Protect Elections Nationally Fund

Because elections are administered at the state and local levels, it’s hard for election officials and advocates to counter election interference at the scale necessary to meet the moment. Strength and effectiveness come from the operational efficiencies, consistent pro-active messaging, shared best practices, peer support, and critical infrastructure created by large national networks of organizations.

Our Protect Elections Nationally Fund is designed to support coalitions and groups like the ones below that are at the forefront of election protection nationwide.

Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions (PLEJ)

The Partnership for Large Election Jurisdictions (PLEJ) is composed of Democratic and Republican election administrators from 143 large election jurisdictions across 34 states where an estimated 125 million voters (75% of all voters) cast their ballots. PLEJ is committed to administering free and fair elections under unprecedented personal and professional pressure - from targeted misinformation campaigns to personal threats to budget constraints. PLEJ helps these administrators prepare for the worst case scenario of real election sabotage while simultaneously proceeding with plans for a high-turnout election.

PLEJ is working with election administrators to ready their staff for areas of potential election disruption. They are building partnerships and common understandings of election law with other public officials in their jurisdiction. PLEJ provides training, peer support, disruption scenario planning, and troubleshooting.

National Coalition of Groups for Election Protection

A large, national network of state and national non-partisan groups are working together to protect our elections. The coalition coordinates strategic and operational efforts to safeguard vote counting, vote certification, and election systems. With a focus on communities most targeted by voter suppression and election subversion, the coalition will accelerate national strategies to counter sabotage at scale, deliver national resources to state coalitions, and facilitate strategic alignment and best practices if free and fair elections are challenged.

The hundreds of groups in the coalition are organized into “domains” - working groups prepared to act swiftly and decisively. Defending Democracy Fund is a leading partner of the coalition, guiding and housing the operations of three domains:

Communications groups will educate and shape the court of public opinion via a rapid-response operation to provide unified messaging, trusted spokespeople, and coordinated narrative framing
Mobilization groups will prepare national mass mobilization in the event of a major act of sabotage, create rapid response infrastructure and assign state strategists to address elections issues as they arise
Litigation groups will address federal intrusion into elections, citizenship databases and DOJ data lawsuits, and post-Election Day challenges to election results.

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