As scholars of democracy, we are watching America’s warning signs flash red. We expect America’s long-building constitutional crisis to soon escalate.

Earlier this year, we hosted a national workshop to assess the threats facing our society in the months leading up to and following the November midterm elections. We also studied the preparations of American social movements, communities, and institutions to meet those threats.

Our basic goals were straightforward. Every qualified voter should be able to vote and have that vote counted. We must head off and block political violence. Duly certified winners should be able to take office without obstruction.

To our fellow Americans: This is not the time to look away. More than ever we need the kind of courage that history books heroize.

One product of that workshop, published this fall and signed by dozens of scholars, is The American Crisis report. The American Crisis analyzes the likelihood of the administration thwarting electoral due process; escalating military and paramilitary occupations of US cities; and other emerging threats that would worsen any electoral, constitutional, or military crisis.

It’s not hard to see the shape of what may come. In the weeks preceding Election Day, we anticipate that election administration responsibilities could be seized from states and cities, and attempts made to disrupt, sabotage, or otherwise capture their administrative powers.

Alongside this, we see a high risk of dangerous physical escalation in our streets. Federal military forces are being deployed domestically without the consent of American cities and states. These federal deployments are often coupled with a rhetoric that treats communities as territories to be occupied and controlled rather than as constituencies to be protected.

We also expect efforts to obstruct or delay the swearing-in of newly elected officials. These efforts might include the removal of the clerk in the House of Representatives or the refusal of the US vice president and outgoing House speaker to swear in newly elected Members of Congress to the US Senate and House of Representatives, respectively.

In our report, we address in detail these military, electoral, and constitutional crisis points—as well as how American communities,........

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