Democracy is on the line this election year.
We’ve seen a spike in political violence, crackdowns on voting rights, efforts to silence free expression, attacks on equal rights, threats to bodily autonomy, and a Supreme Court that would elevate a president to a king.
Fortunately, and in response to these threats, we now see a dramatic rise in political engagement and mobilization — growing recognition that each of us has an opportunity and role to play in defending democracy in this election and for future generations.
At this era-defining moment, we must recommit to our nation’s highest ideals of ensuring democracy, liberty, and justice for all.
The ACLU was made for times like this: For more than a century — through 19 presidencies — the ACLU has defended our democracy at times of greatest threat. In the courts and in the legislatures, online and in the streets, the ACLU mobilizes advocates and ordinary people working together in Massachusetts and in all 50 states to defend democracy, advance civil rights, and strengthen civil liberties.
The Massachusetts 2024 Election Action Plan offers a blueprint for all people to get involved in the movement to strengthen our democracy in this election cycle — and beyond. It offers a path for people to join the ACLU of Massachusetts and nationwide ACLU efforts to defend democracy wherever they live.
Because when democracy itself is on the ballot, access to democracy is our top priority.
Ensuring free and fair elections is our starting point. That means challenging voting restrictions, monitoring safe access to polling stations, ensuring election officials can do their jobs without threats or interference, and checking that every vote is counted. Our Massachusetts 2024 Election Action Plan also includes robust protections for political speech, whether you are attending a protest or displaying a lawn sign. Finally, defending democracy also means ensuring that people know their rights, including their right to vote and to enjoy equal protection under the law — whatever the outcome of the election.
Our Massachusetts 2024 Election Action Plan outlines the ongoing work of ACLU advocates, members, and volunteers to defend democracy here at home and nationwide. Most important, it’s an invitation for you to join those efforts.
ACTION #1: Build “people power” before Election Day
Democracy thrives when every American has an equal opportunity to vote and have their vote be counted. In Massachusetts, the ACLU’s “BIPOC to the Ballot Box” voter education campaign builds political power among voters of color in communities with historically low voter participation. Building on our success boosting voter turnout in Brockton, Pittsfield, and Springfield, the ACLU is now expanding our campaign to Lawrence and Worcester. Through voter registration events, "get out the vote” phone banking, and coordinated voter outreach, the ACLU is breaking down barriers to civic participation before the 2024 elections and beyond.
ACTION #2: Monitor and protect the polls
Election protection efforts ensure that all voters have an opportunity to safely and fairly vote during early voting, through vote-by-mail, and on Election Day. The ACLU helps to staff the nationwide Election Protection Hotline, and we mobilize staff and volunteers to monitor the polling places across Massachusetts. This year, our ACLU of Massachusetts’ Action Team is strategizing, building, and organizing in anticipation of heightened voter intimidation efforts at the polls, and we are forging relationships with election officials and administrators who are key to ensuring effective and rapid responses to any threats or intimidation at the polls.
ACTION #3: Safeguard free expression and political speech
Free and fair elections are inseparable from freedom of expression. The right to peacefully protest and engage in political expression is core to our democracy. The ACLU works with state and local governments to ensure best practices to protect public safety and political expression, especially in the weeks leading up to and following elections. Our “Protest Watch” rapid response team is trained to monitor police practices at rallies and public protests, and to challenge suppression of protected speech, racial discrimination, or viewpoint discrimination.
Massachusetts residents also have the right to display signs in their yards or on their other personal property. Yet in recent election seasons, the ACLU of Massachusetts has fielded concerns — and where needed, intervened — in response to unlawful restrictions on yard signs and other protected political speech. Most recently, the ACLU challenged sign ordinances in Easthampton, Fall River, and Truro that unlawfully regulated how, when, and where people can show their support or opposition for candidates. ACLU attorneys continue to monitor local speech concerns to protect and defend political expression.
EXPLORE THE FREE EXPRESSION PROJECT
ACTION #4: Know Your Rights
The outcome of this election will have immense implications for civil rights and civil liberties — from reproductive justice to freedom from surveillance, from immigrants’ rights to voting rights, from free speech to queer and trans rights, to racial justice, and more. As a multi-issue organization, the ACLU empowers Massachusetts residents through “Know Your Rights” trainings on a variety of civil rights and liberties issues including:
- Voting rights: We are distributing Know Your Rights materials so that voters understand their rights on Election Day, as well as what to do when they encounter problems at voting locations.
- Immigrants’ rights: With immigrants’ rights at risk no matter who wins in November, the ACLU of Massachusetts will continue to distribute accessible Know Your Rights materials and host trainings for immigrants and asylum-seekers.
- Reproductive rights: After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the ACLU of Massachusetts helped launch and staff the Abortion Legal Hotline. ACLU lawyers will continue to support this hotline to ensure abortion seekers, providers, and helpers know their rights.
- LGBTQ+ rights: Nationwide attacks on LGBTQ+ people have led the ACLU to redouble our historic efforts to ensure that equal rights extend to all people.
- Racial justice: From voting rights to education, housing, and health care, the ACLU of Massachusetts’ Racial Justice Program focuses on dismantling structures of racial oppression.
ACTION #5: Shore up civil liberties protections — no matter which presidential candidate wins
Anti-democratic forces in this country threaten to dismantle democracy and then strip away the fundamental rights that we need to make our nation strong and vibrant for all people. They vow to engage in mass deportations, to prosecute abortion providers and patients nationwide, to ban trans health care, to criminalize poverty, to deepen racial and gender inequality, and to silence dissent. Turning the tide on these anti-democratic forces requires us to redouble our efforts to strengthen civil rights and civil liberties, now and beyond the 2024 election. Already, we are activating our network of advocates, members, supporters, and volunteers nationwide to turn the tide against authoritarianism — not just this year, but forever. Together, we can ensure that, whatever comes in November, our Commonwealth and our country will be ready to build a more perfect union in which every person enjoys the promise and reality of equality, liberty, and justice for all.
