matthew dunlap is the secretary of state for maine.is a democrat, and he's also a member of the president's commission and was at today's meeting. and we're joined by michele reagan. she is a republican and arizona's secretary of state. welcome to you both. >> thank you for having us. >> brangham: matthew, i'd love to start with you first. what do you hope this commission will accomplish? >> my general hope is we do something to bolster voter confidence and how we conduct elections in in this country. we have a lot to be proud of. no one's questioning the legitimacy of the 2016 election. there are lingering questions about how elections have been conducted, who was able to vote legally, who not and based on my experience in maine, i think we can proud of what our local election officials have done to make sure their neighbors exercise their democratic right of self-governance. >> brangham: michele reagan, i know you are a supporter of this commission and aims. as you know, the commission was set up in part because to have the president

maine secretary of state matthew dunlap. former ohio secretary of state ken blackwell.ll, election assistance commissioner christie mccormack. former arkansas state representative david dunne. thank you, david. wood county, west again i can't clerk, mark rhodes. heritage foundation senior legal fellow and manager of the election law reform initiative, a real expert, hanz spakowski. president and general counsel of the public interest legal fonddation, great group, j. christian adams. and jefferson county, alabama, probate judge, alan king. thank you. thank you very much. each of you has been an trusted with a great responsibility of helping to advance the cause of fair, honest, and lawful elections. your work will help protect our democracy. this will be a very transparent process. it will be very open for everybody to see. you will approach this important task with a very open mind and with noconclusions already drawn. you will fairly and objectively follow the facts wherever they may lead. i look forward to the findings an

maine secretary of state, matthew dunlap. ken blackwell, former ohio secretary of state.ection assistance commissioner, kristi mccormick mccormick. a former arkansas state reside representative, david dunn, thank you. wood county west virginia clerk, mark rhodes. heritage foundation, sr., legal fellow and manager of the election law reform initiative, a real expert, hans von sapolsk sapolsky. jay christian adams, and jefferson county alabama probate judge alan king. thank you. thank you very much. each of you has been entrusted with the great responsibility of helping to advance the cause of the fair, honest, in lawful elections. your work will help protect our democracy. this will be a very transparent process. it's going to be very open for everybody to see. we will approach this important task with a very open mind and with no conclusion it's already drawn. you will fairly and objectively follow the facts wherever they may lead. i look forward to the findings and recommendations your report will produce and i share your report, as soon as i can, and as soon as possible

we have maine's democratic secretary of state, matthew dunlap.r of the commission but also one of the secretary of states that doesn't want to turn over all the information that's been requested. it is good to have you with us this morning, sir. >> thank you for having me. >> so this is somewhat of a fix. you find yourself in. why would you be the member of a commission that you don't want to fully support? >> well, first of all, let me just say that we have an awful lot to be proud of in the conduct of our elections in our country. it's not because of the work i do, but the work our neighbors do, our local election clerks, city clerks, ballot clerks. the work that they do is extraordinary, which kind of takes us to where we are right now. the questions that came from the president that led to the formation of this commission and they asked me to be a part of it. one of the things that's been discussed is the accusation that millions of votes were cast illegally. now, i've said right along that we probably wouldn't find an awful lot to back that

maine secretary of state matthew dunlap is among those saying his state will not provide voter data. democrat who was on the commission himself. also with us is myrna perez, deputy director of the democracy program at the brennan center for justice. thanks to both of you. mr. secretary, i'm going to start with you because you cited state law saying it bars you from giving this information to the commission. if that law wasn't on the books, would you have problems providing this information to the commission? >> well, the information that would be available to the commission would be the same information that would be available to any outside entity, including a governmental entity that wanted to do research around elections. and that information would be pretty limited. it would be basically the name, address, party affiliation and year of birth. so it would not be very deep information. under the help america vote act, which was passed in 2002, the act provided for states to come up with their own statutes about what would be publicly available and who could access it. so we were lo

maine secretary of state matthew dunl dunlap former ohio secretary of state ken blackwell.resentative david dunn, thank you, david. wood county west virginia clerk mark rhodes. heritage foundation senior legal fellow and manager of the election law reform initiative, a real expert hans van spakowski chairman of the presidential interest foundation group, great group. jefferson county alabama probate judge alan king. thank you. thank you very much. each of you has been entrusted with the great responsibility of helping to advance the cause of fair, honest, and lawful elections. your work will help protect our democra democracy. this will be a very transparent process. it's going to be very open for everybody to see. you will approach this important task with a very open mind and with no conclusions already drawn. you will fairly and objectively follow the facts wherever they may lead. i look forward to the findings and recommendations your report will produce and i share your report as soon as i can and as soon as possible with the american people so the full truth will be k

maine secretary of state matthew dunlap. former ohio secretary of state ken blackwell.former arkansas state representative david dunn. thank you, david. wood county, west virginia clerk mark rhodes. harris foundation senior fellow and manager of the election law reform initiative, a real expert hans von. president and general counsel of the republic interest legal foundation. great group. jay christian adams. and jefferson county alabama probate judge allen king. thank you. thank you very much. each of you has been entrusted with the great responsibility of helping to advance the cause of fair, honest, and lawful elections. your work will help protect our democracy. this will be a very transparent process. it's going to be very open for everybody to see. you will approach this important task with a very open mind, and with no conclusions already drawn. you recall fairly and objectively follow the facts wherever they may lead. i look forward to the findings and recommendations your report will produce, and i share your report as soon as i can and as soon as possible with