Pennsylvania launches new election threat task force

CNN
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Pennsylvania is launching a new task force focused on election threats, a key effort in the battleground state for the 2024 election.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro announced the task force Thursday, saying it would “protect the rights of all citizens.”

“Pennsylvania is the birthplace of American democracy, and we will continue to protect Pennsylvanians’ fundamental freedoms and ensure a free, fair, safe, and secure election this November,” Shapiro said in a statement provided to CNN. We are working hard to implement it.”

Efforts to combat election misinformation, incidents of voter intimidation, and other threats to the election process made Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, one of former President Donald Trump’s targets after the 2020 election. This was done in response to this. Trump and his allies sought to delegitimize the Keystone State results by claiming fraud, demanding audits and attacking election officials.

The task force will focus on providing voters with “accurate and reliable election information,” the statement said. The organization is comprised of federal, state, and local officials, including representatives from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, state attorney general’s offices, local election officials, and state police.

The unit will be led by Secretary of State Al Schmidt, the state’s top elections official. In his statement, he said the task force has been called into action following recent incidents by “bad actors” who are spreading lies about the election and trying to “delegitimize our safe, secure, and accurate elections.” confirmed that it had been launched.

After the 2020 election, Trump and his allies falsely declared his victory in Pennsylvania premature and tried to block officials from completing the counting of mail-in votes. Mr. Shapiro, then the state attorney general, and Mr. Schmidt, then the only Republican on the Philadelphia Board of Elections, were the main opponents of Mr. Trump’s efforts.

As the state works to protect its primary elections scheduled for April, Schmidt will also be tasked with addressing another effect of the 2020 election’s widespread lies: increased intimidation of election officials. ing.

In Pennsylvania, CNN previously reported that nearly 70 county election officials or assistant election officials have left their jobs in at least 40 of the state’s 67 counties since January 2020. Mr Schmidt warned that the exodus of experienced staff would only fuel more conspiracy theories in the coming months.

CNN’s Fredreka Schouten and Gregory Krieg contributed to this report.