At the Brennan Center, we’re focusing on the health and well-being of our staff members — and our democracy. As the coronavirus upends American life, it’s also endangering the elections we use to choose our representatives.

Since the crisis began, the Brennan Center has been hard at work developing a comprehensive plan necessary to keep the 2020 election free, fair, secure, and accessible in spite of the virus.

As we work to make sure that this pandemic doesn’t prevent millions from voting in November, we need your support. Your generosity makes it possible for us to provide the critical solutions our country needs — especially during emergencies like this one.

Even under normal circumstances, America’s jails, prisons, and detention centers are dangerously unhygienic places. With coronavirus spreading rapidly, the nation’s addiction to mass incarceration could become disproportionately deadly for many incarcerated people. To discuss these risks and the important steps that jails and prisons must take, the Brennan Center spoke with Dr. Homer Venters, an epidemiologist and former chief medical officer of New York City’s jail system.

And, Brennan Center Fellow Andrew Cohen writes about the frighteningly slow reaction of the criminal justice system to the coronavirus threat. Some local sheriffs and prosecutors are taking steps toward safety, but not enough. Read about the actions that need to be taken immediately.

The differences between the two significant national emergencies that Trump has declared since he took office can tell us a great deal about our emergency powers system. One was a political ploy to fulfill a campaign promise to his base to build a border wall. The other was a delayed response to a true emergency, the spread of Covid-19. Read about why reforms to limit the law’s reach to real emergencies and appropriate powers are both possible and necessary.

TAKE ACTION: Respond to the 2020 census. Taking the census is one of the most important things you can do to protect our democracy, and for the first time, you can take it online.

PODCAST: Check out two brand new episodes of Brennan Center Live! Listen to Ta-Nehisi Coates on race, the law, and politics and Preet Bharara’s call for conscience in legal practice.