Elections 2026: Everything You Need to Know With David Becker & Ben Ginsberg | TFAD Webinar

This webinar is part of the Task Force for American Democracy’s special Focus on Elections series. In the run-up to the 2026 midterms, the Task Force is conducting a special series of programs with a focus on elections and voting. This program will feature two esteemed election law experts to discuss what types of interference we can expect during elections this year. Based on reports and forecasts from late 2025 and early 2026, election interference in the 2026 US midterm elections is expected to involve a mix of high-tech digital deception, insider threats, and potential federal actions aimed at disrupting election administration. Key threats include the widespread use of AI-generated misinformation, attempts to seize voting technology, and reduced federal support for election security. The webinar will also discuss voter suppression, the seizure of voting records, issues with mail-in voting, federal officials stationed at polling places, and a reported proposed executive order to suspend elections altogether. Speakers: David Becker, Executive Director and Founder, Center for Election Innovation & Research and member, Task Force for American Democracy Ben Ginsberg, Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution Moderator: Mary Smith, Past President, American Bar Association, and Director, Task Force for American Democracy About the Speakers: David Becker, Executive Director and Founder, Center for Election Innovation & Research and member, Task Force for American Democracy David Becker is the Executive Director and Founder of the nonpartisan, non-profit Center for Election Innovation & Research, working with election officials of both parties, all around the country, to ensure accessible, secure elections for all eligible voters. A key element of his work with CEIR is managing the Election Official Legal Defense Network (EOLDN.org), providing pro bono legal assistance to election officials who are threatened with frivolous criminal prosecution, harassment, or physical violence. Prior to founding CEIR, he was Director of the elections program at The Pew Charitable Trusts. As the lead for Pew’s analysis and advocacy on elections issues, Mr. Becker spearheaded development of the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, which to date has helped a bipartisan group of thirty states update over 25 million out-of-date voter records, and helped those states register tens of millions of new eligible voters. Before joining Pew, Mr. Becker served for seven years as a senior trial attorney in the Voting Section of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division., overseeing voting rights enforcement in several states. Ben Ginsberg, Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution Ben Ginsberg is the Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a nationally known political law advocate representing participants in the political process. Ginsberg’s representations have ranged across a variety of election law and regulatory issues, including voting issues and elections, federal and state campaign finance laws, recounts and contests, government investigations, election administration, and redistricting. He served as cochair of the bipartisan Presidential Commission on Election Administration, which produced a much-lauded report on best practices and recommendations for state and local officials to make US elections run better. He served as national counsel to the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney presidential campaigns and played a central role in the 2000 Florida recount. In 2012 and 2008, he served as national counsel to the Romney for President campaign. He has represented the campaigns and leadership PACs of numerous members of the Senate and House as well as national party committees, governors, and state officials. He was a partner at Jones Day from 2014 to 2020 and, before that, at Patton Boggs for 23 years. Learn more about the Task Force for American Democracy at democracy-taskforce.org.