Seriously: what's going on with Elon Musk? And what happens when "free speech absolutism" runs up against the realities of running the nation's de facto digital public square? How has Joe Biden performed in his first two years in office? And what can Americans expect from Braver Angels in 2023? In the final episode of the year, Ciaran O'Connor convenes fellow Braver Angels leaders John Wood, Jr., Monica Guzman, April Kornfield, and Gabbi Timmis for a freewheeling roundtable discussion.
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Election Overtime Project heads to North Carolina
Oct 11, 2024
The Election Overtime Project, an effort to prepare journalists to cover the outcome of the 2024 election, is hosting its third swing-state briefing on Oct. 18, this time focused on North Carolina.
The series is a part of an effort to help reporters, TV anchors and others prepare America to understand and not fear close elections. Election Overtime is an initiative of the Election Reformers Network and developed in partnership with the Bridge Alliance, which publishes The Fulcrum.
During the North Carolina briefing (11 a.m.-noon Eastern), a new set of complementary tools designed to support reporting on contested elections will be unveiled by the Election Reformers Network, the North Carolina Network for Fair, Safe & Secure Elections and other election law experts. The Election Overtime Project will provide journalists covering the 2024 general election with media briefings by election specialists; guides for reporting on election transparency, verification processes and judicial procedures; and an extensive speaker bureau.
Speakers include:
- James Martin, former North Carolina governor.
- Bob Orr, former North Carolina Supreme Court justice.
- David Price, former House member from North Carolina.
- Damon Circosta, former chair of the North Carolina State Election Board.
- Jennifer Roberts, former mayor of Charlotte.
- Kevin Johnson, executive director, Election Reformers Network.
- Heather Balas, vice president, Election Reformers Network.
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Rep. Scott Perry objects to Pennsylvania's certification of its Electoral College vote during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 7, 2021.
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What voters need to know about the presidential election
Oct 10, 2024
It is quite clear that the presidential election is going to be incredibly close. In each of the seven swing states, the margin of error is less than 2 percent.
As citizens, this is not something to fear and it is critically important that we all trust the election results.
As part of our ongoing series for the Election Overtime Project, today we present a guide explaining in detail what you, as a voter, need to know about the role of state legislatures and Congress in a presidential election. The guide was prepared by the Election Reformers Network, a nonprofit organization championing impartial elections and concrete policy solutions that strengthen American democracy.
Once Election Day has come, state legislators have no role in determining presidential results
- They can pass laws before the election deciding how the state will select its electors (winner-take-all, by congressional district, etc.).
- They cannot change how the state selects its electors after the elections.
- They cannot select a different set of electors than those chosen based on the certified results.
- They do not certify the presidential results in their state.
Candidates and parties
Candidates and/or parties have many opportunities to ensure the accuracy of the count. They have no legitimate grounds to claim they legally won once results showing they did not are final, and all court cases are resolved.
- Candidates and/or parties can designate observers to watch important election processes, in accordance with state law.
- Candidates in close elections can observe and/or request recounts in most states.
- Candidates and parties can contest results in court.
Courts
Elections are conducted according to procedures set by law; courts are the backstop candidates and officials use to ensure the law is followed.
- Courts can order election boards, canvas boards and similar bodies to certify results if they refuse to do so.
- Courts cannot hear (and must dismiss) challenges if the court lacks the authority to hear the case, if the plaintiff lacks the right to bring the case, or if there is insufficient evidence or legal basis to continue the case.
- Courts can hear and decide challenges to the election results if there is sufficient evidence that the votes were not cast or counted according to law.
Results: Election laws alone determine when results are final
- Media projections have no bearing on the results.
- Whether a candidate concedes has no bearing on the results (though failing to do so can create risks of political violence).
- The election result and selection of electors in a state becomes final when the governor (or other executive per state law) issues the Certificate of Ascertainment within 36 days of Election Day (by Dec. 11).
- The Certificate of Ascertainment is subject to change by court order if there is a successful legal challenge before the meeting of electors (Dec. 17).
