Speaker 1: I gotta get Israel to calm down. Now, the latest
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Speaker 1: Trump is doing. Fifty five krs the talk station DATO five.
Speaker 1: Here at fifty five kr city talk station, Brian Thomas
Speaker 1: wishing everyone a very happy Wednesday, and in studio, welcome
Speaker 1: Marcel Sturbadge. He is running for Secretary of State here
Speaker 1: in the state of Ohio. Marcel, it's always great to
Speaker 1: see you. Welcome back. It's been a while.
Speaker 2: It's been good. Yeah, it's been since September. We had
Speaker 2: some issues then and we still have.
Speaker 1: Some we do and you're running to fix those issues.
Speaker 1: I understand. Sturbud st r b I c H four
Speaker 1: Ohio f O R. Sturbadgefour Ohio dot coms website where
Speaker 1: you can check out what he's all about. And oh
Speaker 1: my god, and thank you for your service to our country.
Speaker 1: What an amazing service record you have. I mean the
Speaker 1: number of decorations and award you receive, you served in combat,
Speaker 1: just it's just an amazing thing.
Speaker 2: Thank you, An. The privilege is all mine. My parents
Speaker 2: came to this country from you. Europe, and it was
Speaker 2: a pleasure to serve our country. And I want to
Speaker 2: serve as well Ohioans, all Ohioans, and defend these election
Speaker 2: systems well.
Speaker 1: And that's a critical role of the Secretary of State
Speaker 1: is chief Elections offer officer here in the state of Ohio.
Speaker 1: Are you drawn to run to this position because you
Speaker 1: see problems that you're capable of fixing or that you
Speaker 1: have solutions to fix? I mean, what's your motivation on this?
Speaker 2: That's exactly right. You know, you would think coming out
Speaker 2: of the military for twenty years, it's time to just reset.
Speaker 2: Was forever wars we fought, that fought our nation's battles.
Speaker 2: But the fact of the matter is when you look
Speaker 2: at our system, we've lost trust in it. And for
Speaker 2: in fact, just prior to our November election, sixty six
Speaker 2: percent of Americans we're questioning whether it would trust in
Speaker 2: the honesty of the result of that election. And I
Speaker 2: think that's the kind of a crisis that we have
Speaker 2: to look at and ask ourselves fundamentally, how are we drifting?
Speaker 2: And when I put my analysis on this issue, and
Speaker 2: I studied our election system deeply in the last two years,
Speaker 2: did a number of call to actions. I went out,
Speaker 2: I tried to pass and work with the legislature as
Speaker 2: a citizen advocate, which is very unusual as a volunteer,
Speaker 2: and put forward enhanced verifiability for voters. I looked at
Speaker 2: the citizenship issue with verification to lack thereof, and I
Speaker 2: even looked at the cybersecurity, which is a specialty in
Speaker 2: a background that I had working at the Pentagon. I said,
Speaker 2: this is not a system that I could understand. Whether
Speaker 2: you're a Republican or a Democrat. You're asking yourself, you know,
Speaker 2: with these global hacks with Microsoft that and their software servers.
Speaker 2: This is recent and you know we're using these services,
Speaker 2: and so we can't just continue to drift down here
Speaker 2: and expect just to keep purchasing and acquiring spending more
Speaker 2: money on cybersecurity. I think we have to revamp and
Speaker 2: relook at all the variables of it, and I have
Speaker 2: some very concrete solutions. So I'm very much an issue
Speaker 2: based candidate and I have an understanding of the system
Speaker 2: like nobody else in this race.
Speaker 1: Right now. Well, that's all wonderful. By way of background.
Speaker 1: One of the areas that I always hear about and
Speaker 1: it sounds so you know, conspiracy theory electronic voting, and
Speaker 1: everyone's raising the specter what's going on behind the scenes
Speaker 1: and the software? How do I know them? My my
Speaker 1: vote has been accurately collected. You read articles from other
Speaker 1: jurisdictions and other townships and other states, and you find
Speaker 1: out that, wow, isn't that strange. One minute there's you know,
Speaker 1: a thousand votes, and then five minutes later, there's actually
Speaker 1: fifteen hundred votes. How did that happen? Where did this
Speaker 1: late night dump come from? As my vote been accurately
Speaker 1: recorded by the software? Who made the software? Who is
Speaker 1: looking into that? These are all questions that I hear
Speaker 1: all the time, and yet I don't know anything about
Speaker 1: what's going on behind the scenes. I have no personal
Speaker 1: understanding of how the software has developed, who's controlling it,
Speaker 1: and if anything could be modified or changed.
