Logo for InfluenceWatch InfluenceWatch

Donate
Non-profit

Secure Elections for America Now (SEAN)

Parent Organization: New Venture Fund (NVF)
Website:

www.secureelectionsnow.com

Secure Elections for America Now (SEAN) is a left-of-center advocacy organization created as a project of the left-progressive New Venture Fund1 to promote changes to state election laws, such as requiring automatic registration of voters at state agencies and removing restrictions on voting for convicted felons. 2 3

Secure Elections for America Now represents itself as advocating bipartisan voting reforms4 but SEAN’s board of advisors consists entirely of individuals having Democratic Party or socialist leanings.  SEAN’s 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 left-progressive advocacy issues. 5 6 7 8

History

Secure Elections for America Now was created as a subsidiary of New Venture Fund in 20189 and was apparently inactive until establishing a social media presence in June of 2019. 10

Secure Elections for America Now’s structure as a project of New Venture fund means that as of January 2020 there is no public information on SEAN’s finances. SEAN’s parent organization, New Venture Fund, neither publicly discloses its donors nor does it separate expenditures on SEAN projects on its tax returns. 11

People

Edgardo Cortes

Edgardo Cortes is on the Secure Elections for America Now board of advisors. 12

Edgardo Cortes was Virginia’s chief elections officer from July 1, 2014 through early January, 2018, having been appointed by then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D). 13 14 During Cortes’s tenure as the state’s highest election official, Virginia experienced a number of high-profile election controversies.

Virginia’s voting machines were dubbed, “America’s Worst Voting Machines” in 2015 by Jeremy Epstein, a cybersecurity expert and computer scientist with the National Science Foundation15 who tried for years to get them banned. 16

The machines had been criticized for serious security problems since 2003. Virginia, under Cortés’ election leadership, repeatedly ignored concerns raised by Epstein and others until April of 2015 despite two audit reports in November of 2014. The reports by the Virginia Information Technology Agency and a federally accredited lab17 found, “[T]he combination of weak security controls used by the devices would not be able to prevent a malicious third party from modifying the votes recorded by the WINVote devices.” 18

According to an article in Wired: “The FBI had demonstrated in 2005 that it could crack a 128-bit WEP key in about three minutes. But an attacker wouldn’t have needed even this much time to attack Virginia’s voting machines. By capturing and analyzing just two minutes of wireless traffic between two machines, investigators were able to crack the encryption key. The key turned out to be ‘abcde.’… Once the encryption key was cracked, an attacker could have joined the wireless network to record voting data as it crossed the network, inject malicious data into the stream, or connect to voting machines to subvert them and an election.” 19

The Virginia Information Technologies Agency investigation concluded that, “The security testing by VITA proved that the vulnerabilities on the WINVote devices can allow a malicious party to compromise the confidentiality and integrity of voting data.” 20

In addition to being highly vulnerable to hacking (passwords such as “abcde” and “admin” were used to secure the machines), the machines were subject to disruption by common smartphone wireless interference. Accusations that at least one machine subtracted one vote for every 100 cast in favor of a candidate for the Fairfax School Board,21 and the outcomes of several other very close elections, were impossible to verify because no paper backup existed for vote tallies. 22

Cortes defended elections that utilized the machines, “We don’t have any concerns about election results and the accuracy of prior results.” 23

Virginia election officials finally banned use of the faulty voting machines in September of 2017,24 only two months before a November general election, prompting concerns from local election officials about the cost and short time available to purchase and implement new voting systems. 25

Cortés and other Virginia election officials were alleged to have fostered an environment that favored the Democratic Party over other political parties by a 2018 review by the Virginia General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee (JLARC). The JLARC concluded there was “a perception of political bias” and that election officials “directed staff to help Democratic groups avoid campaign finance laws and rules that require political groups to put their names on ads.” 26

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported that JLARC legislative analyst Jamie Bitz said that investigators had ” heard of one example where the previous deputy commissioner at the agency very openly stated to a number of people, including to one high-level elections official in Virginia, that one of her key responsibilities was to help Hillary Clinton be elected president.” 27

Under Cortes, Virginia’s election department was plagued by computer malfunctions, including a total system crash in 2016, resulting in a federal judge extending deadlines for voters to register. 28 29 A subsequent report by the Virginia General Assembly’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee concluded Virginia’s election computer systems were “not sufficiently functional or reliable,” confirming complaints about system slowdowns and crashes. 30

