i've coverage begins at 11:00 eastern. this afternoon the senate judiciary committee holds a hearing on china's coronavirus response. we will have live coverage at 2:30 p.m. eastern. votes on watch house policing reform and d.c. statehood legislation. thursday 10:00 a.m. eastern live on c-span, the house will debate and vote on the democrats' policing reform bill, the george act. justice in policing friday at 9:00 a.m. eastern, the house will vote on legislation to designate the district of columbia as a state. watch this week live thursday and friday on c-span, c-span.org , or listen on the free c-span radio app. host: c-span viewers know tom ridge. is to his projects

serve as cochair of one of the groups vote safe. how did you get involved? vote safe is a political or bipartisan effort. i'm cochairing this initiative with the former governor of michigan. the object is to see on november safe and secure options for the voting public. be it in-person balloting or absentee ballots. initially we sent out letters to the 50 secretaries of state, encouraging them to make sure those options were open. and securesafe opportunities. likewise for absentee ballots. we also encouraged them that if they need additional resources, though we share the belief that the federal government had response billions well, if they

needed extra dollars to sustain both of those options, not to be too timid to make sure congress provides assistance to achieve those tools. we want options, safe and secure. november 3, presidential elections, senate elections, congressional elections, local elections, maximum participation is our goal. il-in let's talk about ma voting the day after president trump expressed his concerns. how do you make a safe and secure? guest: it has been historically. the envelopes remind people for the penalties of financialnificant penalties, imprisonment. the heritage foundation several years ago looked at 250 million

absentee ballots that had been cast over the past 20 years. fraudound 200 cases of that had been litigated and people found guilty of improper actions. somewhat fraudulent statement to suggest that historically there have been massive fraud in elections because of abuse of the absentee ballot process. nd i don't claim it to be a perfect system, but the 200equency of impropriety, cases out of 250 million, suggest that the local officials, the 8000 to 10,000 at the state to local level, do a pretty good job monitoring absentee ballots. host: we mention the president series of tweets yesterday. he started talking about his concerns about mail-in voting by

referring to his attorney general's interview on fox news over the weekend in which he was asked a question about it. i want to play a little bit about attorney bars interview and get you to respond. [video clip] >> it open so floodgates to fraud. they are delivered to mailboxes. they can be taken out. there is a question if it denies a secret ballot, because a lot of states have you signing the outside of the envelope, so the person who opened the envelope all know how people voted. -- right now foreign country could print out thousands of counterfeit valid send it would be hard for us to detect which is the right and which is the wrong ballot. thean upset and undercut confidence and integrity of our elections. if anything, we should tighten them up right now. host: secretary ridge, a few concerns from the secretary-general. i don't know if you get

the opportunity to publicly and respectfully disagree with the attorney general of the united states, but i guess there is a first chance for everything. the precautions taken at the state and local level can minimize the impact with the signature check, social security ways locald officials can validate or invalidate, authenticate, mail-in ballots, absentee ballots. of doubt andeeds notion of an illegitimate election is the thought that somehow after decades of appropriate use of absentee ballots, suddenly the administration is raising these concerns. the attorney general and president of the united states,

was in any in 2016 election win 25% of americans voted absentee ballots. i would remind the attorney general and president of the united states, that the president, vice president, members of the cabinet and administration, have voted multiple times by absentee ballots. suspect of raising national fraud, if that was the concern it seems they would be paying close attention to and working with state republican and democrat governors to make sure any abuse was limited, if not completely eliminated, through close collaboration. right now i think it's a red herring. you begin to wonder if the concern about fraud -- if they are concerned about fraud or outcome. i think they should be paying attention to maximizing voter turnout.

one thing we agree upon is voting in the united states, a lot of people believe and sometimes it's taught, is a privilege of citizenship. i believe it's a responsibility of citizenship and is incumbent on both parties to maximize participation at the polls. you look at the results in 2016, i think 61% of americans voted. think about that. torly 40% of americans chose ignore, not to vote for the president of the united states. elevateoth parties to their game, elevate their encouragement for maximum participation. if you are concerned about fraud work with state and local officials to eliminate it. and that's the best way to go about dealing with potential abuse. host: cochair of the group vote

safe and chair of ridge global which deals with cyber security international risk management issues. c-span viewers know him as the republican governor of pennsylvania and homeland 2003-2005. here to take your calls as we talk about voting security in campaign 2020. phone lines are a little different. fors (202) 748-8002 republicans. (202) 748-8001 for democrats. independent, (202) 748-8005. we will leave those on your screen. they are our backup numbers this morning. we appreciate you dealing with that. said 25% absentee vote rate in 2016. what do you think it will be in 2020 amid the age of pandemic? importanthink it's an

