The National Task Force on Election Crises is a left-of-center group that advises state and national officials on securing elections against natural disasters, cyberattacks, and pandemics. While the group is ostensibly non-partisan, most of its members are Democrats and its proposed reforms are generally opposed by Republicans.

About

The National Task Force on Election Crises is a nominally bipartisan organization of prominent persons from various fields such as election law, election administration, national security, cybersecurity, voting rights, civil rights, and others. It issues election security recommendations on behalf of the entire task force. ¹

The organization works to secure elections from both man-made and natural disasters, with a special focus on the COVID-19 outbreak and its effects on election. The group also issues recommendations on cybersecurity and protecting elections from foreign interference, with a goal of ensuring that free and fair elections can occur despite whatever catastrophe occurs and that all eligible voters have a chance to cast their vote. ²

Members

The National Task Force on Election Crises had a bipartisan membership of experts in various fields. While there were some Republicans on the task force, most of the members are Democrats.

Some of the task force members include Jim Baker of the R Street Institute, a former FBI general counsel; former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff; Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a former associate editor of the Washington Post, Christine Chen, executive director of Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote); former Rep. Tom Coleman (R-MO); Elizabeth Goitein, co-director of Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University; former Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R), who is also the former president of the National Association of Secretaries of State; Vanita Gupta, then-CEO and president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Karen Hobert Flynn, president of Common Cause and the Common Cause Education Fund; Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund; and Virginia Case, CEO of the League of Women Voters, among many others. ³

COVID-19 Pandemic Recommendations

The National Task Force on Election Crises issued several suggestions in 2020 to state and national elections officials on how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The task force recommended expanding access to voting by mail and contacting voters to ask them if they wanted an absentee ballot, extending both voting hours and early voting days, keeping polling places sanitized and cleaned with frequent disinfecting of voting machines and poll workers wearing masks, requiring voters and workers to social distance, and relocating polling places out of vulnerable places such as nursing homes. ⁴

1. “About.” National Task Force On Election Crises. 2020. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/about.
2. “About.” National Task Force On Election Crises. 2020. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/about.
3. “Members.” National Task Force On Election Crises. Accessed April 25, 2020. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/members.
4. Holden, Dominic. “Task Force Releases Guidelines For Protecting 2020 Election From Coronavirus Outbreak.” Buzzfeed News. March 26, 2020. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/dominicholden/coronavirus-2020-election-voting-advice.