief. this here is just stupidity. sexybody has got to use instead of burning your bra.

we will have communists coming out of the woodwork. thank you, lord, for all we have, because we are really hurting. georgia, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. interesting subject. . know why she is leaving there is no such thing as diplomacy with donald trump. he is stepping all over her. bad relationship with china, europe, canada, mexico. she cannot do her job. just making bad relationships wherever he goes, the only ones he dances to the music to is russia and saudi arabia. everyone else, there is no diplomacy. he don't even need an ambassador. host: you think the next u.n. ambassador will be set up to fail as well? caller: he is trying to do

everything. he wants to do everything. i do not know why he have a cabinet. i do not know why he has a vice president. he wants to do everything. he treated her like he treats all women, stepped all over her. speculation of today about who comes next at the united nations to represent the united states. the list of names circulating according to "the washington times," include richard grinnell and former ambassador -- administration advisor deana powell. say mr. grinnell may be a tough choice of the hawkish john bolton who is widely seen to be the most hard-line member of the president's inner circle. one of the viewers who tweeted this morning brought up the

idea of possibly lindsey graham taking over that spot. trump was asked about lindsey graham in that post. here is what he had to say. >> is senator graham popular enough to be your attorney general? >> he has never asked that question. he is having a good time. he is so great. post,the attorney general there is a lot of discussion about possible changes in the trump administration. we want to hear from you about the united nations and your thoughts on who might be the next u.n. ambassador. karen is in eastchester, new york, republican. are you with us? caller: yes, i am. i think it is a shame that nikki haley is stepping down. she was a very intelligent, tough woman in her job. your callers always say that

trump is nasty to women. they are so misinformed. it is crazy to put that out there. that has nothing to do with .aley leaving she put rings around john kerry in that same position. it is a loss, but trump is doing a wonderful job for the country. i hope to god he is president for 20 years. host: before you go, the president's cabinet includes 23 cabinet level jobs now that nikki haley is leaving. there are just five women left among those 23 jobs. does that concern you? caller: no, not at all. i am with him 100%. in knows what he is doing and i'm sure he will be fair and i am sure he will get the right person. that is the trouble today, everything has to be politically correct.

if someone is qualified for the job, they want to put women in where maybe men should be put in. he will do the right thing. i am not concerned about that at all. trump is very fair and a great president. god bless him. host: that is karen in eastchester. ricky haley come the first indian america -- nikki haley, the first indian-american woman as u.s. ambassador. the only remaining minorities include elaine chao, the ,ransportation secretary housing and urban development secretary ben carson, labor secretary alex acosta, and health and human services secretary alex is our. that is in today's washington post. derek is in randallstown, pearland, a democrat. caller: good morning. michael bloomberg reinstates

himself to the democratic party. that is real bad news for trump and great news for the democratic party. the republican party is in big trouble now. have a good morning. host: that is derek in maryland. anthony is next in michigan, a public in. -- republican. caller: good morning. these days, lots of curious things are happening in the trump administration. i think ivanka trump forced her father to do something and lots of these things because of her. i want to add something here. i'm going to talk about the person who established their own small business and could help lots of people by her business. in, commoncan go

sense, be willing to sit down across the table, and work through informed issues like jobs and health care, all americans comment about this country. american nations need someone like candy stern. thank you for giving me this opportunity. host: jeff in louisiana, republican. caller: basically, i would like to comment about the resignation. jobink she did a very good and the problem i have is people are calling in and kind of making up their own reasons why she resigned. i guess they are assuming that

she is a boldfaced liar. spot when she was there with trump, and she laid out her reasons for quitting. i guess people are -- some people seem to not hear the truth when a person is speaking the truth. why would they make up all of that areeful reasons not stated by her, why she resigned? she said she needed time to get her life back together. she had been doing this for eight years. i just wish people would accept the truth when somebody speaks the truth. she said she is going to campaign for trump. i wish everybody would just

settle down. thank you. host: that is jeff in the louisiana. just a few minutes left in the segment. nikki haley announcing that she will resign her post at the u.n. at the end of the month. debate season continues and c-span has been covering many of the most high profile debates going on around the country, another one happening last night in utah. senate candidates jenny wilson and mitt romney were on the howte stage and were asked they felt about president trump during that debate in cedar rapids. believe when you look at the last month that we have gone to, and times prior to that, we are so divided. a president that ridicules people, that does not trust his and staff, his and cabinet, he will go in and call

it an important summit on north korea. yet basically turned it into a .hoto op, yes, i have concerns i hope the republican party will put up a different nominee. if there are in peach a ball of fences, we see a lot of -- impeachable offenses, we see a lot of smoke that we would move toward impeachment. i believe strongly this should be a limited presidency and to restore the beautiful nation that we have. i worry about my children and the next generation. we need to be able to move forward. we are on pause with this president. >> is the president still a phony and fraud? appropriatek it is to talk about impeachment for a sitting president. over the last couple of years, i have seen a number of things

that i would have done and i would not have done. i would not have backed out of the tpp. that would have opened up more markets for utah agriculture. i agree with the tax plan overall and agree the deregulation effort has been wise. the efforts he took with regards to public land and the extraordinary land labs by president obama and clinton, those with the right move. the president has said some things which i think are devices -- divisive or racist or misogynistic, and i will speak out. i'd choose what i say and i do not want to be a gadfly talking about what the president says day after day. i do not always agree with his tweets, but when there is something of great significance i will speak my mind and do my best to represent the values and feelings of the people of utah. i believe he is president and is doing a lot of things that are

helpful for our state, and i support him. host: if you want to watch that debate in its entirety, you can do so at c-span.org. our video archives is available 24 hours a day. a few more calls on nikki haley announcing she will step down as you and ambassador to the united states. steve is waiting in philadelphia, a democrat. caller: good morning. justld like to comment on the rhetoric that we are getting from the right side. supreme court the and winning that, the rhetoric coming from the right, from senators, from the president, it is like, ok, you won. you have the house, you have the

senate, you are getting what you wanted. you past the $2 trillion bill and did all of these things. why go out there and campaign and say really horrible things like lock up dianne feinstein? host: any thoughts on nikki haley? caller: nikki haley was probably .he sanest she probably was going in a different direction that the president wants to go into. , i think, really made a great ambassador. she wanted to do some things and i think they were stopping her from doing these things and she had no other recall but to resign. god knows what the president might have said or done to her to say, you better quit now or else there is going to be

consequences, or just make up things down the road, the way he does now in this campaign. he flies all over the place using the taxpayers money. he went through the allotment to use air force one last year and this year. host: lynn has been waiting in elk ridge, maryland, and independent. caller: it is no surprise how poorly informed people are. there is a specific reason nikki haley has had to resign, because of the problem of mixed messages and cognitive dissonance. with respect to regime change in a run, which rudy giuliani and john bolton have been going full guns in support of, including theessing a convention of mek which was formally listed as a terrorist organization until hillary clinton and john kerry removed them.

now the state department is supporting this terrorist group as they attempt to destabilize iran. giuliani, just within the last week or two, and bolton, i might have seen this on c-span, addressing a convention of this terrorist group calling for violent regime change for the overthrow of the government, the existing legitimate government of iran. when reporters asked nikki haley to confirm this, she contradicted this. she said a ron is not our current policy. the myth -- iran is not our currency policy -- policy. she had to go because she screwed up. nikki haley in her position as ambassador to the u.n. is guilty of any libel, because these people have falsely and the arabsly accused

government of using poison gas, and that is a lie. host: why? caller: i pay attention to people like ava bartlett, pilcher,ealey, john the very same people your earlier calls referenced. i stay informed and read all sources of news. turkey it is coming from or latin america. host: i got your point. our last caller in this first segment. up next, with less than four weeks until election day 2018, we will spend most of our program talking about election , andity, voter id laws your experience voting in your local precinct. we will be checking in with secretaries of state from around the country to talk about how they are preparing for election

day. later, it is stop number 44 on the c-span city capitals to her. .- tour we will be in connecticut talking with denise merrill. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. a special line for poll workers, (202) 748-8002 is that number. start calling in and talking about your experience with voting and election security. afterwards,ght on gina loudon, fox news guest analyst and member of the trump 2020 candidate media advisory board on her book. she is interviewed by representative gombert of texas. >> is president donald a trump

crazy? say.azy like a fox, i i believe narcissism is spectrum and that most of us -- not meaning you, but most of us who put ourselves out in the public i have an unusual sense of confidence. if you want to call that narcissism, i do not have a problem. is that a dangerous sort of narcissism? i do not think so. are there dangerous forms? i do not thinks -- i think so but i do not think the president fits into that category. on c-spanfterwords twos booktv. host tucker carlson discusses his book "ship of selfish ruling class is bringing america to the brink of revolution." >> it is about why we elected trump and i could not get past

the idea that the trump -- the country voted for donald trump. it is not an attack on trump. i think he is right in a somatic sense about a bunch of things. you would not elect trump unless you really, really want to send it message -- a message. what is the message? people in charge on both sides screwed up. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. "washington journal" continues. ,ost: we're joined by jim kondo presidentof state and of the national association of secretaries of state. thank you for being with us on the same day your op-ed is running on the usa today opinion

page. you begin that piece looking that the homeland security identified states that they were attacked by russian agents in 2016. what do you think the lesson was? guest: it is important to remember there were 21 states that were attacked and it was only one state that was actually breached, according to the department of homeland security. that meant the 20 states did their job and defended well against those attacks. i think if you look at where we are today in 2018, two years later, we are in far better shape. 2016, iay that in believe that overall we were in pretty good shape. host: we are talking with secretaries of state from around the country during the next two hours.

