Comment on Lens: A Fourth, for Many Fourths to Come

TIME Votes Debuts with the Democracy Defenders List Spotlighting 11 Leaders Who Are Encouraging Civic Participation and Increasing Trust in the Democratic Process this Election Year (New York, NY – September 19, 2024) Today, TIME unveils TIME Votes, a new editorial platform dedicated to exploring the key issues and motivations defining the 2024 Presidential Election.

A few years ago, someone posted a photo of a man walking through Brooklyn with a copy of Conversations With Friends tucked in the back of his trousers, the name Sally Rooney peeking out above his waistband. It was an accessory that telegraphed as much about his personal style as his choice in attire did.

You may not be a political pundit or consider yourself any type of expert on the upcoming presidential election. But you still have influence—at least with the people you’re closest to. “The conversations we have with family and friends and colleagues and acquaintances could matter more than almost anything else that happens in a campaign,” says Jon Favreau, founder of the liberal media company Crooked Media, as well as the community organization Vote Save America, and host of the podcast Pod Save America.

US election officials in rural and urban jurisdictions of four battleground states hold the line against organized efforts to undermine their work as they prepare for the contentious 2024 contest. Directors/Producers Sara Archambault and Margo Guernsey, Executive Producers Maida Lynn and Sarah Longwell.

When Ben Nimmo first began tracking online influence operations targeting elections in 2014, he had to scroll for hours on Twitter, studying how networks of fake accounts tried to hijack partisan narratives. A decade later, AI is changing the game—not just for foreign threat actors, but for those working to counter them.

For Cisco Aguilar, the job of Secretary of State is that of a referee. Perhaps that mindset originated from his years as chairman of the Nevada Athletic Commission. Perhaps it comes from the teachings of his grandfather, a union leader in the Nevada mines, who taught him to speak up for his community.