Protect 2028: Securing the Vote Before the Storm
The safeguards that matter aren’t abstract. They are paper ballots, audits, cybersecurity, resilient workers, and preemptive information defense.
The Stakes
The chaos merchants are already at work. Jesse Watters can joke about bombing the UN on live television and walk away untouched. Donald Trump calls the present moment a golden age even as wages stagnate and rights erode. The laws have shifted, too. In Counterman v. Colorado (2023), the Supreme Court raised the bar for prosecuting threats, meaning public figures can hide behind “jokes” while flooding the airwaves with violent imagery.
This is not an accident. It is strategy. Fox and its imitators push harder each cycle because they want the reaction. They thrive on chaos, on blurring the line between serious and not serious, threat and joke. Either the public normalizes it or they flip the script and claim victim-hood.
That leaves the machinery itself. If the noise cannot be stopped, the systems have to hold. Ballots must be provable. Results must be auditable. Workers must be protected. Rumors must be cut down before they grow. Otherwise, 2028 becomes just another stage set for chaos, with nothing solid behind it. The following links are pulled from research and not affiliated with Inkblot.
The Machinery
The best protection against chaos is not a louder argument. It is a system that can prove itself when challenged. The machinery of elections is where that proof is built.
Paper and Proof
Every ballot needs to leave a trail. Machines can speed up the count, but paper is the anchor. With paper in hand, you can run risk-limiting audits: small, statistical checks that confirm outcomes with mathematical certainty. Audits have to be rehearsed now, not rushed in the heat of a contested race. When voters know the receipts exist, lies lose their grip. Voluntary Voting System Guidelines & Risk-Limiting Audits
Cyber Basics
The internet is the soft underbelly of American elections. Many counties still run election sites on .com domains with weak defenses. Moving every office to .gov with strong encryption, multi-factor authentication, and phishing training is not optional. It is table stakes. Free tools exist, like Cloudflare’s Athenian Project, to shield local election sites from denial-of-service attacks. If a county clerk can bank online, they can secure an election site. Cybersecurity Toolkit and Resources to Protect Elections
Human Capacity
Machines do not run elections, people do. That means poll workers, election clerks, and volunteers. We need to over-recruit now, so that every precinct has backups and no single sick call can shutter a polling place. And we need to protect workers from harassment and doxxing. A resilient election requires resilient people, supported and defended by their community.
Rumor Control
The final piece is the information layer. In 2020 we saw how quickly a lie can spread when counting timelines are not explained. The answer is to prebunk: tell voters ahead of time what to expect, how ballots flow, and how audits work. Run tabletop exercises, film them, and put the results on local news. Make the process visible before bad actors fill the void.
The machinery is not glamorous, but it is where the republic either holds or breaks. Paper, cyber hygiene, human power, and prebunks are not partisan luxuries. They are the baseline needed to keep 2028 from being swallowed by noise.
The Work Starts Now
Protecting 2028 is not a task for the last six months before Election Day. It is a job that begins now, in 2025, while the noise machines are still testing their lines and the systems are still pliable. The steps are not mysterious. They are practical, local, and within reach.
Counties and Clerks
Election officials can act today. Enroll in EI-ISAC, the threat-sharing hub that gives local offices real-time alerts and free cyber support. Move official websites and email to .gov domains with basic security controls. Run a small risk-limiting audit on a past election to show the process in action. These are quick wins that build trust.
Volunteers and Neighbors
Communities can help carry the load. Over-recruit poll workers now so every precinct has backups. Pair first-timers with mentors. Offer rides, meals, or childcare for election staff. Defend them publicly if they are harassed. The human chain is just as important as the paper chain.
Statehouses and Policy
Push lawmakers to set the floor. Paper ballots for every voter. Post-election audits required by law. Pre-processing of mail ballots so results reporting is smooth instead of weaponized. Stronger legal protections for election workers against threats and doxxing. None of this is radical. It is what functioning democracies already do.
Media and Information
Local newsrooms can prebunk the process before bad actors spin it. Film an audit. Walk through how absentee ballots are counted. Publish explainers on why results take time. Treat election machinery as civic infrastructure, not just background noise.
The lesson of the last cycles is simple: you cannot wait until the storm arrives to board the windows. 2028 will be tested by chaos and denial no matter what. The only question is whether we build systems now that can hold their ground when it comes.
Closing
The storm is not hypothetical. The rhetoric is already escalating, the rules for threats have been loosened, and the playbook for chaos is rehearsed every night on television. The only defense is to make the machinery unshakable: paper ballots, audits, secure systems, resilient workers, and prebunks that undercut the lies before they take root.
This is not a partisan project. It is a survival project. Every county, every clerk, every volunteer, every newsroom has a role to play. Start now, while there is still time to build trust in the process.
Protect the roots, and the tree will stand. Leave them exposed, and 2028 will be just another stage for collapse.
TOW
The storm is already here.
The only defense is unshakable machinery:
paper ballots, audits, secure systems, and
people ready to stand their ground.
Protect the roots now, or fight the collapse later.