when our voting machines most vulnerable? is it right now, weeks or months before an election? is it on election day when people are voting, or sometime after votes are cast but before they are reported? guest: that is an interesting question, the way you post it. i do not believe the voting machines themselves, unless you are talking about touchscreen technology perhaps, the vote tabulators which usually are just scanners and tabulate those results from the actual ballots, those are not in danger. i think it has been poorly portrayed in the media to say that there is a potential. when he think about it, there is a strict chain of command for the memory cards. memory cards are not sent to the town clerk's. let me just go back and say here

in vermont, we don't have county government so we go directly from the state level to the town level. the town clerks are the ones that manage our elections. have a strict chain of command with regards to the memory cards , which they do not receive until two to three weeks before the election. before and accuracy test and in many cases, they are checked the morning of and after they have shut down. it is important to remember that we are balancing, we are really creating a fine balancing act between cyber security and opening up our elections process to the general public. it is important also to remember that we are constantly focused now, especially since 2016, on cyber security. is theow much more so

federal government involved in this process since 2016? what is the change on that level and your relationship from the state level to the federal level? guest: let a backup to 2016. when we first got the phone call , when 50 secretaries of state were conference called with secretary j thompson, we were informed there was an attack -- perhapsed and we that the federal government was considering designating a critical infrastructure for elections. we did not know what that meant, and many red and blue states were opposed to that designation because we had no idea if it was a takeover of our elections process. to say it was a rocky road in the beginning, i think even dhs would agree. then, that critical

infrastructure designation was designated in january of 2017. we did not find out what resources and what that meant to us until june or july of 2017. we have set up a coordinating council which i and others are members of. we have a lot of resources in the department of homeland security, has provided to us things like an iteration test, -- penetration tests, vulnerability, hygiene scans. in vermont, we do a scan of our system through the dhs currently. the communication level since last summer has increased -- and when i say last summer, the summer of 2017 -- has increased tremendously. we have an election day

andboard with the fbi homeland security so we will give real-time information as to any threat that might be on the horizon. we are constantly focused on how we can do this. i could go into the detail and i'm sure you are going to ask about all of the things we have got in place. host: a lot of the issues we about,of -- you talked some $380 million in federal funding that has gone out through the help america vote act fund, vermont got about $3 million worth of funds. how did you use them? guest: let's talk about that $380 million. i was working with senator leahy who is trying to get that money released. that was leftover over hanging chad money from 2002. it was the remaining portion of the $3.9 billion that were handed out or approved, i should say, in 2002.

this is money we knew had been are ready approved. it needed to be appropriated and many of the secretaries or pushing our congressional delegation to try to do that as quickly as possible. most of us did not receive our money until june and we have been focused on things that we can do. many states including my own have put in multifactor identification for anyone that accesses our system. we also have added a new acceptable voting system. it is fully ada compliant. we have done a fairly recent 10 iteration test in which we came out -- penetration test in which we came out with a good report. those are the things we have been doing, and we hope to use some of that money going forward to purchase new vote tabulators in the future, probably for 2020 or 2022. host: we mentioned your work as

president of the national association of secretaries of state. do you know how many voting systems are in use across all 50 states and jurisdictions? guest: no, because it varies. it inmont, we have statute that it has to be the same system throughout the state. in other states, they leave it up to local jurisdiction to determine what units they have. there is a lot of different equipment out there. i believe that every state, locality, county, are working hard to make sure the systems are in good shape. and for myractice standpoint, this is vermont speaking, i consider best practice to be voter marked ballot in a post elections audit , that our voter registration databases are backed up on a daily basis so that if the worst were to happen, we could always

go back 24 hours and reset our database and would only lose 24 hours worth of data. the ultimate resilience that we have is here in vermont, we have same-day voter registration, so nobody coming to the polls will be denied the right to cast a ballot. host: how many companies out there are making voting machines? are there a few big companies that lobby states to buy their voting machines, or is there a lot of choice across the country? guest: i do not know if i would call it lobbying. we all work through different procurement practices throughout the country. in vermont, we will generally do about eight to 12 months of business analysis, looking at our business requirements. it may require us to go back to the legislature to make a change to statute. i cannot speak for other states as far as that goes.

we have different procurement systems. it is not like walking into best buy and saying, i want to hundred of those machines. of those machines. you have to go through a strong process to decide what the requirements are, are there process changes or statute changes needed. it is a constant battle to do this the correct way. we usually go out for an rfp and we get that back. determine,those and review them and match them up against each other to see which looks to be the best bid. and then, make a choice. to say they are lobbying us, i do not think that happens. every company that has a unit out there thinks theirs is the best. the government

considered coming up with a standard voting machine? guest: i am not aware of it. i know that the election assistance commission, the eac --occasions follows recommendations. in vermont, that is one of the requirements i have, that any tabulator that we pick must be orher eac certified certified by an other states such as connecticut, which uses the university of connecticut cyber security unit. host: we want to talk about early voting. can you talk about what the rules are in your state? in 2009n vermont, back -- when theas overseas military voting act was

extended for them to receive their ballots up to 45 days ahead of time, vermont decided if it was good enough for military and overseas it was good enough for all vermonters. 21, year, it was september and we go up to the day before the election. and of course we have same-day voter registration. host: what sort of identification do vermonters need to present? guest: they just need to proclaim -- say their name when they show up at the polls. there is no voter id requirement in the state of vermont. most of our jurisdictions are less than 4000 people and most of the town clerks will tell you they know pretty much everybody in town. fraud,n terms of voter is that a widespread problem? guest: it is not a widespread problem.

there are individual instances but it is not a widespread problem. host: for the individual instances, a photo id be helpful? have you considered making more stringent footer id laws? right by the is a constitution and by the vermont constitution, the u.s. and vermont constitutions. we need to be careful about putting obstructions in places in front of that ability to cast a ballot. i believe the true voter fraud is the denial of any eligible american the right to cast a ballot. that is the real voter fraud. there is far more cases of that occurring than actual voter fraud. solveid is not going to -- it may solve a problem here or there, but it is so minimalist it is not a serious issue. oft: jim condos as secretary

state of vermont and president of the national association of secretaries of state. guest: thank you very much. host: we will be chatting with more secretaries of state throughout our program today, until about 9:30. we want to hear from you about these issues on voting. if you are in the eastern or central time zone, (202) 748-8000. in the mountain or pacific time zone, (202) 748-8001. if you have worked at the polls -- and nearly americans dead -- nearly one million americans did in the last election -- we want your stories from being a poll worker, (202) 748-8002. you can call in throughout this next hour and 45 minutes as we have this discussion. maren is up in arlington, virginia. go ahead.

caller: my question is that the have seen quite a few secretaries of state run for statewide office. one resigned, but brian kemp in georgia is serving as secretary of state while running for governor. does this fit for a fair and free election for secretary of state to run for an election here she overseas? host: we have a secretary of state in iowa coming up later. you could ask that question. what would you want to hear? you think they should not be running for election? should i secretary of state running for a statewide office resigned? host: that is mayor and in arlington, -- marion in arlington, virginia. , secretary of state in iowa is running for that job again so we will ask him later. caller: hello, thank you.

wonder if we have a realistic problem with voting. or there been a great number any number caught doing it? the political name for communism now is socialism. host: were you listening to that interview with secretary condos? caller: just a minute ago, i listened, yeah. host: he said that voter fraud is not a widespread problem in this country. caller: but has there been illegal voting? host: certainly something we can talk about with some of the secretaries of state we are talking to this morning. phone lines for you to join in as we talk about election security and your stories about working for the polls are going to the polls, (202) 748-8000 in the eastern or central time zones. (202) 748-8001 in the mountain

or pacific time zones. if you are a person who worked at a poll, (202) 748-8002 this morning. here are some stats from the 2016 election from the election assistance commission. workersre 917,694 poll 116 thousandsome 990 polling places around the country during the 2016 election. jurisdictions reported it was very difficult for somewhat difficult to obtain a sufficient number of poll workers. more populous jurisdictions faced greater challenges when recruiting poll workers. , 31%ere ages 71 or lower between the ages of 60 and 70 among the jurisdictions that reported the ages of poll workers.

i want to hear from you about election security, your concerns as we are for weeks away from election 2018. poll workers, (202) 748-8002 is that number. carol has worked at the polls in washington. good morning. caller: good morning, and no, it wasn't in washington. it was at miami at the presidential election and i volunteered for 10 days, like 12 hours a day. because i am older and my feet are in bad shape, i could not knock on doors so i got on the phone and called all day long to get people out to vote. i discovered that there were a lot of african-americans who off -- had gotten knocked the registration polls. those were just the people who i

knew were african-american by their voices, which obviously we cannot tell that with everybody. host: were you working at the polls on behalf of a party? were you an observer on behalf of a political party? caller: no, and i need to correct you. it was not at the voting polls. it was at the volunteer headquarters in miami that was for florida. this is for the democratic people, although i am an independent, lifelong. i lean towards the democratic side as i see what has been happening with the republican party. there were-- international observers from around the world who were there. some of them had been there working and also observing. newspaper reporters, and as i say, all i could do was sit

there and call on the phones all day long. host: florida is always a state that everyone is watching in elections. what year were you doing this? caller: this was the presidential 12 years ago, and until them october 29 election day, november 8. i had gotten a chance to go to cuba and we got back into miami october 29. from up here in washington, i finally reached somebody to find out if they needed volunteers to help because at that time, florida was one of the four pivotal states. this is before we knew anything putinthe russia, the kgb, , and all of these people have gotten into our computer systems and have been monkeying around. host: what are your concerns

this time around? caller: i am way more concerned now than i was then. at that time, i just wanted to help brian -- try and prevent trump from being elected. ago andd three years just at the time all of this, the election, the presidential campaign was heating up. i had just been sitting here mesmerized since i retired, just watching this stuff because i am aghast at what has gone on in our country. communists run by the -- is, they are in don't doubt they have gotten ken the voting machines and jimmy them up -- can jimmy them up. blacksburg, is in

iowa, has worked at the polls. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i live in a small town, so we know about everybody. we don't have any trouble with somebody wanting to vote that would, that we don't know. we register people that day at the polls. we have had, since i have did this about three different times since voting, and we have had three different machines every time, i think. it is always a learning experience for us. host: why do they keep changing the machines? caller: i think to go right to improve it. host: is it causing more

confusion than improvement? caller: i don't think so, and we have ballots. we have ballots to count that if there is a problem, you can go back and count the ballots. so i don't think that anybody is get into our machines and do anything because there is always a ballot to count. host: have you ever had to go back as a poll worker and do a recount in blacksburg, iowa? no, we take hours into the county office, and they would recount it. we have to go through our ballots because people vote for mickey mouse, peter pan, all of that. before we take them into our county office, we go through and mark those off, that they voted for somebody that was not on the ballot itself. host: are you going to be

working again in four weeks? caller: yes. for calling in. page is a poll worker in california. he go ahead. caller: hello, i was a poll worker in 2016 in an area close to hollywood, california. this is an upper-class neighborhood. at the operating system. i could not believe it when it booted up. the first one we had did not work. process, welay the were supposed to start at 7:00. we didn't get another machine until 7:30. when that finally worked, people were coming in with multiple ballots, they had two ballots mailed to them.

