A group of left-wing power brokers have formed a supposedly “nonpartisan” “task force” to control the narrative around the 2024 election.
The National Task Force on Election Crises is a project of the left-wing Protect Democracy Project, a litigation group created to “oppose” former President Donald Trump’s policies, according to InfluenceWatch. The group portrays itself as a disinterested “task force” of election experts working to preserve what it defines as “democracy.”
“Our mission transcends party and ideology,” the group’s website reads. “The task force’s mission is to use its expertise to help civil society and decision-makers prevent, prepare for, and mitigate a range of election crises. The only electoral outcomes the task force advocates for are free, fair, and safe elections.”
But it sounds like this “task force” may be more concerned with censorship and political vengeance than the proper administration of elections.
The group aims to control election discourse on social media, with recommendations to “downgrade or delete” what it deems to be election “disinformation” from media platforms, “hand-pick or remove trending lists,” and prevent supposed “disinformation about voting options and the validity of election results.”
The task force also seeks to “hold candidates and their attorneys accountable” for what it alleges are “bad-faith or frivolous legal challenges” concerning election administration, and “continue to pursue accountability for those who committed criminal acts on and leading up to January 6.”
The group called to remove Trump from office following his speech in Washington D.C. on Jan. 6, naming him an “imminent danger to our country.” The group claimed Trump tried to “overturn the results of a free and fair election” and called for his “remov[al] from office” via “impeachment and/or potential invocation of the 25th Amendment.”
Among the task force’s more than 50 members, which range from government officials to nonprofit and corporate leaders, are some of the most infamous names in the election rigging business.
Government Officials
James Baker, the former FBI counsel who pushed censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story while working at Twitter, is a member of the group. Before that, while at the FBI, he worked with a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign to investigate Trump for since-disproven “Russian collusion,” a lie Baker peddled to Congress.
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff is also part of the task force. He is a co-author of the Patriot Act, which enabled the government to spy on Americans without a warrant. The 2001 bill curtailed the Constitution’s First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth, and 14th Amendments in the name of safety. The CIA may still have been collecting data on citizens as late as 2022.
Matthew Masterson, former senior cybersecurity adviser to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, is another member of the group. CISA has been described as the “nerve center” of government censorship of Americans, and it has recently been focusing on defining and silencing election “disinformation.” Masterson is now director of “information integrity” at Microsoft, which recently drew fire for censoring content in China at the command of the Chinese Communist Party-led government.
Former Congressman Tom Coleman, R-Mo., also a task force member, wrote an opinion in 2019 calling the Trump presidency “illegitimate” and calling for impeachment. “In addition to receiving campaign help from Russian operatives, the president obstructed justice,” Coleman wrote. He based his argument on the long-since debunked Trump-Russia collusion hoax that Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign planted.
Amber McReynolds is the vice chair of the board of governors for the United States Postal Service. In 2020, McReynolds was CEO of the National Vote at Home Institute (NVAHI), which works to advance mail-in voting across the country. The group accessed absentee ballots and worked to shift Michigan’s election policy. McReynolds is also a current member of the task force.
Left-Wing Nonprofit Leaders
Héctor Sánchez Barba, chair of Planned Parenthood Global, is another member of the group. Planned Parenthood Global advances abortion and what it calls “sexual and reproductive health and rights” across 10 countries. He is also CEO of Mi Familia Vota, which aims to mobilize immigrants and Latino communities to vote for the left.
Task force member Janai Nelson is president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. While the group won the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, it has since strayed from its mission. According to InfluenceWatch, the group argued for a university’s “race-conscious admissions program” at the Supreme Court in 2016.
Tiana Epps-Johnson, founder and executive director of the Center for Tech and Civic Life, and David Becker, a “hardcore leftist” and founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, are both members. Mark Zuckerberg shuttled close to $420 million through CTCL and CEIR to local election offices in 2020, boosting Democratic turnout in the general election. The partisan election funding took on the nickname “Zuckbucks.”
Member Tammy Patrick is CEO of programs at the National Association of Election Officials. She is also in the circle of advisers at NVAHI and was a senior adviser for elections at the left-wing financial powerhouse Democracy Fund.
Jennifer Morrell is co-founder and CEO of The Elections Group, which claimed to offer assistance for election officials during 2020 due to Covid-19, according to InfluenceWatch. The group partners with CTCL and NVAHI to offer “solutions” to officials relating to Democrat-backed practices like mail voting and ballot drop boxes. Morrell is also a consultant for Democracy Fund.
Megan Lewis is co-founder and director of Voting Rights Lab, which aims to “transform our voting systems,” according to InfluenceWatch. The group supports felon voting and advances vote-by-mail policies. Voting Rights Lab is a “former project” of New Venture Fund, which falls under the umbrella of left-wing dark money network Arabella Advisors.
Corporations
Yasmin Green is CEO of Jigsaw, a unit within Google that develops technology to address perceived “threats to open societies.” The group has been described as the “National Security Council of Google,” and it aims to strengthen “collective defenses” against what it considers “disinformation.” Green is also a member of the Aspen Institute’s Commission on Information Disorder, which was created to research “‘mis- and disinformation’ on topics including the 2020 presidential election and ‘vaccine safety,’” according to InfluenceWatch.
Task force member Sam Hirsch works for Jenner and Block, a law firm that often takes Democratic causes, according to InfluenceWatch. He was former President Barack Obama’s deputy associate attorney general and has been involved in multiple left-wing redistricting projects.
Implications Going Forward
If the task force’s public vitriol for one of 2024’s two main presidential candidates and its calls for using censorship and lawfare to chill speech aren’t enough evidence that the group may not be an unbiased arbiter of “free and fair elections,” its membership list should be.
From the co-author of the Patriot Act, to leaders of “Zuckbucks” groups, to the CEO of Google’s de-facto “National Security Council,” the group’s roster raises the specter of powerful interests collaborating to meddle in America’s electoral process.
Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is originally from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.
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