Cortes controversially banned the head election official for Virginia’s most populated county from communicating via email with other election officials and agencies just two weeks before a Presidential election for using the word “hell.” In 2016, Fairfax County election official Cameron Sasnett noticed absentee voter applications he had submitted to the state elections department in August and September were not being processed until October. Frustrated, Sasnett posted screenshots of the absentee voter applications on the state-administered listserv email group for election officials along with the message, “Where in the hell were these?!?!”.  Sasnett had also publicly criticized the state elections agency at a legislative hearing earlier that same month. 31

Cortés responded by banning Sasnett from using the listserv email system for using the word, “hell”. After media reports of the ban were published, and other local election clerks defended Sasnett, Cortes quickly rescinded the ban. 32

Cortes faced criticism in 2014 for mailing confusing and erroneous mailers to 114,000 voters, which created confusion about their ability to vote. 33

Control of Virginia’s state House was clouded after the 2016 November elections when at least 147 voters received ballots for the wrong state House district. Republican Bob Thomas defeated Democrat Joshua Cole by 73 votes in Virginia’s 28th House District, which resulted in the Republican Party having a 51 – 49 majority.  A federal appeals court declined to overturn the election results despite the errors by election officials. 34

Sean McElwee

Sean McElwee is on the board of advisors for Secure Elections for America Now. 35 McElwee is a self-described socialist36 and co-founder of Data for Progress, a left-progressive data analysis company. McElwee is also an advocate for moving the Democratic Party toward more socialist positions, eliminating the federal department that oversees immigration policies (ICE), and implementing socialist-progressive environmental policies such as the Green New Deal. 37 38 39 40

Secure Elections for America Now states that it, “advocates for bipartisan voting reform” through, “a comprehensive group of experts in the voting rights space,”41 yet McElwee, one of the five experts on SEAN’s board, publicly states his refusal to talk to Republicans. In June 2019, McElwee told a reporter for the Columbia Journalism Review, “I hate Republicans a lot and don’t talk to them.” 42

In a January, 2019 article, MeElwee stated, “You don’t win over these people (Republicans), you crush them. I don’t make friends with Republican operatives. I don’t try to reach across the aisle. I think they’re bad people and I don’t want to be associated with them…”43

In a September 2018 interview, McElwee was asked about the perceived decline of bipartisanship in national politics. McElwee replied, “It means you don’t have to talk to Republicans anymore. What a relief. What a joy, what a wonder. Yeah, so I mean, like abolish ICE is sort of an internal debate within the Democratic party, which is when we have the power to create an immigration system, will we create a humane, humanist, human-centered immigration system? Or will we cave once again to the forces of white supremacy? And you know, the Republican Party has shown itself many times that they do not want to be part of any immigration policy discussion that is not deeply fascist.” 44

McElwee is a self-described former libertarian who now supports socialism. 45 He advocates nationalizing the U.S. energy industry and establishment of government-run alternatives to many business services. 46

McElwee advocates advancing socialism through Democratic Party primaries and organizations. 47 In an interview with Vice in 2018, McElwee said, “We’re getting to a point where the socialist movement has developed a sort of working theory for how you get electoral power that that we’ve seen works. But the next question is: What happens once you’ve won the elections? What’s the first piece of legislation Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez should introduce? How do you hold her accountable? Who staffs her DC office? Who staffs Julia Salazar’s Albany office?”48

Ali Javery

Ali Javery is the executive director of Secure Elections for America Now.  Javery is a communications specialist who has worked for several campaign consulting companies with left-of-center clients, such as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Labor Table. 49 50

Javery previously worked on the staff of U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI),51 worked for U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan’s (D-OH) 2020 presidential campaign,52 and interned for Planned Parenthood. 53 As of January 2020, Javery was assisting Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang. 54

David Becker

David Becker is on the board of advisors for Secure Elections for America Now. He is the executive director and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research and formerly was director of the elections program at left-of-center Pew Charitable Trusts. 55

Becker worked for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division under President Bill Clinton starting in 1998, leaving early in the George W. Bush administration. 56

Becker has compared voter identification requirements to a “poll tax”. 57

In March of 2019, Becker was appointed by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson (D) to an Election Modernization Advisory Committee to advise her on election administration issues. 58

Gary Decker

Gary Decker is on the board of advisors for Secure Elections for America Now and is the director of issue campaigns at the progressive-left Alliance for Youth Organizing. 59 Decker previously worked for U.S. Rep. John P. Sarbanes (D-MD) and interned for U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD). 60

