And in states like Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, and Rhode Island, those constitutional authorities still stand.
Attorneys general like Andrea Campbell in Massachusetts and Peter Neronha in Rhode Island have already joined multistate efforts to resist federal overreach on voting rights, reproductive access, and civil liberties. Vermont and Maine have permanently expanded vote-by-mail and enacted safeguards for election security. This is what preemptive democracy looks like.
But it’s not enough to rely on officials. Democracy defense in New England also comes from the ground up: town meetings, local newsrooms, letter-writing campaigns, student teach-ins, and quiet coalitions of neighbors who refuse to be lied to.
“The states aren’t just laboratories of democracy. Sometimes they’re its last safehouses.” — adapted from Justice Louis Brandeis
In Connecticut and New Hampshire, bipartisan poll-watching teams are training volunteers to monitor and document irregularities at the municipal level. Across the region, local organizers are forming “Democracy Watch” groups—offshoots of past efforts like Indivisible and Protect the Results—to keep eyes on town clerks, selectboard agendas, and county sheriffs. These groups aren’t looking to pick fights. They’re preparing to stop one.
Meanwhile, civic institutions—from church groups to veterans’ halls to high school civics classes—are stepping up. In Portland, Maine, volunteers from the League of Women Voters are offering voter registration drives and early voting education in food pantries and farmers’ markets. In western Massachusetts, congregations are preparing to serve as backup polling locations if public buildings are locked down or seized. In Concord, New Hampshire, legal aid clinics are helping election workers prepare for retaliation.
“The law matters most when people defend it in daylight.”
The judiciary has not been sidelined—yet. In 2020 and 2021, federal and state courts dismissed more than 60 lawsuits aimed at overturning election results. The Wisconsin Elections Commission prevailed in a 7th Circuit ruling that reaffirmed: “Federal courts are not venues for airing generalized grievances.” But under Project 2025’s vision, even courts are obstacles to be “reined in” or overridden by a “unitary executive.”
Legal scholars like Leah Litman have warned that “the courts can’t be the only firewall. If public officials ignore court orders—or if laws are changed to preclude judicial review—then even strong rulings can’t stop a power grab.”
That’s why preparation outside the legal system is essential.
Unions are beginning to plan ahead. Groups like SEIU and the AFT are coordinating with national rapid-response coalitions to prepare for strikes, walkouts, or mass teach-ins in the event of an illegitimate election outcome. College campuses in Vermont and Rhode Island have already hosted teach-ins on the mechanics of constitutional crises. The goal isn’t protest. It’s defense.
“History doesn’t protect us. It warns us.” — historian Timothy Snyder
The press will be a battleground. Project 2025’s communications roadmap includes threats to defund public broadcasting, investigate journalists for “bias,”