question that is germane to the vote safe initiative as well. -- i agreed to cochair this one reason governor grant and i agreed to cochair this was a basic concern americans might be put in a position to choose between potentially exposing themselves to covid-19 by going to the polls or not voting at all. that is not a choice that we think we should put our fellow citizens in a position to have to make. the alternative to waiting in line with the mask, and let's be clear epidemiologists have suggested, and time will tell, possibility,a there could be a second wave. god for bid it be as horrific as the first wave, but there could

be a reemergence of covid-19 in the fall. our fellownt citizens to have to make that difficult decision. should i vote or not vote? those who choose to vote, we want safe and secure polling stations. we think they will be an unprecedented number of people voting absentee. that is why the concerns expressed by the president and the attorney general about potential fraud -- if they really believe that the focus ought to be on ensuring all precautions are taken at the state and local level to maximize participation and minimize fraud. host: i wonder your thoughts on the concerns raised in the lead story in "the washington post," with the idea a lot more people will likely be voting via absentee ballot the day of the results for the presidential election is unlikely to be

november 3. voters turning to mail-in ballot could mean long waits. what that means in the meantime as people wait for the ballots to be counted, if people will trust the process, and if concerns could be raised from the white house or others about whether voters can trust that process. guest: i haven't seen the article, but as you described it, it seems like someone has broke the glass, full the alarm, and is trying to raise concern. have anre important to accurate count rather than a speedy one. by the way, it could be a close race. no one has that cristobal to predict the outcomes. the election is on november 3. 20.swearing-in is january

if you believe they will be unprecedented absentee ballot voting, there are many things you can do to expedite the counting. certainly suggesting that -- wew we in this country are into immediate gratification and we like to know our results immediately, or worry that the models might prove to be inaccurate are off. look at whated a the election process is all about. you may know one way or the other. we have almost five months before the election. don't think we should be raising any alarm. the fact that it got a headline in the newspaper that it may take a while to count millions of absentee ballots, that may or may not be true. eyesight pennsylvania as an example, the law in pennsylvania

says local officials can't begin to count absentee ballots until 7:00 p.m. the night of the election. i don't know how that rule applies to the other 49 states, but if you want to accelerate the counting of votes, you can make those significant changes in individual states to accelerate the process. host: should there be a national standard? should there be a national standard for those kinds of things? guest: i would like to see them make the recommendations, but i think the different states and systems go about things differently. i don't want to sacrifice that notion, but i think if there were recommendations -- this is a place where the president and if they areeral concerned or written large and

the legislatures across this owntry to look at their internal rules, they can change those rules. they can begin counting absentee ballots before the election night. host: taking your phone calls. phone lines split up by political affiliation. (202) 748-8002 for republicans. independent, (202) 748-8005. plenty of callers waiting to chat with you. connecticut, line for democrats. caller: i wanted to tell you guys you do an excellent job. you're never biased. host: appreciate that. caller: i have a comment. i have been an election official for 35 years. the has no clue how elections work. none of the higher-ups do.

when you do an absentee ballot there is an outer envelope that you sign your name to, then an inner envelope that gets separated. no one knows how you vote. that is my comment. i think there should be a national election rule of law for every state. then everyone would have to do the same thing. host: before he answers your keepson, can i ask, what you coming back to volunteer your time at that effort at the polls for so long? caller: i enjoy the people. i was born in my small town in connecticut. people know me, they trust me. if they need help with a line or where to go, i help them. i enjoy the people. it's a very small town. i was also the librarian in my town. it is just something you do as a civil service.

i get upset when misinformation goes out to scare people, like bill barr was saying. they will know how you vote. they won't. that scares people. i have had friends who have asked me, do they know how i vote? there's no way. the first thing we do is open the envelope and throw the outer ones in a bag. no one knows how you vote. this nonsense about getting ballots taken out of mailboxes is ridiculous. host: thanks for what you do at election time. guest: i want to put multiple exclamation points after said.hing that patriot i use the word patriot. inhave thousands of people primary and general elections day and arethe trusted with very important

