Every year, Americans of all political persuasions volunteer their time to register voters on the street, knock on doors for political campaigns, and assist voters with disabilities or limited English proficiency. They invite new voters to the electorate and equip them to participate. While our democracy faces unprecedented challenges, we can be confident that the vast majority of voters will vote smoothly and safely this year, thanks to them and the thousands of public officials who run our elections.

However, some volunteers who are skeptical about our elections are trying to turn democracy against themselves. They are working to keep voters away from the polls and root out fraud, even though every legitimate study shows that voter fraud is widespread. vanishingly rare.

This growing brand of anti-democratic activism is a dark mirror image of the grassroots work that drives our democracy. Most participants seem motivated by a genuine sense of civic duty. This is because leaders of the election denial movement cynically use disinformation to divert Americans’ democratic impulses toward antidemocratic ends and lay the groundwork to baselessly challenge election results.

Four years ago, an attempt to overturn then-President Trump’s presidential election was carried out mostly by a small group of insiders; is a group of characters, including lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, whose desperate antics might be laughable if their motives weren’t so serious. and John Eastman and MyPillow Chief Executive Officer Mike Lindell, who helped fund the voter rejection movement. This conspiracy culminated on January 6, 2021, with hundreds of followers rioting; Many of them believed they were performing some kind of patriotic duty by storming the U.S. Capitol and interfering with our nation’s most sacred tradition: the peaceful transfer of power.

In the years since, Trump’s ragtag group of election deniers has built a movement and organized ordinary American citizens to subvert democracy. Cleta Mitchell – one of the lawyers in January 2021 Call It brought together nearly 30 state chapters and the Election Integrity Network, a weekly election, where Trump pressured Georgia’s secretary of state to change the vote in his favor. Zoom calls. This year Mitchell founded the One Citizens Vote coalition. likened to a “national neighborhood watch” during elections. Mitchell’s network was initially backed by the Conservative Partnership Institute, where former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is a senior partner. reportedly He contributed to an online system to enable mass challenges from voters. Close Trump ally Stephen K. Bannon uses his radio show to encourage election nonbelievers to register to vote poll watchersIt’s part of efforts to begin “taking over all elections.”

In this twisted inversion of a healthy, functioning democracy, these activists harass Volunteers who registered Latino voters under discriminatory accusations that they were registering non-citizens to vote. Some joined right-wing groups challenge campaigning to examine their neighbors’ right to vote or voter rolls based on questionable “investigations”. Volunteer activists in Pennsylvania sent mails It confuses and alarms recipients by encouraging voters suspected of acting to cancel their voter registration.

Although these activists often insist that they are helping officials ensure fair voting, they are actually doing the opposite: intimidating voters and interfering with elections. Rather than stopping actual fraud, these efforts are far more likely to scare eligible voters away from voting or remove them from voter rolls based on faulty data. The targeting of Latino registration campaigns and the fact that some activists are calling voters “surnames of Spanish origin,” reminds us that disenfranchisement is especially likely voters of color. Moreover, an unprecedented influx of Americans hear this call for anti-democratic caution as an invitation to democracy. harass and threaten election officials.

There are solid legal safeguards to prevent these tactics from harming our elections. As our team at the Brennan Center has shared, many federal and state laws prohibit voter intimidation, election workers, and volunteers who register and turn out voters. Resources available to election officialspro-democracy organizations, law enforcement, and everyone else. Although poll watchers play an important role in maintaining the transparency of elections, there are rules governing their role; for example, Physically threatening voters or asking intrusive questions. Those who do not comply with the rules may be removed from the ballot box.

State laws place limits on voter challenges; including, for example, Arizona’s requirement that the challenger provide: “clear and convincing evidence”For a voter to be unfit to prevail. Election denialism has helped erode some legal protections; In Georgia, the state legislature passed a law couple related to laws This allowed voters to submit an unlimited number of challenges and lowered the bar for bringing them up. But responsible local election officials have ensured that few of these challenges have been overcome concluded voters are removed from the rolls.

There is also a strong counter-alliance struggle to keep our democracy alive. Some states saw record-breaking voter registrations this fall numbersearly voting discharge and creative community efforts, including marching groups and celebrities, to get people to the polls. More than 300 organizations are part of the national, nonpartisan coalition Election Protectionwhich offers national hotlines in multiple languages ​​to answer your how-to-vote question (at (866) OUR-VOTE (687-8683) for English speakers). Its volunteers and staff, including lawyers, can help refer more serious problems to authorities if necessary.

Of course, voters themselves are key to defending democracy this fall; by exercising their right to vote. In future elections, those interested can participate in a registration drive, knock on doors to encourage voting, sign up to be a poll worker, and support your local election officials. And you can always let your representatives in Congress know that you value an inclusive, representative democracy. The future we deserve is not to destroy this system, but to rebuild it.

Sean Morales-Doyle is director of the voting rights program at NYU Law’s Brennan Center for Justice.