Speaker 2: And what I can say to that is, you know,
Speaker 2: for the last twenty years, when we have computerized this
Speaker 2: entire infrastructure of elections, what we'd failed to do is
Speaker 2: upfront create independent security assessment review for those various systems,
Speaker 2: so there's not really a third party involved. The vendor
Speaker 2: really drives the entire process. The Secretary of State validates it.
Speaker 2: But that's kind of a self auditing function. And so
Speaker 2: when we look at it, how much is this costing us?
Speaker 2: And what's happened in Ohio in particular, in just the
Speaker 2: last six years, we went from having an eighteen million
Speaker 2: dollar budget in the Secretary of State's office to a
Speaker 2: sixty five million dollar bush and that budget has been
Speaker 2: growing because we're having to add these cybersecurity costs which
Speaker 2: now are no longer being funded by the federal government,
Speaker 2: so now our county commissioners are baring that cost. And
Speaker 2: so this whole system is being relooked at. And when
Speaker 2: you look at this administration, Brian President Trump has called
Speaker 2: for decertifying some of these systems because rightfully so the
Speaker 2: technologies from the early two thousands. In the early two thousands,
Speaker 2: there was not even iPhones, So you don't even have
Speaker 2: the ability to meet the degree of what we would
Speaker 2: call zero day threats that are present. And I'll be honest,
Speaker 2: all of these systems are designed to components, the software developers,
Speaker 2: the suppliers from overseas. So why can't we get a
Speaker 2: supply chain in the U the United States? If this
Speaker 2: is truly critical infrastructure, if we're truly going to protect
Speaker 2: that and give people assuredness and confidence, which they deserve.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm advocating to go back from a marketing
Speaker 2: device to pre printed, hand markable paper ballots. They are unhackable,
Speaker 2: they're the most transparent, that cost about a tenth and
Speaker 2: Ohio is already doing it in some counties. I think
Speaker 2: we need to be a leading state and go back
Speaker 2: to that.
Speaker 1: And I have no argument with that. Conceptually, what is
Speaker 1: the what are the counterpoints to that? Why wouldn't we
Speaker 1: do that if we can, in fact restore the confidence
Speaker 1: in the vote and the integrity of the vote by
Speaker 1: going that route.
Speaker 2: I think the fallacy that we have is that we've
Speaker 2: already spent tens of millions of dollars, so we use
Speaker 2: the sunk cost argument. You know, if we have them,
Speaker 2: why shouldn't we use them. Well, if you can't secure
Speaker 2: them past a two thousand and five security control level,
Speaker 2: then you really can't have that degree of confidence and right,
Speaker 2: you know, so what have we done? We have added
Speaker 2: poll book e poll books, We've got other things. You know.
Speaker 2: In Ohio this last selection, we had to suspend the
Speaker 2: use of electronic poll books, which are checking devices that
Speaker 2: are on polepads, and the reason we had to do
Speaker 2: that in part is because the routers have been compromised
Speaker 2: and had a cyber vulnerability exposure event. So the very
Speaker 2: infrastructure by which we use in the connectivity of these systems,
Speaker 2: which we're told they're not connected to the Internet, but
Speaker 2: the pullbooks are connected in many ways. So that's just
Speaker 2: one facet of what I could offer as a Secretary
Speaker 2: of State is I've worked with information systems technology. I've
Speaker 2: worked at the private sector to secure the Pentagon's top
Speaker 2: of the line, modern modern system equipment. And the truth
Speaker 2: is a lot of our challenges aren't just in the
Speaker 2: realm of cybersecurity. We're failing to properly share information between
Speaker 2: the Secretary of State's office and the Board of Elections,
Speaker 2: as simple information as identity and citizenship. And that's another
Speaker 2: area of weakness that we.
Speaker 1: Have that's not shared.
