As a fall rematch between President Biden and former President Donald J. Trump becomes increasingly likely, Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor is announcing an Election Threats Task Force, a federal-state partnership, in the battleground state.
The task force, announced Thursday morning by Gov. Josh Shapiro, will seek to thwart attempts to disrupt elections and protect voters from intimidation. The organization includes the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Pennsylvania Department of State and several state agencies.
In a country already awash in disinformation and lies about the security and integrity of elections, the task force highlights how seriously elected officials are taking threats to the upcoming campaign.
Pennsylvania is one of the first battleground states, if not the first, to announce such collaboration back in November.
“We take our responsibility as stewards of our democracy seriously and the Election Threats Task Force will ensure that all levels of government work together to combat misinformation, protect the rights of every citizen and ensure this election is safe, free and fair.” Mr. Shapiro said in a statement.
After the 2020 election, Pennsylvania election officials had to manage sustained efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to overturn his reelection loss in a state that Mr. Biden won by 80,000 votes.
Mr. Shapiro, then the attorney general, fought several lawsuits, including an attempt to invalidate millions of ballots. Other election officials, including Al Schmidt, a Republican who was now secretary of the commonwealth and then election official in Philadelphia, received death threats.
“Over the past few years, we have seen malicious actors attempt to exploit these changes by spreading lies and baseless conspiracy theories and attempting to delegitimize our secure and accurate elections,” Mr. Schmidt said in a statement. “This task force has worked together to develop and coordinate plans to combat this dangerous misinformation and continue to provide accurate, trustworthy election information to all eligible voters.”
In addition to the task force, Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Schmidt created a fact-checking page on the government website and debunked numerous false claims about the 2020 election and voting in the state.
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2024-02-29 11:30:06
www.nytimes.com