Dear Friend,

A new strategy to give Trump-following Republicans control of the outcome
of elections was born out of the January 6 insurrection—a strategy that
has been completely flying under the radar.

Republicans have been pouring millions of dollars into campaigns for
secretaries of state seats around the country, including the candidacies
of more than 20 state officials who publicly disputed the results of the
2020 presidential election.^1

Secretaries of state oversee election mechanisms and counts, so it’s never
been more important for Congress to fix our broken election laws,
strengthen voting rights protections, and prohibit these tactics from
succeeding. Demand Progress helped to lead the charge for Congress to
repair the Electoral Count Act and protect the voice of the people, and
our push is working.

[ [link removed] ]Will you chip in $10 to Demand Progress and help pressure
Congress to fix the Electoral Count Act and pass other crucial voting
rights protections?

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Although most people probably can’t even name their state’s secretary of
state, the position wields an incredible amount of power when it comes to
elections.

During Donald Trump’s rally last month, he brought onstage a candidate for
Arizona secretary of state, saying, “Sometimes the vote counter is more
important than the candidate.”^2

He’s right, especially with an unamended Electoral Count Act still in
place. The 1887 law has been called “almost unintelligible” by election
experts, and the Trump team sought to interpret it as allowing state
officials to throw out results and declare someone else the winner.^3,4 As
one expert put it, electing Big Lie secretaries of state under these
conditions is “like putting arsonists in charge of the Fire Department.”^5

Demand Progress has been sounding the alarm about the the need to amend
the Electoral Count Act and pass other crucial voting rights protections
for months, and our campaign for reform is gaining traction. We’ve
mobilized nearly 50,000 people to send messages to Congress urging them to
reform the Electoral Count Act. Now senators on both sides of the aisle
are getting on board with changing the law, but we need to increase our
public call and make sure that the final vote is filibuster proof.^6

[ [link removed] ]Demand Progress needs your help to keep the pressure on, before these
new secretaries of state take power. Will you chip in $10 to
help convince Congress to reform the Electoral Count Act and pass voting
rights legislation?

Thanks for standing with us.

Robert Cruickshank,
Demand Progress

P.S.: Your contributions are what keep us nimble and prepared to take on
important fights like these as they happen. [ [link removed] ]Will you become a monthly
donor to keep our work going?

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Sources:

1. The New York Times, "Campaigning to Oversee Elections, While Denying
the Last One," [ [link removed] ]January 30, 2022
2. CNN, "An Arizona Trump rally and voting rights march underscore the
fight for democracy," [ [link removed] ]January 17, 2022
3. The New York Times, "Fearing a Repeat of Jan. 6, Congress Eyes Changes
to Electoral Count Law," [ [link removed] ]December 4, 2021
4. CNN, "Memo shows Trump lawyer's six-step plan for Pence to overturn the
election," [ [link removed] ]September 21, 2021
5. The New York Times, "Campaigning to Oversee Elections, While Denying
the Last One," [ [link removed] ]January 30, 2022
6. U.S. News & World Report, "Chastened Democrats Join Push to Change
Century-Old Electoral Count Act," [ [link removed] ]January 21, 2022
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