Protected tens of thousands of voters from disfranchisement, intimidation, suppression, and election manipulation, and secured new precedents around the Ku Klux Klan Act and the Voting Rights Act.
Protecting Free & Fair Elections
Our Work
Without free, fair, and secure elections, voters have no voice, little control over the direction of the country, and few ways to correct course when things go awry.

Elections are the linchpin of our democracy. Holding elections, and ensuring that power changes hands in accordance with their outcomes, is the essence of democratic self-government. By defending them, we also protect our rights and our system of government.
This takes two steps. First, we defend the process of holding elections. We do so by making sure that election officials are allowed to do their work without interference, that election systems are secure, and that politicians are unable to dictate the outcome or manipulate election rules.
Second, we protect voters’ ability to participate meaningfully in the process, free from intimidation and harassment.
By ensuring that elections remain free, fair, and secure, we maintain our collective ability to shape the future of the country — or, when needed, to change course. In that, we protect voters’ trust in the results, even when their preferred candidates lose.
- Build secure, accessible, and accurate election systems and processes that are free from interference from foreign adversaries or domestic political actors.
- Create guardrails that ensure voters and candidates abide by the outcomes of every election.
- Foster public confidence in the fact that elections are free, fair, and secure.
Helped defend the 2020 and 2022 elections from attempts to manipulate and subvert a free and fair result, and assisted in the passage of reforms to the Electoral Count Act that will better protect the will of the voters and the transfer of presidential power.
SPOTLIGHT: Protecting Election Workers and why it matters SPOTLIGHT: Protecting Election Workers

A Democracy Crisis in the Making
How state legislators are politicizing, criminalizing, and interfering with election administrators.
June 8, 2023

How generative AI could make existing election threats even worse
AI currently remains an amplifier of threats rather than a new root cause.
November 3, 2023

Interfaith America and Protect Democracy Launch Faith in Elections Playbook One Year Before 2024 Election
Today, the country’s marquee interfaith organization, Interfaith America, and a leading cross-partisan democracy nonprofit, Protect Democracy, launched the Faith in Elections Playbook.
November 2, 2023

City of San Marcos and Texas Police Officials Settle Case After Refusing to Protect Biden-Harris Supporters from “Trump Train” Ambush, Violating the Klan Act
The settlement includes victim compensation, acknowledgment of subpar police conduct, and mandatory training of the police force
October 18, 2023

Protect Democracy Joins CLC in Urging FEC to Regulate Fraudulent AI-Based Campaign Ads
Protect Democracy and the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) urge the FEC to use its existing authority to clarify that use of AI in campaign communications to deceive or defraud voters is illegal.
October 17, 2023

The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, explained
The Ku Klux Klan Act used nearly all of Congress’s constitutional powers to respond to the Klan’s coordinated political violence and intimidation.
October 17, 2023

Ruby Freeman and Wandrea’ ArShaye Moss Win Sweeping Victory, Default Judgment Against Rudy Giuliani
Judge orders a trial on the amount of damages take place some time between November 2023 and February 2024.
August 30, 2023

“It Takes All of Us”: A Playbook for Protecting the 2024 Election
Chris Crawford addresses The Parliament of the World’s Religions, outlining the role Americans of different political and religious beliefs can play in protecting democracy.
August 29, 2023

A contingent election, explained
A contingent election is what happens if no one wins 270 electoral votes. The House selects a president & the Senate selects a vice president
August 22, 2023

What is the Big Lie?
The Big Lie is the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and that the Republicans who affirmed Biden’s victory were part of a conspiracy to defeat their own party’s president
August 15, 2023

What is election subversion?
Election subversion is any effort to change the rules to prevent the true election winner from taking office. It includes disinformation, voter intimidation & suppression, and election denialism.
August 14, 2023