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

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

“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

All eyes on Pennsylvania: Upcoming court elections will impact the 2024 election and beyond
This November, Pennsylvania voters will weigh in on statewide judicial vacancies of critical importance for future elections.
August 8, 2023

One quiet bipartisan way state legislatures are making election administration stronger
The growing movement to protect election officials through state legislatures has built momentum.
July 6, 2023

Six justices agree: the independent state legislature theory is dead
A six-justice majority rejected the independent state legislature theory. Here's what that victory means, and what comes next.
June 27, 2023

Why Virginia’s felony disenfranchisement violates the Readmission Act
"The Commonwealth’s lifetime disenfranchisement of voters convicted of any felony violates the 150-year old Virginia Readmission Act
June 26, 2023

The 117th Congress Left American Democracy Stronger Than It Found It
With advances on ECA reform and other democracy legislation, a departing Congress leaves American democracy in slightly better shape than it found it for the first time in over a decade.
January 4, 2023