I was grateful to lead a breakout session on “Building a Stronger, More Inclusive Democracy: Tackling Voter Suppression, Advocating for Voter Policy Reform, and Supporting Fair Elections” during Confluence’s RESET2021 summit. We discussed how American democracy is threatened by converging strands of authoritarianism. At a global level, democracy is in retreat at the hands of a new wave of autocratic strongmen. Here in the U.S., there’s a resurgence of violent white supremacism -- which for decades used authoritarian tactics to dominate many states and have outsized influence at the federal level. These strands came together during the 2020 election period to present a grave threat to a free and fair election and a peaceful transfer of power.
In order to protect our democracy for the long run, we need to understand the scope of the danger we faced and what was required to protect a peaceful transfer of power. My organization, Protect Democracy, viewed it as a 5-step effort -- and only the first of those focused on protecting voting itself. That alone required considerable efforts -- around fighting voter intimidation; securing election systems through tools like our voter registration software tool VoteShield; and preventing partisan manipulation of elections.
However, unlike in a typical closely fought election, the other key steps to protecting the election followed the voting itself -- reflecting the seriousness of the authoritarian threat to our democracy:
Winning the Immediate Post-Election Narrative. In a close race, Trump could appear to be leading on election night, only to see that lead disappear as mail-in-ballots were counted. This became known as the “Red Mirage”, and Trump made clear he was going to weaponize it. We organized The National Task Force on Electoral Crises, a group of experts from the left and right that played a key role in pushing stakeholders across the government and media to prepare for and mitigate electoral crises. The Task Force held briefings attended by 300+ journalists to help voters expect and therefore be innoculated against Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results. By the time Trump tried to prematurely declare victory, a majority of the public was not fooled.
Fending Off Court Challenges. As expected, Trump next turned to the courts with desperate lawsuits seeking to disenfranchise eligible voters and overturn the election. We prepared several legal briefs (one which we filed on behalf of a prominent GOP election law expert and advocate to prevent the discarding of thousands of validly cast votes in one county) should any of the lawsuits designed to subvert the election make headway. But given how extreme Trump’s claims were, we were able to keep our litigation powder dry.
Stopping State Legislative Overrides. Trump made a strong effort to override the state’s voters -- pressuring legislators and election officials in Michigan, Georgia, and elsewhere to refuse to certify the election results. In response, we launched direct and indirect outreach to state leaders across 6 key states and a targeted digital and print messaging campaign. Trump put serious coercive pressure on officials, but they did not crack.
Ensuring Congressional Certification. We knew it could come down to Congress’ actions on January 6 during the joint session to count the Electoral College votes. We analyzed parliamentary tools for if Trump succeeded in convincing Republican leaders to support his coup attempt and shared these with Speaker Pelosi and Leader Schumer. We were ready for whatever legislative hijinks Trump allies might attempt -- and their effort to subvert the election failed.
What we did not expect was a violent mob attacking the Capitol. Thankfully, heroes like Eugene Goodman saved the day, and Congress was able to finish the vote count. But we saw in the attack on the Capitol the dangerous convergence of these two authoritarian strands -- the global rise of the modern autocrats and the resurgence of domestic violent white supremacism.
Though we won the battle for a free and fair election in 2020, the authoritarian threat remains acute. The new wave of state laws that restrict voting and particularly suppress the votes of people of color is a preview of the authoritarian threat we must fend off in the coming years.
We now have a once-in-a-generation window to reinforce our democratic institutions and prevent a Trump 2.0. It will take broad swaths of society coming together to achieve that. For example, the business community can contribute to accountability for those involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election and condemn racially motivated voter suppression efforts in states like Georgia. C-suite employees and investor groups can help ensure that the private sector stands as a bulwark against authoritarian encroachments on free and fair elections. Together, we can make our democracy stronger -- and more inclusive -- than it’s ever been before.
- Justin Florence, Co-Founder and Legal Director, Protect Democracy
Justin Florence is Co-Founder and Legal Director of Protect Democracy, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting our democracy from declining into a more authoritarian form of government. He previously served in the Office of the White House Counsel as Special Assistant to the President and Associate Counsel to the President. Justin also worked for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse as Senior Counsel on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Outside of his service in government, Justin has also worked in private practice, most recently at Ropes & Gray LLP, and previously at O'Melveny & Myers LLP. Justin also served as a Fellow at the Georgetown Center on National Security and the Law, as well as a Law Clerk to the Honorable Diana Gribbon Motz on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Justin graduated from Yale Law School, where he was Executive Editor of The Yale Law Journal.
