Elections expert launches ‘Safeguarding Democracy’ project

“The insurrection at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, brought on by false claims about the 2020 presidential election, was the opening salvo of a concerted effort to subvert our electoral system,” Hasen mentioned in a press release. “The Safeguarding Democracy Project will use an all-hands-on-deck approach to address and challenge these threats to our democracy, working to ensure that all eligible voters can freely cast their vote, that those votes will be fairly and accurately counted, and that the election winners will undergo a peaceful transfer of power.”

Other well-known members of the advisory board embrace Bob Bauer, former White House counsel to then-President Barack Obama; Ben Ginsberg, a distinguished Republican elections legal professional; University of Michigan regulation professor Leah Litman and former NPR reporter Pam Fessler.

One of the project’s first occasions shall be a late September dialog with reporters protecting the Supreme Court on the court docket’s “role in preserving American democracy,” together with a roundtable with election consultants in regards to the “independent state legislature” idea.

The Supreme Court introduced final week that it would hear a case arguing that doctrine, a controversial authorized idea not too long ago pushed by Republican election attorneys arguing that state legislatures have extensive latitude to set guidelines round elections, with restricted or no position for state courts.

Election consultants, together with Hasan, have argued {that a} validation of that idea by nation’s excessive court docket would give state-level legislative leaders near unchecked ability to skew political maps and alter election legal guidelines.

The UCLA project can also be planning a symposium for early 2023 titled “Can American Democracy Survive the 2024 Elections?”