About Us

The Problems With Our Elections Affect Every Issue You Care About

SMART Elections is a new non-partisan project dedicated to elevating the issue of election reform to an urgent national priority.

There are currently seven main sectors in the election reform movement:

Voting rights (ending voter suppression)
Disability rights (access for voters)
Anti-corruption (getting money out of politics)
Fair Redistricting (ending gerrymandering)
National Popular Vote (ending the Electoral College)
Ranked Choice Voting
Security

These groups are powerful individually – but tend to work separately from each other, and sometimes in opposition to each other. Our nation’s elections are in disrepair. A broad-based coalition of these sectors working cooperatively across the political spectrum can generate the attention and resources necessary to repair our dysfunctional electoral process. SMART elections is dedicated to that cooperative effort.

We are building bridges and lasting partnerships that can produce significant improvements in U.S, elections.

We focus especially on election security because that is our area of expertise, and we know that if security is not addressed - and votes are not counted accurately - then all other reforms are at risk.

SMART stands for

Secure
Marked* & Audited by Hand
Accessible & Accurate
Right to Vote
Transparent

*(for those who are able)

Accessibility

Joe Bravo – Executive Director; Westchester Independent Living Center
Lisa Tarricone - Executive Director; Taconic Resources for Independence, Inc.

Anti-Corruption

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

Audits & Observation

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

Digital Ballot Images

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

Election Officials - Current & Former

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

Election Law Advisor

Deborah Porder - Attorney; Co-Leader; Indivisible Scarsdale, New York

Election Law New York Advis

Allegra Dengler - Co-Founder; Citizens for Voting Integrity, New York

Outreach

Holly Mosher – Outreach Team Leader
T.J. O'Hara – Principal Political Analyst; Independent Voter Network

Voting Rights

Jarret Berg – Attorney and Voting Rights Advocate; Co-founder Vote Early NY
Andrea Miller – Executive Director; People Demanding Action
Renaldo Pearson – Director of External Affairs; RepresentUs

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.

#Election Protection forum hosts

Moderator: Lulu Friesdat

Election Security Journalist

Executive Director of SMART Elections

Ms. Friesdat is a journalist and filmmaker who has contributed to Emmy award-winning coverage at ABC News. Her election security investigations have received over four million views on Now This. Her journalism and advocacy work have been featured in The Washington Post, The Hill, Politico, the Young Turks, The Christian Science Monitor, Salon,and Truthout. She was quoted in the New York TImes regarding the current state of the New York City Board of Elections. Over the course of a more than ten-year career in network news, she has had assignments with NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, CBS, Fox News Channel, and Nightline. Her first documentary "Holler Back - [not] Voting in an American Town" was featured in The Hollywood Reporter as part of a group of "thoughtful and provocative" films being made by women. Follow her on Twitter @LuluFriesdat.

Co-host: Bennie Smith

Shelby County Election Commissioner

Software Developer

Bennie Smith is an advocate for election transparency, and serves on the Technical Advisory Team for SMART Elections. He was featured in a PBS News Hour segment on “What election officials think about paper ballots and voting machines.” He is best known for his proof of concept research examining election system vulnerabilities. It was covered by Bloomberg in its Cyber Security Segment and he was profiled in a cover story by Bloomberg Businessweek. Smith’s research is credited for uncovering an extraordinarily high-risk tampering mechanism and provides a new method for analyzing questionable election results. It is the foundation for the Ballot Image Project and has been presented to election officials, elected officials and at security panels around the country. Follow him on Twitter @BennieJSmith.