Congress
The role of Congress is extremely limited, and Congress does not actually “certify” presidential results.
- Congress can witness the vice president counting — without discretion — each state’s official certificate of electoral votes.
- Members of Congress can object to counting electoral votes on a very limited set of grounds that are extremely unlikely to occur. (For example: Did the elector vote for a president who is over 35, as required by the Constitution?)
- Members of Congress cannot object to the results in any state so long as those results have been certified according to law.
- In the very unlikely event that no candidate wins a majority of electoral votes, the House of Representatives picks the president (with each state's delegation having one vote) and the Senate picks the vice president.
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Prepare for heightened political trench warfare beyond Nov. 5
Oct 10, 2024
Merloe is a member of the Election Reformers Network Advisory Council and provides strategic advice on democracy and elections in the U.S. and internationally.
Political trench warfare is in full swing as the 2024 pre-election period draws to a close. And the signs are clear that battles will heat up all the way to Nov. 5 — and beyond — over voter qualification, voting, canvassing, certification of results and the allocation of Electoral College votes. With such a close election, both sides know that gaining inches can make a decisive difference, and they are skirmishing accordingly.
MAGA forces are seeking to narrow voting opportunities and undermine confidence in elections, while claiming to protect electoral integrity. Others are defending voting rights and buttressing confidence in election procedures. The intensity of the ground and air battles may well surpass prior elections and could stretch right up to Jan. 6, 2025. Plus, officials are cautioning that patience will be needed as vote counts are completed and disinformation swirls in the air.
Understanding impending electoral developments, including in the likely volatile period following Election Day, will be challenging. The Election Overtime Project, sponsored by four leading entities, provides valuable materials that demystify key procedures in seven critical states. The National Task Force on Election Crises posts resources, including a dashboard of issues and incidents, that help to decipher developments. Considering how judges can head off election emergencies is also useful.
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The judicial front is critical
The courts are a central arena for political trench warfare — both to settle significant, contentious issues and to fend off attempts to launder bogus charges used to deny the legitimacy of 2024 losses. According to Democracy Docket more than 200 lawsuits related to voting rights have been filed since January 2023, with 34 lodged in September — almost three times the number in the same period of 2020 — and an even greater number is expected this month.
The devastation brought by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina and elsewhere will impact early and Election Day voting, while steps taken to mitigate the effects are likely to generate court challenges and are spawning political conspiracy theories. Legal battles are already taking place over issues like the possible disqualification of 225,000 North Carolina voters. Republican Party lawyers also challenged University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill students’ and employees’ use of digital IDs for voting purposes and, on Oct. 2, they filed a case seeking to overturn the state’s overseas and military voters law.
The numerous suits in Pennsylvania are also granular. In Montgomery County, the state’s third most populous jurisdiction, Republicans are trying to prevent the mailing of ballots, and they are fighting to remove ballot drop boxes in Luzerne County. Another legal battle is taking place over concerns whether deficiencies in hand dating the outer envelopes of ballots returned by mail disqualifies them and whether such voters should then be notified so they might cure their problem or cast a provisional ballot at their polling station.
The Supreme Court may take up the mailed ballot disqualification issue, which has been the subject of a dozen state and federal cases.
Multiple court fights are also underway in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin and elsewhere. Keeping up with such cases is a challenge itself, though the Election Law Blog,Daily Docket and the Election Reformers Network daily news clippings are among the reliable resources of information on contests over rules issued and court actions.
Troubling 11th-hour rule changes by Georgia’s Election Board are generating considerable attention, and other states are facing significant rule changes as well. It is generally understood that changing rules too close to Election Day is unfair to the contestants, confusing to voters and increases potentials for errors by election officials.
Nonetheless, rule changes and litigation continue even though early and mail voting has commenced in many states. Those developments will undoubtedly become fodder for disinformation barrages.
Information manipulation and foreign interference subverts elections
The freedom to develop and hold opinions without interference and the right to seek, receive and impart trustworthy information in doing so are essential to making free electoral choices. Yet, there is an unprecedented bombardment of misinformation and disinformation on digital platforms and traditional media airwaves launched by domestic and foreign actors.
