Check out our newly released report on how to ensure trustworthy elections

Trustworthy Elections Campaign

Building trust in the integrity of our elections.

Conservatives and liberals agree on how to restore trust in our elections, according to our newly released report.

Conservatives and liberals distrust our electoral system for vastly different reasons—from voter fraud and election security to voter suppression and peaceful transfer of power. Leading up to the 2024 election, Braver Angels worked to rebuild this trust by seeking solutions supported by people across the political spectrum.

This report is based on 26 workshops with 194 evenly-balanced Red and Blue participants. Together, they found 727 unanimous points of agreement across values, concerns, and solutions. This report has distilled those into three principles:

This report—based on hundreds of cross-partisan conversations—could provide a blueprint for restoring trust in our elections.

To share comments or ask questions about the report, please reach out to:

trustworthy-elections@braverangels.org

(Click the address or copy into your email)

Fireside Chat with the Leadership Team

March 3, 2024

Get the Word Out:

Campaign Timeline

October 2020 - June 2022
First Trustworthy Elections Workshops
September 2022
Formation of Trustworthy Elections Leadership Committee
February 2023
First meeting of National Task Force
July 2023
Presentation at Braver Angels Gettysburg Convention
February 2024
Report Published and Shared
Throughout 2024
Report Disseminated

A note from David Blankenhorn,
President of Braver Angels:

The Leadership Team of the Braver Angels Trustworthy Elections Campaign who wrote this report—including myself—analyzed the feedback from hundreds of volunteers who participated in the project. Ultimately the report reflects the collaborative consensus within that team. They do not speak for other Braver Angels members or for Braver Angels as an organization. In fact, our individual members, as well as our local alliances and other teams from across the country, will debate, support, or propose alternatives to the report’s recommendations as they choose.

Meet the Campaign Leaders

Reena is the Project Lead of the Trustworthy Elections Campaign. As a Braver Angels moderator and national leader, she created the “Common Ground Workshop” so Reds and Blues can address issues constructively. The workshops do a deep dive into a single issue for the purpose of finding unanimous points of agreement on values, concerns and solutions/policies. Common Ground Workshops have tackled such issues as abortion, teaching about race and racism in public schools, antisemitism, addressing climate change – and now, ensuring trustworthy elections. Reena is a marriage and family therapist in the DC area.

David is president and co-founder of Braver Angels. He is the author of In search of Braver Angels. He co-founded the National Fatherhood Initiative in 1995, founded the Institute for American Values in 1988, and has authored or co-edited 14 books. He grew up in Mississippi and now lives with his family in New York City.

Bill is the National Coordinator for the Trustworthy Elections Campaign and has volunteered in Braver Angels since November 2020. Bill is retired from Boeing Product Development where he directed the development of carbon fiber recycling for the 787 and 777X programs, and was previously the manager for EPA Region X’s chemical spill response contact team. Bill is a native New Englander who came to the Seattle area via Mali West Africa (Peace Corps).

Elizabeth directs the Braver Politics program at Braver Angels. A native of Washington State, she began working in politics more than a decade ago as a 16-year-old. While interning on a congressional campaign, she discovered a passion for the work of improving her community. Since then, Doll has volunteered, worked, consulted for, and managed multiple Washington state Republican campaigns, from statewide gubernatorial races to local fire commissioner races.

Riley is a past New York State Coordinator and National Alliance Co-Chair for Braver Angels, which she joined in 2018. After careers in science education and human resources systems, with detours into mediation and equal employment opportunity compliance, she is now dedicating herself to advocating for democratic reforms in America. She is excited to combine two passions, cross-partisan work and improving elections, in her work on the Trustworthy Elections team.

Don joined Braver Angels in 2022, and is a co-chair of the Tarrant County (Texas) alliance. He recently stepped down as Live Outreach coordinator for Ranked Choice Voting for Texas, and is a Deputy Voter Registrar in Tarrant and Denton counties. Don has an MBA from Northwestern University. Retired after a 35 year career in Financial Systems, Don currently designs online courses for colleges and universities. Native of Chicago, he now enjoys the sunshine in Fort Worth, Texas. 

J. Larry Mayes is the Blue Co-Chair of the Trustworthy Elections Leadership Team. He has over two decades of experience working with elected municipal, state, and federal government officials and community leaders, focusing on driving human development and social capital.  

Mayes currently holds the position of Senior Vice President for Government and Community Relations for Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of Boston. His prior role with the organization was as the Vice President for Programs.

