Our proud history of impartial election administration is in peril. ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌  
Brennan Center for Justice The Briefing
A classic 19th-century Thomas Nast cartoon of New York’s William “Boss” Tweed shows him leaning on a ballot box with the quote, “As long as I count the Votes, what are you going to do about it? say?” Joseph Stalin, for his part, once said, “I consider it completely unimportant who in the party will vote, or how; but what is extraordinarily important is this — who will count the votes, and how.”
Crooked counting of votes is a hallmark of a failed democracy. One of the things our country has gotten right over its centuries of development is vote counting. In the 20th century, the counting of the votes became a noncontroversial part of elections. There is no national election, and not even 50 state-run elections, but hundreds of elections run by counties. There are layers upon layers of protections to ensure that elections are clean — free, fair, and without fraud. It all depends on trust and impartial election officials doing their jobs.
One of those steps is among the least controversial: having the results certified. It is, to use a technical term, “ministerial.” No judgment is supposed to be involved. Two plus two equals four.
But since 2020, in their frenzy to undo the voters’ will, election deniers have tried to upend that process. That year, Donald Trump lobbied Detroit County board members to get them to reject the votes of their own constituents. In 2022, officials in Cochise County, Arizona, broke from tradition and voted against certifying the election results based on some vague worries about voting machines. A judge eventually ordered them to certify, putting an end to their little rebellion.
This year, around the country, rogue local election officials are increasingly threatening to withhold certification of results, based on no evidence of impropriety whatsoever, cheered on by hordes of online election deniers.
The statewide Georgia election board has a new majority of ardent Donald Trump supporters. He hailed them as “pit bulls” at a rally. State officials ordered country boards to refrain from certifying unless they undertake investigations. Most recently, they ordered local officials to count ballots by hand. Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger warned, “What they’re talking about is breaking open the ballot boxes.”
Can officials really withhold certification? The Brennan Center recently published a pair of resources thoroughly answering this question. The first is a series of state-by-state guides laying out the legal protections for election certification in each battleground state and the process to ensure that officials carry out that duty. The law is clear: Certification is not a discretionary act. Election officials are legally obligated to do it.
In the second, my colleague Derek Tisler lays out in detail the checks, double checks, and triple checks that all occur well before election certification. That’s why certification is obligatory. If there are doubts about the accuracy of the count or the validity of ballots, there is ample opportunity to raise those flags before election certification. Refusing to certify is an act of partisan petulance — the last tantrum of sore losers — not the heroic stand of a conscientious objector.

 
National Money Flooding Arizona Races
In Arizona, as in other swing states, national money is pouring into congressional elections. A new Brennan Center analysis reveals that almost three-quarters of all congressional candidates in Arizona are relying on donors from outside their state or district to fund their campaigns. “The dominance of national money creates the risk that, once elected, officials are more responsive to wealthy national donors than the constituents they’re supposed to serve,” Eric Petry and Ian Vandewalker write. Read more
A Perversion of Civil Rights Law
Project 2025, the controversial blueprint for a conservative presidential administration, aims to upend civil rights protections by using laws that have historically defended voting rights to go after election officials who assist voters. Its proposal not only invites politically motivated prosecutions but also seeks to weaken the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “At bottom, Project 2025’s anti-voter agenda would cause devastating damage to our democracy and election systems,” Sean Morales-Doyle and Lauren Miller Karalunas write. READ MORE
Resurrecting a Failed Policy
Project 2025 also proposes reviving the China Initiative, a problematic 2018 DOJ policy that claimed to combat economic espionage but ended up targeting U.S.-born scientists and technologists of Chinese descent with frivolous investigations and prosecutions. The initiative was a failure that also chilled scientific and technological progress in the United States. Despite its disastrous track record, some members of the House voted in favor of a bill to reinstate it. “For the sake of U.S. national security, these efforts must be defeated,” Michael German writes in The Hill. Read more
How Gerrymandering Tilts the House Race
Both political parties have multiple paths to winning control of the House this year, but aggressive gerrymandering has given the GOP an unfair advantage. If Congress had successfully passed the Freedom to Vote Act banning extreme gerrymandering in 2022, the race for the House would likely be more competitive. A new Brennan Center analysis shows how the current skewed maps provide the GOP a 16-seat edge compared to fair maps. The unfairness in the 2024 election underscores the urgent need for Congress to take action to fix the redistricting process once and for all. READ MORE
PODCAST: Solutions for a Threatened Democracy
Our latest episode is about protecting election integrity in the face of disinformation campaigns and voter intimidation. An expert panel includes coauthors of the new book Our Nation at Risk, which examines how these antidemocratic actions pose a serious threat to national security. They discuss concrete solutions on how to fortify our election system and bolster confidence in the fairness of the democratic process. Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favorite podcast platform.

 
Coming Up
Wednesday, September 25, 2–3 p.m. ET
 
On October 7, the Supreme Court begins its 2024–25 term — the fourth in which it is dominated by a supermajority of conservative justices. Among the issues on the docket: whether so-called “ghost guns” are subject to regulation, whether prosecutorial misconduct invalidates a death sentence, the power of federal agencies to protect waterways, the applicability of criminal sentence reduction laws, and access to gender-affirming medical care. Other cases that are not yet on the schedule may turn out to be some of the most important of the term. Experts will explore where the Court stands today and what can be done to shore up democracy. RSVP today
 
Thursday, October 10, 3–4 p.m. ET
 
A white supremacist who is a person of color seems like a contradiction. Yet recent years have brought to light unsettling examples, including an Afro-Latino leader of the Proud Boys and a Latino mass shooter with neo-Nazi sympathies. These men are among a small but growing number of Latinos who gravitate toward the far right and adopt radical views on race, Christian nationalism, and immigration. Join us for this virtual discussion about the complexities of the Latino community, which is growing in importance with each election. RSVP today
 
Produced in partnership with Brennan en español
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News
  • Samuel Breidbart on the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity ruling // CQ Researcher
  • Lauren Miller-Karalunas on election certification // ASSOCIATED PRESS
  • Sean Morales-Doyle on the myth of noncitizen voting // SCRIPPS NEWS
  • Daniel Weiner on the fallout from overturning the Chevron doctrine // PROPUBLICA

 
 
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