I need YOU to protect our elections

Whenlast we spoke, I mentioned that this newsletter had been on hiatus because I was out of my mind while working on other projects. One of those appeared today at Mother Jones: 'When ICE comes to the polls.' Please jump over right now to read it, because it is jammed full of information on one key threat to the upcoming election. (They squeezed weeks' worth of reporting into 1500 words … so it's dense.) In case you haven't read it, though, here is the problem in brief: Trump and cronieswilltry to subvert the election. He's tried before, he's promised to do it again, and he keeps his most vile promises. The Mother Jones subhead tells you concisely whatthisnewsletter is about, today: 'Cops won't fight federal election interference—so citizens will have to.' That, dear reader, means you.How do I do that,you ask? Excellent question! Keep reading and we'll get to your assignments,should you choose to accept them. Polls suggestwe're going to see a blue wave. But that doesn't mean we can relax. Trump-aligned Republicans have been organizing madly to subvert those results, in so many different ways:redistrictingto dilute Black and Democratic votes;1steadily making it harder to register to vote, to stay registered, and to cast ballots; pressuring Republican secretaries of state and election officials to refuse to certify election results in which Democrats win; andmore,much more, which youcan readabout elsewhere. During my reporting about Trump's cagily worded threats to send ICE to the polls, I talked to many experts who had many fears about what could go wrong.Rosa Brooksis worried aboutAI-generated disinformationthat targets each voter's personal vulnerability, like false threats that if you vote, you might lose a scholarship or health insurance or what have you. Another expert (who asked not to be named because he wants to keep the trust of his clients in local police departments) worries that police won't respond quickly enough if ICE walks into election centers to take ballot boxes or voting machines.Erica de Bruin, a political scientist who specializes in policing, civil war, and democratic threats, told me, 'It's hard to steal an election outright but it is not hard to depress turnout.' She worries that posting ICE's masked thugs in cities (which tend to vote blue) will scare people away from voting — enough so that it will change the result but 'it appears like a legitimate outcome, right?' Rigging the rules, disinformation, intimidation, miscommunication: the dangers are everywhere.2 Yes. That was the best part of my reporting, learning that political scientists, leaders of large and small pro-democracy groups and institutes and nonprofits, retired generals, Senate Democrats and Democratic secretaries of state, elections officials: hundreds of thousands of people are taking Trump administration threats seriously and preparing. Lawyers at every group that has 'democracy' or 'voting' or 'civil rights' in its mission statement (there are alotof them!) are preparing legal briefs for every contingency they can think of. And lawyers can think of a lot of contingencies — especially since the administration has is pretty clear about its threats. (One such lawyer told me that Trump administration threats arelike this clip.) They'll be ready to file for injunctions at a moment's notice. Election officials in many potentially threatened districts arecoordinatingwith local police. Battalions of folks will be ready to help voters identify disinformation. And so on. BUT. There's a big gap — and it's pretty much the size of you and me and everyone we know. Below are some assignments. Pick one or more from either category, easy or hard. Talk to your friends and family and rope them in too. A note:This is highly recommended if you don't want to feel as hideous as you did after the last election! Easy category.It's urgently important that pro-democracy folks like us help run the ordinary election machinery. You know the things I mean, things that local civic folks have done forever: registering voters,workingonelection protection,spreading information about voting,staffing the polls,election observation,ballot 'curing.' How can you find such opportunities, you ask? Click on any of the links in the previous paragraph to find something you can do. Reach out to your local chapter or office of in the League of Women Voters (they are quite radically pro-democracy), ACLU, Common Cause, NAACP,Indivisible, election board, or some other local group you trust, and ask how you can help. The big groups' websites seem to focus on asking for money but if you dig, you can find the 'take action' sign-up forms. Google 'election protection' or 'voter registration near me' for something close by. Maybe you live in a deep blue district like mine, in a very blue state where no Republican will win anything whatsoever. In that case you have two options: Volunteer for an election information or protection phone line that works nationwide. Find a district that could use some help (see criteria below), and plan to visit in late October and/or early November. Harder category.It's so easy to imagine democracy forces winning all the peaceful, lawful skirmishes — the ACLU winning injunctions against ICE goons at the polls, say, or a Democratic governor sending in National Guard troops to protect voters — and Trumpist brownshirts giving everyone the finger and continuing their illegal or violent actions. ICE and MAGAists of the Jan. 6 variety are willing to shoot; the National Guard and local police simply won't (as soooo many experts told me formy article). Somebody has to stand in the breach — trained and ready for the text that sayseveryone to 1234 Main Street.Somebody has toorganizethe WhatsApp group that sends that text to the right people. That's why this newsletter is illustrated with a wartime recruiting poster.Pro-democracy forces need nonviolent warriors, ready to stand up if MAGA won't stand down.Think of Minnesotans chanting at ICE, 'You can't shoot us all.' If you think you could show up to face down violence with nonviolence, sign up right now for nonviolence training, viaFreedom Trainers,Interfaith Alliance, orUnitarian Universalists. If no one in your area (or the district you might volunteer to fortify) has a network ready to show up at a moment's notice,organize one. Talk to local chapters of any of the groups mentioned above. See if anIndivisible groupnear you is planning anything. Or work with the very scrappy, action-oriented grassroots networkFiftyFiftyOne. If you're really stuck, ask for help in the comments and the rest of us will help you think it through. To repeat: MAGA forces know that if they play fair, Democrats will win the House and maybe the Senate this fall. So they won't play fair. Where, exactly, will they send their shock troops? No one knows yet. But look for districts that havebothof these things: A contested race for an important seat, where it could go either way.That could be a close Senate or House race. Or, in a red or purple state, the contested race might for governor or for a state legislative seat — since electing a Democrat might make it harder gerrymander or pass laws making it harder to vote. A significant blocof Hispanic, Black, or other likely Democratic voters who might fear walking past AR-15-toting thugs in masks. Maybe you already live in or near one of these places, like Portland, Maine, a likely harbor foranti-Susan Collinsvotes. Or Columbus, Ohio, which could help putDemocrat Sherrod Brownback in the Senate. Or any of the19 House districtsthat Cook Political Report rates as a toss-up. Or Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which could help elect a Democratic governor. Or Fulton County in Georgia, or anyblue district in Texas. Many such places have a real shot at electing orreelecting a Democrat to both the House and Senate. Can you nominate a district you're worried about?In the comments, please let us know what race you are worried about;maybe someone will volunteer to come help. Tell us in the comments where and how you plan to make your stand: election volunteering, nonviolent resistance in the face of ICE thugs, or something different. We need to cheer each other on. Because as Timothy Snyder wrote,'Be as courageous as you can. If none of us is prepared to die for freedom, all of us will die under tyranny.'[ ←do click to listen to John Lithgow read this, although it might make you cry.] This was a long, earnest diatribe! Next issues will be simpler. Meantime, get to work. Bonus!Do watchJamelle Bouie's careful, devastating takedown of the smugly moralizing David Brooks. SO worth it. Two final notes: If you liked this essay, please do forward it to someone.And if you click the little heart below, you'll boost my standing in Substack's algorithmic race! Nate Cohn at the New York Times wrote,back in May, that 'Currently, Republicans' advantage from redistricting would allow them to lose the popular vote by 2.5 percentage points and still win control of the House.' It's gotten worse since then. This phrase always makes me think of Robert Hass's deeply moving poem 'The Beginning of September.'