Speaker 2: No, it's not because the way we have it set
Speaker 2: up right now, because in part the federal government, we
Speaker 2: accept all voter registration applications and then we check after
Speaker 2: the fact. So nowhere is that whether you're talking banking,
Speaker 2: whether you're talking you would never get a loan or
Speaker 2: transact if you weren't qualified or eligible exactly. And so
Speaker 2: with respect to the election systems, we have eight point
Speaker 2: two million registered voters, and those eight point two million
Speaker 2: registered voters cannot be qualified for eligibility just by the
Speaker 2: Board of Elections. So we use the Secretary of State
Speaker 2: and our Bureau of Motor Vehicles to do this. But
Speaker 2: why couldn't the Secretary of State ensure that the Board
Speaker 2: of Elections has access to that official data? And that's
Speaker 2: where the battle is and that's where I'll take Ohio
Speaker 2: to ensure proper information sharing.
Speaker 1: Now, that doesn't sound like a challenging ask or so,
Speaker 1: it sounds like something that should already be in place.
Speaker 1: So what hurdles need to be overcome to get something
Speaker 1: so seemingly important and to ensure that illegals are not
Speaker 1: voting in our elections? What are not allowed to do?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: It all starts with process and being the fact that
Speaker 2: I've served in the military and organizational leadership level, you
Speaker 2: look at every process and you break it down. And
Speaker 2: that's what I've done in an exhaustive analysis of our
Speaker 2: election laws or policies or procedures. And I think we
Speaker 2: could cut down on the risk and start looking at
Speaker 2: this Brian from a risk management threat assessment standpoint. That's
Speaker 2: the difference between I think what a political secretary of
Speaker 2: state doesn't do because they see that position as a
Speaker 2: stepping stone because as you know, how many how many
Speaker 2: times does a secretary of state try to run for
Speaker 2: Senate or governor. My focus is just to do this job.
Speaker 2: I don't need to rotate and I don't need to
Speaker 2: stay in this position. What I need to do is
Speaker 2: I need to address and fix the issues.
Speaker 1: Marcel Sturbage my guest in studio today again. You can
Speaker 1: find them online at does Sturbage strbich four fo r
Speaker 1: sturbagefoohio dot com. Check out his policies and admire his
Speaker 1: unbelievably impressive military background. They would take it a little
Speaker 1: slightly early break, we'll bring back Marcell. We'll talk about
Speaker 1: more what he wants to accomplish when he becomes secretary
Speaker 1: of state here in Ohio. It's eight fourteen right now
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Speaker 1: Eighteen fifty fifth KR. See the talk station Marshall Starbage
Speaker 1: and study right for Secretary of State here in the
Speaker 1: state of behind has got good idea as an election
Speaker 1: integrities background certainly lends itself to that role, most notably,
Speaker 1: as he's demonstrated in his brief comments earlier, his tech abilities.
Speaker 1: He's very savvy when it comes to technology and maybe
Speaker 1: iron out things. In terms of our concerns over the election,
Speaker 1: are the ballots that we cast? What other motivations and reasons?
Speaker 1: What are the policies are you running on for your
Speaker 1: campaign as Secretary of State?
Speaker 2: Marcel Yeah, Well, first and foremost, you know, I'm raising
Speaker 2: a family here in Ohio to six and eight, and
Speaker 2: I want them to have a system that can trust
Speaker 2: and believe in. And I don't want any type of controversies.
Speaker 2: You know, elections have become overly complicated, costly controversial. That
Speaker 2: doesn't have to be that way. Some of the things
Speaker 2: that I would propose up front are really common sense based.
Speaker 2: First of all, voter idea is supported by eighty four
Speaker 2: percent of Americans, and when it comes to Ohio's elections,
Speaker 2: voter idea only applies if you vote in person. So
Speaker 2: what that means is that for the one million Ohioans
Speaker 2: who are who have been casting their ballots by mail,
Speaker 2: in they are not required by law to cast a
Speaker 2: or to submit a copy of a photo I d
Speaker 2: we should quickly close that loophole that we did when
Speaker 2: we passed our original voter ID bill, and we argue
Speaker 2: against it because of convenience. Well, there are so many
Speaker 2: opportunities for people to get a copy of a photo
Speaker 2: ID to include when they obtain their identity credentials.
Speaker 1: Well, you're gonna, I hate to say this out loud,
Speaker 1: it come September. You're gonna need a photo ID to
Speaker 1: prove your age when surfing porn sites here in Ohio.
