Dear John,
I’ve been with Verified Voting since the very beginning and am excited to be back in my role as President & CEO. I want to take a minute to reintroduce myself to you and share why our work has never been more important at this crucial moment for our country’s democracy.
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I joined Verified Voting shortly after we opened our doors in 2004. Since then, the Verified Voting team has worked tirelessly to make our elections more secure, accessible, and trustworthy for voters. After serving as President from 2007 to 2017, I remained committed to our mission and kept working as a Senior Advisor to the organization – giving public testimony, writing election security guidance, and supporting election officials in their work to run safe and secure elections.
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I’ve also continued to represent Verified Voting on the National Task Force on Election Crises, a diverse cross-partisan group of more than 50 experts whose mission is to prevent and mitigate a range of election crises by calling for critical preventative reforms to our election systems. And now I’m thrilled to return to the helm of this fantastic organization.
Over the years, we’ve made significant progress on making our elections more secure and verifiable by advocating alongside our allies for best practices like voter-verified paper ballots, strong chain of custody of the ballots, and robust, routine post-election audits. These measures have never been more important in providing voters with real answers about the trustworthiness of our elections. But some states still use insecure paperless voting systems, and only a handful mandate rigorous post-election risk-limiting audits. Meanwhile, threats to election workers and rampant disinformation continue to endanger our democracy.
Our work isn’t easy, but our team is dedicated to strengthening and protecting U.S. elections. We’re armed with tools to support election officials and resources that give voters justified confidence that their votes will be counted as cast. As we approach the 2022 elections, please join us now by making a gift towards secure, accessible elections and a stronger democracy for all voters.
With thanks,
Pamela Smith, President & CEO
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