after cases are filed in courts. The direct threat to many judges who work on these issues is very real. In some jurisdictions, courts push back robustly against these threats. They have increasingly turned to fines and other sanctions against both lawyers and political actors who have been part of these campaigns and attacked the courts directly. Responding in a timely and effective manner is critical to countering campaigns that seek to sow disinformation about the electoral process or the judiciary. This can include adjudicating cases as soon as possible after an election, dealing summarily with issues of disinformation in the run-up to Election Day, or engaging in dialogue with social media platforms to ensure quick access to evidence or enforcement of the removal of harmful content. Where courts can respond quickly, the oxygen fueling a disinformation campaign often can be removed, leaving those advancing campaigns with nothing to show for their efforts. In particularly tense political environments, these judgments must be visible and communicated widely through the media to civil society, citizens and, of course, the political actors themselves. Despite some positive lessons, however, disinformation will not go away, and judiciaries need to work faster and more collaboratively to share good practices about how they can adapt their processes quickly and nimbly to counter such disinformation. Drawing from a series of strategic and innovative practices around elections, opportunities exist to deepen the dissemination of lessons at the global and regional levels via networks of judges that meet to share good practices, along with other actors, including other independent oversight institutions and civil society organizations. Democratic backsliding around the world continues to accelerate, fueled in large part by disinformation campaigns. The judiciary can act as a bastion for democracy in those moments, slicing through disinformation campaigns and upholding the rule of law in times of crisis. This is the very essence of democracy and peoplecentered justice – ensuring that votes cast at the ballot box truly express the will of the people and how they choose to be governed. 2