PA Election Security Task Force Unveiled By Gov. Shapiro

PENNSYLVANIA - Gov. Josh Shapiro has announced a new task force aimed at boosting election security in the Keystone State in partnership with federal, state and local agencies.

Dubbed The Election Threats Task Force, the coalition will involve officials from various agencies including state police, homeland security, information technology and election administration and will be helmed by Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt.

“Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American democracy, and we are working to continue defending Pennsylvanians’ fundamental freedoms and ensure we have a free, fair, safe, secure election this November," Shapiro said in a Feb. 29 statement.

“We take our responsibility as stewards of our democracy seriously and the Election Threats Task Force will ensure all levels of government are working together to combat misinformation, safeguard the rights of every citizen, and ensure this election is safe, secure, free, and fair.”

The main goal of the task force will be to rapidly share information and coordinate efforts across agencies to ensure officials can identify and prevent election process threats, including voter intimidation and misinformation.

The announcement was made just eight months before the 2024 presidential election comes to the battleground Keystone State.

In December, Donald Trump told his supporters to "guard the vote" and "go into" Philadelphia and other major cities to “watch those votes when they come in.”

The task force is the latest effort from the governor's office and the Department of State. In recent years, the state has adopted new, state-of-the-art voting systems with auditable paper trails, as well as no-excuse mail-in voting in 2020. Most recently, Shapiro's administration created handouts containing voting and unveiled an election security and a fact check webpage at vote.pa.gov.

“In recent years, we’ve seen bad-faith actors attempt to exploit these changes by spreading lies and baseless conspiracy theories, and attempting to delegitimize our safe, secure, and accurate elections,” Schmidt said in a statement.

“This task force has been working together to develop and coordinate plans to combat this dangerous misinformation and continue providing all eligible voters with accurate, trusted election information. Together with Governor Shapiro and our local, state, and federal partners, we will continue working to ensure we have another free and fair, safe and secure election.”