For Immediate Release:
September 25, 2024
Contact: [email protected]
WASHINGTON – Today, the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State (DASS), announced a new seven-figure effort to support pro-democracy Secretaries of State in court, should they face bad-faith legal challenges to election results this fall.
The Democracy Legal Defense Fund was formed to confront the expected tsunami of legal challenges likely to be filed against Secretaries of State in their personal and official capacities after Election Day 2024. These specious efforts from anti-democratic Republicans threaten to overturn free and fair election results – stretching the resources and expertise of Secretaries’ state offices in the process by overextending election workers who already face intense challenges from the threats and attacks spurred by The Big Lie.
Details of this effort were first reported by NBC.
Although Donald Trump and the RNC lost every single legal case they filed after the 2020 election, pro-democracy Secretaries of State suffered from towering legal bills for simply doing their jobs. Following the 2022 election, DASS was crucial in helping ensure that Republicans’ deceptive legal challenges in Arizona were quashed. This effort builds on that work.
Democracy Legal Defense Fund will help Democratic Secretaries of State continue to do their jobs of ensuring that the voice of the people is decided at the ballot box – not by judges in courtrooms. The Fund will aggressively support pro-democracy Secretaries of State in critical swing states like Michigan, Maine, North Carolina, and Nevada.
Travis Brimm, Executive Director of DASS, issued the following statement:
“The right wing is using every tool at their disposal to take this election and election officials across the country are under attack. DASS isn’t waiting for the crisis to come to us, we’re preparing now for the legal battles ahead. This effort will help ensure that Secretaries of State can do their jobs of administering free and fair elections, and ensure that voters have their voices heard at the ballot box.”