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Join the Continuing Fight to Preserve Democracy in the United States

This article was updated to add further information on September 11, 2023.

The time from now through the 2024 election cycle may constitute the toughest test yet of democracy in the United States of America. Many groups and individuals – from all political parties and at all levels of society – are working hard to preserve democratic institutions and the notion that the US is a country where the law applies to everyone. Every citizen, no matter where they live, can and should play their part to support democracy in America – today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.

FAWCO’s US Voting Committee urges overseas Americans who are FAWCO members to step up their work to champion democracy by:

  • combating misinformation about the 2020 and subsequent elections and current events and stressing the fight to preserve democracy as the central issue of every election;
  • ensuring that they are registered to vote – using nonpartisan sites such as the US Vote Foundation and the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) – in every election year; and
  • assisting and promoting voting by overseas Americans through their clubs and all other bodies to which they belong.

FAWCO’s US Voting Committee will assist in these vital tasks in every way it can think of. Contact the Committee by email () to become a member and/or suggest further activities. Overseas Americans can and should play their part in supporting democracy in America – today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.

The problem

The threat to US democracy burst on to everyone’s TV and computer screens with footage and reporting on the violent insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. That attack interrupted the peaceful transfer of power between one president and the next for the first time since the Civil War. It arose from efforts to predetermine election results based on the Big Lie: the assertion, starting with one candidate in 2016 and repeated and amplified in 2020 and afterwards, that an election loss by that candidate was in itself proof of massive voter fraud. This is nonsense, as defeats of these assertions in around 70 court cases showed, but many American politicians and voters nevertheless still assert and act on it.

After the violence of January 6, as FAWCO has already spelled out, attacks on democracy:

shifted to the state level and focused on election processes and officials.

  • State legislatures have passed laws making it harder to vote … and weakening election officials’ ability to do their jobs, as well as continuing gerrymandering.
  • Death threats have been made against election administrators, with up to 30% of election officials surveyed saying they are concerned for their safety.
  • Especially in closely contested states, efforts have been made to defeat incumbents who upheld the integrity of the election (such as Secretaries of State), and to change the composition of the boards charged with certifying the vote at the county level, and replace them with believers in the Big Lie.

In addition, news organizations report that state legislatures have passed laws that shift power over elections to partisan entities and expand their power over elections.

Next, in the 2022 mid-term elections, while “voters defeated ‘election deniers’ running for offices that run elections – Governor and/or Secretary of State – in several closely contested states,” about 60% of election-denying candidates won their races and are serving in state governments and even in Congress.

Solutions

Solutions to the problem include new federal legislation, the ordinary operation of law enforcement and the court system at the federal and state levels, and special efforts made by organizations and citizens, including FAWCO and its members.

For example, Congress fulfilled the first recommendation of the bipartisan Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol by passing an election reform act in 2022, intended to prevent another such attack.

Many of the January 6 rioters have been charged with crimes: “More than 1,033 of the rioters have been arrested, with approximately 485 federal defendants receiving sentences.” Juries have convicted six leaders of two paramilitary groups of seditious conspiracy.

Authorities at the federal and local levels secured indictments in Washington, DC and Fulton County, Georgia against a wide range of people, whom they charge with seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election by:

  • spreading misinformation about the results;
  • seeking to intimidate state election officials into changing the results; and
  • trying to “use ‘fake electors’ to overturn the 2020 presidential election” in seven states in order “to undermine the Electoral College after state officials refused to change the election results.”

“Fake electors” have been charged with crimes in Georgia and Michigan, and investigations continue in other affected states.

In addition, law enforcement is seeking to protect both a federal judge and members of a county grand jury against threats of violence made by members of the public disgruntled by the indictments.

Further, organizations have recognized the continuing threat to democracy and taken action, too. For example, centers, foundations and institutes named after 13 US preisidents (7 Democratic and 6 Republican) issued a joint statement calling on elected officials to deliver for the American people and emphasizing "the need for compassion, tolerance and pluralism while urging Americans to respect democratic institutions and uphold secure and accessible elections".

The presidents of a wide-ranging group of 13 universities are promoting free speech on their campuses this academic year, as part of a new nonprofit initiative – the Campus Call for Free Expression – “to combat what organizers call dire threats to U.S. democracy”.

