Brand new voter protection strategy report by the Voter Protection Corps. Key lessons from 2025, informed in part by Raelyn.info’s disinformation monitoring, confirm that social media monitoring remains a crucial voter protection and volunteer engagement strategy.

The report, based on lessons from the work of the Voter Protection Corps during the 2025 Virginia and New Jersey elections, identifies critical gaps in how the voter protection community prepares for elections and offers concrete recommendations for the pivotal 2026 midterms.

What democracy Experts have to say about preparing for Election Protection in 2026.

Top Recommendations

1. Invest in early, state-level voter protection staffing.
2. Provide Early and Accessible Volunteer Opportunities.
3. Treat social media monitoring as core election infrastructure.
4. Build and sustain trusted messenger and prebunking networks.
5. Engage early on ballot design and mail ballot rules.
6. Work with election officials to prevent long lines and capacity bottlenecks.
7. Institutionalize learning and pursue proactive purge-chase strategies.

Invest in early, state-level voter protection staffing.

Many of the most consequential barriers facing voters—ballot design decisions, voter roll
maintenance, mail ballot rules, polling place capacity/consolidation, and disinformation
preparedness—are determined months before Election Day. A boom-and-bust staffing
model leaves voter protection programs unable to adequately influence these decisions
in sufficient time.

Provide Early and Accessible Volunteer Opportunities.

Create ways for volunteers to plug into campaign efforts both in-person and remotely to
keep the volunteer networks meticulously cultivated during previous campaigns engaged.
Robust opportunities for remote volunteers to help with things like voter role purge
“chase” and mis- and disinformation monitoring online help expand staff capacity during
campaign down times when time and resources are stretched thin.

Treat social media monitoring as core election infrastructure.

As voters increasingly rely on social media and digital platforms for election information,
continuous monitoring is essential to identify emerging anti-voter narratives before they
take hold and spread widely. Social media monitoring is also a good opportunity to
engage volunteers.

Build and sustain trusted messenger and prebunking networks.

Corrective information is most effective when delivered by messengers voters already
trust. Early investment in community-based communicators and prebunking strategies can
reduce the impact of predictable mis- and disinformation before voters encounter it.

Engage early on ballot design and mail ballot rules.

Ballot layout, signature verification standards, and technical mail ballot requirements are
typically finalized well in advance of voting. The new USPS postmark rule will require a
new voter education campaign for how mail in ballots are processed. If problems are not
addressed early, they are often impossible to fix close to Election Day.

Work with election officials to prevent long lines and capacity bottlenecks.

Long lines are one of the most prevalent and preventable forms of voter suppression.
Staffing, materials, polling place layout, and parking constraints can be identified and
addressed proactively using data from prior elections.

Institutionalize learning and pursue proactive purge-chase strategies.

Voter protection efforts must preserve institutional memory across cycles and proactively
assist eligible voters who have been improperly removed from voter rolls. These
strategies are highly effective but require early planning and sustained engagement.