Misinformation, threats to elections focus of task force established by Shapiro

Feb. 29—HARRISBURG — The Pennsylvania Election Threats Task Force, a diverse mix of governmental entities, was established by Gov. Josh Shapiro as the contentious 2024 presidential election approaches.

The task force, announced Thursday, will be led by Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt.

It includes members of the governor's cabinet including the attorney general, state inspector general and Office of Information Technology, Department of State and county elections leaders, Pennsylvania State Police and Department of Military and Veteran's Affairs, federal prosecutors across the commonwealth and U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

The task force is born out of a 2018 initiative by former Gov. Tom Wolf, the Inter-Agency Election Preparedness and Security Workgroup.

The intent is to plan a response to threats and attacks on state elections, officials said. That includes protecting voters from being intimidated at the polls and providing "accurate, trusted election information."

"As attorney general, I brought law enforcement leaders at every level together to ensure our elections remained free from fraud, interference, and intimidation here in Pennsylvania — and I made a commitment to continuing that work as governor," Shapiro said in a statement announcing the task force.

The Shapiro administration highlighted actions taken to strengthen election administration including requiring counties to operate voting machines with an auditable paper trail. They were put in place ahead of the 2020 presidential election. The administration also highlighted the enactment of universal mail-in voting, a moving target for criticism by Republicans who are also encouraging their own party members to utilize the traditional, in-person ballot-casting method.

Shapiro defended the integrity of Pennsylvania's elections in 2020 as former President Donald Trump lobbed baseless accusations about widespread fraud, particularly focusing on Philadelphia.

Those claims remain unsubstantiated but the commonwealth is expected to again be the target of such accusations as Trump seeks reelection against a familiar opponent, President Joe Biden, winner of the 2020 election.

House Republican Leader Bryan Cutler on Thursday said the task force's reestablishment shows that Shapiro "misses the point" on election security.

"The greatest threats to Pennsylvanians having confidence in our elections are a state Supreme Court that willfully refuses to follow the plain language of Pennsylvania's election laws as enacted by the Pennsylvania General Assembly; a Pennsylvania Department of State that has a history of offering conflicting, confusing and last minute election guidance that purposefully sows chaos, confusion and discord into the election process; and a Democratic Party that has proudly refused to embrace even the most universally supported election security measures that would increase confidence in our election process by requiring Pennsylvanians to show identification each time they vote," Cutler said in a press release.