You can vote with confidence in our elections.

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We are hurtling toward Election Day, when 160 million people will choose our leaders, each of us with an equal vote. That this system works, election after election, is a modern miracle.

So we should never lose our outrage over the way that democracy has come under cynical assault by partisans, armed with nothing but false rumors. But we should take heart that it is now increasingly clear that despite the clamor, in 2024 voters can cast their ballots in an election that is free and fair.

Two trends lately have come into sharp focus.

One is this: Election deniers have intensified their efforts. In 2020, they were disorganized and improvisational. Now their efforts are well-funded, strategic, and focused. They have filed dozens of anti-voter lawsuits

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, many more than in previous elections. Some aim to flood election officials with bogus work. Others are little more than press releases with a legal caption, aiming to sow doubt about the system.

Here’s one likely to boomerang: In Pennsylvania, six Republican congressmen challenged the state’s procedures for handling ballots cast by American citizens living overseas. Those voters — nearly 3 million in all — have had special protections under federal law since at least the 1940s. The system has been in place since President Ronald Reagan signed it into law.

The lawsuit seeks to disenfranchise thousands of active-duty military members, many of them deployed in dangerous zones. They have a right to vote, and it is unpatriotic to try to stop them from exercising the franchise. On Friday, the Brennan Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief

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representing Blue Star Families, the U.S. Vote Foundation, American Citizens Abroad, the Association of Americans Resident Overseas, the Federation of American Women’s Clubs Overseas, and seven Pennsylvanians living abroad who want their votes counted in the upcoming election.

“These laws have been on the books for a long time,” Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat of the U.S. Vote Foundation said. “It’s a bit rich to think you could change it a few weeks before the election. There’s obviously intent there to disenfranchise

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these voters and to disqualify their votes entirely.”

Fortunately, courts in other states have already blocked this last-minute effort, including yesterday in Michigan and North Carolina, and we expect the Pennsylvania courts to do so too.

Which illuminates the other big trend: The election system is stronger this year, even better able to resist attempts to undermine the vote. Already in 2020, despite the pandemic, we had the highest turnout since 1900 — and Donald Trump’s own Department of Homeland Security confirmed that it was the most secure election ever. Since then, the system has gotten even stronger.

Case in point: Congress passed the Electoral Count Reform Act. Ninety-eight percent of voters use paper ballots, which can be used for recounts. Law enforcement has stepped up and now works with election officials through the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections

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formed by the Brennan Center and other groups. The Justice Department has challenged practices such as efforts to purge legitimate voters in Virginia.

And courts have begun to swat down the most outrageous efforts to rig voting rules. Remember the MAGA-dominated state election board in Georgia, the one whose members Trump hailed at an August rally as “pit bulls” for “victory

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”? The board began issuing increasingly unhinged edicts, such as a command that local officials count the number of ballots by hand. Now, a Georgia judge has struck down those moves. (The judgment has since been appealed.)

So many of these bids to subvert elections are flatly illegal. The same goes for threats to refuse to certify results: Officials don’t have a choice

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. That’s the law, across the country.

All of which adds up to this: Citizens can vote in 2024 with confidence. Despite the noise and lies and melodrama, voting will likely be uneventful for the vast majority of Americans.

But even as we grow more confident about Election Day, it is increasingly clear that partisans plan to disrupt the counting and undermine trust after the votes are cast. That’s the ultimate purpose of the lie being peddled that noncitizens are voting in large numbers. It won’t stop the voting and can’t plausibly be the basis for legitimate court challenges (the kinds that happen after many elections and which judges are capable of handling).

These conspiracy theories are not being pushed to win in a court of law. They are being advanced to tilt the court of public opinion. It’s hard to see how this could lead to a legitimate result being overturned — but we have every reason to think that if their candidates are rejected by voters, the election deniers will try.

And the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that gave lawbreaking presidents wide immunity doesn’t bolster confidence that the current justices will be able to resist acting as partisans should the opportunity arise.

The bottom line: Vote with confidence. And know that it will be up to all of us to protect the democracy we love, a defining fight for years to come.





