Use Your Power as Lawyers for Election Protection

By Michelle Gastil

You likely belong to a group of people who did not have the right to vote for all of this country’s 250 years. Your right to vote was hard-fought for by prior generations, and for some of us even fewer generations ago. The Fifteenth Amendment (1870) barred race-based voting discrimination, but actualizing non-discriminatory voting access continues today. The Nineteenth Amendment (1920) secured women’s suffrage. In 1924, the Indian Citizenship Act made Native Americans U.S. citizens that could vote. Even then, obstacles to voting remained for decades after. This history demonstrates why election protection matters: the right to vote was won and not a given.

I recently returned from the U.S. Virgin Islands, where the National Conference of Bar Presidents (a nonprofit that empowers and connects bar presidents and organizations) held its Fall Council meeting. Unlike Cruzans, which are people from St. Croix, and everyone else in the U.S. Virgin Islands, I can vote for the President of the United States, and my congressional representative can cast votes on the House floor. My recent trip emphasized to me how much work it takes to maintain democratic systems that deliver true political agency. The U.S., though far from perfect, is the world’s longest continuous democracy, and that is something to be proud of. But pride alone will not uphold the rule of law. Democracy will continue, and expand where there is the will of the people, because people like you protect it.

Here are five things you can do, starting now, that will not impact your billable targets (too much):

1. Observe a Polling Place

Did you know you could be a poll observer? On Election Day, the polls are run by poll workers that could find themselves under pressure. Whether there are issues with machines or other issues, these stressors could quietly decide who gets heard. Poll observers are the trained eyes and ears who make sure that doesn’t happen silently. They verify that voters in line are treated fairly, that everyone who is entitled to vote is permitted to vote, and that the process stays open, calm, and honest. State law sets out who may observe and what they may (and may not) do at the poll. Review the laws state by state here:

Election Assistance Commission (poll watcher resources): https://www.eac.gov/election-officials/poll-watchers

2. Volunteer for an Election Protection Hotline

If you can’t get to a polling place on Election Day, you can still protect the vote from anywhere. The Election Protection hotline 866-OUR-VOTE is run by a nonpartisan coalition including the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and Common Cause, and it trains volunteers to help voters who encounter problems at the polls. Sign up at https://866ourvote.org/volunteer/.

3. Support Election Protection Time-Off

Do you manage a law office or law school classes? Be as flexible as you can to give lawyers and law students the time to assist at polling places or hotlines. Allow attorney time spent on election protection to count toward firm-mandated volunteer hours. In law schools, excuse tardiness and absences or even cancel classes for students supporting election protection on Election Day.

4. Encourage Everyone to Vote

The healthiest elections are the ones in which the widest range of people show up. A democracy that hears only one slice of its population isn’t really hearing its people at all. A successful voter turnout has an outcome that reflects lives lived very differently. We should encourage voting across every aisle and every community, not just among people who agree with us, but among people whose lives and views we may never otherwise encounter. You don’t have to agree with someone to want them counted.

5. Exemplify Civil Discourse Anytime You Can a.k.a. Be Kind

Election seasons tend to highlight inflammatory discourse, rewarding the sharpest jabs. But as legal professionals, we took oaths to uphold the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law, and one way we can put that oath into action is through nonpartisan election protection work. That work is itself an act of civil discourse: it assumes good faith and that a difference of opinion is not a defect of character. You can carry that same disposition into every conversation. When a friend repeats misinformation, correct it kindly with facts. Be generous, be patient, be kind even when it costs you something to stay civil. That, too, is election protection.

There are many paths to supporting election rights. Whichever method you decide to use to help this election cycle, don’t take your voting rights for granted. Generations before you fought for your right to vote. Use it! And use your powers as an attorney – be it your cultural power, moral authority, leadership, and or civic knowledge – to support election protection.