Election Assistance Task Force
On September 8, 2020, the APSA Council approved the creation of an Election Assistance Task Force to leverage the expertise and experience of political scientists to support free, fair, and open elections in the United States on November 3, 2020 and thereafter. Consistent with the APSA bylaws, the Task Force on Election Assistance is non-partisan.
The purpose of the task force is to foster broader knowledge and understanding of non-partisan election assistance, including resources on non-partisan voter mobilization organizations, poll worker recruitment, technical aid to election officials implementing new systems, voter registration, the prevention of voter intimidation and disenfranchisement, and an understanding of how political scientists empirically identify and measure voter fraud.
Task Force Members and Volunteers
- Janet Box-Steffensmeier, APSA President, Ohio State University
- Lee Ann Banaszak, Task Force Co-Chair, Penn State University
- David Lublin, Task Force Co-Chair, American University
- Christina Barsky, University of Montana
- Camille Burge, Villanova University
- Darren Davis, University of Notre Dame
- Erik Herron, West Virginia University
- Doug Hess, Grinnell College
- Marc Meredith, University of Pennsylvania
- Costas Panagopoulos, Northeastern University
- Kay L. Schlozman, Boston College
- Jennifer Victor, George Mason University
- Veronica Reyna, Houston Community College
- Taeku Lee, University of California Berkeley
Subcommittees
The Task Force is targeting five issues related to the election. Political scientists interested in contributing to the subcommittees are encouraged to contact the subcommittee chairs directly. Please contact Abby Paulson (apaulson@apsanet.org) with any questions.
- Making a Voting Plan and Voter Registration (Veronica Reyna)
- Recruiting Poll Workers (Lee Ann Banaszak)
- Drawing Attention to Racial Disparities and Disfranchisement (Darren Davis)
- Fighting False Narratives on the Conduct of Elections (Costas Panagopoulos)
- Helping APSA Members Publish Op-Eds in Local Papers (Jennifer Victor)
- Joint APSA and NCOBPS fact sheet on voter intimidation
- Fact sheet on voter and election fraud (contact apaulson@apsanet.org for media contacts)
- Initial op-eds placed through the Task Force