status in self-governance, standing by to assist voters and counting votes when it is all said and done. for some people in washington, estiono denigrate the qu of their personal integrity and i find ithe process, beyond disappointing. it's disturbing to me. i want to thank her for outlining what they do in connecticut. that is a process that most states, to my knowledge, employee, and others may do more. i want to thank her for her service, and remind listeners that's a process that thousands of people on election day, your friends, your neighbors, your kids go to school with their kids, church, you socialize together -- they take those responsibilities seriously. the suggestion they don't do

their jobs properly is very disturbing. line maryland, republican caller:. is voter security, fraud, that is irrelevant. approximately002, -- black babies were born in this country. that is why president trump is going to be the next president of the united states. when you kill eight out of nine people that will vote for you, that is why president trump -- and i voted for him in 2016. he is going to win again. host: our next segment of the washington journal we will focus on the supreme court key decision yet to be released this access.abortion it has to do with the case in louisiana where they talk more about that. you wanted to weigh in on that case or the supreme court this term and the decisions they've

already come down? guest: i appreciate the opportunity, but i dare not go down a path i have not yet traveled. you: i just wanted to give the opportunity. paul, tennessee, independent. caller: i would just like to say offhand that we need to get away from the democrat and republican crap.the two-party system has ruined this country. i had a younger brother who tried an experiment one time. he voted against obama three times in three different states. that happens constantly. host: can you explain more about how that happened, how that was allowed to happen? caller: he had three drivers licenses through three different an address in had

three different states, and he voted in all three states. experiment. he wanted to show voter fraud does exist. host: tom ridge? guest: i suspect the statute of limitations may apply. by abusingosecution the system. it's not perfect. i don't envision thousands of people will deploy that kind of artifice to demonstrate their flaws in the system at large at work. democrat and said republican. i would add another observation relative to that. neither party is advantaged by absentee voting. there is not an inherent advantage to the republican or democrat party because of absentee ballots.

there is an inherent advantage to those of the party or candidate who chooses to focus on that alternatives to get his or her supporters to the polls. one of the things i have really -- and really confused or befuddled buys i have a president of the united states, the bully pulpit, the incumbent, he has a team around him who has a huge warchest, who has millions of electronic why thers, how and president would not be encouraging his followers and 50 partiesman in all to maximize the use of absentee ballots is beyond comprehension for me. it seems to me at this point in the advantages are inherent to him and his incumbency. i would say if he is interested

in retaining the senate as and from his perspective flipping the house from democrat to republican, collaborating and working with individual candidates, incumbents and challengers, can maximize absentee ballot participation as a focal point of his national campaign. an incumbent or challenger come there's not one who will ignore the reality of the covid-19 and historically military people voting absentee, people with disabilities or overseas voting absentee, that they will ignore the opportunity to get maximum participation with absentee ballots. it is counterintuitive. the president is voting absentee

. it's counterintuitive because he has all the assets available to maximize participation will stop it's counterproductive, because if you want to keep the senate republican and maybe flip the house, why wouldn't you be working with your party to make sure those candidates receive maximum support? i don't understand. sometimes i wonder if they're worried about fraud or outcomes. in thisent $1.2 billion country since 2016 to better secure our elections. what have we gotten for that? guest: i think there are a couple of things. we need to do a little bit more. we got some electronic balloting. it was interesting. there was a recent bipartisan commission out of washington, democratsblicans and house and senate members, who said they wanted to secure electronic balloting, but even

though we want to secure it, we want a paper trail just to be sure. theink the concern about electronic impact on balloting in the november 30 election is machines, some of the but should be more focused on the misuse of social media. now as the bipartisan intelligence committee and the united states concluded, bipartisan, there were efforts by russia in particularly that i don't think you can discount china, russia, and north korea trying to influence voter outcomes by tinkering with machines.we have to be wary of that . but also trying to use social media to influence voters to vote or not to vote. there is more to be done. i don't mean to give a long

monologue, but i noticed there were long lines in atlanta and primaries.n the a lot of them has to do with new voting machines. i think where additional dollars need to be expanded, additional time needs to be taken, is training, training, training. new voting machines, first impressions for voters and some of the men and women assisting i thinkvoting station -- we need to train our officials to do a better job. and get the vendors to help out. train, train, plenty of time to do it. host: tom ridge, taking or phone calls. (202) 748-8001 for democrats. (202) 748-8002 for republicans. .ndependents, (202) 748-8005 voting security in campaign 2020 is our topic.

