Psephos is a nonprofit known for founding and managing the National Election Defense Coalition (NEDC), a bipartisan electoral watchdog that includes conservative members like Americans for Tax Reform and left-leaning members like the Brennan Center for Justice. NEDC has also included libertarian members in the past, like FreedomWorks. ¹

NEDC supports more stringent electoral security supported by increased federal funding. NEDC is particularly concerned with the risk of hacking and supports the use of paper ballots over electronic voting. ²

As of August 2023, it is unclear whether NEDC is still operational. On its website, the “history” page has not been updated since 2020, an annual report has not been published since 2020, ³  and the donations page did not function. ⁴

National Election Defense Coalition

National Election Defense Coalition was founded in 2013 as a bipartisan election security watchdog. NEDC educates legislators, sponsors U.S. Congressional testimonies, holds townhall meetings, and issues press conferences on potential threats to electoral security, particularly from hackers. NEDC staff have testified before the Senate Rules Committee, the Judiciary Committee, the House Science and Technology Committee, the House Homeland Security Committee, the Senate Homeland Security Committee, and the Government Affairs Committee. ⁵

NEDC claims that American elections do not meet the standards set by the United Nations’s Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation. ⁶

NEDC considers hand-counted paper ballots the “gold standard of democratic elections.” Unlike electronic voting systems, paper ballot systems cannot break down, be hacked, or be “programmed secretly by unaccountable private corporations.” NEDC advocates for exclusively hand ballot voting, but acknowledges that there is “no political will to end the use of e-voting in the United States.” ⁷

Activities

National Election Defense Coalition claims credit for helping pass the 2017 Secure Elections Act, which gained federal funding for electoral security training for state and local election officials. ⁸

In 2018, NEDC claimed credit for helping secure $300 million in additional funding for national election security. ⁹

In 2019, after Republican U.S. Senators blocked additional funding for election security, NEDC held a press conference that NEDC claims was responsible for U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) reversing his position and amending the 2020 budget to include $250 million in election security measures. ¹⁰

In 2020, NEDC launched the Creative Arts Council with actress and activist Alyssa Milano to raise awareness of electoral security with celebrities, including Robert De Niro, Alec Baldwin, Glenn Close, Alan Cumming, Henry Winkler, Melissa Etheridge, Sterling K. Brown, Ron Perlman, Debra Messing, Patricia Arquette, Katey Sagal, Ken Olin, Yvette Nicole Brown, Frances Fisher, Rosie O’Donnell, and Danny Zuker. ^{11 12} As of August 2023, the Council’s website is no longer active. ¹³

Lawsuits

In 2020, National Election Defense Coalition sued the Miami-Dade County Office of Elections for access to records regarding the rejection of the National Basketball Association’s Miami Heat’s stadium for early voting in the 2020 election. NEDC claims the rejection was made for political reasons to stifle early voting. ¹⁴

In 2019. NEDC and Citizens for Better Elections sued Pennsylvania over the use of ExpressVote XL voting machines. ¹⁵

Members

As of August 2023, National Election Defense Coalition’s listed membership consisted of Americans for Tax Reform, the Brennan Center for Justice, the Center on National Security at Fordham Law School, the Coalition for Good Governance, Common Cause, the Institute for Critical Infrastructure Technology, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, the Michigan Election Reform Alliance, the NAACP, the OSET Institute, Public Citizen, the Project on Government Oversight, the Protect Democracy Project, the National Rainbow PUSH Coalition, Represent.Us, the R Street Institute, the Alliance for Securing Democracy, Stand Up America, Stand Up Republic, Transformative Justice Coalition, and the Verified Voting Foundation. ¹⁶

National Election Integrity Coalition

The National Election Integrity Coalition (NEIC) was the first project of Psephos. ¹⁷ NEIC is a member of Let Me Vote/Count My Vote, a coalition whose membership includes three left-leaning members of the National Election Defense Council: the Brennan Center for Justice, the NAACP, and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. ¹⁸

Leadership

Psephos and the National Election Defense Coalition were led by Ben Ptashnik, the president of Solarsan Miguel International, the first solar energy company in Mexico. Ptashnik was a two-term Democratic State Senator in Vermont serving from 1996 to 2001. Previously, Ptashnik founded and led Via Vermont, an international import-export business; co-founded Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility; founded the EarthRight Institute; and founded the Stopnitz Fund, a grantmaking nonprofit that “supported hundreds of social justice and environmental projects.” ^{19 20 21}

Victoria Collier (sometimes written as Victoria Linden-Collier) was the treasurer of Psephos and co-founder of NEDC. Collier is the author of Harper Magazine’s “How to Rig an Election,” which encouraged closer scrutiny of the 2012 election to prevent vote rigging by Republicans. ^{22 23}

Funding

In 2019, Psephos received $500,000 from the Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund. ²⁴

In 2018, Psephos received $50,000 from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. ²⁵

In 2014, Psephos received $52,500 from the Threshold Foundation. ²⁶

1. “Our Work.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/history.
2. “Solutions for New Voting Systems.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/election-technology-solutions.
3. “Our Work.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/history.
4. “Donate.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/donate-1.
5. “Our Work.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/history.
6. “The Principles of Democratic Elections.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/principles.
7. “Paper Ballots.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/paper-ballots.
8. “Our Work.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/history.
9. “Our Work.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/history.
10. “Our Work.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/history.
11. “Our Work.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/history.
12. “Free Speech for People, National Election Defense Coalition and Alyssa Milano Form Creative Arts Council to Protect 2020 Election.” Free Speech for People. February 20, 2020. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://freespeechforpeople.org/free-speech-for-people-national-election-defense-coalition-and-alyssa-milano-form-creative-arts-council-to-educate-the-public-on-election-vulnerabilities-in-time-to-protect-2020-election/.
13. “Home Page.” Creative Arts Council. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.creativeartscouncil.org/.
14. “Lawsuit Reveals Partisan Influence Behind Rejection of Miami Heat Arena for Voting.” National Election Defense Coalition. October 24, 2020. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/miami-heat-lawsuit.
15. “National Election Defense Coalition V. Boockvar.” Free Speech for People. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://freespeechforpeople.org/national-election-defense-coalition-v-boockvar/.
16. “About.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/about.
17. “2014 Annual Report.” Threshold Foundation. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.thresholdfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2014_Threshold_AnnualReport_20180411_150.pdf.
18. “Let Me Vote/Count My Vote.” Action Network. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://actionnetwork.org/campaigns/let-me-votecount-my-vote.
19. Psephos. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2021. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/261589877/202243159349305559/full.
20. “About.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/about.
21. “Ben-zion Ptashnik.” Ballotpedia. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-zion-ptashnik-b855a711/?originalSubdomain=mx.
22. Psephos. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2021. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/261589877/202243159349305559/full.
23. “About.” National Election Defense Coalition. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.electiondefense.org/about.
24. Fidelity Investments Charitable Gift Fund. Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990). 2019. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.fidelitycharitable.org/content/dam/fc-public/docs/fc/fc-990-fy-2019-schedule-i.pdf.
25. “Psephos, Inc.” Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.rbf.org/grantees/psephos-inc.
26. “2014 Annual Report.” Threshold Foundation. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.thresholdfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/2014_Threshold_AnnualReport_20180411_150.pdf