Post-Election Statement: National Steering Committee on Trusted Elections
Nonviolent, secure, and transparent elections – followed by the American tradition of concession – are core tenets of the Principles for Trusted Elections, advanced for the last two years by our national committee. To the candidates in this week’s election, up and down the ballot, we applaud your commitment to public service. We particularly honor all those who offered concessions, including Vice President Kamala Harris.
Regardless of whether our preferred candidates won or lost, the members of our committee remain grateful for an electoral process that went smoothly, attesting to the rigorous planning and professionalism of our nation’s election officials. The high voter turnout inspires optimism because it demonstrates Americans’ passion for our national well-being as well as ongoing faith in our Constitutional democracy.
As we look ahead, this is exactly the type of broad civic engagement, based on Constitutional principles and the rule of law, that must continue if we are to preserve the democratic institutions that protect us all. We call on Americans to recognize that the demands and opportunities of citizenship do not end on election day.
To President Donald Trump and all our newly elected leaders of both parties, we urge you to protect our country’s institutions, norms, and system of Constitutional checks and balances. We ask you to consider thoughtfully perspectives different from your own. We beseech you to set aside past differences, to model civility and mutual respect, and to work across party lines to advance the possibility of a more perfect union.
Ours is the nation that invented modern democracy; the rest of the world watches us. May our nation and all its leaders be principled role models for people at home and abroad.
In gratitude for America’s peaceful transfer of power,
National Steering Committee for Trusted Elections
Co-Chair: Jason Carter, The Carter Center
Co-Chair: Michael Ford, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation
Danielle Allen, Harvard University
Sam Donaldson, former ABC White House Correspondent
Michael Hayden, retired Air Force four-star general and former Director of the CIA
Margaret Hoover, Host of PBS Firing Line
Kevin Johnson, Election Reformers Network
Nick Troiano, Unite America
Kim Wyman, former Washington Secretary of State
_______
Note: The National Steering Committee on Trusted Elections is co-sponsored by the presidential foundations associated with former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald R. Ford. The group advances the Principles for Trusted Elections and other strategies to advance a sound U.S. electoral process. The Principles for Trusted Elections program is organized by the nonpartisan Team Democracy.