Democratic Capacity: Election Administration as Bulwark and Target

• Author: Judd Choate,Lawrence R. Jacobs
• DOI: 10.1177/00027162211061318
• Published date: 01 January 2022
• Date: 01 January 2022
• Subject Matter: Democratic Institutions: Resilience and Vulnerability

22 ANNALS, AAPSS, 699, January 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162211061318

Democratic

Capacity:

Election

Administration

as Bulwark and

Target

By

LAWRENCE R. JACOBS

and

JUDD CHOATE

1061318ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYDEMOCRATIC CAPACITY

research-article2021

Headlines decried the fragility of American democracy

during the 2020 elections, but extensive institutional

structures steered officials in both political parties to

certify the results of the election, and independent

judges have validated their decisions. Political battles

over election laws and procedures are not themselves

signs of democracy’s demise, because legal and admin-

istrative guardrails contain the degree to which voting

rights are threatened. These formidable institutional

structures blunted former president Donald Trump’s

efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and

limited the scope and impact of new state legislation to

restrict access to voting. The guardrails of elections

operated as designed, but Trump’s unfounded charges

of fraud coupled with state restrictions are corroding

the credibility and fairness of elections. We examine

the scope and function of election law and administra-

tion to understand how they protected American

democracy in the contentious 2020 election.

Keywords: 2020 election; election administration;

Donald Trump; American democracy

Searing news headlines spotlighted vulnera-

bilities in American democracy before and

after the 2020 elections. Former president

Donald Trump pressured secretaries of state

and Department of Justice officials to block Joe

Biden’s win by changing vote totals and support

unfounded charges of election fraud. Roused to

Lawrence R. Jacobs is the Mondale Chair at the

Humphrey School of Public Affairs and Department of

Political Science at the University of Minnesota. With

colleagues, he pioneered the Certificate in Election

Administration program. His new book, Democracy

under Fire: Donald Trump and the Breaking of

American History (Oxford University Press) will be

published in March 2022.

Judd Choate is the director of the election division for

the Colorado Department of State, former president of

the National Association of State Election Directors, and

instructor in the Certificate in Election Administration

program. He began his career on the political science

faculty of the University of Nebraska.

Correspondence: ljacobs@umn.edu