sergio. caller: good morning, john. how are you, sir? host: doing well. you are on with tom ridge. caller: yes, tom. how are you, sir? it's an honor to speak with you, sir. day,: every day is a good sir. thank you for asking. caller: how can we get ourv otes heard? can we do it online? votes,o to display our and how can we protect our votes, especially from interference? host: thanks for the question. guest: you raise an interesting question. whether or not in time nationally we will have people able to vote online. k of innovative things, that would be the ultimate

security challenge for officials everywhere. ,very time you are connected you expose that connection to potential vulnerabilities. i think the steps the government, state, local, even federal government has taken to do all they can to provide cybersecurity on some of the new machines, training elected officials at the local level, i think the system by and large is not insulated from the kind of concerns that are the heart of your question, but i think we've done a good job securing our elections over the last several decades. the more we use electronic ballots the more vulnerable the system will be. that is why ironically this

commission, bipartisan commission that took a look at cybersecurity, one of the principles was focusing on elections, said we do have electronic balloting, we need a paper ballot backup. you raise a good question. i don't think we will go to massive online voting in the future if ever. host: what are your concerns for election day 2020? guest: turnout. man --nce i was a young one of the things i've thought about, i was in the military in vietnam. wereverage age of the men less then 20 years of age. those men with whom i served couldn't vote for the commander-in-chief because at the time you had to be 21 to

vote. in 1971 we reduced the age to vote to 18. i've always been concerned that people twice a year are asked to express their citizenship and responsibilities of citizenship leaders. their my biggest concern is in the critical election, november 3, -- by the way, it is the most important national election at -- myme, november 3 biggest concern is we won't have the turnout we need in a government, in this democracy. i'm quite confident in the next four months federal, state, and local governments work together, safe and secure options. i want more polling places. i apologize for the monologue,

but you are seeing a lot of poll workers who historically appear at these sites, there has been a -- my biggest concern is you will have a significant reemergence of covid-19 in november and you will have a reduction of poll workers and stations. that is why governor granholm and i say safe and secure options. don't create a false choice, don't create my health or my vote. let's have absentee ballots at the ready so americans can exercise their civic responsibility and vote. host: ed is a republican, indiana, good morning.

caller: 38% of the people in risk, don't vote because they go to churches and other places. we need to have young people stepping up. my concern is all the community voting that they are doing in different states. i don't see how they are ever going to get that down. they say in state elections, every two years you vote on representatives. in the elections, we are voting for senators and the presidential election. when these community voters go out in new york city and california and oregon and washington and denver because they have community voting, how are we ever going to decide

who is a citizen because the 13th amendment clearly states a citizen. it has been changed time and time again. it's been changed about blacks tbq and there is no safety for the citizens. it sets me that everyone says new voting thing will work. they don't even have to show an id. when i originally registered in indiana, i had to show my social security number. how are we ever going to make sure this is fair when citizens vote on the president. host: we will take your point. tom ridge? guest: part of the conversation i regret i couldn't make out. could you make it a simple question. host: he was mostly concerned

about talking about the voting rules that some localities have that allow noncitizens to vote in local elections, not federal, whether that becomes something of a slippery slope and whether noncitizens, we can find out whether they tried to vote in federal elections. in the latter part was more concerned about the idea of mail-in voting and not having to present an id to prove who you are and that you are a citizen and the security of mail-in voting by not being able to present that. guest: local officials have a registrar and some do purge the lists on a fairly regular basis. others, sometimes there is a longer delay.

i know there is some concern and controversy about stale voter registration lists. i would say to the gentleman that most officials at the local level do all they can to sure that the voting registration lists are current and that the people registered to vote actually are the ones who get to the polling places. i know that they check my registration when i go to vote, and as the woman from connecticut identified earlier in this conversation that we had this morning, there are ways they checked against potential fraudulent votes by checking signatures and other devices they employ to validate the votes. i would say to the gentleman, it is an imperfect system and or two individuals at polling stations might sneak through, but the whole notion that there is huge national roger went enterprises, some hat -- national fraudulent enterprises will somehow cast doubt into the november 3 election, i think is mockery and

a statement the president likes to say, it is fake news. host: earlier we were talking about spending on the election structure that you think we could spend more. i wonder if you think more of that spending the potential for more absentee ballots could go to the u.s. postal service. onsk because ron writes in twitter, as a former mailman, i can tell you the post office is not ready to do this. absentee voting has increased and it has caused no trouble from separating votes from the mail stream too late arriving ballots. guest: i would say especially to this gentleman. i get a ton of unsolicited mail every day, a ton. and somehow you and your fellow postal workers are able to deliver that without question and comment. suddenly the notion of one more piece of mail in every

