By American Bar Association
Lawyers need to educate and prepare themselves to help debunk election myths and defend democracy, according to voting experts at an ABA program looking toward the Nov. 5 elections.
The recent webinar “Election 2024: Threats, Myths and What We Can Do to Protect the Vote” was sponsored by the ABA Task Force for American Democracy.
“Elections are being challenged like never before in U.S. history,” said political law advocate Benjamin Ginsburg during the webinar “Election 2024: Threats, Myths and What We Can Do to Protect the Vote,” sponsored by the ABA Task Force for American Democracy.
“At this time of year all lawyers are election lawyers” who need to help educate voters so that they can gain confidence in the system. A third of voters do not believe in the validity of elections, said Ginsburg, the Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.
“We are already seeing the beginning for voter purges,” said civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill, the Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University School of Law. She urged voters to double check their voter registration status and polling place a week before Election Day to avoid any confusion about their eligibility to cast a ballot.
Myths about ineligible voters, absentee voting and unreliable elections, along with charges of fraud and voter suppression, are running rampant, fueled by misinformation and disinformation disseminated on social media, the panelists said.
“We’ve seen plenty of folks, not only in our profession, who end up getting sanctioned because they are bringing ridiculous lawsuits with zero evidence,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. He called on lawyers to hold those people accountable.
“There is nothing nefarious about absentee voting,” Ifill said. “It has been used for decades. It’s important not to demonize a form of voting that is perfectly legal and perfectly normal. … Bringing down the temperature around absentee voting and mail-in voting is critical,” she said. She added that the bigger problem is with voter turnout — people who are eligible to vote and don’t vote.
Ifill is also concerned about information about new restrictive election laws that needs to cascade down to voters to avoid confusion and challenges at the polls. Fontes referred to “domestic terrorism” against election officials to achieve a political end.
“These are crimes against our government and crimes against our society,” he said.
Panelists encouraged lawyers to get involved in the process — be a poll worker or observer and help educate voters.
“You’re a lawyer and people expect you to know things,” Ifill said, especially where people can go to get answers about election questions and problems. “Know where the trusted sources are and be able to direct people to them.”
(https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2024)
Lawyers need to educate and prepare themselves to help debunk election myths and defend democracy, according to voting experts at an ABA program looking toward the Nov. 5 elections.
The recent webinar “Election 2024: Threats, Myths and What We Can Do to Protect the Vote” was sponsored by the ABA Task Force for American Democracy.
“Elections are being challenged like never before in U.S. history,” said political law advocate Benjamin Ginsburg during the webinar “Election 2024: Threats, Myths and What We Can Do to Protect the Vote,” sponsored by the ABA Task Force for American Democracy.
“At this time of year all lawyers are election lawyers” who need to help educate voters so that they can gain confidence in the system. A third of voters do not believe in the validity of elections, said Ginsburg, the Volker Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution.
“We are already seeing the beginning for voter purges,” said civil rights lawyer Sherrilyn Ifill, the Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Esq. Endowed Chair in Civil Rights at Howard University School of Law. She urged voters to double check their voter registration status and polling place a week before Election Day to avoid any confusion about their eligibility to cast a ballot.
Myths about ineligible voters, absentee voting and unreliable elections, along with charges of fraud and voter suppression, are running rampant, fueled by misinformation and disinformation disseminated on social media, the panelists said.
“We’ve seen plenty of folks, not only in our profession, who end up getting sanctioned because they are bringing ridiculous lawsuits with zero evidence,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. He called on lawyers to hold those people accountable.
“There is nothing nefarious about absentee voting,” Ifill said. “It has been used for decades. It’s important not to demonize a form of voting that is perfectly legal and perfectly normal. … Bringing down the temperature around absentee voting and mail-in voting is critical,” she said. She added that the bigger problem is with voter turnout — people who are eligible to vote and don’t vote.
Ifill is also concerned about information about new restrictive election laws that needs to cascade down to voters to avoid confusion and challenges at the polls. Fontes referred to “domestic terrorism” against election officials to achieve a political end.
“These are crimes against our government and crimes against our society,” he said.
Panelists encouraged lawyers to get involved in the process — be a poll worker or observer and help educate voters.
“You’re a lawyer and people expect you to know things,” Ifill said, especially where people can go to get answers about election questions and problems. “Know where the trusted sources are and be able to direct people to them.”
(https://www.americanbar.org/news/abanews/aba-news-archives/2024)
