Defending Our Vote: The ACLU’s election safeguarding program

WASHINGTON — In 2026, the ACLU will be at the forefront of ensuring all eligible voters can cast their ballot—making its largest ever investment in election safeguarding during a midterm cycle. Bolstered by the combined power of our storied legal, policy, and advocacy expertise, affiliate presence in every state, and network of millions of volunteers and supporters, the ACLU will spend $24.5 million to protect the power to vote, the resilience of our democratic institutions, and public confidence in every stage of the electoral process; and to guarantee that every vote is counted according to the law. Drawing on lessons and analysis of recent election cycles, the ACLU has identified potential threats across 25 scenarios to voting access, election administration, and certification, and stands ready to take swift legal, advocacy, and organizing action to protect voters and defend our democracy throughout the 2026 midterms and beyond. Our election safeguarding work will strengthen the state and local institutions that are the backbone of free, fair, and trusted elections in the United States, ensuring they can operate independently, professionally, and free from improper interference. Fueled by the power of the ACLU’s nationwide affiliate network, these efforts will include preparing thousands of volunteers for poll and post-election monitoring, leading Know Your Rights trainings, hosting get-out-the-vote activations, organizing mass mobilization efforts, coordinating local rapid response campaigns, and taking swift legal action in the courts when necessary to ensure that all American voters can cast their ballots and have their votes counted. In addition to these nationwide tactics, the organization will also surge national staff into priority states, including additional organizers who have already been deployed in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania, where the risk of election interference and voter disenfranchisement is high. “In a democracy, every eligible voter has the right to vote freely and the outcome respected,” said Deirdre Schifeling, ACLU Chief Political and Advocacy Officer. “Our right to vote is facing a coordinated attack on multiple fronts. But in a democracy, people choose their politicians, not the other way around. When access to the ballot is restricted and the results of elections are not respected, the very foundation of our democracy hangs in the balance. That is why the ACLU is launching the largest ever election safeguarding program in our century-long history. Our powerful network of thousands of staff and millions of supporters will work tirelessly in states nationwide to ensure that every voter can cast their ballot without intimidation and that the results are honored. The best way to protect our freedom is to act free—the ACLU will be in communities making sure all voters can do just that." Already this election year, the ACLU legal team and its partners have taken legal action in more than two dozen states and Washington, D.C. to protect voting rights. They are currently advancing over 80 legal actions challenging discriminatory voting laws, racial gerrymandering, attacks on mail voting and voter registration, and other efforts to undermine free and fair elections. Since the Supreme Court’s disastrous Callais decision in April, the ACLU and its partners have been hard at work to preserve and restore voting rights and representation across the country and will continue to meet these threats to our elections in court. “Election Day is one day; the fight for the franchise is every day. We’re witnessing an onslaught of tactics by anti-democracy policymakers who want to make it harder to vote, easier to discriminate against voters of color, and stymie the will of the people,” said Sophia Lin Lakin, Director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project. “We’re already in the thick of litigation to champion voters’ rights around the country, and we are preparing for more fights as November approaches. Suppress votes, rig the rules, or undermine election results--and you’ll see us in court.” Against the current landscape of unprecedented abuses of authority and concerted attempts at voter suppression — especially the attempts to silence Black voters—the ACLU’s Midterm Election Safeguarding Program stands as an ambitious, strategic, multi-state effort to ensure that voters choose their elected representatives, not the other way around. By deploying the collective power of its litigation, organizing, and advocacy tools, the ACLU is prepared to ward off attempts to subvert our democracy across the country.