i could not believe it, it was awful. took three months to pay us $45, i think. from 7:00 in the morning until 10:00 at night. you have to put the machines together, set up everything, and then you have to take everything down. it is not an easy thing to do. half the people that signed up to assist left. host: are you going to do it again this year? i think we lost page. carl in knoxville, tennessee. good morning. good morning. thank you for accepting my call. i've been listening for about 20 minutes or so. referencecouple calls

individuals who were trying to that are not citizens of the united states. what i keep hearing, not only on the tv today, but i see some of fromepresentatives different areas of the state of tennessee who are referring to illegal aliens versus illegal immigrants. when i see some of our senior leaders in the state calling people illegal aliens. aliens arehinking is from another planet, immigrants are from another country. i think we ought to get our facts straight before we start looking for ways to poke at our opponents when we are running for election. these individuals who are trying

to vote are illegal immigrants, not aliens. aliens do not come from the united states. is a do you think that widespread problem, immigrants trying to vote? caller: i don't think it is as widespread as some may think it is. i think there is certainly a problem, but when you cannot even call the group of people what they are, immigrants, not aliens. host: more of your phone calls in a few minutes. splitn keep calling in, of regionally, a special line for those that have worked at the polls over the years. that special line, (202) 748-8002. we will get back to your calls and a second. theovember 6, voters in state of west virginia will head to one of about 1800 vote increasing's around the state to with ther ballot

assistance of about 9000 paul workers. secretary of state mac warner joins us now to talk about it. than 30 days out from that election. what is your biggest fear right now? i would say the biggest fear is voter questioning, of the integrity of the elections. there has been a lot in the press about the russian hacking and so forth. i am encouraging everyone in the state of west virginia to participate. that is the best way to push back against this russian meddling. the interference with our election process that would be concerning me the most. host: you were listening to the last callers before you came on. one of them talking about illegal immigrants trying to vote in our elections. is that a widespread problem? in westot here

virginia. maybe in some of the border states. a coupleve had situations where people, through the dmv process, have been registered, improper, not citizens. there are some administrative issues we have to address, and i think that is true across the united dates. i saw something reported in california that they have quite a few problems with their dmv process, their secretary of state is looking into that to correct that system. what sort of identification do voters in west virginia have to present when they go to the polls? guest: the legislature passed a law a year ago or so -- there are 18 forms of identification. it doesn't need to be a photo id. ready much anything you have, drivers license, electric bill, -- ifidespread exceptions

the poll worker knows you, they don't need an id. you can bring a neighbor with you that has known you for six months, they can sign a paper saying that you are who you are. it is a pretty liberal policy. we enacted it during the primaries, no problems whatsoever. i think it's expected in west virginia people understand the important of showing identification to make sure there is integrity in the process. host: we have talked about the $380 million the federal government has pushed out to improve election security. how much went to west virginia and had did you use those funds? guest: great question. about $3.5 million came to us. we had about 2.9 million left over from the help america vote ,ct back from the 2000 election a couple years after congress appropriate in money for states to buy new machines. our legislature set that up as a loan program.

over the years, the program switched where a lot of the vendors were providing better financing than the state loan million, so that 2.9 sat unused. we went to the legislator and got that change to a loan program to a grant program, so we added that to the $3.5 million. that gave us about $6.5 million worth of buying power. we leveraged that even further and went to the counties and 50/50f you want to match on buying new machines, or in the cyber security arena, we would offer an 85% grant. that gave us about $12 million worth of buying power here in west virginia, and we have pushed that out to the counties. programof a centralized , we pushed it out to counties. we modeled it after the federal government. we appreciated the federal

government not putting strings on that money they gave to us. they left it up to us, as secretaries, to determine how that would be used. we used the same principles with the county clerks. they are where the rubber meets the road in all elections. we let the county clerk's determine how to use that money. -- 27 countyety of clerks that went for the cyber equipment, weng had a member that went toward the cyber security, and then 17 or 18 that went toward physical security. has their own that they want to do with. we push that out, the counties are using it. one of our larger counties is buying brand-new espresso vote systems, the most modern voting equipment. they will be trying that in the general election. we are pretty excited.

we are moving up in the express vote. in the 2016 election, only 16% of the state was using those. this time about 43% of the voters will be using this modern equipment. by 2020, probably 65%. we are making progress, we could still use some money from the federal government, but we are putting that money to good use. countyy doing that centric approach, what does that mean for the number of voting machines in use across west virginia, do you know how many different kinds of machines are across all those counties? it is mainly two voting machines and in paper ballots. you have the express vote, and then the one that most people money.h that hava 1 that everything is starting to reach the end of its useful life span. some of the states are moving to this express vote system or

something similar. we have those three main types. voting byerms of paper, how many are still voting by paper? have one county that does it completely, another county that is half-and-half. of course, you have the absentee ballots. not a great number but everyone of ours is backed by a paper trail. that is a key component in the election security. if there were ever a question, a recount, we could go back to it. that is what the systems provide. what is the argument for holding onto the vote by paper? guest: simply a voter preference, counties with senior citizens. they have expressed it. wanted to tryrk

the express vote system. i think over time we will get there with setting up displays, letting people get comfortable with it. once we get over 50%, the message will be out. i just had lunch with the county clerk and she just reiterated that her voter still want to look by paper. with we have been talking viewers and poll workers to get their stories about working various elections. inread 65% of jurisdictions 2016 reported it was very difficult or somewhat difficult to obtain a sufficient number of full workers. do you know why that is, is it harder to obtain full workers in west virginia? guest: it makes for a long day, sometimes why it is difficult. i would not say extremely difficult. there are occasional counties that show concern was getting poll workers, but we have a very active program to get out and encourage young people to participate.

we have the jennings randolph award, a u.s. senator from west virginia, who was the sponsor love getting the 26th amendment passed in the constitution, allowing 18-year-olds to vote. , when at to the schools school registers 100% of its eligible voters to participate in the election. we are encouraging that civic engagement. part of that is to encourage them to work at the polls. last week, we were in washington, d.c., and the state of ohio mentioned a program where they encouraged high school voters to participate at the polls, and they throw a pizza party for the schools that get the highest percentage of people participating. those are the types of programs we will look at here in west virginia. right now, no one is expressing a real concern over that. host: when somebody volunteers, how much training do they get before election day? guest: great question.

one aspect, they get 100 $25 for attending the training. on election day, they get about $175. they get a days worth of training. process that somebody goes through, once they get to the holes to vote. getting things like the lockboxes, pulling plays, disability access, that sort of thing. it is a comprehensive program but not too difficult. host: what do you tell them about expressing a political opinion. pollume some of your workers have opinions, facebook, twitter accounts, what are the rules about expressing an opinion after you become a poll worker? guest: full workers come from the two parties, as well as independents and so on.

but once they're inside, and that is not the place to campaign. it is illegal to campaign within 100 feet of a polling place. they are not to express an opinion. to staytics is supposed out of it once somebody approaches that polling place. host: is there any sort of screening that they go through before they are accepted to be able worker? guest: it is really a party chair position that survives the list. thoseunty clerk vets workers. we have not experienced a serious problem in that regard. the county clerk's take those lists provided by the county chairs. so many of the poll workers have been working there literally for decades. it would only be a new poll worker. i think they would be reined in by their peers, making sure there is no politicking within the polling place. host: where do you plan to be on election day? guest: i will be here at the

capital. my wife is running for house of delegates in the morgantown area. i will have interest in what is going on there. my place will be here in theleston, making sure ballots are counted properly, reported properly. it is our job to report accurately. we are interested in speed and getting it out. there is a news organization pushing envelope, reporting on that speed. we will be reporting to the secretary of state's website. they can count on the accuracy of the voting being reported there. any rules about you seeing the results with your wife running for house of delegates? guest: no, not really. that is a county clerk issue. they will do the counting. all we do is reported on the website. so there is no insider baseball going on. warner is west

virginia secretary of thank you for joining us. back to your phone calls this morning. if you want to participate in the discussion about the voting systems in this country, election security, eastern or central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mounted or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. that special line for those who have worked at the polls, or if you are working for the first time in 2018, we want to hear your thoughts, stories. (202) 748-8002. william is waiting in st. paul, minnesota. go ahead. caller: hello, good morning. thank you for taking my call. , -- the only way to describe the voting system.

american systems are more honorable than ever. i don't know why. it is about the candidates. i want the republican people to warn her. i think she will be able to improve our country in some fields like health care. her top goals are to keep the economy going, continuing tax cuts. host: what issue running for? what position issue running for? she wanted to solve the health care problems in our country. she would also work in short to fix the problem with opportunity and effectiveness of health

care. all right. marie in pennsylvania, has worked at the polls. caller: good morning. in chester county, pennsylvania, i think we had a good system. we have a paper ballot backup. i work as a poll worker for several cycles. i was very impressed with the training required. the judge of elections, who manages the day of voting, in case there are issues. but i have a very queasy feeling about the rest of pennsylvania. i understand most of it is just electronic vote and no paper backup. go tohave you ever had to the paper backup, recount in your area? o, not in our area, and i have participated and seen the poll workers at the end of the day. day, 12, 14 long hours. makee seen us tally to

sure those electronic scans match the numbers of paper ballots and absentee ballots, so on. everything is tallied him very carefully. we have never had to go to the paperback up. but they are all shipped to the county and kept secure. host: the west virginia secretary of state moments ago said poll workers between training and the day of make about $300. do they get paid in pennsylvania? caller: they do, not that much. our judge of elections is an attorney, he accepts nothing. i'm not sure about the poll workers. most of us are retired, older people. i think a little bit of money is helpful but i don't think they do it for the money come not that long of a day. host: what do they do it for, why do you keep doing it? part of it is like a social network. they know all of these people come in.

hi, how are you? they know each other, they have all done it for years. host: are you doing it again this year? caller: well, i had to quit for .ealth reasons, so i am not unless they had a real emergency and they needed more people. mostly they have people. host: thank you for calling in. laura has also worked at the polls. youngstown, ohio. morning.ood you asked about poll workers being allowed to campaign. at our area, if someone comes in tovote, they are not allowed wear any kind of a shirt with a candidate on it. in with one, we asked them to go out, put a coat on, or turn the shirt inside out. if they are coming in

as a voter, as opposed to a poll worker? caller: correct. ont: what about for those the polls, are you allowed to be on social media while you are at the polls? we are not supposed to be on our cell phones while working. i don't think that is an issue. you are not allowed to take pictures inside where they are voting. one other issue i wanted to bring up, we do paper ballots, then we scan. this placed a large amount of the paper ballots and they have to do a count. it took weeks for the whole situation to be resolved. int: has it ever been hard youngstown to find people to work at the poll's? caller: i have never heard that.

