Ruby Freeman is the new face of the attack on American democracy. She is one of the critical people who help make elections work. Donald Trump falsely accused Ruby and her daughter, both former election workers in Georgia, of election fraud. This week, she testified that āThere was nowhere I feel safe. Nowhere. Do you know how it feels to have the president of the United States to target you? The president of the United States is supposed to represent every American, not to target one. But he targeted me.ā
If we want to preserve our system of elections, we need to have the people in place — unbiased, patriotic, fair-minded people — to run them. Two months ago I wrote an article arguing that people who really cared about protecting American democracy needed to start paying a lot more attention to people like Ruby who make our elections work. I pointed out that there are not-for-profit organizations that will help you get involved, say if you are interested in being a poll worker, or helping to keep our elections working free of partisan interference. One of the organizations I spotlighted is the Fair Election Center, established 16 years ago by a prominent public interest attorney named Bob Brandon, which also helped to launch an effort called Power the Polls that helps people to volunteer to help run elections. Bob joins us to talk about what the true threats to elections are and how each of us can protect American democracy.