mr. choate. next we are joined by mr. cortez. he served as the first commissioner of elections for virginia under former governor terry mcauliffe. mr. cortez pulled off a bit of a miracle last year when he oversaw virginia's transition away from voting machines to statewide paper ballot voting systems just in time for virginia's 2017 elections. welcome and friendly are joined by jamil jaffer. mr. jeffers up under the national security institute at the anthony scalia's school of law at george mason university in virginia where he is also a professor. mr. jaffer also recently served under justice nail course which. prior to his current position he's held senior roles on the senate foreign relations committee the house intelligence committee and the george w. bush administration so welcome to each of you. therefore i start questioning and hopefully we will have time for audience q&a i just want to share with you all our thanks at the center for american progress to all of our coalition allies and partners. many of you are here in th