The New York City Bar Association has launched an election protection effort and is urging its members and lawyers everywhere to take action to protect democracy in America from the increasing threats it is facing.
While America’s electoral systems survived the stress test of the 2020 election, upcoming elections are further threatened by the replacement of nonpartisan election officials and politicians with partisan actors in battleground states across the country. The City Bar’s website now has a page to provide election protection opportunities for lawyers and will be updated as new opportunities and information become available.
“Our elections and thus our very democracy are being seriously threatened,” said City Bar President Susan J. Kohlmann. “I hope my fellow lawyers agree that no one is better equipped than lawyers to protect the rule of law, and that it is never partisan to defend democracy, to defend the freedoms promised in our Constitution, and to defend the electoral system by which those freedoms are realized.”
The City Bar intends to act as an election-protection clearinghouse, directing its members and interested lawyers to programs set up by a variety of organizations. The page will be updated as new opportunities and information become available, and currently includes information for lawyers interested in doing poll work, answering information hotlines or providing pro bono legal help to state and local election officials facing possible prosecution, harassment or threatened violence for performing their statutory and civic duties.
The Election Protection Opportunities for Lawyers web page can be accessed here: https://bit.ly/3rohDwz. To read City Bar President Susan J. Kohlmann’s column on election protection, click here.
