Pamela Smith is a left-of-center election law activist known for her opposition to electronic voting. ¹ She works as president and CEO of Verified Voting and its partner organization, the Verified Voting Foundation, nonpartisan organizations with significant ties to left-of-center organizations such as the Brennan Center for Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union. ² Smith has been with Verified Voting since its founding in 2004 in many capacities, including a previous decade-long term as president and then as senior advisor for the organization. ^{3 4}

Smith is also a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises, a cross-partisan task force which promotes the viewpoint that the 2020 elections were “free from systemic or significant fraud.” ^{5 6}

Early Career and Affiliations

Before her time at Verified Voting, Smith worked as a small business and marketing consultant, and served as an executive for a nonprofit Hispanic educational organization. ⁷

Throughout her career, Smith has maintained positions within a variety of organizations related to election laws, including as a board member of the California Voter Foundation and an evaluation panel judge for the Stronger Democracy Award. ^{8 9}

After the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, Smith became a member of the cross-partisan National Task Force on Election Crises, an organization which promotes the validity of the 2020 elections, calls the January 6^th Capitol attacks a “violent insurrection” instigated by former President Donald Trump, and terms alternative viewpoints “disinformation.” ¹⁰

Verified Voting

In 2004, Smith joined the then-newly founded organization Verified Voting as nationwide coordinator. ^{11 12}  She served in this capacity for three years before being elected as president of the organization for ten years. Smith then worked as a consultant and senior advisor for the organization until early 2022, when she was reinstated as Verified Voting’s president and CEO. ^{13 14}

Verified Voting’s efforts center on providing resources and assistance to local election officials and conducting post-election audits. ¹⁵ The organization was founded by computer scientists and is extensively involved in advocacy against electronic voting; it promotes paper-ballot voting safer alternative. ^{16 17}

In a 2016 statement recorded by the Detroit Free Press, Smith, on behalf of Verified Voting, expressed concerns over paperless ballot systems in states such as Louisiana and South Carolina. According to Smith, Verified Voting would “like to see zero paperless states.” ¹⁸ In a 2015 comment to the Virginia Regulatory Town Hall, Smith vocally supported the de-certification of Virginia’s electronic voting system, recommending that the state instead implement “voter-verifiable paper ballot systems” to ensure election integrity. ¹⁹

Smith has dismissed former President Donald Trump’s speculations that voting machines could have changed votes for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney into votes for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama during the 2012 elections. Smith told PolitiFact that such an error could not be “an indication of the system being rigged. That’s an indication that it’s lost its calibration.” PolitiFact summarized her opinion that the issues Trump alleged were technical programming problems. ²⁰

Following the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, Verified Voting claimed that a “dedicated group of technically sophisticated individuals could steal an election by hacking voting machines in key counties in just a few states.” ²¹ After the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, a Verified Voting press release described the election as “the most secure in recent American history.” ²²

Smith also condemned efforts by citizens to verify whether fraud occurred during the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, citing concerns that such attempts violated the “fundamental right in American elections” to a secret ballot. ²³

1. Kathleen Gray. “Michigan votes safe from tampering, experts say.” Detroit Free Press. September 20, 2016. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/20/michigan-votes-safe-tampering-experts-say/90278144/
2. Verified Voting. “Verified Voting Annual Report 2020.” Accessed May 15, 2022. https://verifiedvoting.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Verified-Voting-Annual-Report-2020.pdf
3. LinkedIn. Pamela Smith. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-smith-9a385123
4. Aurora Matthews. “Verified Voting Announces Pamela Smith as President & CEO.” Verified Voting. March 3, 2022. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://verifiedvoting.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/3.03.22-VV-Announces-New-President-CEO-Pam-Smith.pdf
5. National Task Force on Election Crises. “Members.” Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/members
6. National Task Force on Election Crises. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/
7. Evaluation Panel. “Pamela Smith.” Stronger Democracy Award. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.strongerdemocracyaward.org/evaluation-panel/pamela-smith
8. California Voter Foundation. “Board and Staff.” Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.calvoter.org/content/board-and-staff
9. Evaluation Panel. “Pamela Smith.” Stronger Democracy Award. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.strongerdemocracyaward.org/evaluation-panel/pamela-smith
10. National Task Force on Election Crises. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.electiontaskforce.org/
11. Verified Voting. “Strengthening Democracy for All Voters.” Accessed May 15, 2022. https://verifiedvoting.org/about/
12. LinkedIn. Pamela Smith. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-smith-9a385123
13. LinkedIn. Pamela Smith. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-smith-9a385123
14. Aurora Matthews. “Verified Voting Announces Pamela Smith as President & CEO.” Verified Voting. March 3, 2022. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://verifiedvoting.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/3.03.22-VV-Announces-New-President-CEO-Pam-Smith.pdf
15. Verified Voting. “Strengthening Democracy for All Voters.” Accessed May 15, 2022. https://verifiedvoting.org/about/
16. LinkedIn. Verified Voting Foundation. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.linkedin.com/company/verified-voting-foundation?trk=public_profile_topcard-current-company
17. Marian K. Scheider. “Verified Voting Recommends Hand-Marked Paper Ballots For Georgia To SAFE Commission.” Verified Voting. January 8, 2019. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://verifiedvoting.org/verified-voting-recommends-hand-marked-paper-ballots-for-georgia-to-safe-commission/
18. Kathleen Gray. “Michigan votes safe from tampering, experts say.” Detroit Free Press. September 20, 2016. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2016/09/20/michigan-votes-safe-tampering-experts-say/90278144/
19. Pamela Smith. “Moving Forward to Verifiable Voting Systems – Decertify Winvote.” Virginia Regulatory Town Hall. April 12, 2015. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://townhall.virginia.gov/L/viewcomments.cfm?commentid=39939
20.  Linda Qiu. “Donald Trump’s baseless claims about the election being ‘rigged’.” PolitiFact. August 15, 2016. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2016/aug/15/donald-trump/donald-trumps-baseless-claims-about-election-being/
21. David Dill. “Our Voting System Is Hackable by Foreign Powers.” Verified Voting. February 17, 2017. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://verifiedvoting.org/our-voting-system-is-hackable-by-foreign-powers/
22. Verified Voting. “This Was Not An Audit: Verified Voting Rejects Credibility of Arizona Sham Review of 2020 Election.” September 24, 2021. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://verifiedvoting.org/statement-arizona-sham-review/
23. Alexandra Ulmer and Nathan Lume. “Trump allies breach U.S. voting systems in search of 2020 fraud ‘evidence’.” Reuters. April 28, 2022. Accessed May 15, 2022. https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/usa-election-breaches/