it is usually a lot of people that have been doing it for years and years. occasionally they regroup college students. i have never heard of that being an issue. host: mark is next in modesto, california. good morning and thanks for c-span. appreciate it. the information. a comment about your first segment, as far as ambassador haley goes. i must admit i'm very jaded at this point, but i'm pretty sure, just like everyone before her, they find out where to place their bets and get out of government, and then make the money. i don't have a problem with that except it seems like inside information. the security, election security, here in central california, it is fine. i'm not noticing any problems

with people that should not be voting, voting. host: what about voter engagement this cycle, what is your sense of it in central california right now? caller: i cannot speak for anybody else but my jaded self. i don't know what others are thinking, to be honest. all i can say is, the real problem i have is i cannot get motivated to get behind a candidate. it is the lesser of the two evils all the time. there is no incentive in trying to pick the lesser of the two evils. are you the kind of voter that would prefer to vote for somebody instead of against somebody? that is exactly it. i am not into being against people. i want to find somebody i can get behind. host: what is your feeling on

political ads this time of year? tends to be mostly attack ads. itler: it is horrible here, is constant, and i cannot wait for the elections to be over so they go back to the pharmaceutical commercials. host: taking your calls throughout this segment, talking about your thoughts on the upcoming election, the process of voting, stories if you have worked at the polls or are planning to. phone lines, in the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. if you have worked at polls, (202) 748-8002. i want to show you a chart. we have talked about the $380 million in help america vote act funds that have been moved up from the federal government this year. some 41 states will use funds to improve their election the cyber

security this cycle. 34 states are planning to purchase new voting equipment with that money. we have been talking with some of the secretaries of state on how to make that money go further this cycle. we will be talking with another secretary of state, paul pate of iowa. phone calls until then. april is a pull worker, dublin ohio -- dublin, ohio. i'm actually in liberty township in delaware county. i worked the polls for about 10 years. -- if the things that agree with listening to fellow poll workers. , theseu are april worker are very small locations, you learn to know everybody. even though i have not been a poll worker in about six years, , manyl recognize many

people from the voters who came in when i was volunteering. i do think that identification -- actually, i think 30-day registration, which we have in ohio, it bothers me. the reason i'm not volunteering anymore is because i'm caring for my senior parents. to invest probably six hours of time just making remained my parents registered. they are in opposing political parties. it is just the identification requirements just concern me. doingeem to be disenfranchisement which is not necessary. --n you are a poll worker there were numerous people like myself who had worked several years. as we age out, have other

things, other people come in. you know everybody. i cannot speak for other jurisdictions, except i do know that we have felling -- thousands of polling locations in the u.s. it seems to me poll workers know their communities, too. about 116 thousand 900 polling places across the country. why did you sign up the first time to become a full marker? i was recruited, i believe this was four years before the 2000 election. one of the longtime time for workers in my community simply indicated that they had a lot of retirees and would i be interested? i was working closer to home at that point and i thought i would do it. host: thank you.

ruby is up next in tulsa, oklahoma. caller: good morning. i don't think there is as much problems with illegal immigrants voting. all other people think they are. a lot of them would be think they would be exposed if they went to the polls to vote. i was going to vote republican , but he got beat in the runoff. so now i'm going to vote for the democrat because i think he is the best. but i have no complaints.

it is not just about voting. somebody did get 3 million votes for the other person and still the other person got in. 3 million votes being disenfranchised. i don't feel like, in the presidential election, that my vote is going to count may be. you for the call. tom is in findlay, ohio. also has worked at the polls over the years. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i am a full worker. havef the biggest things i noticed -- i'm in my 70's -- retired, have time to do this. we are trying to recruit younger people to get interested in the process. here in ohio, in our district, i'm always amazed at how low the

voter turnout is. that is what is really appalling to me. the percentage of registered voters in the precinct compared to those that show up to vote. there are so many people out there who are not in this process of making these decisions. hard to explain why that would be. but that is one of the biggest things i have noticed. we have such low turnouts for elections, with the exception of trump, we ran, donald had great turnouts comparatively. host: as someone who has been a veteran of the polls, when can you tell it is a high turnout, what point in a day? our precinct books list voters in the precinct. the computers that we use keep track of voters, total voters in the precinct. votersthat way we can look at r books. ir identification system --

don't know how anyone gets the chance to vote illegally. you have to have a picture id, you have to be registered to vote, you have to be on the roles. .t is quite a process but that is how we know how many. it is a long day when you have low voter turnout. we are there 14 hours from the time we set up to when we leave. it is a long day and it is always a lot busier if you are busy. i like to see people exercise that right to vote. it was one that was given to us, earned, fought for. young people, i understand it is that time of the day when they are at work. the training is excellent here in ohio for addressing all of these issues. just a lot of fun, the whole process is enjoyable to me. host: thank you for sharing your story. more phone calls in just a

second. you can keep calling in, as we turn to a discussion with secretary of state paul pate who supervises the administration of elections in iowa's 99 counties. he is also running for reelection this year. he will be on the ballot. i want to start there with you, mr. secretary, any rules that apply to you as someone running for election and supervising the elections? .uest: just good, common sense i don't have the opportunity to be politicking or campaigning at polling sites during election day. it is the county auditors at the 99 counties who do the apple my and casting of the ballots. our office is just a collection point. i have professional staff handles that. my job is to focus on making sure i once understand the pathway to be is accessible voter, insure them of the integrity of it. host: how are you ensuring them of the integrity this time around? guest: we had done a series of

roundtables across the state which involved coworkers, the media, auditors, stakeholders open to promote elections. they have the tools to help us spread the word to the community that would take out the necessary steps on the sobs security standpoint and the normal process, to make sure they understand. we have paper ballots, everyone gets their one-vote, reminding them what an eligible voter is, reminding them of all the options they have for voter registration. we have same-day voter have 29 days of early voting. we are pretty aggressive on our voting here. we just make sure everyone has the information. host: 29 days of early voting. i understand i will receive 4.8 million dollars from the help improve election security funds. how are you using that in your state? over 60% we are putting

back into the county in the cyber area. that has been a big step. i have worked hard on the state level to upgrade our cyber side, officesng with the ocio , homeland security, fbi, various other experts, specialists. we wanted to make sure it got to the county level as well. we focused a majority of the money to make sure they have the anti-malware, the sensors, the training. we also partner to make sure we had those systems installed in the counties before the november election. we have added staff internally to make sure we have things like a cyber navigator, some other things to assist these counties to be successful. host: explain what an albert sensor is. guest: it is a monitoring system that is there to alert -- in our office and home

insecurity, if any bad actors are trying to probe or gain entrance into any of our systems without authorization. that is a crucial step and we have other measures. i cannot go into all the internal security measures but i assure you we are putting everything that homeland is recommending in place. host: for the albert sensor, is that something you can react to immediately, isn't more monitoring so we can understand how to fix it next time? guest: no, it is an alarm that goes off. in our case, we have set it up so that we can stop them immediately, we don't wait for any follow-up. the client typically has options. they can be alerted or they can have the monitoring folks -- in this case, homeland security, stop themio,

immediately, and then turn it over for further investigation by the fbi, homeland security. host: a couple callers this morning concerned about voter fraud and a legal immigrants voting on election day. is that a big issue in iowa? guest: we always do our best to ensure voters of the integrity. and integrity are not mutually exclusive so we have to monitor it. we are pretty aggressive on how we partner with our department of transportation to go through the driver record information to cross check that with ours. we have other checks and measures. we just implement it a voter id system in iowa, soft rollout. as we bring that online, that will be a step. we also have pulled books.

the final safety net is we have our friends and neighbors who are the poll workers. one more measure to make sure only eligible voters are the ones stepping up. host: we talked a lot about cyber security with our secretaries of state this morning. can you talk about the physical security of election sites, is that something you are increasingly concerned about these days? guest: we have always had measures in place. now we have ratcheted it up to make sure our local county auditors know there is a formal process. we have given them best .ractices, requirements for example, equipment has to be secured. it goes through a series of tests before we use them. postelectionent audits, so we will ensure nothing has been tampered with, not working properly. we have done extensive amounts

of training for our poll workers, we have standardized those measures. those are all things we had done to ensure iowans that the integrity is there. the highlight here is we vote by paper ballot, so we have a means to go back and do forensics, if you will, review of the process. what about the physical paul workers, those that show up at the polls. is that something that has been increasingly concerning to you? guest: we have not seen paul woe that show up at the polls. is that something that has thate have plans in case that may allen, you have to plan for scenarios in elections. some are man-made if you will, some are nature driven, circumstances. we do those types of measures to prepare. we are doing our own tabletop exercise with our national guard service security unit to prepare for how to handle communications for these various types of that weekend,

again, insure i once that everything is going smoothly. no matter what circumstance arise, we can make sure election day is successful. you do in iowa to make sure there is no voter intimidation at the polls? guest: our voter precinct folks are trained if there's an issue. if there is a call, we will bring inappropriate staff, service or to deal with that. whether that is law enforcement or just the county auditor, staff. toy have a procedure to try encourage people to follow the process. if that fails, that is one law enforcement steps in. host: i know you have other state as secretary of decides overseeing elections. how much of your time is on the election side, how much are the other duties? guest: normally -- it is a cycle. in iowa, we have more elections

in other states do. it is kind of like a long-distance run with no finish line. you are never really done with the elections but you do balance it between my business services and my other state responsibilities. this year we are on rolling our measures for cyber security and other upgrades in the arena of elections. i would say elections has dominated about 70% of my time. -- we had had aaller a caller saying that they hated the negative ads. anything you can do about that? caller: i agree, it is unfortunate. --guest: i agree, it is unfortunate. historian, andn if you look at what was being put out in the media those days, it was pretty rough. now we are just doing it through social media more. that is what we are doing,

reaching across the state to ensure i will voters, their source of election information, the auditors,, there ough secretary of state's office. if anybody wants to play games or become negative, we want to make sure they can count on getting the accurate information from their election commissioners. host: on that point, what about misleading robo calls, giving false information to voters? how do you follow up on that, do you have an investigative side to that? we just started state.ncing that in the these are consultants hired by the campaigns are others, so we have to do our due diligence, get things corrected, stopped. in the future, we will be dealing with legislation that willthese are consultants hiredy the campaigns start requiring to

identify themselves in a way that we can monitor and deal with it in a more effective way. host: is that something you can push for, something already in the works on the legislative side from your state legislator? guest: something i'm putting on my initiative for the session, maybe some legislators considering it, too. people may have the best intentions but they don't have the accurate information and that causes confusion and could cause someone to be disenfranchised by putting out an accurate information on polling sites, polling hours. it takes time to find those individuals and get that information stopped or corrected. they want to do a civic good, they want to reach out to the auditors or the secretary of state's office to make sure they are getting the accurate information they are putting out there. host: paul pate, we appreciate

your time this morning. back to your phone calls. getting your thoughts on voting and election security. now less than four weeks away from election 2018. phone line split regionally. eastern or central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. if can also give us a call you have worked at the polls over the years, planning to work this november. (202) 748-8002. robert is in brooklyn, new york. inc. you for waiting period. problems isof the any of the reforms done in voting laws, even if we have the before thets back to republican savage did, it would apply only to the general election, not the primaries. for example in 2016, the democratic primary was a farce.

