Guardrails: Understanding the Current State of Election Protection in the United States
A conversation with Justin Levitt, Jonathan Diaz, Douglas W. Jones, and Ion Sancho on who is doing what, how well, and where you can actually help
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Wednesday, September 16, 12:00–1:30 PM Eastern — register here.
A session for students, faculty, alumni, lawyers, technologists, the prosecutors at FAFO, and anyone else considering election-protection volunteering for November.
The national, nonpartisan Election Protection coalition — best known for the 866-OUR-VOTE hotline, where trained volunteers help voters navigate confusing rules and report problems in real time — is a useful anchor for the conversation.
The Indivisible midterm Election Protection Program is spinning up an operation.
The DNC and RNC have their operations.
Where FAFO's election-protection plans fit into that landscape, and how a non-lawyer plugs into any of it, is exactly what this conversation is for.
Between our four panelists and our other participants, this conversation will help people deeply understand where their skills and energy can best be used.
Justin Levitt teaches election law at LMU Loyola Law School. He's also served as White House Senior Policy Advisor for Democracy and Voting Rights, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the DOJ's Civil Rights Division, and counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice. He can speak to what actually protects a voter who's turned away, confused, or misinformed — and which interventions help.
Jonathan Diaz is Director of Voting Advocacy and Partnerships at the Campaign Legal Center, one of the important national, nonpartisan organizations working to protect voting rights and democratic elections. Diaz leads CLC's work combating election sabotage, manages its work to protect election results, coordinates with national, state, and local voting-rights partners, and works directly with election officials. He will speak to how the pieces of election protection fit together — litigation, policy, election administration, advocacy, and coordination among organizations and where people who want to help can actually be useful. See also CLC's Every Vote Counts: Combating Election Sabotage and Safeguarding Our Democracy initiative and its broader Voting & Elections work.
Douglas W. Jones is a University of Iowa computer scientist who has spent decades studying voting-system security and election processes all over the world. He can speak to what meaningful election observation looks like.
Ion Sancho ran elections for 28 years as Supervisor of Elections for Leon County, Florida, and has been on the business end of election suppression himself for years. He can speak to what election officials actually need from outside support right now.
It's a session to leave with an accurate, current map: what's already being done well, where the gaps actually are, and what a university-connected volunteer can do for this and the next election.
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This conversation is part of the Action This Day series on how university communities can defend democracy and the rule of law through practical, near-term action.
Wednesday, September 16, 12:00–1:30 PM Eastern.
Sign up for the series: https://www.actionthisday.net/conversations/
Sign up for the series
Guardrails: Understanding the Current State of Election Protection in the United States is part of a broader Action This Day conversation series on how university communities can defend freedom, democracy, and the rule of law through practical, near-term action.
Please sign up for the series here.
And please share the conversation series with people in your university networks who want to move beyond good intentions toward real theories of change.
Get the zoom details here and reserve your seat!