individual mailslot is somehow becoming an incredible burden that falls on bad ears to start on almost deaf ears. i think the postal service has a lot of good men and women who do their job well. an additional piece of mail in the sorting room in order to deliver it or to get it to the local officials, i don't believe is an undue burden and, frankly, i think you and your fellow workers can do the job admirably and as a citizen, i would expect you to do it. that is part of your role in the process of seeing to it that the november 3 election is conducted and we maximize voter participation. by the way, thank you. rain, snow, sleet, all my mail gets to my mailbox. one more piece will not make much difference to you and your fellow carriers. host: the idea about late arriving ballots which is

brought up in the tweet, a washington post story we talked about today had this as a factor when it comes to when we will know on election day who the winner is. another big factor is the deadline for returning completed ballots. some states require them to arrive by voting day. but at least 13, including nevada and north carolina require them only to be postmarked by election day. five states require postmarked the day before. ohio allows ballots that are postmarked by election day to arrive as late as 10 days after the election. in nevada, it is seven days. i know we were talking about a national standard and it is not something you support, but do you think that may cause confusion in the days and weeks after november 3? guest: the confusion arises if people think they need to know who the winner is on election night. confusion arises if the election

is close. there is no confusion if the election is close. ballot officials around the country have to meticulously go through and count all absentee ballots. there is a false premise and the premise is that americans need to know -- and i guess that is the environment we live in now -- but the fact that it is a federal system. one of these days harmonization of those rules is probably a good idea. it could be harmonized between -- i don't get could be harmonized between now and november 3 and the states will move accordingly. there is an assumption the race could be so close that absentee ballots would be critical. the race maybe close, but you may have millions and millions of absentee ballots cast and you won't know if it will be close are not. part of our vote safe campaign is to remind people that we want accuracy. we want maximized voter participation.

in addition to accuracy and maximizing voter participation, you accept that the states do it differently. perhaps in the future they will harmonize when they have to be postmarked and counted, but for the time being, maximum participation and minimal imperfections and challenges. let's understand, accuracy is important. i am quite confident the local officials will do it well and right. host: a good time to get out the website. votesafe.us. you can talk to him. just a few more calls. james, in washington, an independent. you are next.

good morning. caller: i just want to make a statement and then follow up with it. since the electronic voting machines don't have a paper trail, there is no way we can tell the voting machines have been hacked in or votes have been changed, because there is no audit. you would have to audit the machines. there is no way and i heard people on tv saying no votes were changed. there is no way for you to tell whether the votes had been changed or not. host: let's follow up on the idea of the paper trail and auditing elections. tom ridge? guest: i think you have to give some recognition to the department of homeland security. they are working closely with state and local officials to make sure that all possible measures are taken to limit and

hopefully eliminate any digital interference in this election. they have done a good job in the past and i am confident they will get the job done. i think it was quite unusual for a group looking at our digital world in the 21st century and everybody is moving quickly in admitting technology in every aspect of their life, but to say if you are concerned about it, we will try to minimize all cybersecurity concerns, maybe we should have a paper trail as well. let's let those working on it day in and day out and we need to have faith in their ability to be sure the most important function is protected from external interference.

by and large, we have republicans and democrats. people on both sides of the aisle at the local level working hard and daily to make sure there is limited interference in our election. we need to encourage and support them in any way we can. they do a good job. we need safe and secure options, in person or absentee. that is the best way to ensure the legitimacy of this election rather than sowing seeds of doubt that you are concerned about absentee ballots. host: very, on the line for democrats. -- larry on the line for democrats. caller: i am concerned about a trademark for voting machines. are you?

host: is that something you are familiar with, governor rich? guest: no, sir, i am not. host: i think we lost larry. i will give you the final 30 seconds that we have for viewers who are interested in this topic want to get involved, what would your advice be? guest: the advice i would suggest, not advice, governor granholm and i, republican and democrat, i have been working -- we have been working hard between now and november 3 to make sure you have safe and secure voting options. if you want to vote in person, vote. if you want to vote absentee, vote. we do not want you to make a choice between covid-19 and exposing yourself.

ultimately, i know i speak for governor granholm that it is the responsibility of citizenship. please -- i don't care how you are affiliated, republican, democrat, independent, vote. it is our job to make sure you have safe and secure options, but just vote. host: votesafe.us is the website. nice talking to you. >> this morning, dr. anthony dr.her, cdc director redfield dr. stephen hahn, and admiral wright guillot mde artest affording -- are testifying before the house administration on the coronavirus pandemic. watch the live coverage on cease and, on demand on