the republican primary was legitimate. the base got to vote for their trump.g point, donald but the democratic primary was rigged in favor of clinton, so the base did not get to vote fo. their rallying point, bernie sanders. host: robert in brooklyn, new york. one story in today's paper on this issue on voting and how it is impacting the 2018 election. this from the washington times. florida democrats filed a lawsuit seeking to extend the deadline for voter registration as hurricane michael theirs down on florida's panhandle. governor rick scott. speed extended the deadline in those counties were closures had occurred, extended by one day after the day they reopen. but the suit by democrats six to have that window expanded by one week through october 16. democrats called the governor's plan insufficient. although the secretary has

proposed a single day registration, his solution is insufficient and confusing. it does not adequately protect the voting rights of florida citizens who cannot register to vote by the october 9 deadline. we are already hitting those deadlines on voter registration around the country. those voter registration deadlines, some 15 states if there deadline yesterday in the u.s. james is in san diego, california. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call this morning. voter fraud. california has found that there are motor voter issues taking place and they have found fraud by noncitizens being on the registration polls. peoplea lot about signing up daily. how do you know they are citizens of the united states at

that time? to askf you had a chance a question of one of the secretaries of state, what would whatant to hear from them, would make you more confident that every legal vote counts in the united states? the problem in california is the secretary of state. he will tell you motor voter sign-up is not a problem but it is a problem. it only takes a few votes to change the status of an election at any time in any state. is james in san diego. robert is in michigan. go ahead. what happened in michigan, a few voters made the difference in the state. i have a question about those voters in detroit. that was never looked into. there were serious questions were how many voters

there. the government did not look into it. host: how confident are you in election 2018? caller: i am not. given what happened in 2016, i don't know what to expect. host: we have a special line for those that worked at the polls, we want to hear your stories, concerns this morning. (202) 748-8002. 917,694ve noted, americans worked at the polls. different polling places around the country back in the 2016 election. here is a chart from the commission,istance where we got those stats from, looking at the ages of those who worked at the polls. 20 of 4% were ages 71 or over. to 70.e 61 26%, ages 41 to 60. just 8%, ages 26 to 40.

5%, 18 to 25. 5% of those that work at the polls were under the age of 18. little more than 50% of precincts that actually reported the ages of poll workers. that information from the election assistance commission, if you want to check it out, eac.gov. bob is in tyler, texas. good morning. caller: good morning, i've been following this election integrity thing for quite a while. texase a lady here in that has a case before the supreme court, and is been going on for four years, they are dragging their feet. we have had two secretaries of .tate's in the last two years and have an elections ministers named keith ingram who is totally obviated.

our constitutional law and our election law, by wiping out the requirement for numbered ballots , for ballot imaging, and for keeping track of tally tapes for each election cycle right after they close. edre is another guy named harris in texas who reports there are 280 people registered to vote that are not citizens. i am just totally inundated with all of this. we need paper ballots. be awas in iowa, i would whole lot more happy. host: new york, you are next. go ahead. go ahead, claire. state, younew york cannot change your party affiliation until a month or so after a general election. i checked with the board of

elections and they said it is because of block voting. they don't want people like trade unions or whatever to initiate block voting. i was under the assumption that you can vote anonymously. elections and they said it is the only way they can track block voting is if they know who voted and how they voted. that is my question. apparently you are not anonymous whenever you vote. that is my comment. host: dallas is next, has worked at the polls, from bethlehem, pennsylvania. good morning yes, i work as a poll worker for about 20 years. my wife was a judge of elections. when she passed away, i became judge of elections. i'm happy to hear virginia and west virginia are doing so well for their compensation. i ran into some problems here. , i wasshowed up one timethe onn

not told she was coming. she gave me a hard time all day, said i was not doing it properly. she could not even add at the end of the day. are you still with us? john is in sumter, south carolina. go ahead. caller: yes, sir. i have a solution to a lot of the problems we are having with ,oting and recording your votes and all that. first of all, we have columbus day, all of these holidays. why not make voting day a national holiday? number two. if you go to the store to buy anything, candy bar, bottle of liquor, anything, you get a receipt.

, i was why not give me a receipt after i vote to show me how i voted? this way if there is a recount or anything, i can say, here is how i voted. host: in your part of south carolina, is there a paper ballot that is kept with the precinct along with the electronic vote? caller: no. and i have mentioned it to several people. thank you. host: thank you for the call. we have been talking about voting and election security for the past hour and a half. want to continue to get your calls and thoughts. special line for poll workers, (202) 748-8002. we did want to show you a clip of homeland security nielsen last week at a cyber security summit in washington, d.c. she talked about the potential threats to election 2018.

our goal at the heart of it is to ensure every american has assurance that their vote is counted and their vote is counted correctly. those are two separate counts of the equation but equally important. unfortunately, there has been concern among many of us since saw2016 election when we the clear targeting of our systems by the russian government. there is a lot of confusion about what happened, many are unfortunately trying to politicize the issue, mischaracterize, and at the end of the day it bares her. no votes were altered. but we did see without question, extorted early concerning, dhs initially identified 21 states that experience remote targeting of networks mainly in the form of scanning, or in layman's terms, checking to see if any windows were open, any doors open, what the system looks like, potentially to understand for a future attack. all of this appeared to be an attempt to exploit

vulnerabilities in our election infrastructure. we now believe all 50 states were likely targeted in the same way. a former research, understanding systems, the possibilities. ultimately -- and we want to be clear on this, and i think chris was yesterday -- any attempt to whether successful or unsuccessful, to interfere in our elections is an attack on our democracy and is on acceptable and will take it very seriously. today we know our upcoming election is an upcoming target, our adversaries have demonstrated the ability, the will. i know you have spent time talking about misinformation campaigns, influence in the form of information. i will not touch on that today. only to say that we all need to be intellectually curious, make sure the news that we read is, in fact, from a legitimate source, and then make our own determination as to the validity of the information. watch thatu want to

entire event, you can search secretary nielsen in our c-span video archive. her event from last thursday. time for a few more calls in this segment before we take you 50stop number 44 on c-span's capitals tour. elections and voting will still be the topic of that discussion. we will be joined by the stateticut secretary of the nice bureau -- denise merrill. until then, more of your calls. leon has worked at the polls in virginia beach, virginia. caller: state good morning. i just want to say -- i am retired, i am 77. most of my coworkers at the polls are retired people. we have controls at the polls that are unbelievable. as a matter of fact, sometimes i

think it is overkill, but the integrity is there, the ballots are counted, the ballots are counted twice, tested -- the blank ballots. we use a tabulator, and then we use the paper ballots. we go to class before each election. good morning. the voters, the surprising thing, the voting public, almost all of them they say thank you after they finish voting. that is surprising but also pleasing. the thing that i want to talk about is not the administration of the voting itself but the things that prevent people from exercising their right. everything from gerrymandering to voter id to shorter and early voting periods, salary disenfranchisement, having to have a reason for absentee

ballot, not having automatic voter registration, to something as simple as not having at least the federal elections be a holiday. there are people who cannot take off and go back and forth to the polls on election day. that.uld really look into if i can say anything bad about virginia beach, i wish they would pay us more. the $125they pay us one of the other secretaries of state mentioned. host: what does your pay, to add virginia beach? caller: the whole day with the training, about $175 for an ordinary poll worker. i am not a chief or assistant chief.

that is going to training for half a day, and then you also have to go and put the tables and chairs out the night before for about one hour. then you go in at 5:00 on election day. we usually finish around 7:00, 8:00 in the evening. things go quite smoothly. it is a long day but the people that you work with, you work with him election after election. they are fun to be with all day. as i said, the people that come in to vote are appreciative. you know, when you talk about voter fraud, there is no voter fraud. family was registered in two states, including his youngest daughter. the secretary of state of kansas -- nobody could find instances of voter fraud.

when they try to show you on illegal immigrants voting -- nobody comes up with any numbers. this voter fraud andeps -- thank you for sharing. talking about the voter fraud commission that he led for the trump administration before it was disbanded. a few tweets as we had been having this conversation. fran writes in saying, she was impressed to hear him say the state actively encourages 18-year-olds to register, and to work at the polls, and pay the poll workers. new hampshire, take note. she said over the summer, i registered over 85 young people to vote. can we get a more accurate outcome. just as you need a social

security number, you should need to vote of every election to be an american. one more from kevin saying in some jurisdictions, you can buy an ar-15 before voting. mary, good morning. caller: i find the shenanigans take place during the local two,ions, where you have truly opposing groups. i have seen people pay for their vote. i have seen dead pupil vote -- dead people vote. i have seen absentee ballots get thrown out because the opposition person made them all out. i have seen ballots get thrown out because the congressman have them mailed to his po box instead of where the absentee ballots are supposed to go.

i have seen 14 people living in a two-bedroom house because they changed their registration to vote for a person in the election. that is just the simple part of it. it is easy to do. host: mary in pennsylvania. segment,caller of this but more of your phone calls in just a second. it is stop number 44 of the c-span's capital's tour. it takes us to the iraqi hartford, connecticut, one of the oldest cities in the u.s. joining us on the c-span does the secretary of state denyse merrill. secretary merrill, we learned since the 2016 election, it was one of the states that had one of its voting systems targeted by russian hackers. what were the russians trying to do and how far do they get in connecticut? guest: yes, good morning.