Speaker 1: That's a great point.
Speaker 2: Yes, they passed that legislation, Bride, and so this is
Speaker 2: a no brainer and we need we need to go
Speaker 2: right to that. I think the other area, as I
Speaker 2: talked about, preprinted, hand marketable paper ballots should be the
Speaker 2: norm and the primary method by which we cast ballots.
Speaker 2: It will save our counties tons and tons of money
Speaker 2: when it comes to eligibility verification checking people. Let's give
Speaker 2: our Board of Elections both the means and the mandate
Speaker 2: to check for citizenship, identity, and residency. Give them the
Speaker 2: same access that the Secretary of State has. So those
Speaker 2: are three really upfront common sense approaches. I would further
Speaker 2: advocate for a couple areas to reduce the likelihood of
Speaker 2: third party groups. I don't know if you recall this, Brian,
Speaker 2: when I was on your show last year and in
Speaker 2: Hamilton County, we had these third party voter engagement organizations.
Speaker 2: And while our administration touts the fact that we've stopped
Speaker 2: dark money from interfering in our elections, that doesn't mean
Speaker 2: that we've stopped nonprofits or for profits from falsely registering people.
Speaker 2: And here in Hamilton they falsely registered canvassers did hundreds
Speaker 2: of people last year. Well, they didn't close that issue
Speaker 2: or that loophole. It still exists. So we have to
Speaker 2: closely look at what role, if any voter engagement organizations
Speaker 2: that are paying canvassers should play. Really, there's no reason
Speaker 2: we have online registration at this point. We have a
Speaker 2: number of agencies to register us. Why are we adding risk?
Speaker 2: And then we need to look at instead of having
Speaker 2: twenty eight in person voting days, which is a logistical burden,
Speaker 2: it's a cost burden. I would like to see us
Speaker 2: and I would commit to working toward what the administration
Speaker 2: and White House has said, which is let's get toward
Speaker 2: a same day in person voting.
Speaker 1: With that said, for.
Speaker 2: People who do work and it's untenable for them to
Speaker 2: get to the polling location like they're confined disabled, let's
Speaker 2: say they're poll workers that day. We'll go to an
Speaker 2: exception based mail in ballot system, so having a valid excuse,
Speaker 2: still allowing twenty eight days of early valid excuse mail
Speaker 2: in voting. I think if we paired those two close
Speaker 2: the voter id loophole and we address the ability of
Speaker 2: a Board of Elections to actually verifying valid a people
Speaker 2: up front, we would be hitting on all cords and
Speaker 2: we would really reduce the risk that bad actors would
Speaker 2: take advantage of this thirty day period. And I think
Speaker 2: all of those are within the realm of four years
Speaker 2: of a Secretary of State who has the will to
Speaker 2: do this, and I am the person.
Speaker 1: Today and a governor who shares your vision.
Speaker 2: Exactly, the governor who's pursuing actually enhancing civic education wanting
Speaker 2: to introduce for example, because this governor to be Ramaswami
Speaker 2: wanting to introduce a citizens Service exam for twelfth graders, well,
Speaker 2: I would pair his proposal up by introducing a curriculum
Speaker 2: post election where students can actually participate in a hand
Speaker 2: counting exercise using the vote casts prior in that election,
Speaker 2: so that they can have some familiarity with what that is.
Speaker 2: I think the reason we're having so few people participating
Speaker 2: in part in these processes is they don't have familiarity
Speaker 2: or buy in. And I think if we start to
Speaker 2: get people involved in more public involvement at the polling
Speaker 2: location besides the computerized the heavy dependence on computerized casting,
Speaker 2: I think we would start to open the minds of
Speaker 2: a lot of young people, paired with his policies, and
Speaker 2: we could do some really good things and galvanizing this
Speaker 2: young generation to care again about voting and about democracy
Speaker 2: and about what it means to be a citizen. So
Speaker 2: I think that Governor Ramaswami and a Secretary of State
Speaker 2: Marcel Sturbage would work hand in glove to be able
Speaker 2: to enact these changes. And that's where I think we
Speaker 2: get back to this state of excellence mindset.
Speaker 1: Well. I know, granting authority to do business in Ohio
Speaker 1: is one of the jobs of Secretary of State. In Ramaswami,
Speaker 1: I mean, he talks a great game in terms of
Speaker 1: getting making Ohio the number one destination for new businesses.
