Hands Off Our Vote Webinar

Indivisible El Dorado convened a five-person panel to warn members that the 2026 midterms may face unprecedented threats to the counting and honoring of the vote, and to lay out concrete ways ordinary citizens can defend the election. The moderator framed it as potentially the most pivotal midterm in the nation's history.

• Hidden emergency powers: Joel McCleary warned of secret presidential emergency authorities that could theoretically be activated without review by Congress or the courts.
• Three goals: Mary Small framed the threats simply — keep eligible voters from voting, keep votes from being counted, and keep winners from being seated.
• Historical perspective: Yael Bromberg argued the country has twice reconstructed itself after crisis and violence, and can do so again.
• Local resilience: Joel Ellinwood described California's decentralized, resilient election system and the courts' role.
• Coalition building: Les Francis tied it together with the organizing lens of Keep Our Republic and work underway in battleground states.

The panel's shared through-line: the threats are real, but doom is not warranted. The decisive factor will be mass, nonviolent citizen action — the largest possible turnout ("too big to rig") and a collective refusal to accept discarded votes or denied seats.