No single line of disinformation has subverted electoral trust more than the Big Lie campaign, which falsely claims — on a daily basis — that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. The lie is being augmented in several ways by former President Donald Trump and others to discredit Vice President Kamala Harris’ potential win, including through false claims that early voting is used for fraud, mailed-in ballots are largely fraudulent and that he won Minnesota in 2020 (where he lost by 7 percentage points).
Importantly, the Big Lie includes bogus claims that non-citizens have been illegally voting in massive numbers and that the Biden administration is encouraging an influx of undocumented immigrants so they can tip the election. MAGA efforts to pass unnecessary federal legislation and referendums in eight states illegalizing noncitizen voting dovetails with MAGA demands to purge voter rolls. That lie is linked to broader MAGA misinformation concerning the flow of immigrants into the country and the vilification of them as the source of crime, housing shortages and other ills.
Such lies corrupt voters’ decision making and exacerbate social divisions, creating opportunities for domestic and foreign adversaries of democracy.
Russia, China and Iran are among the foreign actors seeking to interfere in the 2024 elections to favor antidemocratic campaigns, undermine trust in elections and destabilize the country by driving social divisions. Their tactics have evolved from past elections, becoming more sophisticated in spreading disinformation and potentially disrupting election procedures — though election officials have improved their means of blocking hacking attempts, and federal agencies are stepping up to counter foreign electoral interventions.
The Associated Press, CBS, BBC, Reuters, and others are launching a oint initiative to help each other counter disinformation in the election. The Brennan Center for Justice offers materials to identify AI-generated fakes and other disinformation that will continue to challenge users as social media platforms provide insufficient safeguards and federal agencies retreat from engaging the platforms around election disinformation.
While groups have advocated for stronger measures, identifying trusted information resources will be crucial. Local trusted networks will also be needed to address possible disruptions of election processes and deescalate potentials for political violence.
Certification refusals, disruptions and potentials for violence are real
MAGA election deniers joined election bodies in battleground states and elsewhere, reportedly gaining the majority in 14 counties including six in Pennsylvania and the Georgia State Election Board. That creates a potential for election boards to delay or refuse to certify election results, which could trigger disruptions in states determining Electoral College slates and outcomes of down-ballot races, including for the House and Senate. Safeguards are in place to force board members to complete their non-discretionary duties to certify, though they can take time and there is a risk of refusals to honor court orders as MAGA forces spread information disorder and spike post-election tensions.
Given the levels of harassment and threats against election officials, increasing physical security of electoral facilities is now part of their preparations. In a not far-fetched scenario, isolated administrative problems that are typical in elections may become fodder for weaponized disinformation by election deniers, while battles over results certification could take place. Such developments risk erupting into attacks on election facilities or officials. A recent survey showed that more than 25 percent of MAGA supporters condone using violence if they believe that the election is being rigged, and many of them think that rigging is already taking place.
The public needs to demand the rejection of such tactics and Trump’s call to fight like hell to keep or take power even if you lose an election. Seeking to corrode public confidence in elections and condoning political violence connotes an authoritarian agenda. These threats confirm that democracy is on the ballot. Plus, safeguarding universal suffrage without fear and defending the people’s electoral choices are part of our common democratic challenge.
How we meet this challenge will likely reverberate widely, and for years to come.
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As Rabbi Herschel wrote, we should live a life of "radical amazement."
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Living life in radical amazement
Oct 10, 2024
Daley-Harris is the author of “Reclaiming Our Democracy: Every Citizen’s Guide to Transformational Advocacy” and the founder of RESULTS and Civic Courage. This is part of a series focused on better understanding transformational advocacy: citizens awakening to their power.
At religious services for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year, a writing by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel grabbed my attention:
“As civilization advances, the sense of wonder almost necessarily declines. Such decline is an alarming symptom of our state of mind. Mankind will not perish for want of information, but only for a want of appreciation. The beginning of our happiness lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living. What we lack is not a will to believe but a will to wonder.”