ANNAPOLIS, Md. — A federal court today rejected the U.S. Department of Justice’s attempt to force Maryland election officials to turn over the state’s unredacted voter registration file, protecting the sensitive personal information of millions of Maryland voters. The ruling is the ninth rejection by courts of the DOJ’s nationwide campaign to obtain states’ voter registration databases, including voters’ dates of birth, residential addresses, driver’s license numbers, and partial Social Security numbers. The court found that federal law does not authorize the government’s sweeping demand for Maryland’s confidential voter data. The case, United States v. DeMarinis, arose after the DOJ sued Maryland in December 2025 seeking access to the state’s complete voter file. The lawsuit was part of a broader effort by the DOJ to obtain similar records from states across the country despite significant privacy concerns and the absence of clear congressional authorization for such a database. Maryland voters, Common Cause, and Out for Justice, Inc, intervened in the case, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Maryland, to defend voters’ privacy rights and challenge the federal government’s unprecedented request. “Martin Luther King Jr. once said the greatest march an American can take in a democracy is a march to the ballot box. Today’s decision reaffirms that this march is essential, and that no administration can place obstacles in the path of those who choose to take it,” said Carl Snowden, a voter intervenor and convener of the Caucus of African American Leaders. “Today’s ruling is a massive victory for voter privacy and a rejection of federal overreach. The decision ensures voters are protected from an unauthorized national database that would have been a goldmine for hackers and a tool for intimidation. Our elections remain safe, secure, and in the hands of Marylanders where they belong,” said Joanne Antoine, Common Cause’s Maryland Executive Director. The remaining counsel and plaintiff organizations released the following joint statement: “This is a victory for every Marylander who wants to participate in democracy without fear. The DOJ sought access to some of the most sensitive information Maryland voters possess while refusing to explain why it needed that data or what it planned to do with it, in an effort to intimidate eligible voters and build an unprecedented and unlawful national voter database. We will continue fighting efforts by the federal government to weaponize voter data that threatens voter privacy, chills participation, and undermines trust in our democracy.” Read the court’s order dismissing the DOJ’s lawsuit here: https://assets.aclu.org/live/uploads/2026/06/91-DeMarinis-Dismissal-Order.pdf

BOSTON – A federal court today ruled that nonpartisan voting rights groups could continue with their legal challenge to President Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting ahead of the upcoming 2026 primaries and November midterm elections. In the ruling, the court recognized that the Trump administration and U.S. Postal Service (USPS) are actively working to implement the executive order, which attempts to override state election laws, including by directing the Postal Service not to deliver certain mail ballots. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is moving to compile and distribute “citizenship lists” even though the Department of Justice’s own lawyers acknowledged in court that the lists will be underinclusive and incomplete. The executive order and current actions by DHS and USPS to implement it are confusing voters and harming voting rights groups just as they and state and local officials are preparing for the 2026 elections. Today’s ruling dealt only with a part of the federal government’s motion to dismiss the legal challenge to the executive order. The court has not yet ruled on other pending motions, including voting rights groups’ request for a preliminary injunction to block the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out the executive order. The plaintiffs and their counsel issued the following joint statement: “We are grateful the court recognized the urgency and stakes of this case and allowed our lawsuit to proceed with respect to this year’s elections. “This executive order is plainly unconstitutional, yet the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security are actively working to implement it. Their actions are causing chaos and interfering with the vital work that nonpartisan voting rights groups are doing to prepare for the coming elections. As we made clear in court, implementation of this order also threatens to disenfranchise untold numbers of American citizens, including elderly, disabled and student voters and voters of color who rely on mail-in balloting. “The court will now move to consider our preliminary injunction and other pending motions. And we will continue to fight to protect the millions of people who rely on mail-in voting and to ensure that every eligible voter is able to fairly cast their ballot.” The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts by the League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, League of Women Voters, Association of Americans Resident Overseas, U.S. Vote Foundation, OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates, and Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. These plaintiffs are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Massachusetts, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law, Legal Defense Fund (LDF), Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC (Advancing Justice-AAJC), and LatinoJustice PRLDEF.

One voter with cerebral palsy shares how Trump’s executive order against mail-in ballots limits voting accessibility and keeps voters with disabilities out of the election process.