Speaker 1: I love his energy policy, making Ohio the leading producer
Speaker 1: of energy. Small nuke reactors, for example, provide an abundance electricity.
Speaker 1: We could be a real powerhouse. What can the Secretary
Speaker 1: of State's office do if you were there to help
Speaker 1: Ramaswami and the rest of Ohio fulfill that goal.
Speaker 2: Well, we would certainly work together. In the Secretary of
Speaker 2: State's Business Services Division is where the rubber meets the
Speaker 2: road for business licensing and LLC and corporation. So making
Speaker 2: sure that that process is streamlined, that it's transparent. Let's
Speaker 2: say you're a first time business owner. That could be
Speaker 2: arduous to figure out how to go through the filing.
Speaker 2: So to ensure that there's information system technology we could
Speaker 2: adopt that can allow you to see where your application
Speaker 2: is in the process, that'd be nice.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And so if you're a recurring a business filer or
Speaker 2: you know an attorney that's working for another you tend
Speaker 2: to understand how to navigate it. But what if you're
Speaker 2: a mom and pop right you know now, I will
Speaker 2: say there are some guides on those Secretary of State's
Speaker 2: website that help people with this. But with that said,
Speaker 2: you know, following that process and being able to see
Speaker 2: where your application is is an area of improvement that
Speaker 2: I would advocate, and working with a Governor Ramaswami, I
Speaker 2: would be the facilitating point for a lot of those.
Speaker 2: I think we had one hundred thousand business filings so
Speaker 2: far this year and we're on tap to double that,
Speaker 2: so it's a critical part. It's not something that I
Speaker 2: speak as much about because the election systems need a
Speaker 2: lot of care and tender, but when it comes to
Speaker 2: business services administration, we'll look for improvements there as well.
Speaker 1: Wonderful Marcell sturbagefoohio dot coms where you find them, encourage
Speaker 1: you to donate. You're off to a good start in
Speaker 1: terms of campaign finance, and congratulations on that. And my
Speaker 1: next guest someone I know, you know, Jack Windsor. You've
Speaker 1: been on Jack Windsor's Windsor Report quite a few times.
Speaker 2: I have, and he and I helped break open this
Speaker 2: a lot of these stories on where we are in
Speaker 2: terms of citizenship verification. Last year was a big, big
Speaker 2: question as to whether we're on top of that issue.
Speaker 2: And he's endorsed this campaign as well. Oh good, Yeah,
Speaker 2: a lot of people, like a lot of grassroots and
Speaker 2: other folks that really just want to see change and
Speaker 2: some new vitality in our executive offices are taking a
Speaker 2: strong look and that's why we did raise over two
Speaker 2: hundred thousand dollars in six weeks and that's a great
Speaker 2: start point. I'm blessed, humbled by the support and I'm
Speaker 2: going to work every single day to win this election.
Speaker 2: It's in May of twenty twenty.
Speaker 1: Six, so got a little time, a little bit of time.
Speaker 2: But that doesn't you know, when you're not in the system,
Speaker 2: you have to do double the work. And again, I'm
Speaker 2: motivating and driven to make Ohio better and I don't
Speaker 2: need the position, but I want the position because I
Speaker 2: want the ability to make positive change. That's why I'm
Speaker 2: in this race.
Speaker 1: Thank you for appreciate your enthusiasm. RCEL. You and I
Speaker 1: will talk again between now an election. Of course, you're
Speaker 1: always welcome here in the morning show. Good luck my
Speaker 1: friend again starch Ohio dot com. You can learn more
Speaker 1: about his campaign about the man himself coming up a
Speaker 1: good friend and Marcelf Jack Winsor, editor in chief the
Speaker 1: Isle Press Network. Of course, a couple of those property
Speaker 1: tax veto overturns did not go through. We talked earlier
Speaker 1: in the program with uh Donovan and Neil from Americans
Speaker 1: for Prosperity about the one they did overturn, what of
Speaker 1: the other two and what do we have in store
Speaker 1: for our future with property taxes? Jack Winsor on that
Speaker 1: coming up next eight twenty seven, Right now fifty five KRC,
Speaker 1: the talk station of Koway. Fifty five KARC, the Talks