The Murky World of Online Political Spending

Online political ads are booming, but weak transparency rules mean that there is little public data on who is behind them. A new analysis from the Brennan Center, OpenSecrets, and the Wesleyan Media Project identifies more than $619 million in spending on political ads on Google and Meta between January 2023 and August 2024, nearly half of it coming from groups that may hide some of their donors. While this data can’t paint the whole picture, it’s clear that online spending is shaping politics, and it’s past time for Congress to update transparency rules for the digital age. Read more

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The Thumbs on the Scales of Justice

State lawmakers are increasingly rewriting the rules for judicial elections to stack the courts in favor of their political allies. This year, nearly a quarter of the country’s state supreme court justices are up for election, and these changes — which include making nonpartisan elections partisan, creating new courts, and redrawing judicial districts — could have major implications. Given the growing importance of judicial elections in deciding the fate of abortion rights, redistricting, and other key issues, voters “should be aware of the ways some state legislatures have quietly tipped the scales in their own favor,” Michael Milov-Cordoba writes in State Court Report. READ MORE

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Attacking the Voting Rights of U.S. Citizens Overseas

The nearly 3 million Americans living abroad, including military personnel and nonprofit workers, have the right to vote in U.S. elections through absentee ballots. The process is made easier through a decades-old law, the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act. Last week, the Brennan Center filed a friend-of-the-court brief opposing a lawsuit falsely alleging that Pennsylvania’s process for determining overseas voters’ eligibility enables fraud. This lawsuit, and similar ones filed in Michigan and North Carolina, are part of a larger effort to sow doubt in U.S. elections. Our new explainer walks through the robust security measures that states use to ensure that only U.S. citizens are voting from abroad. Read more

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State-by-State Guide to Voting Restrictions

Among the many kinds of voter suppression laws enacted in the past four years, some trends have emerged. Since the last presidential election, at least 29 states have tightened voter ID rules, restricted mail voting opportunities, and made ballot collection and voter assistance harder. A new Brennan Center interactive resource gives a detailed picture of these new obstacles across the country. Read more

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Reining in Russia’s Disinformation Machine

Recently unsealed Justice Department documents detail a Russian state–backed campaign to influence Americans on a range of topics, including the presidential race. From using real-life influencers to creating spoofed news websites to generating ads using artificial intelligence, the tactics behind Russia’s interference have become increasingly sophisticated. “These evolving methods underscore the urgency of Congress and U.S. tech companies swiftly acting to clamp down on the Russian government’s disinformation machine,” Mekela Panditharatne and Shanze Hasan write in Time. READ MORE

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PODCAST: Latinos and the Far Right

Our latest episode explores the alarming trend of some Latinos, mostly young and male, gravitating toward the far right. The panelists included award-winning journalist Paola Ramos, the author of a new book, Defectors: The Rise of the Latino Far Right and What It Means for America

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; Michael German, former FBI special agent and fellow of the Brennan Center Liberty and National Security Program; Eduardo Gamarra, politics and international relations professor at Florida International University; and Mireya Navarro, editor in chief of Brennan en español. Listen on Spotify

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, Apple Podcasts

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, or your favorite podcast platform

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.





Coming Up

VIRTUAL EVENT: What’s at Stake on State Ballots

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Tuesday, October 29, 3–4 p.m. ET



Electing a president is not the only high-stakes choice that voters will make in November. In Ohio, citizens will vote on a constitutional amendment that would end gerrymandering in the state. Voters in 10 states have the opportunity to amend their state constitutions to affirm or expand protections for abortion care. Three states will decide whether to remove language against same-sex marriage from their state constitutions.



Join this expert discussion about the issues on state ballots in the 2024 election, as well as efforts to reduce citizens’ ability to enact policy through ballot initiatives. RSVP today

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Produced in partnership with State Court Report

Want to keep up with Brennan Center Live events? Subscribe to the events newsletter.

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News

Kareem Crayton on the benefits of citizen-led redistricting // OHIO CAPITAL JOURNAL

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Veronica Degraffenreid on post-hurricane voting // THE HILL

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Katherine Yon Ebright on potential misuse of the Alien Enemies Act // SEMAFOR

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Andrew Garber on restrictive voting laws // SCRIPPS NEWS

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Daniel Weiner on campaign spending by tech billionaires // NEW YORK TIMES

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Wendy Weiser on the large volume of preelection litigation // LOS ANGELES TIMES

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Feedback on this newsletter? Email us at [email protected]

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