About Us

Mission Statement

SMART Elections is a new non-partisan project dedicated to informing and educating communities about how they can achieve better security, accessibility and inclusiveness in their elections, while reducing corruption. There are currently four main sectors in the election reform movement: voting rights, disability rights, anti-corruption (getting money out of politics) and security. These groups are powerful individually – but tend to work in isolation of each other. Our nation’s elections are in disrepair. A broad-based coalition working cooperatively across the political spectrum can bring the attention and resources necessary for significant improvement.

We believe that working together reform groups can elevate the issue of repairing our broken elections into an urgent national priority. SMART elections is dedicated to that effort.

SMART stands for

Secure
Marked* & Audited by Hand
Accessible & Accurate
Registration for all eligible voters
Transparent

*(for those who are able)

Accessibility Team

Joe Bravo – Executive Director; Westchester Independent Living Center
Lisa Tarricone – Director of Systems Advocacy; Westchester Independent Living Center

Anti-Corruption Advisor

T.J. O'Hara – Principal Political Analyst; Independent Voter Network

Audits & Observation Team

Karen McKim – Coordinator; Wisconsin Election Integrity
Virginia Martin Ph.D. – Democratic Election Commissioner; Columbia Co, New York

Digital Ballot Image Team

John Brakey – Co-Founder & Director AUDIT-USA
Emily Levy - Director of Communications AUDIT-USA

Election Officials Advisory Team

Jan BenDor –State-wide coordinator; Michigan Election Reform Alliance
Virginia Martin Ph.D. – Democratic Election Commissioner; Columbia Co, New York
Bennie Smith – Election Commissioner; Memphis TN

Legal Advisor

Jarret Berg – Attorney and Voting Rights Advocate

Legislation Team

Allegra Dengler - Co-Founder; Citizens for Voting Integrity, New York
Deborah Porder - Attorney; Co-Leader; Indivisible Scarsdale, New York

Outreach Team

Jennifer Cohn – Attorney; @jennycohn1
T.J. O'Hara – Principal Political Analyst; Independent Voter Network

Voting Rights Team

Andrea Miller – Executive Director; People Demanding Action
Renaldo Pearson – Co-Mission Director; Democracy Spring

our philosophy

Advisory Team Members come from a variety of backgrounds and represent a diverse collection of viewpoints. Their membership does not represent an endorsement of the information offered by this organization. Nor does this project endorse any specific action or opinion of the advisory team members. We have come together with the belief that by attempting to listen and understand each others’ perspectives we can collectively work more effectively toward a goal that we all cherish – a more fair and effective democracy.