The Center for Secure and Modern Elections (CSME) is a left-advocacy organization created as a project of the left-progressive New Venture Fund to promote state laws that automatically register voters at state agencies. ^[1][2]

The Center for Secure and Modern Elections represents itself as a bipartisan organization but is funded primarily by left-of-center donors. ^[3] CSME parent organization, New Venture Fund, has been criticized as a “dark money” organization that serves as a way for left-leaning groups to anonymously funnel money toward various advocacy issues. ^[4]

The Center for Secure and Modern Elections primarily engages in advocacy and lobbying for laws called “automatic voter registration” (AVR) that automatically register people to vote when they acquire or renew a driver’s license, apply for social services, or otherwise interact with a state government agency.  The Center for Secure and Modern Elections has also opposed legislation intended to reduce voter fraud in Texas. ^[5]

Founding and History

The Center for Secure and Modern Elections was first active in 2016^[6] and was receiving financial support from other left-leaning organizations by 2017,^[7] but it is unclear when CSME was first established.  The IRS has no public records available for the Center for Secure and Modern Elections as of January 2020. The CSME’s parent organization, New Venture Fund, does not list CSME as a grant recipient on any IRS public disclosures as of January, 2020.

The Center for Secure and Modern Elections’ website provides no information regarding its staff, board of directors, founding, history, or relationship to New Venture Fund. ^[8]

Advocacy

Automatic Voter Registration

The Center for Secure and Modern Elections’ primary cause, automatic voter registration, differs from the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (the “Motor Voter Act”) by requiring qualified citizens be automatically registered to vote at state agencies  rather than simply being offered the opportunity to register. ^[9] In states with an AVR law, citizens are registered to vote unless they actively and explicitly refuse to be registered. Because they are registered automatically, citizens otherwise disinclined to vote are available to be persuaded to vote for candidates or causes in subsequent elections. ^[10]

The Center for Modern and Secure Elections has hired professional pollsters, consultants, attorneys, and lobbyists in many states as well as nationally to advance its automatic voter registration efforts. ^{[11] [12] [13] [14] [15]}

From 2017 through 2019, the Center for Secure and Modern Elections lobbied for automatic voter registration in Hawaii,^[16] Nebraska,^[17] New York,^[18] Louisiana,^[19] and Nevada. ^[20] CSME also collaborated with other left-progressive groups, participated in conferences, forums, and published reports^[21] promoting automatic voter registration laws. ^{[22] [23] [24] [25] [26]}

Opposition to election security reforms

The Center for Secure and Modern Elections opposed legislation introduced in Texas in 2019 intended to improve election security. The legislation would have increased criminal penalties for providing false information on a voter registration application, increased the investigative powers of law enforcement over elections, and required those helping voters to fill out ballots to provide more information on what assistance they provide. ^[27] The Center for Secure and Modern Elections opposed the legislation, which was not enacted into law during the 2019 session. ^[28]

Voting Rights Tour

The Center for Secure and Modern Elections helped organize a ‘Voting Rights History Tour’ for a bipartisan group of elected secretaries of states in 2019. The tour of locations in Alabama with historical significance to voting laws was organized by the National Association of Secretaries of State, the left-leaning Ford Foundation, CSME, and two other left-progressive groups, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Democracy Fund. ^[29]

Funding

The Center for Secure and Modern Elections was established as a project of the left-leaning New Venture Fund, which has been criticized as a “dark money” organization that does not publicly disclose donors. ^[30] No information about the Center for Secure and Modern Elections is available on the IRS website for public inspection as of January, 2020. ^[31]

Several left-progressive organizations acknowledge supporting the CSME, including the Bauman Foundation, and the Democracy Fund, which is also a project of New Venture Fund. ^{[32] [33]}

People

The Center for Secure and Modern Elections does not list its leadership, board of directors, or staff on its website. ^[34] Information about a nonprofit organization’s board and key staff is required by the Internal Revenue Service for tax forms which are available for public inspection, but the IRS has no documents available on its website for the Center for Secure and Modern Elections as of January 2020. ^[35]

Jake Matilsky

Jake Matilsky is director or president of the Center for Secure and Modern Elections. ^{[36] [37]} He is also an advisor for Vote At Home^[38] (a labor-union funded^[39] campaign to replace voting at polling stations with all-mail elections) and an independent consultant for left-progressive candidates and campaigns. ^[40] He donated to U.S. Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) in 2018; in FEC disclosures Matilsky listed his employer as New Venture Fund. ^[41]

John Lindback

John Lindback is senior advisor for the Campaign for Secure and Modern Elections. He was director of elections for Oregon’s secretary of state office for eight years and was chief of staff for former Alaska Lieutenant Governor Fran Ulmer (D). ^{[42] [43]}

Sam Oliker-Friedland

Sam Oliker-Friedland is chief counsel for the Campaign for Secure and Modern Elections. He is a former attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division who joined the department during the Obama administration and left after the election President Donald Trump. ^{[44] [45]}

Ashish Sinha

Ashish Sinha is implementation director for the Campaign for Secure and Modern Elections. He donated to Val Arkoosh, an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for Pennsylvania’s 13^th congressional district, in 2014. ^{[46] [47]}