The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections (CSSE) is a coalition of current and former election officials and law enforcement officers that coordinates personal security for election officials.

CSSE was established in June 2022 by members of the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, the Elections Group, Protect Democracy, and the R Street Institute. The organization was created in response to threats levied against election officials across the United States before, during, and after the 2020 election. ^{1 2}

Activities

The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections collects guides on avoiding and defending against violence published by local, state, and federal law enforcement bodies across the United States, including the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice, and U.S. Congressional Research Service, as well as guides from nonprofits including PEN America and the States United Democracy Center. ³

CSSE also produced two of its own guide videos: “What Election Violence Could Look Like: A Video Training Scenario for Law Enforcement and Election Officials,” and “Five Steps to Protect Our Elections from the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections.” ⁴

Membership

The Committee for Safe and Secure Elections has 32 members consisting of local election officials, law enforcement, and employees of the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, the Elections Group, the R Street Institute, Democracy Live, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, the Committee of Seventy, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. ^{5 6}

Neal Kelley

The chairman of the CSSE is Neal Kelley, the former Registrar of Voters for Orange County, California. He was a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Election Security Task Force’s Government Coordinating Council, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Board of Advisors, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on the Future of Voting. Kelley was the president of the California Association of Clerks and Election Officials, and the National Association of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks. ⁷

Kelley is a member of the EAC Voting Systems Standards Board as well as the Technical Guidelines Development Committee. ⁸

Kathy Boockvar

Member Kathy Boockvar is the president of Athena Strategies. She formerly acted as Secretary of State of Pennsylvania, was vice president of election operations for the Center for Internet Security, and co-chaired the National Association of Secretaries of State’s Elections Committee and Business Services Committee. ⁹

Peter Koutoujian

Member Peter Koutoujian is the sheriff of Middlesex, Massachusetts. He formerly served as a Democratic Massachusetts State Representative, on the board of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s First Responder Network Authority, the Executive Committee for the Council of State Governments Justice Center, and the Advisory Board for the States United Democracy Center. ¹⁰

Matthew Masterson

Member Matthew Masterson is the director of information integrity at Microsoft, and a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises. He formerly served as senior cybersecurity advisor at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and as a commissioner at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. ¹¹

Al Schmidt

Al Schmidt is the president and CEO of the Committee of Seventy, a government watchdog organization based in Philadelphia, and former city commissioner of Philadelphia, during which time he served as vice-chair of the committee’s Board of Electors. Previously, Schmidt worked as a former senior analyst at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. ¹²

1. “Supported By:.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/about#contact.
2. “Law Enforcement And Election Officials Start Joint National Initiative To Protect Election Officials And Voters From Threats and Violence.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. June 23, 2022. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/law-enforcement-and-election-officials-start-joint-national-initiative.
3. “Resources.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/resources.
4. “Videos.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/videos.
5. “Members.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/members.
6. “Members.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/members.
7. “Biography of Neal Kelley.” U.S. Congress. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/109687/witnesses/HHRG-116-SY21-Bio-KelleyN-20190625.pdf.
8. “Biography of Neal Kelley.” U.S. Congress. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/109687/witnesses/HHRG-116-SY21-Bio-KelleyN-20190625.pdf.
9. “Kathy Boockvar.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/kathy-boockvar.
10. “Sherriff Peter Koutoujian.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/sheriff-peter-koutoujian.
11. “Matthew Masterson.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/matthew-masterson.
12. “Al Schmidt.” Committee for Safe and Secure Elections. Accessed February 17, 2023. https://safeelections.org/al-schmidt.