In an era defined by disruption, one truth remains non-negotiable: democracy cannot pause for disaster.
The September 2025 report “Fostering Resilient Elections: Opportunities for Stronger Election Administration and Emergency Management Collaboration” by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, captures this challenge with striking clarity. The paper outlines how to keep elections running when the unexpected strikes through planning, coordination, and shared readiness.
It highlights a long-overdue partnership between two essential communities: election administrators, who safeguard access and integrity under fixed legal deadlines, and emergency managers, who protect lives and infrastructure amid chaos. Both serve the same mission—continuity under pressure. Its step-by-step recommendations, from integrated planning to continuity-of-operations drills, reflect a growing consensus: resilient elections are built long before the storm arrives.
Yet preparedness is only one part of the resilience equation. It must also include adaptability anchored in technology. Around the world, governments are adopting election technologies that ensure access, security, and transparency even under extraordinary conditions. From biometric verification to digital identity systems and multi-channel voting models, technology is transforming how societies protect the people’s voice when it matters most.
The world’s recent experiences prove why this matters. During the 2020 bushfires in Australia and the 2023 wildfires in Canada, multi-channel voting, postal, early, and supervised digital options, including online voting, allowed displaced citizens to participate. In California and Oregon, mail voting ensured that democracy continued even as wildfires forced mass evacuations. These real-world cases illustrate a simple but powerful truth: multi-channel voting is the backup generator of democracy.
The Center’s report lays the groundwork for stronger coordination between election agencies and emergency responders, but the next frontier is technological resilience. True continuity requires citizens to have alternative, secure voting pathways when traditional polling infrastructure fails. Biometric roll verification, end-to-end verifiable voting systems, and cloud-secured results transmission now make this possible.
Technology doesn’t replace trust; it reinforces it. By integrating innovation with preparedness, nations can ensure that every voice is heard, even when the world outside falls silent.
Because in every election, whatever the storm, the votes must go on.