Months removed from the 2020 election, we are left with many takeaways.  But above all else, Election Day showed that we need to do even more to protect electoral integrity and ensure a transparent voting process for all Americans.

Democrats and Republicans agree: we need to fix our elections.  According to a recent poll, only 16 percent of Americans believe that democracy is working "well" or "extremely well." Nearly half of Americans (45 percent) claim democracy isn't functioning properly, while another 38 percent say it's working only "somewhat well."

What won't fix our elections is scapegoating Republicans.  The left-leaning mainstream media continue to blame Republicans for our electoral woes, when voting issues are far more nuanced.  Earlier this month, Vox explained the so-called "Republican revolt against democracy" in 13 charts.  Even more recently, The Daily Beast ran a typically unifying headline: "If GOP Hates Democracy So Much, Make Them [sic] Stand against It."  Then there's another incendiary Dana Milbank column for the Washington Post, claiming, "Republicans aren't fighting Democrats.  They're fighting democracy."

Let's be better.  Republicans are not against democracy.  We never were.  Ironically, while the liberal media coddle the left, House Democrats have rallied around H.R. 1, the misnamed "For the People Act" that would limit Americans' free speech rights and federalize elections unnecessarily.

Now is not the time for media bias to win the day.  Now is not the time for partisan bills to get in the way of progress.

If American democracy has suffered in recent years, Democrats are anything but blameless.  To the contrary, left-wing officials at the local level have repeatedly undermined the electoral process to push through their own partisan agendas.  On behalf of my organization, the Committee to Defend the President (recently renamed to the "Committee to Defeat the President"), I have seen those transgressions firsthand.

After the November election, the Committee mobilized in Georgia to ensure accountability and transparency for the absentee vote-counting process in the January run-off elections.  Within weeks, we exposed hidden ballot-counting and other violations of election law, with local bureaucrats (all of whom lean left) being the primary culprits.  We witnessed partisan bureaucrats denying ballot monitors their right to observe the tallying of votes, solely to benefit Democratic candidates in the Georgia run-offs.

The Committee even funded litigation against election officials in Cobb and Fulton Counties, compelling them to permit appointed ballot monitors to do their due diligence.  Because of our efforts, the two counties submitted to consent decrees, allowing monitors full access to observe electoral activities until all votes were processed.  Coinciding with the two lawsuits, Cobb County Board of Elections director Janine Eveler announced her plan to resign after the January run-offs, while Fulton County's elections board voted to fire elections director Rick Barron.

We did our part to change Georgia's electoral process for the better.  We fought to ensure accountability and transparency, and the Peach State is better off now than it was in November.

There is much, much more work to be done.  In many counties across the country, Democrats and Republicans are not competing on a level playing field.  Following the defeat of President Trump, the radical left is especially emboldened to punish Republicans for daring to support the president's "America First" agenda.  This cannot stand.  That's why the Committee is mobilizing nationwide, pledging to use the same legal tactics to ensure integrity in the elections to come.

With the 2022 election cycle already upon us, we can all do more to protect and preserve American democracy.  Democrat or Republican, good-faith Americans can agree that we need to fix our elections.  Let's get to work.

Ted Harvey serves as chairman of the anti-Biden Committee to Defeat the President.

Image: tom.arthur via Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.