Center for Secure and Modern Elections Action (CSME Action) is a left-of-center advocacy organization created as a project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a leading “dark money” pass-through funder and fiscal sponsor for left-of-center advocacy groups, to promote sweeping changes to the elections process, including state laws that automatically register voters at state agencies. It is the lobbying arm of the Center for Secure and Modern Elections (CSME), a project of the left-of-center New Venture Fund, a “sister” group to the Sixteen Thirty Fund in the Arabella Advisors network of left-of-center advocacy vehicles.

Activities

In 2017, CSME officials advocated to state legislators in Nebraska to adopt automatic voter registration, hosting a “lunch and learn” session with state senators and their staff.¹ In 2017, CSME director research and policy Tova Wang participated in the publishing of a report, which claimed that automatic voter registration in Oregon added more than 116,000 people to voter rolls in the state, 40% of whom were under the age of 30. ²

Finances

CSME Action is a fiscally sponsored project of the Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) pass-through funding and fiscal sponsorship nonprofit that specializes in funneling money from major left-wing donors to activist groups as well as sponsoring the creation of new activist groups, such as CSME Action.³ The Center for Secure and Modern Elections (CSME), CSME’s “sister” organization, operates under the aegis of Sixteen Thirty Fund’s 501(c)(3) “sister” nonprofit, the New Venture Fund. As such, neither group files annual Form 990 reports with the IRS and does not its report budgets, board members, or donors to that agency.⁴

In 2019, Democracy Fund Voice, a nonprofit associated with liberal billionaire Pierre Omidyar, gave $1 million over two years to Sixteen Thirty Fund to fund CSME Action. ⁵ In 2018, the 501(c)(3) Democracy Fund donated $100,000 to CSME through its fiscal sponsor, New Venture Fund. ⁶

1. Civic Nebraska. “AVR: Small Step with a Big Impact.” Civic Nebraska, January 31, 2017. https://www.civicnebraska.org/avr-small-step-with-a-big-impact/.
2. “RELEASE: New Report Analyzes Demographic and Geographic Impact of Oregon’s Automatic Voter Registration Program.” Center for American Progress. Accessed June 10, 2021. https://www.americanprogress.org/press/release/2017/06/07/433692/release-new-report-analyzes-demographic-geographic-impact-oregons-automatic-voter-registration-program/.  
3. “Democracy Fund Voice: Project Grant.” Democracy Fund Voice. 2019. Accessed May 13, 2021. Original URL: https://democracyfundvoice.org/center-for-secure-and-modern-elections-csme-action/. Archived: https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/05/democracy-fund-grant-to-csme-action-sixteen-thirty-fund.pdf
4. Democracy Fund. Democracyfund.org. “Impact”. “Our Investees”. Accessed January 13, 2020. https://www.democracyfund.org/portfolio/entry/center-for-secure-and-modern-elections
5. “Democracy Fund Voice: Project Grant.” Democracy Fund Voice. 2019. Accessed May 13, 2021. Original URL: https://democracyfundvoice.org/center-for-secure-and-modern-elections-csme-action/. Archived: https://www.influencewatch.org/app/uploads/2021/05/democracy-fund-grant-to-csme-action-sixteen-thirty-fund.pdf
6. Democracy Fund. Democracyfund.org. “Impact”. “Our investees”. Accessed January 13, 2020. https://www.democracyfund.org/portfolio