VoteShield

VoteShield is an analytics tool that uses statistics, machine learning, 1 and data visualization 2 to monitor changes to public voter registration data and flags what it identifies as potential abnormalities for election administrators. 3

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At-A-Glance

Type: Organization, Other
Issue Areas: Elections Policy
Website: www.voteshield.us
Project of:

United to Protect Democracy

Formation:

2017

Executive Director:

Quinn Raymond

Location: New York, NY View on map

Contents

    VoteShield is a project of left-of-enter litigation and advocacy organization United to Protect Democracy (Protect Democracy) 4 and is available in 24 different states as of March 2023. 5

    Left-of-center Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) has classified partnering with VoteShield as one of 20 different strategies to boost trust in an election before an election. 6 Liberal billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations contributed $300,000 in 2019 and $150,000 in 2018 to Project Democracy to fund VoteShield. 7

    History and Leadership

    VoteShield was founded in 2017. 8

    Quinn Raymond is the co-founder of VoteShield. He has worked on local, state, and national campaigns since 2001, with a focus on the use of voter data. Raymond is also a co-founder of VoteShield umbrella organization of United to Protect Democracy (Protect Democracy) 9 and a “trusted election expert” for Election SOS and the American Press Institute. 10

    Raymond has made Federal Election Commission-reportable campaign contributions in support of left-of-center and Democratic-aligned campaigns and campaign committees including passthrough funding organization ActBlue, New York State Committee of the far-left Working Families Party, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the unsuccessful 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton (D), the 2012 presidential campaign and 2008 presidential campaign of Barack Obama, 11 the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of former U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), and others. 12

    Activities and Funding

    VoteShield is an analytics tool that uses statistics, machine learning, 1 and data visualization 2 to monitor changes to public voter registration data and flags what it identifies as potential abnormalities for election administrators. 3 In order to make its determinations regarding potential abnormalities, VoteShield analyzes voter files and compares them to historical trends, reporting this information to state and local elections administrators free of charge. 13

    VoteShield is a project of left-of-enter litigation and advocacy organization United to Protect Democracy (Protect Democracy). 4 5 In 2020, left-of-center Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) classified partnering with VoteShield as one of 20 different strategies municipalities could follow to boost trust in an election before an election. 6

    VoteShield believes malicious attacks can undermine elections even when they are unsuccessful, causing what it calls “perception hacks.” The organization believes that outside groups analyzing public data may also use discrepancies to attack election administrators 14 despite VoteShield having previously provided copies of state voter files to other organizations. 15

    The Ad Hoc Committee for 2020 Election Fairness and Legitimacy, a 2020 report funded by the left-of-center Democracy Fund, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation, referred to VoteShield technology as one of two different measures to monitor voter registration databases for accuracy and monitor changes that could interfere with voters’ ability to cast ballots. 2

    Adoption and Use

    As of March 2023, VoteShield covered at least 120 million voter records 9 and was available in 24 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. 5

    According to the left-of-center Skoll Foundation, Iowa became the first state to adopt the VoteShield platform in 2018. At the time, National Association of Secretaries of State (NASS) president 16 and Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate (R) praised the system as a “real win” for everyone. 17 Prior to the 2020 election, Pate issued a press release that said VoteShield tracks all voter registration changes, detects any anomalies, and is available to every county auditor in Iowa. 18

    An official from one unnamed state said that their state’s election security team looked at VoteShield and determined it is “super liberal.” The official also said the state was concerned about undermining public confidence in nonpartisan administration of elections by collaborating with VoteShield. 19

    VoteShield also works to identify improper changes in voter registration and absentee ballot databases that could impact the administration of elections, or confidence in elections. The organization tracks what it identifies as foreign attacks, domestic attacks, what it deems as good faith errors, 20 name and address changes, and others to inform its database. 21

    VoteShield adheres to technology standards set forth by the Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) agency and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. 22

    Funding

    VoteShield is a project of United to Protect Democracy (Protect Democracy). 4 5

    In 2021, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund gave $150,000 to Protect Democracy to support VoteShield. 23

    Liberal billionaire George Soros’s Open Society Foundations contributed $300,000 in 2019 and $150,000 in 2018 to Project Democracy to fund VoteShield. 7 VoteShield also received $300,00 via Project Democracy from the Schmidt Family Foundation in 2018 24 and part of a $160,000 donation to Project Democracy from the left-of-center San Francisco Foundation in 2019. 25