Monica Childers

Monica Childers is on the board of advisors for Secure Elections for America Now. She specializes in digital product design and project management. 61 In 2009, Childers worked for former U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano’s (D-MA) unsuccessful campaign to replace former U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) after Kennedy’s death that same year. 62

References

  1. Scribd. “Search”. “New Venture Fund 2018 tax forms”. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990), 2018, Page 143. Accessed January 30, 2020.  https://www.scribd.com/document/436821015/New-Venture-Fund-2018-tax-forms
  2. Secure Election for America Now. Secureelectionsnow.com. “About”. Accessed January 30, 2020.   https://www.secureelectionsnow.com/about/
  3. Twitter.com. “Secure Elections for America Now (SEAN)”. Tweet on September 7, 2019. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://twitter.com/securelections?lang=en
  4. Secure Election for America Now. Secureelectionsnow.com. “About”. Accessed January 30, 2020.    https://www.secureelectionsnow.com/about/
  5. Secure Election for America Now. Secureelectionsnow.com. “Advisory Board”. Accessed January 30, 2020.  https://www.secureelectionsnow.com/advisory/
  6. Markay, Lachlan. “Over 100 Left-Wing Groups Sourced to DC Dark Money Outfit”. Washington Free Beacon. October 22, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2020.  https://freebeacon.com/issues/over-100-left-wing-groups-sourced-to-d-c-dark-money-outfit/
  7. Schoffstall, Joe. “Report: Liberal Dark Money Umbrella Facilitated $1.6 Billion in Recent Years”. Washington Free Beacon. April 18, 2019. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://freebeacon.com/politics/report-liberal-dark-money-umbrella-facilitated-1-6-billion-in-recent-years/
  8. Crabtree, Susan. “Dems’ ‘Dark Money’ Disconnect: Groups Mum on Disclosure”. Real Clear Politics. May 8, 2019. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2019/05/08/dems_dark_money_disconnect_groups_mum_on_disclosure__140274.html
  9. Scribd. “Search”. “New Venture Fund 2018 tax forms”. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (Form 990), 2018, Page 143. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.scribd.com/document/436821015/New-Venture-Fund-2018-tax-forms
  10. Twitter.com. “Secure Elections for America Now (SEAN)”. Tweet on June 19, 2019. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://twitter.com/securelections?lang=en
  11. Internal Revenue Service Return of Organization Exempt from Income Tax 990 – 2017. New Venture Fund. Schedule I, part II. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://apps.irs.gov/pub/epostcard/cor/205806345_201712_990_2019022216117830.pdf
  12. Secure Election for America Now. Secureelectionsnow.com. “Advisory Board”. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.secureelectionsnow.com/advisory/
  13. Schmidt, Markus. “Sunday Q & A with Edgardo Cortes, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections”. Richmond Times-Dispatch. August 10, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.richmond.com/edgardo-cortes-commissioner-of-the-virginia-department-of-elections/article_4f38f170-8a6a-5aca-bd40-57dd83654eae.html
  14. Smith, Max. “Va. election commissioner not retained following dramatic 2017 races”. WTOP. January 16, 2018. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://wtop.com/virginia/2018/01/va-election-commissioner-not-retained-following-dramatic-2017-races/
  15. National Science Foundation. Nsf.gov. “Staff Directory”. “Jeremy J. Epstein”. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.nsf.gov/staff/staff_bio.jsp?lan=jepstein&org=CNS&from_org=CNS
  16. Zetter, Kim. “Virginia Finally Drops America’s ‘Worst Voting Machines’”. Wired. August 17, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.wired.com/2015/08/virginia-finally-drops-americas-worst-voting-machines/
  17. Commonwealth of Virginia 2014 November Voting Equipment Audit Report. Pro V&V, Inc. March 12, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Pro-V-V-Report-on-WINVote.pdf
  18. Chapin, Doug. “Remarkable Virginia IT Agency Report Details Reasons For WinVote Decertification”. Election Academy. April 15, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2020.   https://editions.lib.umn.edu/electionacademy/2015/04/15/remarkable-virginia-it-agency/
  19. Zetter, Kim. “Virginia Finally Drops America’s ‘Worst Voting Machines’”. Wired. August 17, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.wired.com/2015/08/virginia-finally-drops-americas-worst-voting-machines/
  20. “Security Assessment of Winvote Voting Equipment for Department of Elections”. Virginia Information Technology Agency. Commonwealth Security and Risk Management. April 14, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.wired.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/WINVote-final.pdf
