Ashwin Ramaswami: How We Can Take On Election Deniers and Prevent Another Jan. 6
By Ashwin Ramaswami
On November 17, 2020, Donald Trump fired my boss for stating the truth: that the American people should have confidence in the security and integrity of the 2020 elections, the most secure in American history. At the time, I was working at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on the election security team, partnering with states to find and fix cyber vulnerabilities in election systems. Despite losing our director, our work at CISA to secure election systems continued. Our director’s last message—“Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomrorow [sic].”—served as a solemn reminder of our mission.
But extremists continued to undermine our democratic institutions. In December, while Georgia’s electors met to certify the election, a slate of 16 fraudulent electors covertly met and falsely signed documents stating that Trump had won Georgia, hoping that Mike Pence would count them on January 6. One of the fraudulent electors, serving as secretary of that meeting, was Shawn Still, who lives in my hometown of Johns Creek, GA.
On January 6, 2021, while I was a student at Stanford studying the history of the Fourteenth Amendment and its Insurrection Clause, I saw a real-life insurrection unfold on TV. January 6, the most severe attack on the nation’s Capitol since the British burned down Washington in the War of 1812, was the direct result of the fraudulent electors plot. Would there be accountability? It didn’t seem like it.
In January 2022, fraudulent elector Shawn Still successfully ran for state senate and to this day represents my hometown. In August 2023, Shawn Still, fraudulent elector and State Senator, was indicted with Trump on multiple felony counts for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. Yet he continued to hold office and is now running for reelection.
Election deniers like Donald Trump and Shawn Still pose a threat to our democracy because they undermine the power of the people to choose their own leaders. They aren’t committed to the rule of law or a fair playing field that allows the best ideas to succeed. They aim to replace our votes with their lies.
The lies and falsehoods of election deniers have been amplified and strengthened with the rise of technology. Social media exacerbates polarization by providing people with filter bubbles and rewarding content based on virality rather than factuality. Trump’s massive Twitter following gave him a platform to freely spread disinformation and lies unchecked. It is a lack of understanding of social media, the Internet, and the far-right movements that thrive in those environments that led to government officials failing to anticipate January 6. Today, the rise of artificial intelligence technology provides new ways of generating and spreading false news, threatening our election processes.
But there’s a clear way we can address this problem. I’ve worked side-by-side with public servants who care, who understand new technology, and who continue to protect our country behind the scenes. They’re not often in the spotlight, but they know how to get the job done. They range from the civil servants and computer scientists I worked with at CISA and state elections offices to keep our elections secure, to the young professionals who joined fellowships such as the U.S. Digital Corps and TechCongress and the Judicial Innovation Fellowship to bring new talent into government; and the Capitol Hill staffers I worked with on bills to strengthen our nation’s cybersecurity.
Many of these folks are young people, oftentimes members of Generation Z. They are not only digital natives with an intuitive understanding of how technology works, but they’ve also personally experienced the threat to our democracy and our basic freedoms. As the next generation of leaders, we’re not taking it. We’re stepping up and making a difference. Election deniers and partisan extremists are no match for policy nerds and tech geeks, and most importantly, young people of integrity who know how to get things done.
I’ve decided to run for state senate in my hometown to challenge fraudulent elector Shawn Still and bring this integrity, energy, and unity to our politics. It’s imperative that the next generation rise to the challenge and take the next steps to serve our nation by running for state and local office.
Ashwin Ramaswami is a Johns Creek native and second-generation immigrant dedicated to public service and advocacy. Ashwin is running for State Senate in District 48 and the Democratic nominee for that seat. You can follow along with his campaign on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