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    References

    1. “Keeping Democracy Safe in the 2020 Election.” Freethink YouTube Channel. Posted 2020. Accessed March 20, 2023. Timestamp 1:50. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeaV9uLq6zE.
    2. “Fair Elections During a Crisis.” UCI Law Ad Hoc Committee for 2020 Election Fairness and Legitimacy. April 2002. Accessed March 20,2023. Pg. 21. https://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2020ElectionReport.pdf.
    3. “VoteShield Profile.” VoteShield Twitter Page. Accessed March 19, 2023. https://twitter.com/VoteShieldUS.
    4. Westrope, Andrew. “Nonprofit’s Free App Flags Suspicious Changes to Voter Rolls.” Government Technology. May 29, 2019. Accessed March 19, 2023. https://www.govtech.com/security/nonprofits-free-app-flags-suspicious-changes-to-voter-rolls.html.
    5. “VoteShield Coverage.” VoteShield. Accessed March 19, 2023. https://www.voteshield.us/about.
    6. “30 Ways Election Officials Boost Voter Confidence and Trust.” Center for Tech and Civic Life December 2020 Newsletter. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.techandciviclife.org/boosting-voter-trust/.
    7. “Awarded Grants.” Open Society Foundations. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/grants/past?filter_keyword=voteshield&grant_id=OR2018-45291.
    8. “VoteShield.” VoteShield LinkedIn Page. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/company/voteshield/about/.
    9. “Quinn Raymond.” Election SOS. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://electionsos.com/coach/raymond-quinn/.
    10. “Connect with a Trusted Elections Expert.” Election SOS. March 20, 2023. https://electionsos.com/expert-network/
    11. “Individual Contributions.” Search Query for “Quinn Raymond.” Federal Election Commission of the United States. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=quinn+raymond.
    12. “Individual Contributions.” Search Query for Quinn Raymond. Federal Election Commission of the United States. Page 2. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/individual-contributions/?contributor_name=quinn+raymond.
    13. “Fact Sheet.” VoteShield. July 2021. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.voteshield.us/static/media/VoteShield%20Fact%20Sheet%202021-07.fd64a7b7.pdf.
    14. “VoteShield Slideshow.” VoteShield. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.voteshield.us/static/media/VoteShield%20Presentation%202021-07.a3d1ad36.pdf.
    15. Gregory A. Huber, Marc Meredith, and Katie Steele. “The racial burden of voter list maintenance errors: Evidence from Wisconsin’s supplemental movers poll books.” Science Advances. February 17, 2021. Vol. 7, Issue 8. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/sciadv.abe4498. (See “Acknowledgments” section.)
    16. “NASS Inducts Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate as President.” National Association of Secretaries of State. July 8, 2019. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.nass.org/node/1689.
    17. “Keeping Democracy Safe in the 2020 Election.” Skoll Foundation. October 13, 2020. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://skoll.org/2020/10/13/keeping-democracy-safe-in-the-2020-election/.
    18. “Guest editorial from Secretary Pate and his Auditor’s Working Group: Working together to protect your vote.” Iowa Secretary of State Paul D. Pate. November 23, 2019. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://sos.iowa.gov/news/2019_12_23.html.
    19. Hemingway, Mark. “Harvard’s ‘Lawfare’ Programs Are an Omen of Elections Decided Not at Polls – But in Court.” Real Clear Investigations. November 30, 2021. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2021/11/30/harvards_lawfare_programs_are_an_omen_of_elections_decided_not_at_polls_-_but_in_court_804560.html.
    20. “VoteShield Informational Document.” VoteShield. July 2022. Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.voteshield.us/static/media/VoteShield%20Overview%202022-07.9b6173b2.pdf.
    21. “Home.” VoteShield. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.voteshield.us/.
    22. “About.” VoteShield. Accessed March 22, 2023. https://www.voteshield.us/about.
    23. “Grants Database.” Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund. 2021. Accessed March 20, 2022. https://ldgfund.org/our-grants/grants-database/?title=protect+democracy&program=&support=&grantyear=
    24. “The Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation.” Return of Private Foundation. (Form 990-PF). 2018. Part XV. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/463460261/201933189349103948/full.
    25. “San Francisco Foundation.” Return of an Organization Exempt From Income Tax. (Form 990). 2019. Schedule I. A https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/10679337/202141369349301959/IRS990ScheduleI.