  21. “Operation Ballot Integrity” Page 2. Fairfax County Republican Committee. Copyright 2004. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.verifiedvoting.org/wp-content/uploads/downloads/FRC_ballot_integrity.pdf
  22. Zetter, Kim. “Virginia Finally Drops America’s ‘Worst Voting Machines’”. Wired. August 17, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.wired.com/2015/08/virginia-finally-drops-americas-worst-voting-machines/
  23. Zetter, Kim. “Virginia Finally Drops America’s ‘Worst Voting Machines’”. Wired. August 17, 2015. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.wired.com/2015/08/virginia-finally-drops-americas-worst-voting-machines/
  24. Chalfant, Morgan. “Virginia scraps touchscreen voting machines”. The Hill. September 8, 2017. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/349896-virginia-scraps-touchscreen-voting-machines
  25. Sullivan, Patricia. “Paper ballots make a comeback in Virginia this fall”. Washington Post. October 7, 2017. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/paper-ballots-make-a-comeback-in-virginia-this-fall/2017/10/07/724106ec-a92b-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html
  26. Moomaw, Graham. “Review finds Virginia elections agency had culture of ‘open support for one party over the other’”. Richmond Times-Dispatch. September 10, 2018. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.newsadvance.com/news/state/review-finds-virginia-elections-agency-had-culture-of-open-support/article_434af45f-a4d9-51ec-a1aa-a3c2b2e0db58.html
  27. Moomaw, Graham. “Review finds Virginia elections agency had culture of ‘open support for one party over the other’”. Richmond Times-Dispatch. September 10, 2018. Accessed January 30, 2020.  https://www.newsadvance.com/news/state/review-finds-virginia-elections-agency-had-culture-of-open-support/article_434af45f-a4d9-51ec-a1aa-a3c2b2e0db58.html
  28. Jarrett, Laura. “Federal judge extends Virginia voter registration in wake of online system crash”. CNN Wire. October 20, 2016. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://q13fox.com/2016/10/20/federal-judge-extends-virginia-voter-registration-in-wake-of-online-system-crash/
  29. Moomaw, Graham. “Virginia elections agency temporarily bans Fairfax registrar from email list after strongly worded criticism”. Richmond Times-Dispatch. October 25, 2016. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/article_e2356ceb-cc10-5f4d-b997-bc2bd4ba03a5.html
  30. “Operations and Performance of Virginia’s Department of Elections”. Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. 2018. Virginia.gov. Accessed January 30, 2020.  http://jlarc.virginia.gov/2018-elections.asp
  31. Moomaw, Graham. “Virginia elections agency temporarily bans Fairfax registrar from email list after strongly worded criticism”. Richmond Times-Dispatch. October 25, 2016. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/article_e2356ceb-cc10-5f4d-b997-bc2bd4ba03a5.html
  32. Moomaw, Graham. “Virginia elections agency temporarily bans Fairfax registrar from email list after strongly worded criticism”. Richmond Times-Dispatch. October 25, 2016. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/article_e2356ceb-cc10-5f4d-b997-bc2bd4ba03a5.html
  33. Schmidt, Markus. “Sunday Q & A with Edgardo Cortes, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections”. Richmond Times-Dispatch. August 10, 2014. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.richmond.com/edgardo-cortes-commissioner-of-the-virginia-department-of-elections/article_4f38f170-8a6a-5aca-bd40-57dd83654eae.html
  34. Weiner, Rachel. “Appeals court won’t block Republican from House of Delegates over ballot mixup”. Washington Post. January 10, 2018. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/appeals-court-wont-block-republican-from-house-of-delegates-over-ballot-mixup/2018/01/10/f2ae472e-f55a-11e7-a9e3-ab18ce41436a_story.html
  35. Secure Election for America Now. Secureelectionsnow.com. “Advisory Board”. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.secureelectionsnow.com/advisory/
  36. Perlberg, Steven. “How ‘Abolish ICE’ Went From Twitter Slogan To Winning Over Progressives And Dividing Politics”. Buzzfeed News. July 28, 2018. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stevenperlberg/abolish-ice-sean-mcelwee
  37. Freedlander, David. “‘There Is Going to Be a War Within the Party. We Are Going to Lean Into It.’”. Politico. February 4, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/02/04/the-insurgents-behind-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-224542
  38. Neason, Alexandria. “Sean McElwee’s media influence”. Columbia Journalism Review. June 18, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/sean-mcelwee.php
