Mekela Panditharatne

Guest Author

Mekela Panditharatne is a lawyer in the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program, focusing on election security and administration, governance, voting, truth, and information. She has also guided initiatives related to technology and democracy.

Mekela was previously an attorney with Earthjustice, where she engaged in a wide range of federal litigation and policy work. She served as counsel for Native American tribes challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ approval of the Line 3 pipeline and was counsel for the NAACP in a lawsuit seeking stronger federal standards for lead in water.

Mekela’s writing has been published in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and Time. She has coauthored nationally recognized reports, and her writing has been entered into the Congressional Record in Congress.