Interview with Commissioner Chris Piper

Connor Eads
Welcome, everyone. My name is Connor Eads.

Gary Christensen 
This is Gary Christensen

Connor Eads  
And we're both first year MPP students at UVA is Frank Batten School of leadership and public policy. Today we have the distinct pleasure of having the commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections. Chris Piper here with us today. Thank you for being here with us. So Commissioner Piper holds a BA in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University. He began his career in elections and governance ethics as a manager of a large trade association’s federal PAC, before leading the Virginia State Board of Elections campaign finance division. He then served as a political compliance consultant, before he returned to the State Department of Elections to manage the Election Services Division. In 2014, he became the Commonwealth's first executive director of the Virginia conflict of interest and ethics Advisory Council. And today, Commissioner Piper leads the Department of Elections as its Commissioner, it is Virginia's finest hour as it's wrapping up with the general election. So when you came on, as commissioner, you really started with an anomaly over in Newport News with being declared a winner through a drawing. But so with your extensive background with elections, how did you really start your career in public service and servant leadership, and how did you get into elections?

Chris Piper  
I grew up outside of DC, so national politics is local politics. My grandparents really did not like Ronald Reagan. And I'll never forget, watching the election returns and the news on 1984’s election. And my mom said to me, she said, Don't tell your grandparents, but I voted for Reagan. And to me that was like, Wow, this this politics thing, this could tear our family apart. In 1992, when MTV still mostly played music, they did a big, big thing called Rock the Vote, which is obviously still around. I just remember the message that resonated with me in that election was if you don't vote, you don't have a right to complain. And that just sat with me. And so I got out of college, and moved up to DC and got some work as actually just stuffing copiers full of paper in at C span, believe it or not. And one of my first assignments was McCain Feingold, which was the big campaign finance regulation bill I worked on and became fascinated with political action committees, and campaign finance in general. And then as it turned out, what was then just the state board of elections was hiring, for campaign finance, work and and I just came in that way. And then I knew immediately that this is where I was going to make my bread and butter, that elections were just.. I was so passionate about it. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Gary Christensen  
We often talk about the nationalization of all politics, right, and people keep getting out of touch more and more with their local and state level politics. So if you know, I think a lot of people being out of touch, don't really understand, especially in our generation, kind of the nuances there. So if you could kind of walk us through and flesh out how this election, or generally how elections work between the local level and the state level. You know, what's the level of autonomy that local election officials have and just kind of flesh that out for us so we have a better idea.

Chris Piper  
There is no overarching federal election oversight, the vast majority of states manage elections at the state level, but then they have localities that are managing their local elections. Here in Virginia, the governor appoints the commissioner. So that's that's me. And I work at the will of the governor. So the Department of Elections, which is what I oversee, we're in charge of the uniformity of applicable election laws. Why is that so important? There's 133 localities, counties and cities in Virginia. Why is uniformity important? Well, when you have 133, local general registrar's and electoral board members, they've all got to be doing the same thing the same way, essentially. And so I like to think of our job, to simplify it, it's like McDonald's. Why is McDonald's so successful? McDonald's is successful, because if I go to McDonald's here in Richmond, and get a Big Mac, I expect that Big Mac to taste a certain way. If I drive out to visit you guys in Charlottesville, I'm going to order a Big Mac, and it's gonna taste exactly like the one I had in Richmond, and there shouldn't be any difference. We're all getting the same thing overall. So we want to make sure, our job is to make sure that whether you're voting in Charlottesville or Scott County, or down in Danville, or Northern Virginia, that you're being treated the same, that you have equal access to the ballot as everybody else that's eligible to vote.

Gary Christensen 
There's something you said in that answer that stuck out to me that I had never realized. You mentioned that you were appointed by the governor, who's the Democrat. And, you know, today's climate of hyperpolarization, and distrust. How do you go about instilling that trust, especially nowadays, since last November?

Chris Piper 
I will say that, you know, the relationship between the state and the localities, when it comes to elections, is stronger than it's ever been. And we really work hard to cultivate that partnership. Because we all rely on each other. Elections and policies surrounding elections are political. What I'll tell you is what I know for sure. This governor has allowed me to run this office, completely nonpartisan. And and we work. We work every day to ensure just as I said, I don't care if you're Republican, or Democrat, or you know, independent green, you should have equal access to the ballot, you should have equal access to the polls. And so I would say especially, I mean, throughout the country, this was so disheartening, and so actually heartbreaking about the conversations that are happening out there, we've seen election officials who are just so passionate about their work, that are so concerned about making sure that everybody gets that chance to vote, and then to have physical threats against some of them. You know, it's just, it breaks your heart, because these people don't get in this job, because it's, you're gonna get rich, you're doing this job, because it matters to you and you want, you want to see people vote at the end of the day.