they did not get anywhere, frankly. returned them back at the perimeter -- we turned them back at the perimeter as we do with these occur shins. i do have to tell you, it is a very common occurrence. the difference is that it was identified as a russian address and that everyone's attention. they did not get into our system at all, and by the way, the system is the voter registry. it has nothing to do with the tabulation of ballots or anything like that. i would say, we don't know what they were attempting to do. i was president of the national association in 2016, so i was involved with all of the things going on in all the different states. but it was turned back in all but one state. so, i personally think it is to basically sew discord in the american public.

if they were to change the names or take names off, we would see it pretty quickly. because we have paper backup lists, all the states have paper backup less. we have them on the ground. on election day, if someone came in and said, i'm supposed to be on the list. if that happened in any big number, we would know it immediately. host: was there any rhyme or reason to the states, this russian address chose to attack? with their something about annecticut the represented juicier target in some way? guest: i don't think so. with thew working department of homeland security, who are the ones who alerted us to this. by the way, it is very delicate because there is a certain amount of security. we do not want to be announcing what happened in a way because we don't want to encourage others to try it, too. awayost of them turned

showed us that we all have firewalls and protections for all of our databases. this was no different. so, i do not know. i don't think it was anything special to those 21 states. now we are hearing there may have been more, but this is a matter of monitoring the traffic that goes in and out of the state. i am sure all states do that. host: secretary of state of connecticut in these merrill is busguest aboard the c-span in hartford. we would like viewers to join in on this segment. a special line for connecticut residents at 202-748-8000. all others can call in at 202-748-8001. secretary of state merrill will be taking your calls as we continue this discussion. as viewers are calling in, how much money the connecticut get from the federal fund to improve election security, and how did you use it? guest: our share was around $5 million.

it was very welcomed because we can always improve things. we are using it to bolster our existing firewalls and systems, and doing the kinds of checks that one's do for the voter registry. our biggest concern is at the local 11 -- at the local level. we do not have county systems, so everything is done at the town level. fromve 169 towns ranging 2000 to 200,000 comes so mostly small towns, and each of them has a router in their town that is the drop point for this closed loop system. what happens is when you registered to vote, you register at the town level. the only people able to put names on or take names off the list or -- of the list of the local officials. so, we are worried about the routers in those towns, and want to make sure they are as secure

as the state system is because we have disturbers at the state level. we want to make sure the local officials have efficient training, and understand you have to change your password frequently. we are putting in other protections at the local level, authentication for everything that goes on, making sure everyone is talking improperly. because another type of attack that we have seen in some places in the country, not a connecticut, are phising emails, those that you get on your own computer, a message that looks real, but if you go on it, they can get into our systems, so those lips have things we are focusing on with our money. we are hiring personnel to going ,o town to check this systems to give them training and that sort of thing. we are also purchasing extra tabulators. 2002, they bought in

theyomewhat elderly, but are also simple scanners. they are not connected to the internet or each other. we want to make sure people understand that. we vote on paper ballots. we audit the ballots afterwards, but the tabulators have cards that program the ballots, and so we want to make sure everything is working properly and up-to-date, so we are purchasing extra tabulators with some of the money in case some of them give out during or after the election. will have extras on hand. host: you mentioned voter registration. when is connecticut's voter registration deadline? guest: in person voter registration deadline is the day before elections, but you can register up until october 30. your registration must be in the office october 30. 15 states than

heather voter registration deadline passed yesterday. can you talk about why some states have such girly or voter registration deadlines, and why connecticut is one of those they set pushes it pretty close to election day? guest: yes. we are a state that encourages everyone to vote. i believe voter registration should be as easy as possible, and possible for as many people as possible. we do have a registration, what we call the automatic border registration at the dmv. our system is very easy to access. to have online voter registration if you have a connecticut driver's license. the one thing we don't have those early voting. so, we felt in person only on -- so, we vote in person only on election day. i have tried to pass a law to allow a law to allow earlier voting because i believe it does help. that is probably by many states have early voter registration

deadlines so they can get their list ready in time for the early voting. host: where has the holdup and in trying to pass the legislation? in our state constitution , it says we vote on tuesday. so, it requires a constitutional amendment to change it. voterequires a two thirds or a majority vote in two different legislative sessions, which means it takes about four years to get it on the ballot. a version of it was on the ballot in 2014, but it was voted down narrowly. so, i do not know why. i think it was a little confusing the way it was worded my but nonetheless, i did attempt to get early voting. connecticut is also a state that requires an excuse to get and that 20 ballot, which is -- an excuse to get an absentee

ballots, which is another issue. i will let you chat with a few callers. i have a special line for connecticut residents at 202-748-8000 all others that 202-748-8001. linda is up first. you are on the secretary merrill. caller: the morning, secretary merrill. i have a couple of quick questions for you. i remember many moons ago when someone from the state of connecticut would come into the classrooms with the voting levers, and it would instruct children from like the age of fifth-grade on up on how to vote. and it would more or less be getting you ready to be a voter. we don't do that anymore. years, i always took my children are now my

grandchildren into the polling places. and it is funny, depending on the poll worker, they will tell you, you cannot bring the child. and it is individual polars. of course, i am very insistent and i always brought a child. my grandson on primary day. i always wondered, what are our state laws? that inossibility future education, we can bring the old livers back to the school -- levers back to the school with a kids could see the voting. i will take your answer off air. thank you for your time. host: secretary meryl? guest: absolutely. you are singing my song. i was a teacher myself, and i wish we could do more. there is a whole conversation we could have why civic education has disappeared largely, particularly in elementary school because it is not on the test. that has really impaired our ability to teach civic

education. nonetheless, we keep trying, and what you are referring to is coming years ago, registrars used to come into the classroom and demonstrate these. there is so little time and the curriculum that they are not doing it anymore. there is a requirement that they register voters at their senior year of high school. the cap to go into the high schools every man bring the registration materials, but the rest is up to the teachers and parents. yes, you can bring your children and to the polls. for has been established many years in connecticut, and that is a wonderful idea. to does give children a chance -- it does give children a chance to see voting. we can get children involved in all of civic life. in fact, i am planning to introduce a bill this year that will allow 16-year-olds to pre-register to vote because there is a lot of evidence that field they people

are part of something, they will vote. that is one of the discouragements of my system is that we have so many people in the u.s. who do not vote. they do not even registered to vote. we feel a third of the eligible population is not registered in our state and in many others. and that is discouraging. in my day, sounds like the are a similar age, you know, it was considered your duty as a citizen to vote. i wish we would get back there. in virginia,than you are on the secretary merrill. caller: hello. think the systems they were attacking was the registry. when you look at what their intent would be, it would be orormation gathering phishing attacks.

trying to mislead people with misinformation like we saw in 2016. even though it may say russian code, it can look like a russian ip address. there is a country code that identifies them so they can get the data outside of their country, so we need to be vigilant with that. host: for those who do not know the lingo, what is pii information? caller: is identifies addresses, names, maybe enough addresses as well as corresponding names. it is more valuable when you have a name attached to certain information because it adds to what it would mean. toit was your name attached the code, now we know who the owner is. it is much more valuable now.

host: you are going in and out, but the four we lose you, can you say whether your current work is focused on the 2018 election at all when it comes to cyber security? caller: i cannot. [indiscernible] say to the people who were voting, just watch what they see on my because millennials are more susceptible to that misinformation because they are always on social media. in 2016, it was easy to make fake accounts and get people up against each other. host: secretary merrill, your thoughts? guest: yes. i totally agree with the caller, and people are still talking

about, we were hacked and it was all hacking. that to me is not the most important thing going on here. he is right. it is very likely that they were manyg to get data as are others hitting our system every day. that is why i say, i think the biggest problem here is a campaign of misinformation, but i would take this moment to remind people, these lists are public lists. these are not secret lists they were trying to get into. the voter registry is public and has to be because we have to know who is eligible to vote. so for hundreds of years, this has been a public list. the difference is now you can get the list electronically consul in our state, you can buy the list for a nominal fee, and anyone can go on the website and get it. it is about 2 million voters. we do not give out all of the information. we don't give out people's social security numbers, but

their name, address, and basic data is public. i think you have to keep it in perspective when you say, they are hacking into this list. it is a public list and changes every, single day. it is not a static list and names are constantly being added and taken off. a is right when you identify russian address, that does not mean that is the only address they are using. they can use any address based in the united states. that was a tip off, i guess, that it was a russian agency. just to put it in perspective again, we get about one million hits a day on all of our state's systems, mostly data mining, people's -- people looking for your personal data. it is an easy way to get that information, and that is why we think that probably it is more related to the campaign of disinformation, which is much more difficult to deal with .ecause your freedom of speech we cannot just shut down

websites, and you see that going on right now with google and microsoft and all the companies we are working with to try to stop the flow of this information, but that is very, very difficult and a very different thing than what we are talking about here. host: just a few minutes left with secretary of state of connecticut denyse merrill. we do have the line for connecticut residents at 202-748-8000. next caller? caller: good morning. i have been working with the commission since 2000. i started working during the bush-gore era, and i wanted to see what was going on and what everybody was talking about the popular vote and manipulating both in all of that. so, i am not a manager at one of the polls. i think one of the things that i don't see why no other state would do it -- i don't see why

no other state would do it. you have to have a state id and i think we have six of those. you have to do who is coming in there to vote. will give youd some kind of idea who that person is. and the second thing is, i was listening to your guest talking about bringing children into the polls. i have no problem with that. but sometimes, you could have some children in the polls that, you know, they are uncontrollable. and you bump up against these machines, if you cannot control your children and you bump up against a machine, that is 15 minutes of downtime. so, bringing the kids in there is ok, as long as you can control them. host: james comer thank you for the call from georgia. secretary merrill, your thoughts? have never had that

kind of problem with children and the polls. in fact, we have very few people who take it manage of that, and that is too bad. we have had that in place for many, many years. as far as the id, the problem with the idea of having a very, strict id law is that a lot of people may not have that particular kind of id. so, we have always required some for 25 identification years now in connecticut, and the state are different in this regard. what was concerning to some of us was that suddenly, there seemed to be specific forms of id required in some states that would leave people out. host: how many people? guest: you can use almost anything that has two pieces of information on who you are. remember, it is only for people on the list. so they have already provided a social security number, and

address, name, and so forth that is then placed on the list by local officials. now you are just assuming whoever is coming in committee are trying to show they are the person on the list. it is a second process. for that reason, we allow all kinds of different identifications you can use. you can use a utility bill. a has to be official, not letter from your mom, but something with your name and address that shows us you live at that address. you just need to show you are the person on the list. and even if you don't have something in your pocket, you let your wallet at home or whatever, you can sign an affidavit to show that you are the person on the list and we will allow you to vote. host: james is waiting in newark, new jersey. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. the morning, secretary. what about the homeless people in connecticut? guest: homeless?

