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How to Use This Guide

This resource serves four distinct audiences with different goals and starting points. Find your role below for a recommended reading path.

New to this topic?

If you're a voter or community member — not a lawyer, official, or professional organizer — start with the Voter & Activist Guide. It explains everything in plain English with clear action steps.

Municipal Officials & Lobbyists

Your goal: Determine whether your city has legal authority to pass an election protection ordinance, assess the political risks, and access model ordinance language.

Recommended path:

  1. Go to your state guide and read Section 1 — the legal battlefield analysis for your state. This tells you whether your city operates under home rule or Dillon's Rule and what state-level preemption risks exist.

  2. Read Section 3 of your state guide (target city analysis) to see how your city ranks and which council members may be champions.

  3. Read the Federal Governance Framework Part V ("Implications for a Municipal Ordinance") to understand the constitutional space you're operating in.

  4. Use your state's Section 2 (statute localization kit) when drafting ordinance language with your city attorney.

Tennessee, Texas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, and Other Tier 3 States

These states have enacted aggressive anti-sanctuary laws with severe penalties for local officials — including felony charges (Tennessee SB 6002, 2025) and mandatory funding cuts. Read your state's entry in the 50-State Overview before proceeding and consult with independent legal counsel before any public statements.

Wisconsin and Connecticut (Tier 2)

Wisconsin's 2017 anti-sanctuary law and comprehensive firearms preemption statute (§ 66.0409) create significant obstacles, but the Wisconsin guide identifies a specific "police operational directives" pathway that avoids both traps. Connecticut faces explicit election preemption under CGS § 7-192a but has a viable "federal law implementation" framing strategy. Read the full state guides before acting.

Your goal: Understand the statutory authority, preemption risks, and litigation strategy for pre-election injunctive relief.

Recommended path:

  1. ICE at Polling Places — Federal Law — the statutory text of 18 U.S.C. § 592 and VRA § 11(b), application to ICE agents, DOJ manual analysis, model plaintiffs, and honest assessment of the statutes' limitations.

  2. The Supremacy Clause — comprehensive analysis of the anti-commandeering doctrine (Printz v. United States, Murphy v. NCAA) and its application to municipal non-cooperation ordinances. Covers preemption taxonomy (express, field, impossibility conflict, obstacle conflict) and the full jurisprudential history from McCulloch through the Roberts Court.

  3. Insurrection Act Analysis — analyzes whether Insurrection Act deployment overrides § 592. Short answer: it does not, per three independent legal arguments confirmed by Trump v. Illinois (December 23, 2025). Contains Election Day 2026 scenario analysis with likelihood ratings.

  4. Ballot Security Injunction History — the DNC v. RNC consent decree history (1982–2017), why § 592 has never been litigated in a reported federal case, and the precedents from CAIR v. Atlas Aegis (2020, 2,500-foot buffer zone injunction), NCBCP v. Wohl (2020, $1M settlement), and Fair Fight v. True the Vote (2022, 364,000 Georgia voter challenges).

Key Argument: Implementation, Not Conflict

The strongest preemption defense across all states is that the municipal ordinance implements 18 U.S.C. § 592 rather than conflicting with it. An ordinance prohibiting city employee assistance to armed federal personnel at polling places reinforces a federal felony prohibition. This framing defeats both express preemption and obstacle conflict preemption.

Coalition Organizers

Your goal: Identify target cities, reach coalition partners, and coordinate simultaneous adoption campaigns across multiple jurisdictions.

Recommended path:

  1. 50-State Viability Analysis — start with the interactive tier table. Use the GREEN/YELLOW/RED filter to focus on viable states. The document includes a tiered implementation strategy organized by state viability.

  2. Each state guide Section 4 contains a coalition directory with specific organization names, phone numbers, email addresses, and physical addresses for advocacy partners in that state. Each directory is pre-researched and includes assessment of each organization's election protection experience.

  3. The Minnesota and Wisconsin state guides include implementation pathway sections with actionable policies drawn from analogous jurisdictions in other states.

  4. Both the Minnesota and Wisconsin guides include "Key Contacts" sections with official contacts for state election security offices.

Terminology Strategy

In states with anti-sanctuary laws (even Tier 1 states with no ban), avoid the word "sanctuary" in ordinance titles and advocacy materials. Use "election integrity," "voter protection," or "polling place security" framing instead. The substantive content is identical; the framing affects political viability and reduces exposure to state preemption arguments.

Voters & Activists

Your goal: Understand the threat to polling places, know your rights, and take action to protect elections in your community.

Recommended path:

  1. What Is Happening and Why It Matters — the threat explained in plain English, including what has already happened in Minnesota and what leaders have said publicly.

  2. Your Rights at the Polling Place — federal and state laws that protect you, what to do if you see armed agents at your polling place, and who to call.

  3. The Law Explained in Plain English — the legal foundation behind this project, without the legal jargon.

  4. How to Push Your City Council to Act — step-by-step guide to advocating for a protection ordinance in your city.

  5. Election Day Action Plan — what to prepare before Election Day and what to do if something goes wrong.

  6. Talk to Your Neighbors — conversation guides and talking points for spreading the word.

You don't need to be a lawyer or an organizer

These pages translate the same legal analysis that attorneys and officials use into language anyone can understand. Every claim links back to the detailed legal documents if you want to go deeper.

Understanding the Tier System

Tier Label Meaning Approximate Count
GREEN Strong Viability Strong home rule; no anti-sanctuary preemption; favorable precedent 16–18 states
YELLOW Proceed with Caution Viable pathway with significant legal or political obstacles ~10 states
RED Significant Barriers Anti-sanctuary law in effect; high risk for local officials ~23 states

The tier designation is a starting point, not an absolute ceiling. Several RED-tier swing states (Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania) have specific strategic windows — particular types of ordinances or particular legal framings that may survive preemption challenges — detailed in the 50-State Analysis.

Document Conventions

Throughout these guides, the following conventions are used:

Statutory citations follow the standard legal format: 18 U.S.C. § 592 (Title 18 of the United States Code, Section 592). State statutes are cited by state abbreviation and code section.

Case citations use the standard legal format: Case Name (Court, Year). Cases in the text are generally italicized.

Model ordinance language appears in code blocks and is designed to be copied and adapted by city attorneys. Always have local counsel review before introduction.

Coalition contacts were current as of early 2026. Verify contact information before outreach.