How We Safeguard the Process from Election Day to Inauguration Day

UPDATED OCTOBER 28, 2024

 

 

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Introduction

Trump and the GOP are preparing to overturn the 2024 elections. MVP and our partners are part of the national effort to stop them.

In the face of unprecedented election subversion attempts, MVP and our partners are laser-focused on securing decisive victories on Election Night — while preparing to mount grassroots and legal efforts to count every vote and ensure a safe, democratic process through Inauguration Day.

View our Election Protection Strategy as a PDF »

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Key Dates and Timeline

We are preparing for potential threats at every key stage of the electoral timeline:

November 5: Election Night

• Goal: Maximize voter turnout for a decisive Democratic victory up and down the ballot.
• Risks: Disinformation, voter suppression, and right-wing intimidation and violence.

November 6 – December 11: Count Every Vote

• Process: Continued vote counting; ballot curing before deadlines in key states; official canvass to determine official counts; official audits and recounts as needed.
• Risks: Delayed results; premature victory claims; efforts to discredit the process.

December 11: Governors Certify the Vote

• Process: Under the Electoral Count Reform Act (ECRA), each governor must certify their state’s results of this year’s Presidential election by December 11, 2024.
• Risks: Officials refusing certification; other legal attempts to delay the process. 

December 17: Presidential Electors Cast Votes

• Process: State electors cast official Electoral College votes based on certified results.
• Risks: “Faithless electors”; alternate pro-Trump electors sent by GOP state legislatures.

January 6, 2025: Congress Ratifies Election

• Process: The newly-elected Congress convenes a joint session to ratify electoral votes.
• Risks: Objections from a GOP-led Senate and House, or efforts to disrupt proceedings.

 

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Strategic Objectives

1. Count Every Vote

Risks: Targeted attempts to disenfranchise voters (particularly voters of color), such as prematurely closing Election-Day polling locations and rejecting legitimately cast ballots.

Response: Support partners’ legal efforts to ensure voters’ access to the polls; provide access to tech tools and training to bolster partners’ ballot-curing campaigns.

Example: We funded 40+ organizers in key states to freely attend RePower’s online training on how to launch and execute a successful ballot-curing program.

2. Mobilize Public Support

Risks: GOP attempts to sow doubts and peddle lies to depress turnout, disenfranchise voters, and discredit the election – from deceptive robocalls to false election conspiracies.

Response: Support our partners in leveraging unified messaging and mass demonstrations of public support (see Philly 2020) to defend the electoral process through Inauguration Day.

Example: In coordination with national allies like ASO Communications, we are supporting our partners to amplify movement-wide framing and messaging to A) count every vote, B) respect the democratic process if results are close, and C) discredit election subversion efforts.

3. Bolster Legal Action

Risks: Voter disenfranchisement; GOP lawsuits contesting election results; election officials delaying certification due to political allegiance or GOP pressure campaigns.

Response: Support our partners’ and allies’ court cases – from enlisting lawyers to recruiting plaintiffs, ensuring testifiers’ safety, mobilizing public support, and driving the media narrative.

Example: In Arizona’s Democratic-leaning Maricopa County, mail-in ballots were damaged when a USPS collection box was set on fire. Our partners at the Arizona Working Families Party (AZ WFP) mobilized to identify the voters affected (using Votivate, a tech tool MVP provided seed funding to develop). To aid their efforts, MVP connected AZ WFP with Movement Law Lab to determine if they will need litigation to secure new emergency ballots for these voters.

Example: Our partners at Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC) are prepared to launch ballot measure litigation if pro-Trump officials try to delay certification. For instance, in Arizona, where our partners have organized around an abortion rights measure, they and other allies could sue to certify the election based on the results of that measure. This strategy, which was put to use in the marriage equality movement, forces officials to certify all races on the ballot, leveraging momentum around ballot measures to safeguard the results of the overall election.

4. Protect Physical Safety

Risks: Intimidation and threats of right-wing violence against voters, canvassers, & organizers.

Response: Support safety training for partners’ staff and volunteers, so they can safely turn out voters — and help ensure community safety in the event of unrest after Election Day.

Example: In North Carolina, the GOP led a voter intimidation campaign against Latine voters in 2020 and 2022, with plans to double down in 2024. In response, MVP partner Carolina Federation is 1) working to defeat candidates who refuse to condemn these acts, and 2) working with America Votes to deploy poll watchers across the state to ensure voters’ safety. MVP has underwritten their participation in RePower’s training on safe poll monitoring, in which participants learn “the 5 D’s of De-escalation”: Distract, Delegate, Delay, Direct, and Document.

5. Strengthen Digital Security

Risks: Doxxing, phishing, infiltration, and other attempts to sabotage our partners’ digital systems and voter/member data – which could hinder post-election rapid-response efforts.

Response: Support our partners to assess, monitor, and fortify their digital infrastructure; and ensure that data is safe, synced, and secure on platforms with the greatest data integrity.

Example: We are connecting our partners to anti-doxxing and anti-phishing resources, as well as progressive data firms, to offer data backups, tech audits, platform migrations, and more.

 

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Conclusion

More than ever, Election Day is an inflection point, not the endpoint. 

Our local partners on the ground need sustained funding to continue the critical year-round work of building power and advancing policy change — but they also need it to keep the lights on and keep up the momentum to defend democracy in the crucial days, weeks, and months after Election Day.

Now through Inauguration Day, every dollar MVP can move will help our partners:

• Turn out every last vote.
• Make sure every vote is counted.
• Bolster the legal and mass mobilization strategies to stop Trump from overturning the election.
• Mount rapid-response efforts and build an unprecedented resistance movement if Trump wins.
• Push for the most bold, progressive agenda possible for the first 100 days if Harris wins.

To support our local partners’ work in the critical period after Election Day, please contribute here.