caller: homeless, yes. host: explain your concern a little bit more, james. caller: my heart goes out to the homeless. i worked with the homeless people at 19 years old. i am very concerned about the homeless people. guest: you mean and whether they are allowed to vote? caller: no, no, no, no. been taken care of in connecticut? there is the question secretary of state, denyse merrill. guest: we have made tremendous progress on homelessness in connecticut, particularly with veterans, but i do not deal with that. but we do deal with homeless people and the right to vote, so

even if you are homeless, you have a right to vote. many people are not homeless because they want to be homeless, so you can provide an address where ever you live at the time of voting and that is your residence. we do make an effort to do outreach at shelters to get people registered to vote, and make sure they feel included. for example, in the last two months, i have been to a lot of the food share programs in connecticut with there are people coming for food because they are homeless or without food. and we are registering them to vote. and i think it is working in the they feel, society, i think it is terribly important that everybody understands, everybody is a part of this. and the more people who are boating, the better off we all are. host: beverly is in amarillo, texas. good morning. caller: thank you. republican, and i

am still a republican, but i am not voting, and i'm not going to vote for democrats or republicans because, well the ugliest word in the english language for 2000 years, the ugliest word in the english language was abortion. than the democrats made it legal and now they are calling it choice. that is very disturbing to me. but then two, we have people, many many people demonstrating in the streets for legal abortion, and that stops firetrucks forgetting to fires and stops me from getting to the hospital if i am seriously in need of help. that bothers me a great deal that these demonstrators, the steeple who are guilty of murder are keeping people from getting, sick people from getting to

places they need to be. host: beverly, are you worried about demonstrators on election day in amarillo, texas? caller: no, i am worried about what i'm seeing on television. , willow is a -- amarillo is a pretty clean-cut city. one of the most conservative counties is here. i am proud to be a resident of randall, but we are not getting anywhere. we are not getting anywhere. when you have people who demonstrate amongst the finest people in the world going to the supreme court, and i mean it is just useless to have this kind of behavior in our country. , i willcretary merrill give you the final two or three minutes here. [laughter] um, i would just say that i am aware that this issue divisor country as many others do. and i think it is extremely

unfortunate if people's reaction is not to vote. your vote is your voice. if you do not vote, you lost your right to complain about almost anything in my view. you still have to pick something. and it may not be perfect, but it is your right, and friendly, your duty as a citizen to vote. host: that is secretary merrill on election day, were you going to be in connecticut? guest: i will be all over the state at some of the polling sites, but of course, we had several systems in place with lots of checks and balances. i have a group of attorneys who volunteered to be our eyes and ears at the polling places. i will be at my office part of the time, but i have a lot of people answering the phones. we have a hotline and all kinds of things. i hope we have a great election day. the last elections in connecticut have been the smoothest i have been a part of, so i am hoping everyone comes out to vote. host: we want to thank you for your time as we get down to

crunch time leading up to the election. we appreciate it. guest: thank you very much. host: we also want to thank our cable partners in connecticut, comcast in hartford, especially as we continued the c-span 50 capital's tour. before we leave connecticut ahead of today's tour stop in connecticut, c-span spent time with the governor of connecticut, dan malloy, talking about some of the top issues in the state. malloy, as you know, some of the economic news coming out of connecticut has not been very positive. anemic, economic growth, high debt, high taxes, what a short case for connecticut's economy? >> the most recent news is pretty much very positive. rapid earnings growth in the

state, seeing grossed a vested product increase -- grows domestic product increased. we are leading in those categories, so we are making real progress. part of the issue is connecticut was hit worse by some of the cycle.n in the 2008-2009 we were in an older, industrial state that is not recognized at the full potential -- recognized its full potential. it is one of the reasons we are making helicopters, jet engines, and submarines in the state still. and we are seeing changes in the insurance industry, but now seeing some rapid growth in that area as well. connecticut is an older state. we have really cold winters and billy hot summers. it is not a cheap place to be in business.

on the other hand, if you measured connecticut bite its -- if you measured connecticut by its output, we are ranked at the top. high value added, important work is done here. we have a highly-educated workforce, higher than most states, in the top three. we are in the top three in aerospace as well. we have a lot of things going for us, but we did have to clean shop a little bit. government is much smaller then when i took office. i am very proud of that. we have recovered 113% of the jobs lost in the private sector, so we are ahead in the private sector, smaller government. that sells at a pretty good success to me. >> white -- why is it that your approval rating is so low in the state? >> you know what? i did not bargain for a high approval rating.

i bargained to do the job. let's go back to something you referenced. during my ministry should we eliminated $45 billion, with a b -- during my administration, we eliminated $45 billion, and that is with a b. that does not come without a fight. we also eliminated some of the bad decisions made by my predecessors with raising a number of taxes. raising taxes, having fights with employees over outstanding, unfunded obligations is not the easiest way to become popular. but it is the easiest way to do the job the right way. something that my predecessors had failed to do and something that the legislature had failed to do over a number of years. >> governor malloy, what did you not get done that you wanted to get done? >> you know, number one list

take 18, 19, 20-year-olds out of the criminal justice system and treat them like juveniles. if our nation refocused its efforts on doing that one thing, understanding that young people make mistakes, and that they should not be permanently burdened with that unnecessarily that may makeion it impossible for them to get decent housing, get educated, or get a good job. with just came to grips what we already know, and i will give you an example. we know that 18 and 19-year-olds should not drink. and yet, we treat them like adults. we know that they should not buy cigarettes, and yet, in many states you cannot buy cigarettes until the age of 21. these are things we routinely admit about our youth in this nation, but refused to have a

system that addresses the lack of maturity. >> what is the difference between being the mayor of stanford and the governor of connecticut? >> the jobs are very similar. chief executive officer, the person who gets held responsible for results, good and bad. i love my home city of stanford where i was born and raised, and where my mom and dad raced eight children -- raised eight children. i was glad as governor to take on the tough issues, and i am happy to hand it over to someone else to continue that work. having said that, i am very gratified that we lowered crime in the connecticut one of the safest state in the nation. that we lowered our prison dramatically at the same time griffin a schism

declined. very proud of the fact that we now have the highest graduation rate of high school and i stay's history and that dramatically at the same time griffin a followsx years of decline before i became governor. i am proud of the private sector jobs, and am proud government has gotten smaller. we have done a lot of very important work in connecticut, including as i said before you, we have more fortune 500 companies by a third when i became governor less than eight years ago. if you measure us on those types of issues, quality of life, we are doing pretty darn well to our competitive state. >> was at a psychological blow when ge left the state? , well, it looks like it was probably a pretty big blow to ge. and they decided they were going to move 200 jobs out of connecticut, the stock was selling for $20.22. last time i checked it was $12.50. i am not sure every decision ge

made was a good one. we are very happy to have cap the major portions of ge that we had. and if another state is going to pay $140 million for 200 jobs, so be it. i think folks made a big deal out of it, but i go back to this, we have more fortune 500 companies based in connecticut and we had just a few years ago. that is significant. that as the predictor of the future. ge was a predictor of the past. >> governor malloy, a couple of national issues i want to get your take on. let talk about health care. hartford, then area with some of the largest insurance companies. >> we were one of the early states to expand medicaid before obamacare and we were very proud to do that. that made us better prepared for obamacare when it came about. is why connecticut led the

nation with respect to reducing the uninsured in our state and we are very part of that accomplishment. but we are proud of the fact that we bent the curve on medicaid expenditures. we are now spending less per person than we did previously. albeit, we have more people insured under medicaid or obamacare, but the reality is, we have learned the important lessons that pre-care, difficulties one's are early in illness and what that pays for in the long run. >> another issue that is being debated and talked about in washington is trade. amongew trade agreement the north american nations. what is your take? >> i think, you know, i was just reviewing before i came to speak to you. know, it is not a gigantic -- you know, it is not a gigantic

change and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. the unintended consequences may be greater than the intended consequences. what i would point to about that, if you look at the car provision, probably what we will see is more luxury cars being made in the united states, but she a lot fewer economy -- but see a lot fewer economy cars being made in the u.s. whether that will be good or bad for the economy remains to be seen. i don't think there is much of a dairy change at all. canada promises to do something about their dairy system sometime in the future. if that is the biggest result, then tell me what the result was? because it is not evident from anything that has come out of the washington -- come out of washington as far. as i support the idea that people working in the automotive industry make every $16 an hour on the continent. andwhat that means for jobs

whether that is a retention of jobs, or whether we lose jobs remains to be seen. >> how much interaction do you the trump white house? >> a fair amount. you know, i am probably not one of their favorite governors because i do not mind pointing out what the president has done to our society has not been helpful. sexism, racism that sneaks into his discussions on arepublic record disheartening, and makes it hard to teach children in our schools how to converse appropriately when the president himself does not engage in that kind of rhetoric. having said that, this administration has managed to do some good things and i support those good things. but overall, you know, i am not a supporter of the administration. i think their stance on immigration and refugees has

been despicable if not immoral. i do not hide when i agree with them, and i do not hide when i disagree with him. >> the president has labeled connecticut a sanctuary state. is that true? >> you know, no, i don't think it is true. it is one of the misstatements that the president has made. tens totunately been repeat those misstatements. we have a letter from jeff sessions saying that we are not a sanctuary state. and that our laws are in full compliance with federal statutes. but you would have to tell the president that 100 times before he would hear it. >> what is it like to be a lame-duck governor in the last couple of months of your office? >> it is kind of interesting. i was a lame-duck mayor for a well before becoming governor. you know? we take stock of what we have accomplished. helped preparewe

