What Voting Means To Me

In this much belated episode of What Voting Means to Me, we hear from David Levine, a longtime election official and international election observer who is currently serving as the director of elections and general registrar for the city of Richmond, Virginia. David shares stories from Moldova to Maryland, from mobile voting food trucks to countering AI-driven misinformation. But what stands out m...

Let's make voting fun again! Kim and Mara talk about ways to get people excited about the democratic process-- be it through "I voted" sticker selfies, making democracy themed art & music, or hosting election night parties. Kim talks about her frustration that voting is too often dismissed as easy. But she reminds us of this reality: if you didn't grow up in a voting-centric...

Voting is innovation. Voting is the right to be in community. We are more than our singular votes; it is in the collective that they matter. In this episode Mara talks about these ideas and much more with ⁠Kevin Johnson⁠ , co-founder and director of ⁠Election Reformers Network⁠ (ERN), an organization dedicated to protecting elections from polarization through independent and non-partisan innovatio...

In this episode, Mara encourages listeners to think about what democracy-- or rather, the absence of democracy--feels like. They ask what it means to nurture and sustain hope in an era of democratic decline. Their guest, Pamela (Pam) Smith, the CEO and president of Verified Voting , offers answers and gentle perspective to these questions, and so much more, in her own democracy biography. "To...

How much does it cost to run elections in the United States? The answer is not as simple as you might think. In this episode, Mara and Zach talk about Zach's journey from being a more or less casual observer of elections at the presidential level to a becoming a full blown election nerd bringing his expertise in accounting to the world of election science. Zach talks about the mind-boggling ch...

Gabor Mate- author of "The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture" suggests there are “4 As” that help move us towards healing and wholeness: authenticity, agency, healthy expression of anger, and acceptance. But what does this have to do with democracy? I provide some thoughts on this question in conjunction with my remarkable conversation with Noah Praetz, president of T...

Thessalia Merivaki is an Associate Professor of American politics at Mississippi State University. Her research expertise is on Election Science, particularly voter registration reform and voter education policy. With Mara Suttmann-Lea, they run team #voteredu. In this episode, Lia tells me about her experiences growing up in Greece, the voting experience she had there, and her transition to the U...

Mara talks with Brianna Lennon, the county clerk in Boone County, Missouri, about the logistical challenges of election administration. Brianna tells us what brought her to the work of administering democracy— like Mara, she was inspired by a high school government teacher—and muses on the difficulties of balancing cynicism, realism, and hope through the act of voting.

Every vote symbolizes a hope. That’s what voting means to this episode’s guest. We hear from Dustin Czarny—an election professional in Onondaga County, New York who has worn many hats during his life in elections. Dustin has been the Democratic election commissioner of Onondaga County since 2013, and has been involved in local politics as an activist and campaign operative for 30 years. Since 2017...

“Democracy needs a marketing department…” That’s according to Steve Wanczyk, a former marketing expert turned democracy advocate and protector who founded the non-profit organization Protect Our Election in response to the growing threat of misinformation and challenges faced by election officials surrounding the 2020 United States presidential elections. Motivated by concerns that the principles...

Spencer Mestel is an independent journalist and poll worker based in Brooklyn New York who shares his appreciation for the wonderful and yes, “forgettable” voting experiences he has had, his hopes for a less burdensome system of voting in the United States, and how elite partisan rhetoric and a lack of public understanding of how elections are run have combined to become a potent threat to America...

"You can mess around with me, but don't mess around with my voters." Tune in to this special Election Day episode to hear about the magical work Genya Coulter has done as a poll worker in the state of Florida during the 2020 election cycle.

In this episode, Monique Newton shares how she came to understand the significance of local politics growing up in Sacramento, California. Now a Ph. D. student specializing in urban politics, Monique crafts a compelling narrative from her formative experiences to her burgeoning research agenda and work as an educator. Monique and Mara talk about the tensions that can exist between descriptive repr...

In this episode, Mara talks to Dr. Holly Garnett, a professor of political science at the Royal Military College of Canada, about growing up in the world of Canadian politics. Holly shares how she went from working directly in Canadian Party politics, to engaging in the behind the scenes work of understanding and improving the function of electoral systems as a professor. She offers insight as to...

In this episode we hear from Jason Amos, a gifted violist, who tells us a beautifully complex story of how his own musicianship, upbringing, and living as a black gay man in America has shaped his perception of what it means to engage in a democracy. Jason and Mara discuss how the act of making music in collaboration with others can be deeply reflective of what it feels like to engage in deliberat...

Dr. Brian Harrison is a political scientist specializing in American politics and public opinion. He most recently published “A Change is Gonna Come: How to Have Productive Political Conversations in a Divided America.” Brian sat down with Mara to talk about how his experiences growing up in Iowa, his time in the second Bush administration as a political appointee in the Department of Homeland Sec...

In this episode we hear from a remarkably complex and fascinating voter who also happens to be an avowed atheist. Mark Stickney is an HVAC / plumbing sales engineer, musician, and actor from Chicago, Illinois. He tells us his story about growing up in a conservative southern town and his transition from this socialization to his now active role in progressive politics. Triggered at a young age to...

After months of contentious primaries, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominating process came to a close in Philadelphia. Nominating the first female candidate for president of a major political party, the Democratic establishment sought to facilitate unity amidst the enmity that had been simmering between Hillary Clinton’s supporters and progressive allies of Independent-turned Democrat Bernie...

In this episode we reflect on the interconnectedness between faith and politics, taking a spiritual journey as we hear from to Gabriela De Golia, a pastor in training Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Growing up in a politically active neighborhood in San Francisco, Gabriela takes us from her time as a resident in this progressive community, to her early teenage years in France,...

In 2016, voters in the state of Michigan played a decisive role in determining the outcome of the presidential election in the United States. Winning by a tiny margin of about 0.23%, Donald Trump’s upset victory was a shock to the Democratic political establishment who had long thought of Michigan as a part of the “blue wall” Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton could count on come election night No...

Welcome to What Voting Means to Me, a podcast about democracy from the perspective of “we the people.”