  39. Perlberg, Steven. “How ‘Abolish ICE’ Went From Twitter Slogan To Winning Over Progressives And Dividing Politics”. Buzzfeed News. July 28, 2018. Accessed January 31, 2020.  https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stevenperlberg/abolish-ice-sean-mcelwee
  40. Malone, Clare. “The Young Left’s Anti-Capitalist Manifesto”. FiveThirtyEight. January 22, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2020.  https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-young-lefts-anti-capitalist-manifesto/
  41. Secure Election for America Now. Secureelectionsnow.com. “About”. Accessed January 30, 2020.    https://www.secureelectionsnow.com/about/
  42. Neason, Alexandria. “Sean McElwee’s media influence”. Columbia Journalism Review. June 18, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2020.  https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/sean-mcelwee.php
  43. Malone, Clare. “The Young Left’s Anti-Capitalist Manifesto”. FiveThirtyEight. January 22, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2020.  https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-young-lefts-anti-capitalist-manifesto/
  44. Hayes, Chris. “Why Is This Happening? Outlining the left wing of the Democratic Party with Sean McElwee: podcast & transcript”. Opinion. NBC News.com/think. September 11, 2018. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/outlining-left-wing-democratic-party-sean-mcelwee-podcast-transcript-ncna908331
  45. Perlberg, Steven. “How ‘Abolish ICE’ Went From Twitter Slogan To Winning Over Progressives And Dividing Politics”. Buzzfeed News. July 28, 2018. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stevenperlberg/abolish-ice-sean-mcelwee
  46. Hayes, Chris. “Why Is This Happening? Outlining the left wing of the Democratic Party with Sean McElwee: podcast & transcript”. Opinion. NBC News.com/think. September 11, 2018. Accessed January 31, 2020.  https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/outlining-left-wing-democratic-party-sean-mcelwee-podcast-transcript-ncna908331
  47. Neason, Alexandria. “Sean McElwee’s media influence”. Columbia Journalism Review. June 18, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.cjr.org/the_profile/sean-mcelwee.php
  48. Solis, Marie. “What’s Next for the Democratic Socialists of America?”. Vice.  November 1, 2018. Accessed January 31, 2020.https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/kzjdvm/whats-next-for-the-democratic-socialists-of-america
  49. Fireside Campaigns. Firesidecampaigns.com. “Our Team” Accessed January 31, 2020. https://firesidecampaigns.com/team/
  50. LinkedIn. “Harta Communications”. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://ve.linkedin.com/company/harta-communications
  51. LinkedIn. “Allison Javery”. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-javery-6b7136bb
  52. Diamond, Dan. “Tim Ryan on Medicare for All support: Take him seriously, not literally.“ Poltico Pulse. 2020 Watch. Politico. August 2, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-pulse/2019/08/02/inside-stephen-millers-push-to-change-public-charge-rule-704429
  53. LinkedIn. “Allison Javery”. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/allison-javery-6b7136bb
  54. Twitter. “Ali Javery”. Tweet on December 7, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2020.  https://tweettunnel.com/alijavery
  55. Secure Election for America Now. Secureelectionsnow.com. “Advisory Board”. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.secureelectionsnow.com/advisory/
  56. Neyfakh, Leon. “How Trump Will Dismantle Civil Rights Protections in America”. Slate. April 20, 2017. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/06/how-trump-will-dismantle-civil-rights-protections-in-america.html
  57. Transcript of PBS Now – show 348, November 30, 2007. Accessed January 31, 2020.  http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/348.html
  58. “Secretary Benson convenes Election Modernization Advisory Committee to advance election reforms”. Media release by the Michigan Secretary of State office. Michigan.gov./sos/. February 20, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.michigan.gov/som/0,4669,7-192-26847-489993–,00.html
  59. Secure Election for America Now. Secureelectionsnow.com. “Advisory Board”. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.secureelectionsnow.com/advisory/
  60. LinkedIn. “Gary Decker” Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gary-decker-3065035a
  61. Secure Election for America Now. Secureelectionsnow.com. “Advisory Board”. Accessed January 30, 2020. https://www.secureelectionsnow.com/advisory/
  62. LinkedIn. “Monica Crane Childers”. Accessed January 31, 2020. https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicacranechilders
  See an error? Let us know!