It’s no secret that 2026 has tested our democracy. This year alone, the Supreme Court has continued to dismantle the Voting Rights Act, state legislators are rushing to execute a generational gerrymander in the South to undermine Black and Latino voters, and state houses across the country are considering more than 330 laws that make it harder for everyone to vote. At the same time, the administration continues its attempts to consolidate federal power over elections, including a push for Congress to pass the SAVE America Act. These nationwide efforts to ensure voters are confused, tired, and apathetic are not a coincidence — they are voter suppression.
But here’s the hope: the one thing we’ve learned despite the many challenges we’ve seen in 2026? We need each other now more than ever.
The voter suppression tactics being used today are not new. But neither is the way we fight back — together. People in this country used to build our lives around gathering together in faith groups, labor unions, PTAs, neighborhood associations, community centers, fraternities and sororities, local NAACP chapters, and more. The result? The Voting Rights Act. The Fair Housing Act. The Equal Pay Act. These wins have proven that communities coming together in hope can be a powerful antidote to intimidation and fear.
How we show up in this moment will determine our future — and we need to be as organized and as energized as those who push anti-democratic policies and agendas. And as we go, we need to hold on to hope, to joy, and to celebration.
That’s why When We All Vote is launching our largest-ever Party at the Polls program with more than 5,000 community events across the country as we head toward November’s election. Making voting a celebration can look like a Ride to the Polls in Navajo Nation with Protect the Sacred, line dancing and games with AME churches in Savannah, a Quince to the Polls with Harness in Texas, or events on community college campuses nationwide in partnership with the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge.
These events are joyful by design — but they’re also strategic. Research shows Party at the Polls can increase voter turnout by up to 4 percentage points. And just as importantly, the program is a powerful way to combat intimidation tactics and threats of violence at the ballot box. But no one organization can do this alone. As history shows, protecting democracy has always required coalitions, and we’ll be joined by organizations — like Divine Nine fraternities and sororities, the ACLU, and State Voices — that have led this work for decades.
As we bet on the power of community, we must also commit to protecting voters’ safety and right to cast a ballot. Lawyers looking to protect free and fair elections and safeguard the rule of law can join groups like We The Action and the Election Protection Hotline, observe the official canvass in states across the country, support election officials, restore voting rights to people with past convictions through organizations like the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, and more.
As a Black woman — a Black mother — living in Mobile, Alabama, the work to build a system that works for us all, and for the generations ahead of us, is deeply personal to me. Even as every day seems to bring another alarming headline, I’ve witnessed something even more powerful. Looking at history, at my neighbors supporting each other, and at the people leading this work across the country, I know the power of the people is still greater than the people in power. And with 80,000 elections across all 50 states this fall, we the people have 80,000 chances to show up in ways that are impossible to ignore — together.
Kalisha Dessources Figures is the When We All Vote Senior Advisor.