Connor Eads  
And I really want to focus on how valuable that is, your department is safeguarding this process that allows for both parties to have that equal footing to really voice their perspectives and their views. You have to have this uniformity to not compromise that consistency for the voter, because I feel like once you lose that you're opening Pandora's box for a lot of different things. I think that kind of leads up to my question. And so 2020 was a huge year. I think the presidential election was kind of, you know, running side by side with a pandemic. Like you said, it forced a lot of people to pivot with, with the election. And, I feel like a lot of events compromised some people's values in the system. And, you know, with us going right into the election, do you think that there any remnants from last year's election that has compromised voters integrity of our system?

Chris Piper  
We haven't done a good job of explaining how much work goes into putting on elections, but I'll put it to you like this. People who work in emergency management, we don't ask them what they're doing when there's not a hurricane, right? We don't ask them what they're doing when there's not an emergency. Because we know what they're doing? They're preparing for the next emergency. That's what I do. That's what your registrar's are doing. All the time. We're preparing, we're preventing and we're recovering. There's an MIT study, it shows cases of fraud compared to the number of ballots actually cast were like 0.00006% of fraud cases. Fraud that happens, we catch. We catch it because the system is so so set up and designed so that you can't break the law. Or we'll catch you. And I don't want to sit here and say that fraud doesn't happen. Fraud does happen. Just like we have speed limit laws and people still speed, right? People are going to try and buck the system. It's just the way the world works. But we have such a strong system in place to prevent that kind of thing from happening. And certainly 100%, I can guarantee you that there's no such thing as widespread fraud in elections. There are too many people involved. Think about what I just said, you have 58 members of my staff plus some contractors, you have 133 General registrars 499 electoral board members, and then they hire about I think it's 11 or 12,000 now, election officers that work in the polling places during election day and in the lead up to election day. To be able to commit widespread fraud, you're gonna need a lot of work. I don't even think the mafia could pull it off. It's just not possible.

Gary Christensen 
I think a lot of people who haven't worked in government don't realize how incredibly impossible some of these conspiracy theories would be given how many actors have to be involved, and how, as someone who's working, everyone probably knows, it's probably pretty hard to get  everyone on the same page just for regular things sometimes, let alone this deep conspiracy to get it all done.

Connor Eads 
We focus on a lot of the challenges, but so what are some of the pivotal things that that the department has changed since since you know, the over the past couple years before COVID? Were there any things that was at least a catalyst for good for the department actions for elections? Moving forward? 

Chris Piper  
Yeah, we went from a horse and carriage to a Tesla, just in the last 10 years, we went from 100% of our applications filed for registration filed on paper to 96% of applications are filed online, or electronically in some form or fashion, it used to be that you would go to the DMV and they'd print out an application for you, and you'd have to mail it in or they would send it to us. But now you can do that on the credit card, which you can register to vote on a credit card machine sitting in front of the DMV. Then in 2016, we instituted online absentee ballot requests, so you can request an absentee ballot online now. We have one of the longest early voting cycles in the country, where you can you can vote early for 45 days, up until two days before the elect- the Saturday before the election. So I think the biggest thing that we've been able to do is provide just continuing to provide more access to the ballot for folks. 13 hours, some people can't get there. And you know, on Tuesday, they have jobs, they have lives, and it's hard for them to get that accomplished.

Gary Christensen  
Most of our listeners, as you can imagine, are Virginia residents. A lot of them are UVA students. So if there's any, you know, singular message that you just want to say to our listeners about the upcoming election, what would you say?

Chris Piper  
I really want to talk to college students. I mean, not enough of you come out and vote and really, you know, you guys have an important voice. And you started Connor, the podcast with the Shelly Simon's and Yancey race. We've always been fond of saying, yeah, I’ve administered an election that came down to one vote. This came down to picking a name out of a bowl, because it was a tie vote. So for anybody to say that your vote doesn't matter. Come on. I mean, it does. And the last thing I would say just like in every election, we pay so much attention to the top of the ticket. We had 74% turnout in the presidential election.We may not make 50% this year, we didn't in 2017. And that's so frustrating and sad. And I'll say it because people don't realize how much these House of Delegates races have an impact on your day to day life. Way more impact than the presidency. When the President makes a decision. Yes, we all see it. It's covered in the national news. But your day to day life is way more impacted by the governor's race. But more importantly, even the House of Delegates. You guys don't realize when you're complaining about that pothole that nearly took your tire out, that's your local government. When you're upset that they need to put a light in this intersection because people are getting run over. The President isn't going to come into Charlottesville and say, build a bike lane here. That's gonna happen at your city council. That's what's really, really critical.

Connor Eads 
What are some lessons that you wish you had known when you were getting into your line of work? Is there anything really our listeners who look to getting involved in election policy should know?

