(Washington, D.C., Thursday, February 18, 2021) – The events of January 6, 2021, have made it abundantly clear that there is a severe and urgent crisis of trust in American democracy.
Despite the successful and heroic efforts of election officials to run a secure election in a pandemic, disinformation has caused confidence in the 2020 presidential election results to be divided along partisan lines.
Swing states were targeted with disinformation more than others, leading to a crisis of trust in the vote particularly in these states. In Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, state laws that delay the processing of mail-in ballots until Election Day allowed disinformation to flourish as vote tallies stretched on. In Florida, heightened interest in registering to vote brought down the state’s registration system at the last minute, leading to an extension in the deadline. In Georgia, votes were recounted twice, leading to no change in the election outcome, but national controversy persisted.
Rebuilding trust will be neither fast nor easy. In a new report, the Center for Democracy & Technology calls for the President to issue an executive order establishing a Presidential Commission on Election Resilience and Trust. The report was first written about by the Washington Post.
The Commission should look closely at why so many Americans questioned the results of the election. It should make recommendations for how to ensure that more Americans believe our elections are legitimate, especially vulnerable populations including racial minorities, immigrants, women, and the economically disadvantaged.
It should also look at whether the important changes made during the COVID-19 pandemic to help people vote – such as mail-in and early voting – should continue in future elections to make voting more accessible.
The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a 25-year-old nonpartisan nonprofit that’s worked on election security issues with a focus on cybersecurity and speech, is calling for the commission to present a series of recommendations for election officials, lawmakers, members of the media, civic leaders, social media platforms, and others aimed at improving U.S. election administration and voter confidence.
CDT is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., and Brussels that works to strengthen individual rights and freedoms by defining, promoting, and influencing technology policy and the architecture of the internet that impacts our daily lives.