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Stopping Election Interference

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Overview

Free, fair, and regular elections are the cornerstone of democracy. But elections cannot be free and fair when one of the candidates meddles with the rules or unfairly tilts the playing field in his or her favor. In recent years, there have been alarming incidents of state and federal elected officials exercising improper influence in their own election contests.

This abuse of power threatens the integrity of our electoral process and strikes at the heart of American democracy. Protect Democracy is committed to preventing election manipulation by elected officials and has taken concrete action to preserve free and fair elections across the country.

Manipulation at the Federal Level

During his term in office, President Trump repeatedly signaled that he was willing to use his official powers to interfere with U.S. elections. He has:

  • Demanded the criminal investigation of political opponents;
  • Spread unfounded allegations of voter fraud to justify disenfranchising voters of color;
  • Encouraged and endorsed violence toward voters who don’t support his policies;
  • Used rhetorical and regulatory tools to silence unfriendly media;
  • Stoked fears of “invasion” by black and brown migrants in advance of the midterm elections; and
  • Suggested that he will tolerate, or even welcome, foreign interference in our elections.

A sitting president is free to compete in an election following the same rules as other candidates, but he is not free to use the powers of his office to interfere with the rules of that election. Protect Democracy proposed a set of legislative solutions and is calling on Congress to erect new guardrails to protect our elections from improper interference by any future president.

Among other measures, Congress should limit the role of federal law enforcement, including immigration officials, around the polls on Election Day, restrict politicized prosecutions of political candidates, and tighten prohibitions on deceiving and intimidating voters. Read the proposals here.

Election manipulation white paper (Text)

Manipulation at the State Level

Secretaries of state wield significant power in the administration of elections, which can open the electoral process to abuse. In Kansas, Secretary of State Kris Kobach sparked an ethics crisis when he initially refused to recuse himself from overseeing the recount of the 2018 gubernatorial contest between himself and his primary opponent.

That same year, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, who was also running for governor, purged voters from the state’s voter rolls, froze 53,000 voter registration applications, and used the official secretary of state website to accuse his opponents, without evidence, of trying to hack the state’s voting system. Protect Democracy sued and forced Secretary Kemp to step down. (Read more about Brown v. Kemp.)

Improper influence in elections is not only possible for secretaries of state, as demonstrated in 2018 when Florida Governor Rick Scott instructed a state police agency that he oversaw to investigate county election officials for “rampant fraud” during his campaign for U.S. Senate. Governor Scott also conducted a press event for his campaign from the official governor’s residence and refused to recuse himself from the panel with responsibility for certifying election results – including the results of his own race for U.S. Senate – until Protect Democracy sued to stop the abuses. (Read more about League of Women Voters Florida v. Scott.)

These kinds of conflicts of interest can arise across the country. Protect Democracy will continue to fight to ensure that elected officials running for office do not unduly influence election outcomes.

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