INDIVISIBLE El Dorado - Hands Off Our Vote Webinar

Indivisible El Dorado convened a five-person panel to warn members that the 2026 midterms may face unprecedented threats to the counting and honoring of the vote, and to lay out concrete ways ordinary citizens can defend the election. The moderator framed it as potentially the most pivotal midterm in the nation's history.

The panel moved deliberately from threat to response. Joel McCleary opened with the gravest and least understood danger: a president's secret emergency powers—Presidential Emergency Action Documents (PEADs), continuity-of-government mechanisms (COGCON), and communications-seizure authority—that in theory could be activated in minutes, without review by Congress or the courts, to step "outside the Constitution."

Mary Small reframed the many specific threats around three simple goals a would-be subverter pursues: keeping eligible voters from voting, keeping their votes from being counted, and keeping duly elected winners from being seated. Yale Bromberg placed the moment in historical perspective, arguing the country has twice reconstructed itself after crisis and violence, and could do so again—while stressing the practical, often-overlooked work of protecting the youth vote and modernizing election administration. Joel Ellinwood grounded the discussion in California and the courts, describing the state's decentralized, resilient system and the legal defenses already in place, while identifying the seating of members of Congress in January 2027 as a key vulnerability. Les Francis tied it together with the organizing lens of Keep Our Republic and the coalition work underway in battleground states.

Across differing emphases, the panel converged on a shared through-line: the threats are real and must be taken seriously, but doom is not warranted. The decisive factor will be mass, nonviolent citizen action—the largest possible turnout ("too big to rig"), a trained network ready for rapid mobilization, and a collective refusal to accept any attempt to discard votes or deny seats. Panelists repeatedly cautioned against both complacency and violence, pointing to specific next steps: Indivisible's Election Defense Corps and Hands Off Our Vote programs, the August 1 Turnout to Win kickoff, and everyday election-protection roles such as poll working and ballot curing.

Watch the recording on youtube

Recording →

Part of the national Good Trouble Lives On events.

Distinguished Panelists

Les Francis

Keep Our Republic | Fmr. White House Deputy Chief of Staff

Mr. Francis brings a wealth of political and policy experience to the board of Keep Our Republic. A native Californian and product of the state's public education system, Les cut his political teeth in Santa Clara County.

A protégé of the late former San Jose Mayor, Congressman and Cabinet Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, Les was one of the national organizers of the 18-year-old-vote campaign, leading to the successful passage and ratification of the 26th Amendment. During his career, Les has been a Congressional chief of staff, a Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy White House Chief of Staff (Jimmy Carter), and Executive Director of both the DNC and DCCC.

He was the co-founder of Sierra Forward and is a national leader in the bi-partisan drive to expand and enhance civic learning in our public schools. Les is a resident of Cameron Park, CA.

Joel McCleary

Co-Founder, Keep Our Republic

A resident of Washington, DC., Joel is a co-founder of Keep Our Republic, a non-profit bipartisan civic organization focused on Presidential emergency powers and asymmetrical threats to the Republic.

He served as White House Deputy Assistant to President Carter and as Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. As President of Sawyer-Miller International, he ran presidential campaigns in 15 countries and consulted for global companies like Coca Cola, Goldman Sachs, and Apple.

He has led critical projects for the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security regarding pandemic and biological defense issues, and has lectured at Stanford University for a decade on these threats. He is a graduate of Harvard College.

Mary Small

Managing Director, National Indivisible

Originally from North Carolina, Mary leads Indivisible's organizational strategy, including electoral, advocacy, and educational impact. In her role as Managing Director, she oversees the movement's national roadmap.

Before Indivisible, Mary worked for numerous organizations on migrant rights, racial justice, anti-criminalization, and human rights, including Detention Watch Network and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Yael Bromberg

Constitutional Rights Attorney | Adjunct Professor of Law

Yael Bromberg is an Adjunct Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law and a national expert on voting rights, focusing on the Twenty-Sixth Amendment. She is the author of Youth Voting Rights: Civil Rights, the Twenty-Sixth Amendment, and the Fight for American Democracy on College Campuses (October 2025).

A solo-practitioner with over twenty years of experience, she represents individuals and organizations in state and federal courts. She was recently named NJ Attorney of the Year (2024) for her precedential federal litigations to reform the primary ballot in New Jersey.

Yael is a regular commentator on democracy issues, featured on CSPAN, Washington Post, and the National Constitution Center's "We The People" podcast.

Joel Ellinwood

Co-Chair, Indivisible El Dorado | Elections Law Attorney

Joel retired after a 44-year career as a lawyer, specializing in land use, environmental, and election law. He moved to El Dorado County three years ago and has since been a vital advisor to community alliances.

After the 2024 elections, he felt called to use his skills as a lawyer and community organizer to revive the local Indivisible group in El Dorado County as a workgroup of El Dorado Progressives to push back against the Trump and Project 2025 agenda.

He serves on the Steering Committee of El Dorado Progressives and the Leadership Team of Indivisible El Dorado.

Watch the Recoding

Watch a recorded version of the webinar on youtube./

Recording →