2014 Mayor Marty Walsh appointed Mayes to the Community Ombudsman Oversight Panel.  For several years, the panel reviewed Boston Police Department Internal Affairs cases on appeal from citizens and randomly investigated cases.

Mayes served as the Cabinet Chief of Human Services under the Menino Administration from 2004 to 2010.  In that role, he led joint government/community-based initiatives to create social innovation practices to reduce crime and stabilize communities, launched a campaign to counter “Stop Snitching” sentiments in the court system, and expanded access to summer programming for youth. 

Mayes has served on several human services boards, including The Greater Boston Food Bank, Tenacity, and The Massachusetts Service Alliance Board, and is currently a long-term member of the Beth Israel Lahey Hospital and a national academic and government public policy board member for Regent University. 

He recently consulted for Kroll, “a leading provider of business intelligence and investigations services,” focusing on the best practices of a major city’s police departments.

Over many years, Mayes has contributed to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Commonwealth Magazine, CNN, WBUR, ABC News, and various other media outlets.

In November 2023, his first book, Papa’s Worldview, was published via Amazon/Kindle Direct Publishing.

He holds an MA in Public Policy from Regent University.

Walt is the Red Co-Chair of the Trustworthy Elections Leadership Team. He lives in Maryland with his wife, Juliana. They have been married for 40 years and have three adult children. He worked as a business entrepreneur and, in addition to Braver Angels activity, serves on two nonprofit boards: Steadfast, which serves homeless youth; and the Sandy Spring Slave Museum and African Art Gallery. 

Dan joined Braver Angels in 2021 and took on multiple leadership roles within the organization. He became the Red Co-Chair for the newly formed Northeast Ohio (Cleveland/Akron area) Alliance and currently serves on the Red Caucus Steering Committee. Since 2012, Dan has been actively involved in the electoral process, working as an elections official and taking on various responsibilities over the years. Currently, he dedicates part of his time to community outreach as a member of the Board of Elections. Dan’s deep fascination with elections has led him to engage in independent study on the subject. Additionally, Dan actively contributes to the political landscape as a member of the central committee of the Republican Party of Cuyahoga County and through volunteering for different campaigns. Despite his academic background in mathematics, Dan possesses a lifelong passion for history, and he also nurtures interests in philosophy, physics, science, psychology, technology, and government.

Lenny is the Red Co-Chair for Greater Boston Braver Angels and a former Massachusetts State Representative. After having lost the 2022 election by a single vote he has focused on improving trust and credibility in our election system by organizing discussions and Fishbowl events tackling issues such as redistricting and voter ID. He lives in Georgetown Massachusetts where he works as a property manager.

Dan has been an entrepreneur in the San Francisco Bay Area for more than 20 years. His businesses have included a supply chain consulting company and language translation agency. He’s been an early member of a tech start up in the education software space, and a wholesale distribution start up that sold US made organic products in NE China. Dan has graduate degrees in Political Science. And he co-hosts regular Civil Discourse meetings.

Linda currently is a Counsel and member of the Energy practice at Dentons. Resident in the Washington, DC, office, Linda represents clients before Congress, the executive branch and other government entities. She has served as a counsel to the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works; a lawyer in the Energy and Environment practice of a global law firm based in Washington; and counsel and senior policy advisor in a DC-based lobbying firm. Linda has served on the Board of Managers of Chevy Chase Village, MD since 2019. She also is on the board of Issue One, a cross-partisan political reform group based in Washington, DC. She has been a member of the Montgomery County Alliance of Braver Angels and ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in 2018.

Completed Workshops

Montgomery County, MD (Online) 10/20
Carroll County, MD (Live) 11/20
Texas (Online) 6/21
Boston, MA (Live) 6/22
Southern California (National Online) 9/22
Northern California (Live) 10/22
Western Washington (National Online) 11/22
Georgia (Online) 2/23
Colorado (Online) 3/23
Minnesota (Online) 3/23
North Carolina (Live: 2 in total) 3/23
Colorado (National Online) 4/23
Task Force mini-workshop (Redistricting - Online) 4/23
National (Online) 4/23
South Carolina (Online) 5/23
Task Force mini-workshop (Online) (Voter ID) 5/23
National (Online) 5/23
Task Force mini-workshop (Online) (Peaceful Transfer of Power) 6/23
BA Convention (Live) 7/23
Indiana (Online) 8/23
North Carolina (Online) 9/23
Task Force mini-workshop (Mail-in and Absentee Ballots - Online) 9/23
Washington DC (Live) 10/2023
Wisconsin (Live) 11/23
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