Of course, Heschel’s concept of wonder goes much deeper than “I wonder how anyone can still be undecided in the presidential election.”
Heschel marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and after joining King in Selma he came home and said he “felt a sense of holiness” in that march — he “felt his legs were praying.”
I pay particular attention to Heschel because of another quote from his that a friend includes in her email signature:
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“Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement … get up in the morning and look at the world in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is phenomenal; everything is incredible; never treat life casually. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
In an interview on “The Hopeful Majority” podcast, BridgeUSA CEO Manu Meel asked me, “Why do you see advocacy as an important part of finding joy in life? Why is advocacy something everybody should do. … What’s the power of advocacy for you?”
Our conversation had focused on transformational advocacy — deep engagement that brings advocates into relationship with legislators and changes their sense of themselves in the process, not the transactional advocacy of online petitions and email form letters. My response spoke to an aspect of Heschel’s “wonder” and his call to “radical amazement.”
I said that the power of advocacy is the power to be a changemaker. Not that you single handedly change the world, but right where you live. With your elected officials, with your newspaper’s letters to the editor and op-eds, you can be a changemaker. We all want our lives to matter, and our lives do matter in our homes with our families, it matters on our block and hopefully in our community, but do we have to stop there? I say no. We can demonstrate that it matters in the nation and in the world.
My answer to the question “Why advocacy?” is because advocacy is a vehicle to create a more perfect union. It is a means, a method, a tool — a gift, really, to making change.
Then Meel said, “You’re making the case for making your life matter outside the confines of your family, your community — [But I often hear people say,] “My life is perfectly fine the way it is. Why should I care about the nation when everything around me is doing just fine. When my needs are being met, why should I care?”
I told him that I didn’t know what touches a specific listener’s heart or the heart of someone who comes up to him when he's on the road, but I talked about the unspeakable grief that I felt when 20 first-graders were murdered in their Sandy Hook classroom. I don’t know what deeply touches the people he meets, but too often something moves us and then we stuff it. Something moves us and we shut it down and say “My life is just fine,” and close ourselves off to making change.
Instead, we can open ourselves up to it and find an organization that can empower us, an organization that delivers transformational advocacy by 1) forming local chapters and building community, 2) training us and 3) encouraging us to have real breakthroughs.
Listen again to Heschel: “As civilization advances, the sense of wonder almost necessarily declines.” Our declining sense of wonder closes us off to being changemakers. “Our goal,” Heschel said, “should be to live life in radical amazement.” A life of “radical amazement” is a life that is open to the hurts of the world, open to our desire to make change and followed by a deep focus, not flitting from issue to issue.
“The beginning of our happiness,” Heschel said, “lies in the understanding that life without wonder is not worth living.”
Bring on the wonder.
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Voters, activists set to rally for open primaries ahead of historic elections
Oct 10, 2024
Griffiths is the national editor of Independent Voter News, where a version of this story first appeared.
The 2024 election cycle is already a historic year for election reform. Six states plus the District of Columbia have measures on the Nov. 5 ballot that open taxpayer-funded primary elections to voters outside the Republican and Democratic parties.
It is the first time in U.S. history that this many statewide primary reform initiatives have been offered up in the same election, something reform leaders are celebrating as they rally citizens to show their support for open primaries.
“The national open primaries movement has been working for years to build this kind of critical mass. It’s a huge accomplishment,” said Jeremy Gruber, senior vice president of the nonpartisan reform group Open Primaries.
The organization’s president, John Opdycke, and former presidential candidate and Forward Party founder Andrew Yang are slated to co-host a Virtual Open Primaries Rally to support the measures that advance reform and protect it where it's threatened.
The event is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 21, from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern. Open Primaries promises attendees “will walk away with a deep appreciation for the incredible work each of these campaigns has done to give voters a powerful way to impact our political system.”
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In total, there are eight measures in 2024 that affect primary elections – and in a few cases, voting reform as well:
Alaska: The “No on 2” campaign is fighting a ballot measure that would repeal the nonpartisan top-four primary with ranked-choice voting in the general election reform voters approved in 2020.