Recognizing that “our American democracy is not as strong as we once thought and there are those who seem determined to push it to the breaking point,” the American Bar Association (ABA) set up a nonpartisan Task Force for American Democracy that will seek to strengthen US democracy by considering and addressing nine tasks, starting with:

– education of our citizenry on the importance of an inclusive, strong, and enduring democracy;

– ways to maximize voter confidence and participation in our democratic process;

– ways to dis-incentivize irresponsible and extremist rhetoric and positions among elected officials and candidates for elective office;

 

Efforts by individuals include those of the many government and election officials at the federal and state levels who did their jobs and kept their oaths to the Constitution in 2021–2022, even when the results were against their wishes and when standing up for the truth in 2020 and afterwards, exposed them to personal attack and threats to the safety of themselves and their families. These people range from an official seeking to clear up misinformation two days before January 6 to citizens recently refuting false charges of election fraud made against them.  

Finally, US citizens, who saw the danger and went to the polls in larger numbers than before, have voted for candidates upholding US democracy at every opportunity. All these efforts must continue until the struggle is won.

What we in FAWCO can do

But the struggle is far from over. The time from now through the 2024 election cycle may constitute the toughest test yet of democracy in the United States of America. Many groups and individuals – from all political parties and at all levels of society – are working hard to preserve democratic institutions and the notion that the US is a country where the law applies to everyone. Every citizen, no matter where they live, can and should play their part to support democracy in America – today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.

FAWCO’s US Voting Committee urges overseas Americans who are FAWCO members to step up their work to champion democracy by:

  • combating misinformation about the 2020 and subsequent elections and current events and stressing the fight to preserve democracy as the central issue of every election;
  • ensuring that they are registered to vote – using nonpartisan sites such as the US Vote Foundation and the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) – in every election year; and
  • assisting and promoting voting by overseas Americans through their clubs and all other bodies to which they belong.

FAWCO’s US Voting Committee will assist in these vital tasks in every way it can think of. Contact the Committee by email () to become a member and/or suggest further activities. Overseas Americans can and should play their part in supporting democracy in America – today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes.

 

Information sources

American Bar Association (ABA) Task Force for American Democracy. American Bar Association, 2023.

Beaty, T. US universities launch partnership to elevate free speech to counter threats to democracy. Associated Press, August 15, 2023.

Burgher, MS. US democracy in danger – active citizenship needed. FAWCO, May 20, 2022.

Burgher, MS. US democracy won the mid-term elections – the fight to preserve it continues. FAWCO, November 26, 2022.

Burgher, MS. US Voting Committee (still) stands by results of 2020 US election – what FAWCO members can do in 2021. FAWCO, updated March 17, 2021.

Bynum, R. Authorities investigating threats to grand jurors who indicted Trump in Georgia. Associated Press, August 17, 2023.

Cohen, M. Michigan’s fake GOP electors to be arraigned on state charges.  CNN, August 10, 2023.

Diaz, J. Rudy Giuliani concedes he made false statements against 2 Georgia election workers. NPR, July 26, 2023.

Fields, G. Presidential centers from Hoover to Bush and Obama unite to warn of fragile state of US democracy.  Associated Press, September 8, 2023.

Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol. U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2022.

Frazier, K. Jan. 6 sentences are piling up. Here’s a look at some of the longest handed down. Politico, May 30, 2023

Jarrett L . What to know about the Trump 'fake electors' scheme in the 2020 election. NBC, August 3, 2023.

Jury Convicts Four Leaders of the Proud Boys of Seditious Conspiracy Related to U.S. Capitol Breach. US Department of Justice, May 4, 2023.

"None of that is true": Georgia election official debunks claims about voter fraud. CBS News. YouTube, January 4, 2021 (video).  

Olson, E. A Texas woman is charged with threatening the judge overseeing Trump's Jan. 6 trial. NPR, August 17, 2023.

Parks, M. Congress passes election reform designed to ward off another Jan. 6. NPR, December 23, 2022.

Scharps L. Vote smart, check sources! FAWCO, November 22, 2019.

Sullivan, A, Ax, J, Lynch, SN. Georgia charges Trump, former advisers in 2020 election case. Reuters, August 15, 2023.

United States of America v. Donald J. Trump. Washington, DC. US Department of Justice, 2023.

 

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