GIB · The Democracy Files · Part 5
Washington State’s Secretary of State Weighs In
September 8, 2026 · Washington State Civic Innovation Forum
Original post: https://x.com/DataRepublican/status/2113296803638739051
Timestamps refer to the supplied clip.

[00:08] Danielle Reiff — Democracy Renewal Group

So those are the main pillars, but there are three—because we're talking about elections, I want to mention that strategy identified three crisis scenarios or democratic emergencies that we think folks should be aware of and preparing for.

One is an election meltdown scenario. We've had cases in the past where the current administration has intended to undermine democratic processes. It's not at all far-fetched. I think they could do it again.

[00:42] Danielle Reiff

There's also the scenario of potential militarization, the Insurrection Act. If there is deemed to be some foreign threat, then this unlocks the ability of the federal government to send, you know, troops into key cities. So the militarization of our political process and our streets is a risk.

[01:05] Danielle Reiff

And then an acute—the third one is an acute democratic crisis where, for example, and this is one of the scenarios that I'm particularly concerned about this year, is what if, for whatever reason, you know, some of the legitimate election results are denied or, you know, there's a narrative that they simply, you know, aren't real. And then there is an attempt to not seat democratically elected officials in this next Congress.

And if that happens, if people who are democratically elected are not seated in Congress and are not able to play their due roles, then that means our Congress would become illegitimate, and our federal government, by extension, would be illegitimate.

[01:56] Danielle Reiff

So that's one of the scenarios that I'm thinking a lot about, and I think we all need to think a lot about, is what happens if the federal government becomes literally illegitimate because the democratic processes that install it, you know, break to the point where it just won't work anymore.

So it's one of those things that we're talking about, is how can, you know, how can cross-partisan political leaders come together to think about provisional or transitional leadership of the country in case the federal government becomes illegitimate?

[02:32] Danielle Reiff

Is there a cross-partisan group of governors that could step up and say, you know, in the interim we're going to just, you know, keep things going? Past presidents—could former President Bush and Obama, could they come together and say, you know, help us—help us through a difficult situation like that?

So, but the key thing there is to make sure that whatever high-level response is cross-partisan, because if anybody responds to these crises from a purely partisan perspective or from a very narrow political perspective, then we just stay in this very toxic, just very toxic tug-of-war between the parties and the toxic polarization that we've been in.

The only way to really get ourselves out of that is to come together across our divides at all levels, so at the political level, but also at the local level.

[03:34] Steve Hobbs — Washington Secretary of State (on-screen label)

Yeah, thank you so much. And Danielle, that was great. I'd love to maybe talk to you over a beer. I had these very same conversations with the German parliament members when I got invited by the German government there—very frank conversations—and with the Japanese government.

There's, in Germany, as you know, the rise of the AfD, and then in Japan there is a kind of a right-wing nationalist organization that is threatening the democracy. But anyway, yeah, thank you for inviting me here.

[End of supplied clip]