Arizona: Proposition 140 ends taxpayer-funded partisan primaries in the state and requires state lawmakers or the secretary of state to adopt a nonpartisan system.
Colorado: Initiative 310 implements a nonpartisan top-four primary system with ranked-choice voting in the general election.
Idaho: Proposition 1 implements a nonpartisan top-four primary system with ranked-choice voting in the general election.
Montana: CI-126 implements a nonpartisan top-four primary system.
Nevada: Question 3 implements a nonpartisan top-five primary system with ranked-choice voting in the general election.
South Dakota: Amendment H implements a nonpartisan top-two primary system.
Washington, D.C.: Initiative 83 opens the city's partisan primaries to independent voters. Registered party members would still vote in their respective party's primary. It also implements ranked choice voting for all District elections.
"We have a real opportunity to create meaningful reform across the country this November," Gruber said. "The success of some or hopefully all of them will mean a serious step forward in democracy reform."
Registered independent voters outnumber members of both major parties in three of the states with reform on the ballot: Alaska, Colorado, and Nevada. Nationally, polling shows a majority of voters in the US identify as politically independent.
"I don't think it is a coincidence that the same year Gallup found that 51 percent of Americans are now independent is the same year the largest group of ballot initiatives for open primaries is going to appear on the ballot," Gruber said.
He added that the growth of independent voters "is forcing reform at every level of government and we are excited to help enforce and grow the movement to make sure every voter gets to vote for anyone they want in every election."
Combined, the eight ballot measures in 2024 impact the voting rights of more than 4.5 million citizens.
In Arizona, for example, 1.26 million voters are registered unaffiliated. A nonpartisan primary system would create a primary ballot open to all voters and candidates, including independents and 300,000 Arizonans registered third party or “Other.”
Meanwhile, in Alaska, returning to a closed partisan primary system would mean cutting out over 60 percent of the registered electorate from taxpayer-funded elections.
Arizona, Colorado and Montana have partisan primary systems that allow independent voters to participate without changing their registered affiliation, but they limit choice to the candidates of a single party.
Nonpartisan primaries would allow all voters to choose any candidate they want. But it is not just that open primaries are on the ballot in 7 states and DC. Gruber emphasized the diversity in approaches to primary reform.
"Not only are there going to be eight separate ballot initiatives around open primaries for voters to vote on this November, but they comprise 5 separate forms of open primaries. It is an incredibly diverse and rich landscape of activity," he explained.
He added that there is no "one size fits all" policy.
"Every state is coming to the issue of primary reform and the need to enfranchise the largest group of voters in the country with very different perspectives about what will work in their state and what is the right path forward for their state," he said.
The campaigns behind each initiative are focused on getting out the vote this election and tout broad support for their proposals. However, they also face their own unique challenges from opposition primarily from the parties and special interest groups in power.
Each campaign will have a spokesperson present at the Virtual Open Primaries Rally to speak to their momentum, their support, and the barriers they’ve overcome ahead of Election Day. Attendees are encouraged to directly engage with them in a live Q&A.
"All of those leaders will be at this rally to explain how they got to where they are and their particular version of reform and why it matters in their state," Gruber said. Open Primaries has also teased a special guest or two that will make an appearance at the event.
Along with Open Primaries and the Forward Party, the Virtual Open Primaries Rally is sponsored by Unite America, Independent Voting, Independent Voter Network, and Veterans for All Voters.
"Open Primaries has been fighting for primary reform for literally decades, long before it became a reform that people even thought was legitimate," Gruber remarked.
"To be able to see the movement growing and expanding with new people and organizations entering it every day is incredibly gratifying, because we will have to continue to grow this movement in order to really succeed at changing democracy around the country and enfranchising every independent voter who wants to vote in the primary."
Representatives from these organizations will also be on hand to engage in the live discussion. Voters can register for the event here, and are encouraged to invite family, friends, and colleagues to show up en masse for primary reform in 2024.
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