the next administration. we are ready to help in any way that we can with information and i feel good about what we have done. it is interesting that some of the long-term investments that we made, starting with back in 2011, are now paying off. and that is why our job numbers are getting much better and much more rapidly. that is why commercial growth in real estate growth have rebounded. increased income at quarter was pretty spectacular, so it takes a while to turn a ship around. i think someone will enjoy sailing it in the future. >> what is next for you? >> um, you know, another iofession, another challenge am going to do some teaching initially, the look forward the doing other things as well. >> governor dannel malloy is a

second term governor of the state of connecticut, and we appreciate you posting is on our 50 capitals tour. >> great to be with you. >> "washington journal" continues. host: 20 minutes left on our program today. at that time, we will be taking you to the senate commerce cited transportation committee, a hearing on consumer data privacy is set to take place at 10:00. until then, it is open phones. any public policy issued you would like to talk about, your phone lines are here to do so. .or republicans, 202-748-8001 democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. you can start calling in. the test on the subject, nikki touched on this

subject, nikki haley said to step down as the u.s. ambassador. trump loses foreign policy star at the u.n. touched on this subject, nikki haleydiplomat ses a step toward hard line approach. one other editorial cartoon focusing on nikki haley's resignation. this from "usa today," showing nikki haley's shoes showing very big shoes that will need to be filled. from south carolina, couple of newspapers focusing on nikki haley. this one is playing out in her home state. after she leaves the trump administration, what is next? that is the headline from the state, and the independent mail, nikki haley's next that's unclear after announcing her resignation. the speculation continued about what her next job will be and who will fill her shoes at the united nations. the other story we are tracking is hurricane michael, close to making landfall from "usa

today." the governor, rick scott, saying you cannot hide from this storm. the governor declared a state of emergency for 35 counties and activated national guard troops. more than 300 state troopers available for deployment. yesterday afternoon, the president approved an emergency declaration for the state of florida's evacuation orders in 10 counties. taking your calls this morning in open phones. richard is up first from sprinkled, missouri, an independent. good morning. caller: nice to see you this morning. thank you for calling income, richard. go ahead. caller: i wanted to talk about the senate trial. i thought it was a disgrace. we had to back preppies up there showing off. we should of had a stonewall between grassley and his opponent.

everybody should be ashamed. i think maybe we are at fault that we voted these people into power, and there were few of these people that i think are really a star. thank you, johnny. host: who earn a debt owed a star -- who earned a star, johnny? caller: i think the senator that got bombarded for the beer. calmy andt there very quietly while she was yelling about the beer. may be budweiser should have paid her for all commercial. host: you're talking about senator klobuchar? caller: yes. host: john is up next from new jersey. good morning. caller: you know, i feel like there is something generally wrong. i witnessed so many independents that i think the reason why people are becoming independent

is they are seeing congress, democrat and republican, all of them working for themselves, not for the people. what do they need to do to show the me are working for the people, john? caller: they need to get rid of citizens -- united -- they need to get rid of citizen's united. a decision needs to be made about the electoral college. and what they have to do with a have to demonstrate that they are working for the people. and you know, the fact that so many women are getting involved in politics today is very, very important. because they have been, just as the blacks and hispanics, one of the most oppressed people in our history. host: thanks, john in new jersey. sandy is up next from michigan. good morning, republican. caller: good morning.

i would love to see a program on republicanns to be a , democrat, or independent. host: what do you think it was to be a republican, sandy? caller: i am a registered up, iican, but growing was always told that the republicans are for the wealthy, and the democrats are for the working man. life., worked all my i voted democrat. , i saw that older the democrats were believing in things that i do not believe in a long social issues. and republicans believed in the things that i believed in a long

the social issues, so i became a registered republican, although i am not really sure what that means because the definition seems to have changed. host: what social issues are most important to you, sandy? caller: oh goodness. uh, the direction that our country is going in. it seems like we have lost our way. um, you know? little kids don't know if they are a boy or a girl. you know? and they are raised like that in that is confusing. their are so many ways godhere are so many ways to , to heaven, and i don't believe that. things like that. and those other things that divide us -- and those are the

things that divide us as a country. host: would does it mean to be -- what does it mean to be an independent in this country? caller: do whatever. vote this way, that way, here today, gone tomorrow, doesn't matter. i don't know, you know? to havenition seems changed. it seems like it is so cloudy, the muddy is so water. [laughter] the water is so muddy, excuse me. it is confusing to me. you know? , in i vote, i don't vote vote along the lines of the social issues. i am sure that is not the way it is supposed to be, and i would love to see your program, you know, show people like me because i am sure i meant not the only one that thinks like this.

you know? what it means in our country. thank you. host: thank you for sharing your political and voting philosophies this morning. did is open phones here until we take you up -- it is open phones here until we take you to -- 202-748-8000 democrats. independents 202-748-8002. 202-748-8000 republicans. one caller brought up brett kavanaugh's confirmation. on the fellow right of the bench and listed alongside of eight colleagues, a case about a state robbery offense should be classified as a violent felony under the 1984 armed career civil act, which is a criminal sentencing law that increases prison sentences after

multiple violent felonies. the new york times in their reporting notes that within a half-hour of the start of his first oral argument, kavanaugh is proving he will not be a silent presence on the bench by justice clarence thomas, who went through a similarly bruising confirmation process in 1991, and who has been famously quiet during questioning. brett kavanaugh jumping in with a question within the first half-hour. back to your calls and open phones. carol is in lumberton, north carolina, a democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. host: hi, carol. caller: yes, i wanted to talk about the letter by dianne feinstein. if you go online, it is under docs.com, september 27. the lettered that

was first leaked to intercept, and then to buzz feed. this was confirmed by a reporter that intercepted it and first islished the story, and it per ryan, the bureau interim chief. it was not dianne feinstein. left one was a message the "washington post" tip line, and they eventually called her back and got the story then. it also could have been leaked by "the washington post" by her. so, that is what it was saying about the leaking of the letter. ondox.c'sd, it is website. om host: david from maryland, it is open phones. caller: good morning, america.

thank you for having me on your program. i think the divisive politics supersedes the issues on purpose because a lot of the media stories that are manufactured are meant to take our attention off pressing issues, such as economics, health care, equal opportunities, increasing the likelihood of poverty. these, heret all of one day, gone tomorrow stories and there is no value in it. it is to keep us all know -- keep us all numb. people who aree not in power, no matter what your political party is, whoever is not empower starts all this. and he keeps going until -- and it keeps going until the next

election cycle. but right now, it is the most poisonous than it has ever been and i am almost 40 years old. and this is the worst i have ever seen it. we have to get past this somehow i get back to a better -- and get back to better conduct. host: any suggestions on how we get past this as a country? caller: i would have working groups with the owners of the press. at it is probably seven to eight individuals who own them. what is the best cognitive health for our country? so we don't have massive discord. election fair and square on the issues without manufacturing the issues. that poor lady, and i said poor lady because it brought her to the forefront was accusing kavanaugh. we may not hear about her forever, but she has to sit in a

diner for the rest of her life and that is not fair. fall because of the political issue that did not mount to much. we have to think about the psychological effects caused by bringing out these issues just for political gain that only last for a little while. host: i was david in maryland. al is in maryland in silver springs, a democrat. good morning. caller: hi. i want to bring up two issues, the issue of voting. the wall street journal discuss the different requirements in different states. washington journal or washington post, one of the two. one of them was, but being allowed to vote after they finish the sentence. the neighboring state of virginia, you cannot vote. i wanted to know, what are the numbers of those who cannot vote, citizens of the country?

that first point, that is a segment we have done on the "washington journal" if you want to search our archives for that. what is your other point? caller: the second point is about, you know, for example, anh c-span, you have introduction about how you decide on what topics you will bring up every day. and who is on your board? they are all white people. host: i think you're talking about the c-span board. to people who produces program work on "the washington journal." there are 10 or 12 of us that said in a room over there, every, single day after this program and talk about what we are hearing from you all, in the news, and we had that discussion every day to try and figure out

what you're asking about, what we can bring you every day. it is an ongoing conversation, but we mike -- but we like to make our views a part of it. caller: so, in that process, how do you make that decision? is any understanding about, you know, is it done in a rational way, or is it any rational process? host: we bounce ideas off each other. we try to figure out who are some of the members of congress that you want to hear from. we try to book members of congress as much as we cancel you can ask them questions. fromy to book individuals ,hink tanks across the country talking about the legislation are topics they are working on. we want to do here from those people as well. it is an ongoing process. sometimes are segments change throughout the day as the news

is happening, but it is a discussion that happens everyday on the "washington journal." but we always appreciate the ideas you bring up. al in silver springs. just a few minutes left in today's program. will be taking you up to capitol hill for a senate hearing at 10:00 this morning. i did want to update you on another story we have been following this week. this is the huffington post reporting on the new reports that came out yesterday adding new shocking details to the --appearance of journalist of a journalist, including accounts of sound these wielding a saw, and a plea from his fiancee. a vocal critic of the saudi government was assassinated under orders from the royal

court coming killed by a team of people within two hours of stepping into the country's consulates in istanbul to pick up a marriage certificate. 15 people reportedly traveled to istanbul aboard two charter flights. one person is believed to be an autopsy expert to help dismember his body to remove it from the building. that is "the huffington post" reporting on it. fiancee pote his issued a publiclea to president trump -- they did notice fiancee issued a public plea to the president to investigate the disappearance. that plea from his fiancee came in an op-ed to "the washington post" where he served as a columnist and contributor. this is what his fiancee wrote yesterday. he entered thet consequence and there is no

proof he came out. i implore the president to shed light on his disappearance. he is a viable person, an exemplary thinker, and a great man. i don't know how i can keep living if he was abducted or killed in turkey. to seeway, if you want some of the recent appearances by him, he was featured on c-span for three different appearances over the past several years back in november of last year, appearing at an event in washington, d.c. at the arab center on saudi arabia and leadership, and then a couple of other appearances from 2012 and 2002. those are available in our c-span video archives. time for one or two more calls. jason, thank you for waiting and washington, d.c., a republican. go ahead. time for one or two more calls. caller: how are you doing today? host: doing well. caller: i called because you had

a female caller who called in and she was basically saying the same thing i have been saying. i was a democrat for a while and i switched because i was a as an african-american. but i had to have a switch because i found out they were for homosexuality and abortion. two things i really can't, being a christian, i couldn't do. but then i went ahead and i tried to get into the whole political scene and found out regardless of what party you go fix something there is no jobs really buried so when it comes to politics, they really want the whole system to be fractured and broken because a fractured system maintains control and that's then