Chris Piper
Ah, think about what you say. Before you say it, the impact of your words are bigger than you know. So be thoughtful about the way you speak. You need to really think through everything you say in a leadership role. Find a job that you're passionate about. I've taken a job for money. It sucked. It wasn’t wasn't worth my time. I was less happy in the job for money than I've ever been in any other job. If you're not passionate about the work you do then it's not going to serve you.

Connor Eads 
So obviously we have this the citizen portal on the Department of Washington's website, if you need to check out other information. Is there anything else other resources that Virginians can be using prior to coming up for November 2?

Chris Piper 
Well, you said it vote.virginia.gov. Check Your Registration Status, know where you can vote. On election day, polls are open at 6am. They close at 7pm. And please, for the love of all that's holy, it probably is going to be a very close race. Now we've ironed out the way we report results. Election Night results are not the official results. The results will not be official until November 15, at 1pm, when the state board will meet to certify the results. That's important to understand because the numbers can and do change. This is still a human process. And that's why we built into the process, a very thorough review of election night results to correct any errors. All of that is open and transparent in public meetings. So just remember, you may go to bed at night and see some results. That doesn't mean that those numbers might not change just a little bit here and there.

Connor Eads
Commissioner Piper, we appreciate your work and thank you so much for being here.

Chris Piper  
Glad to be here guys. Have a great week.

Gary Christensen
That was our interview with Commissioner Piper. It was a really interesting interview, I really enjoyed talking with him. He had such good insight. I think generally speaking, most American citizens don't have a really good understanding of everything that goes into elections. And I think what stood out to me is how seriously he takes it, how passionate he is about it. This is his whole career, this is his whole work. He's not taking anything with security or integrity with this lightly, you know, and I think that's something that a lot of people need to hear.

Connor Eads  
Yeah, I know, I think he really brought it home for us and made it apply to really what we see every day. I mean, using the metaphor going from a horse and buggy to a Tesla. I mean, that's a lot to unpack just for where the department is going. I mean, he is talking about maybe going into blockchain for voting. That's exciting stuff. I mean, but even then, with what he spoke with going into fraud, I mean, like, wasn't an MIT study, just really interesting for how flow over threshold fraud actually happens in the Commonwealth?

Gary Christensen
Yeah, and I think this is what exactly people needed to hear as well, especially after last year, obviously, there's a lot of controversy with the presidential election. He mentioned in the interview, that he believes that election boards and election commissioners don't historically do a good enough job of explaining how elections work to people. He said, we've always been comfortable being in the background in people just trusting that we're doing your job. And now it's been brought to the forefront. And there's a lot more explaining and transparency that's required, so that people can learn to trust the system. But Connor tell us a little bit about the election and what’s going on.

Connor Eads 
So election a tomorrow. So the main thing that you need to be doing is hey, go to vote.elections.virginia.gov forward slash citizen portal, Commissioner Piper spoke about you got to go and check out where your polling places What are the hours of operations. So, you know, the gubernatorial race is really in the finest hour we have McAuliffe and young can really battling it out for the governor's mansion. And really what the polls mean for these past couple months, I mean, you're going from six to eight points in August down to really within the margin of error, you're within two to three points of a difference. And historically, just for Biden's election, he won Virginia by 10 points, double digit. So this is really close.

Gary Christensen
That is a great point, Biden winning the state by 10 points and then seeing that we basically have a dead even tie as far as the polls go for the governor election is really telling and I think that's why the whole nation is watching here. I mean, for you know, Virginia has always been seen as a bit of a bellwether for the nation. And before the, you know, midterm elections, halfway through Biden's administration, this is going to be the first signal we get of people's attitudes. 

Connor Eads
If you think about it, like what makes us more important, like, oh, Virginia swung blue back in 2019? So you look at Vermont, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, each of these states respectively, have Democrat run legislators, but they have a Republican governor. However, historically, Virginia is a state that is reluctant to elect the same party that's in the president's office, you know, from Wilder, 1989 to Northam in 2017. Over the past three decades, in eight elections, only one governor aligns with the President's party. Coincidentally, that was Terry McAuliffe back in President Obama's second term. The trend really here is that the midterm really holds that pulse check to how the Commonwealth is reacting to the current administration. So it's really interesting to see how this can swing with this trend in a purple state like Virginia and the rest of the country, we'll be watching to see what the reaction is to President Biden's administration like it really is about whether with what you said look at Governor Northam Zola 2017 election during the Trump presidency. Northam won by 8.6 points when Trump's approval ratings were between 45 and 35%. With Pew Research Center, Gallup 538, all having Biden's approval rating between 44 and 43%. As of September that binds approval rating might play a role in this upcoming election. So like we said, go go to the polls tomorrow, Tuesday, November 2.

Gary Christensen
And for all of our new listeners to the Academical podcast, we'd love to get your feedback. So please send us an email. Let us know what you think. And we would love to hear from you.

Connor Eads
This is academical. This is Connor Eads.

Gary Christensen
This is Gary Christensen.

Connor Eads
We'll see you in the next episode.

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