2024 Election Science Task Force

Joseph Anthony

Joseph Anthony (he/him) is an assistant professor of political science at the State University of New York at Cortland (SUNY-Cortland). His research focuses on US election administration and policy, investigating the institutional structures that impact political participation, as well as the organizational structures that mobilize this participation.

Andrea Benjamin

Andrea Benjamin (she/her) is an associate professor in the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies at the University of Oklahoma, in Oklahoma City. She brings to the task force a wealth of experience with community-engaged coalition building, and understanding of the relationship between voters of color and electoral systems, voter registration, and turnout campaigns.

Jocelyn Benson

Jocelyn Benson (she/her) is Michigan's 43rd Secretary of State. Benson’s work overseeing Michigan’s 2020 and 2022 general elections—both of which drew record-breaking turnout and were noted for their security—earned her national recognition, including the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award and the Presidential Citizens Medal. Secretary Benson brings institutional knowledge on statewide election administration and how to maximize voter access to ballots.

Kathy Boockvar

Kathy Boockvar (she/her) is president of Athena Strategies, LLC and works closely with a broad base of organizations including government officials and academic institutions to strengthen election security, access to democracy, and to amplify understanding and civil discourse about elections in the United States. Formerly the Secretary of State of Pennsylvania, she brings institutional knowledge on election security and preparedness.

Derek Bowens

Derek Bowens (he/him) has served as the director of elections for the County Board of Elections in Durham, North Carolina since June, 2017. He was previously the director of elections in New Hanover County, North Carolina and has served as an election administrator since 2012. Derek is also nationally certified through the National Association of Election Officials and brings to the task force election administration experience from multiple elections.

Mitchell Brown

Mitchell Brown (he/him) graduated from North Carolina A&T State University in May 2012, and from New York University School of Law in May 2017. Mitchell, based in Durham, North Carolina, works against voter suppression in the South, including protecting voters—especially voters of color—from restricted access to the polls and vote dilution. Mitchell brings experience working with local voting rights advocates to find solutions to these issues.

Ivy AM Cargile

Ivy AM Cargile (she/her) is an associate professor of political science at California State University, Bakersfield. Her research focuses on both elite and non-elite voter behavior as well as women political candidates. Ivy brings a particular focus on how Latinx voters are influenced across various domains such as voter turnout, candidate evaluations, and public opinion about issues important to the community.

Sharon Dolente

Located in Albany, California, Sharon Dolente (she/her) is a senior advisor at Promote the Vote and has 20 years of experience as an advocate in Michigan working to create a voting system that works for all people. She also developed and served as a senior advisor on Michigan’s successful voting rights ballot initiatives. Sharon brings experience working with both grassroots and grass tops leaders to eliminate disparities in civic engagement.

Kathy Holland

Kathy Holland (she/her) is a certified North Carolina elections official and has demonstrated a lifelong devotion to the electoral process throughout her 32-year career with the Alamance County Board of Elections in the state. She retired as the county’s director of elections in 2021 while serving as president of the North Carolina Association of Directors of Elections. Kathy brings election administration experience to the task force through her many years of public service.

Adrienne Jones

Dr. Adrienne Jones (she/her) is an assistant professor of political science and the director of the pre-law department at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. Her research focuses on the history and politics of Black Americans and on public policy issues related to Black Americans. She notably offered public testimony in Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger, a case in which the courts ordered a redrawing of Georgia’s state district maps to ensure more equitable representation for Black communities in the state.

Neal Kelley

Neal Kelley (he/him) is the retired Registrar of Voters for Orange County, California, the fifth largest voting jurisdiction in the United States, serving more than 1.9 million registered voters. He served in that position from 2005 through 2022 and led the office through the largest cycle of elections since Orange County was founded in 1889. He currently teaches election management for the University of Minnesota and chairs the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, bringing institutional knowledge on election administration.

Josephine Lukito

Josephine “Jo” Lukito (she/her) is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Journalism and Media. She is also the director of the Media & Democracy Data Cooperative and a senior faculty research affiliate for the Center for Media Engagement. Josephine brings to the task force expertise on political language in the information ecology with a focus on harmful digital content, longitudinal modeling, and multi-platform discursive flows.

