John,
Free Speech For People is honored to have been invited to develop a series of presentations for the Indivisible Action Coalition, designed to address the security gaps in our election systems, and empower participants to take actions to increase the security, transparency, and auditability of the systems that count our votes.
We know our elections are under attack and that Trump and his allies are actively engaged through the redistricting process, in trying to rig the 2026 mid-term elections. We can’t assume election systems won’t be a target for actual vote subversion or false claims of manipulation.
The reality is that our election systems are not impenetrable. But following Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud in 2020, there’s been a reluctance to address known vulnerabilities in the systems. With Trump doing everything he can to disrupt the elections or ensure that his candidates win, we can’t afford to ignore the vulnerabilities in our voting systems.
That’s why Indivisible Action Coalition (formerly Indivisible Middle Tier) is hosting this series of webinars to educate participants about the threats to election systems, and what we need to do to better protect our ballots. We are pleased to open up these sessions to you too.
Tonight: two of the nation’s premier voting-technology experts will take on the myths that you’ve probably heard—myths that can distort public understanding of how modern voting systems actually work.
You’ve almost certainly heard some of these claims:
- “Voting systems can’t be hacked because they aren’t connected to the internet.”
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“Robust pre-election testing assures accurate counts.”
- “Hacks can’t be scaled and therefore can’t alter outcomes.”
- “Post-election audits will detect problems and correct the results.”
These common myths mask the true security profile of our election systems and can thwart necessary safeguards that are available.
On Monday night, Professor Andrew Appel (Princeton/Cornell) and Professor Philip Stark (UC Berkeley) will walk us through why these reassuring-sounding statements are wrong, why they persist, and what actually does make an election transparent, trustworthy, and verifiable. They will speak to the technology threats to the 2026 elections. They will also take your questions on what we can do to ensure that outcomes reflect the will of the voters.
Please register here. If you have specific questions you’d like the professors to address, feel free to send them in advance on this form.
The session will be moderated by Susan Greenhalgh (Free Speech For People) and Marilyn Marks (Coalition for Good Governance), co-managers of the Protect the Ballot training series.
