High Turnout Wide Margins

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with John Lindback. He’s been involved in elections administration for many years and was the first Executive Director of ERIC, the Electronic Registration Information Center, after its creation in 2012. They spoke about the creation of ERIC, how the multi-state voter-registration monitoring collaborative functions, as well as some of the ch...

This past August, the High Turnout Wide Margins team headed to Indianapolis for the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Legislative Summit, which brings together lawmakers from all across the country. Hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey did a live taping at the event where – for the first time – they spoke with state legislators. They spoke about how state legislators and local election admin...

In this episode, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey speak to Clinton Jenkins – a third-generation county clerk in Miller County, Missouri. As of the 2020 Census, Miller County has a population of 24,722.   They spoke about his family legacy of public service, the many tasks that come with the job, and some of the challenges he has faced in his small, rural jurisdiction.

In this episode, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey speak to Ben Hovland and Carrie Levine. Ben is the current Vice Chair for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission , and Carrie is the Story Editor for Votebeat , a “nonprofit news organization committed to reporting the nuanced truth about elections and voting at a time of crisis in America.” They spoke about the current state of federal election...

In February, High Turnout Wide Margins was invited to do a live recording at the first in-person meeting of the US Alliance for Election Excellence – a nonpartisan collaborative of election administrators and subject matter experts. Hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey spoke with two election administrators that night – Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan Secretary of State, and Pam Anderson, who ran for Co...

In December, host Brianna Lennon went on her first international election observation mission. She traveled to Tunisia in northern Africa to observe their December 17, 2022, Parliamentary election, which comes after a consolidation of power under their current president and a relatively new constitution that he helped craft. She and co-host Eric Fey spoke with Don Bisson, the head of the Tunisia E...

Back in November, High Turnout Wide Margins hosted a film screening at Ragtag Cinema in Columbia, Missouri. The documentary called ‘No Time to Fail’ follows the work of numerous Rhode Island election administrators during the 2020 Presidential Election as they navigate their day-to-day work, the growing threat of disinformation and mistrust in elections and the global pandemic. After the screening...

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Kathy Boockvar. She’s the former Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania from 2019- 2021 and a member of the Committee for Safe and Secure Elections, which works to protect election officials from physical threats, violence, and intimidation through coordination with law enforcement. They spoke about some of her own experiences wo...

In June, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey, along with Managing Editor Rebecca Smith, traveled to Central and Eastern Europe to learn more about election administration in democracies overseas. In this episode, our hosts are back in Moldova – a small country nestled between Romania and Ukraine that was a part of the former Soviet Union. They spoke with Mariana Novac and Nicolae Panfil with Promo-L...

In June, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey, along with Managing Editor Rebecca Smith, traveled to Central and Eastern Europe to learn more about election administration in democracies overseas. In this episode, our hosts are back in Moldova – a small country nestled between Romania and Ukraine that was a part of the former Soviet Union – speaking with Dr. Doina Bordeianu and Pavel Cabacenco with t...

In this episode, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey speak with Matthew Weil, the executive director of the Democracy Program at the Bipartisan Policy Center. They spoke about some of the work his team is doing, some ways local election administrators can get more involved in the policy making process, and about some of the challenges American democracy is facing – like Moore v. Harper, a case being...

In June, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey, along with Managing Editor Rebecca Smith, traveled to Central and Eastern Europe to learn more about election administration in democracies overseas. In this episode, our hosts speak with Angelica Caraman, the current Chairperson of the Central Election Commission of the Republic of Moldova – a small country nestled between Romania and Ukraine that was a...

In this episode, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey speak with Ingham County Clerk Barb Byrum in Michigan about how she pushes back against election misinformation, the need for greater voter education, and how she hopes all election officials – regardless of party – can work together to address election-related conspiracy theories.

In this episode, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey speak with Missouri Senator Roy Blunt and reflect on his 26 years in Congress and his previous careers in local election administration ­– as both the County Clerk in Greene County, Missouri, and the Missouri Secretary of State.

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Peter Lichtenheld with Hart InterCivic – one of the companies that provides election technology, software, and services to election jurisdictions ­– about the business of election equipment, some of the challenges the industry has faced, and how things have changes for these companies since 2000.

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Joanna Francescut in Shasta County, California, and Natalie Adona in Nevada County, California, about how interactions with the public have changed since 2020 and about how the new demands of educating skeptical voters and people wanting to observe the election process can make it hard to get the day-to-day work of local election admini...

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Ryan Jordan and Ryan Williamson at Auburn University about their Trust in Elections study that is looking at how Americans perceive messaging from elections officials – on social media, with “I Voted” stickers, etc. – and about how local election administrators can modify their messages to build and restore trust.

Mesa County, Colorado, has been in the election’s world spotlight since Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters was accused of election tampering in August 2021. Since then, she has been indicted by a Mesa County grand jury on seven felony and three misdemeanor counts of election tampering and misconduct related to the alleged May 2021 security breach. In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon spea...

In this episode, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey speak with Eva Guidarini, the manager of state and local government outreach at Facebook. They spoke about how local election officials can use their social media platforms to educate voters and push back against misinformation.

In June, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey, along with Managing Editor Rebecca Smith, traveled to Central and Eastern Europe to learn more about election administration in democracies overseas. In this episode, our hosts take a broad look at democracy in the Republic of Moldova – a small country nestled between Romania and Ukraine that was a part of the former Soviet Union. They speak with Igor Mu...

In June, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey, along with Managing Editor Rebecca Smith, traveled to Central and Eastern Europe to learn more about election administration in democracies overseas. In this episode, they speak with Alexander Shlyk, the Special Representative on Elections for Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and the former head of the Elections Department of OSCE ODIHR, or the Office for Democr...

In June, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey, along with Managing Editor Rebecca Smith, traveled to Central and Eastern Europe to learn more about election administration in democracies overseas. In this episode, they speak with Dr. Irena Hadžiabdić with the Bosnia and Herzegovina Central Election Commission about the state of democratic collaboration in Eastern and Central Europe, as well as some o...

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Judd Choate, the Director of the Division of Elections for the Colorado Department of State about the voter-centric election system in the state – a nearly all vote-by-mail model. In 2013, Colorado passed “The Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act of 2013,” which requires ballots to be mailed to every registered voter for most elect...

In the second of a two-part exploration, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey take a look at resource allocation and how that differs between cities of different sizes. In this episode, they speak with Dean Logan, the Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk of Los Angeles about funding and what it is like to oversee the “most complex county election jurisdiction in the Country” with 5.2 million registered vo...

In the first of a two-part exploration, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey take a look at resource allocation and how that differs between cities of different sizes. In this episode, they speak with Kandrise Mosby and Joe Lewis with the East St. Louis Board of Elections about funding and how elections that feel like family reunions can overcome challenges and obstacles.