Jennifer Morrell

Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, Jennifer Morrell (she/her) is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of The Elections Group, where she develops professional resources for elections officials and consults on election administration and auditing. Since co-founding The Elections Group in 2020, she has focused her work on providing direct support to elections jurisdictions and states. Jennifer’s expertise is in consulting and providing guidance on all aspects of elections administration, including mail/absentee ballot processing, physical and cybersecurity, audits, and chain of custody considerations.

Kamaryn Norris

Kamaryn Norris (she/her) is the Democracy Campaign Director at the Philadelphia-based organization Pennsylvania Voice, where she provides strategic direction on the statewide annual voting rights and reflective democracy advocacy campaign plans. This work includes policy advocacy in service of the organization’s partners’ priorities around increasing access to the ballot, an equitable redistricting process, and census engagement, which all build toward a representative and inclusive multiracial democracy. Kamaryn’s expertise is in equitable redistricting and census engagement.

Tammy Patrick

Tammy Patrick (she/her) is the Chief Executive Officer for Programs at the Election Center. Tammy has been working in the field of election administration since 2003—most recently as the senior advisor to the Elections Program at Democracy Fund. Focusing on modern elections, Tammy’s expertise lies in fostering voter-centric elections systems and in supporting election officials across the country.

Alec Ramsay

Located in Seattle, Washington, Alec Ramsay (he/him) is a redistricting analyst at the nonprofit, volunteer-driven organization Dave’s Redistricting. He has a strong background in tech, including a long stint at Microsoft where he led large cross-functional engineering teams. Since leaving Microsoft, he’s worked in the “civic tech for good” space, mostly on redistricting. Alec wrote the analytics engine for Dave's Redistricting, where the mission is to empower civic organizations and citizen activists to better understand redistricting so that they can advocate for fair congressional and legislative districts. Alec brings experience using technology to simulate the redistricting process.

Ezra Rosenberg

Ezra Rosenberg (he/him) is the co-director of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, overseeing its voting rights litigation, a robust portfolio of over 130 cases in which the Lawyers’ Committee has participated over the last nine years. He has tried several of these cases, including successful challenges to Texas’s voter ID law and to the Trump Administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census. Ezra brings legal expertise on voting rights litigation.

Scott Seeborg

Scott Seeborg (he/him) is the co-director of states at the nonprofit organization All Voting is Local. Seeborg previously served as campaign and implementation manager with the Center for Secure & Modern Elections, passing automatic voter registration (AVR) laws at the state level, and working with state officials, technical experts, and voting rights advocates to ensure successful implementation of AVR after passage. Having been the Pennsylvania state director with All Voting is Local for over two years, Seeborg brings to the task force direct experience building county-based election administration support, advocacy, and accountability campaigns to expand the freedom to vote from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh and in between.

Alejandra Tres

Located in Seattle, Washington, Alejandra Tres (she/her) is a co-founder of both Comunidad and the Battle for Democracy Fund. Alejandra has also served as an executive director to both local and national groups and consultant to foundations and immigrant organizations. Her award-winning expertise is in community organizing and recruiting people to join her in the work of remaking the world as it should be.

Quentin Turner

Quentin Turner (he/him) is the program director at Common Cause. Located in Detroit, Michigan, he developed his love for community outreach and service work while studying at Eastern Michigan University. His area of expertise includes the US Constitution, courts, gerrymandering, and voting and elections.

Thomas Whitaker

Thomas Whitaker (he/him) is the data and analytics director at the Georgia-based nonprofit organization Fair Count. He has led the organization’s data team and its research efforts since 2020, overseeing projects that evaluate the impact of outreach on turnout, visualize community of interest maps to elevate fairness of proposed redistricting plans, and piloting the use of artificial intelligence to analyze voter sentiment from canvassing data. He brings to the task force expertise on both community organizing and data research to inform campaigns on outreach, turnout gaps, and voter sentiment.

For press inquiries, please contact Seth Michaels at smichaels@ucsusa.org

This document was last edited on 2/13/24.