Election Protection

Well, I know that there are a lot of certainly deep concerns, not only about the state of the country right now and the state of the judiciary, but also the state of the elections.

And so part of what I know we want to talk about is the potential, the rising potential for federal interference in the midterm elections, how we can, as citizens, defend and protect the elections and organizations that are working on the front line, like election protection, to do this.

And then I know that we want to spend a little bit of time on the get out the vote and why the vote is vital And then if we have time, which is always just kind of an inside joke because we won't.

Yeah, it is.

We're going to have a longer second half, I promise.

Talk

about election protection, too, because it's a nationwide program.

We'll get that.

So if ICE shows up at your polling place, there's a few fir- things you can do.

First is we are the co-chairs of something called the Election Protection Coalition.

It is a coalition of hundreds of organizations throughout the country, not just here in DC, but small grassroots folks, you name it, just c- community organizations who are part of something called the Election Protection Coalition that we co-chair.

They are the eyes and ears.

We have a hotline called 866-OUR VOTE, and then we have 888-VE VOTA.

We have Haitian Creole.

We have just a myriad of languages with people who are able to communicate with individuals in their native language.

But the other thing, if people are interested in becoming a trained election protection volunteer, they can go to protectthevote.net and sign up to be trained to become a volunteer.

Because heading into the 2026 midterms, a recent survey found that nearly two-thirds of Americans are worried that political leaders will try to pressure election officials into changing outcomes, and more than half fear voter intimidation at the polls.

My eyes are wide open to this right now, and m- especially since, Misasha, you're literally doing election protection volunteer work and seeing what is being planned this fall.

You can listen at the end of this episode to hear directly from Anna Chu, executive director of We The Action, for ways that you can get involved, whether you are a lawyer or aren't, and trust me, you're gonna wanna listen regardless, 'cause that conversation left me so full of hope.

[laughs] And joy.

Please make an effort not just to show up, but to rally.

So what else can we do?

do?So volunteer, right? Volunteer as an election protection volunteer or a poll worker.

Our conversation with Anna Chu goes into a lot of what lawyers can do, and even something non-lawyers can do, so make sure you listen until the end.

I want you to realize you have more power than you think you do, and there are gonna be people who are trying to scare you away from using your power because they're scared of you.

And I want to also remind you, dear listener, at this point, that if you have some trepidation about voting, or if you are intimidated while you do vote, or if you see any other kind of suspicious activity or irregularities when you vote early or whenever you choose to vote, please make sure you call the Election Protection hotline.

That would be 866-OUR-VOTE.

Again, that phone number is 866-OUR-VOTE.

There's a whole lot of things going on, but I really want to keep a focus on voting, and I really wanna keep a focus on election, uh, protection.

And again, I wanna remind you of the phone number for election protection.

If you see anything that's untoward or strange or suspicious at a polling station or during your early voting or something that's being said out there that's not accurate or someone giving you wrong directions or you go and find out that your polling station is closed when you vote, I want you to re- send that information.

Uh, well, call up, first of all, call up this election protection hotline I'm about to give you the phone number for.

866-OUR-VOTE.

That's 866-OUR-VOTE.

That is the election protection hotline, and you will have attorneys and other volunteers answering the phone and giving you information and advice and listening to what you have to say, and they'll provide you advice on what to do.

So again, really important phone number for election protection, whether you're voting right now or if you decide to vote on the day of.

And I'm really even against giving out third party websites when it comes to getting information about voting.

And there's one other site that I will give out for election protection because that's important as well.

If you want to check your voter registration, you can do it in many ways.

One of them is to go to iwillvote.com. It's a website paid for by the DNC, the Democrats.

That will be tomorrow.

on cnn and i'll be uh talking about that debate as well uh on the politocrat as well as on substack popcorn r-e-e-l dot substack dot com right then i do hope that you found that to be edifying And lastly, if you see any funny business, whether it's on social media, whether it is in your mailbox, whether it is near a polling station, whether it's early voting that you see this weirdness going on or intimidation going on by thugs or by anyone else, ICE, whoever it is, I want you to call this phone number.

It's called the Election Protection Hotline.

866- OUR.

And.

We are best suited not by developing an intensive scenario for every individual actor for every individual scenario, but by getting in a relationship early and getting organized within our locality so that the relevant people are all trained and prepared and talking to each other, that gaps are filled early if people need poll monitors, if we need poll poll workers, so that you have the hotline of the local election protection network, basically making sure that people are pre-organized.

And of course, obviously, because this is indivisible, that we're ready to mobilize if and when we need to, because somebody is doing some kind of shenanigans like not certifying.

All of those things are about the preparation, not for like one specific scenario, but for having the flexible, nimble capacity to move in a lot of different directions.

We are working and we will be sharing them more with you.

Think of some of the No King's Early Vote work as your opportunity to talk to people about this possibility, to recruit people, to prepare, to kind of get in relationship.

Again, get in relationship with your local election protection, local tables, figuring out how you can actually be connected in the event that you need to be part of that response locally.

There will be more to come.

So there's a lot of great people, great organizations like Earth Justice.

Election protection is huge this time of year as we kind of move toward the election.

Federal judges who have stopped some of the worst policies or at least temporarily halted them as they can.

in trying to hold the constitutional line against this corrupt and lawless administration.

There is a phone number, 866-OUR-VOTE, 866-687-8683.

It goes to the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

And I think it's monitored by Election Protection and a number of other organizations that are on the front lines.

So that if you do see as a voter, if you go to a precinct, you see intimidation, harassment, people being turned away, misinformation, this is the number to call.