High Turnout Wide Margins recently traveled to the 40th annual Election Center conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, and spoke with election administrations and officials from across the county about how they do the work of elections in their communities.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Chris McGinn. For the past year and a half, he’s been working as the executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials [TACEO]
They spoke about some of the changes McGinn is helping make to the association, how the association balances the needs of some of the largest and smallest counties in the country, and about what’s next.
High Turnout Wide Margins recently traveled to the 40th annual Election Center conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, and spoke with election administrations and officials from across the county about how they do the work of elections in their communities.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Lisa Marie Manning Bridges, the Registrar of Voters in the Parish of Orleans in Louisiana.
They spoke about the unique nature of Louisiana elections, how the work is divvied up by different parish offices and how the parish works alongside the Louisiana Secretary of State to serve their voters.
High Turnout Wide Margins recently traveled to the 40th annual Election Center conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, and spoke with election administrations and officials from across the county about how they do the work of elections in their communities.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Gretchen Reinemeyer, the General Registrar/Director of Elections for Arlington County.
They spoke about some of the challenges that come from running elections in an area that has a large overlap with other metropolitan areas, as well as a large and ever changing number of military voters.
High Turnout Wide Margins recently traveled to the 40th annual Election Center conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, and spoke with election administrations and officials from across the county about how they do the work of elections in their communities.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Judge Yashiba Glenn Blanchard in Jefferson County, Alabama. She was elected as the county’s probate judge in November of 2024, which means she hears probate cases – and is the chief election official for the county.
They spoke about the decentralized nature of Alabama’s elections administration, what she’s learned about elections since coming into the role, and how she hopes to change the administration of elections in her community.
High Turnout Wide Margins recently traveled to the 40th annual Election Center conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, and spoke with election administrations and officials from across the county about how they do the work of elections in their communities.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Eddy Zerbe. He’s the deputy director of the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition, which works to engage college-aged voters.
They spoke about some of the barriers that college-aged and first-time voters commonly face and how election administrators can work directly with students to educate and empower them to use their vote.
You can find many of the reports and guides mentioned in this episode – here: https://slsvcoalition.org/resource-library/
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Isaac Cramer. He’s the Executive Director of the Charleston County Board of Elections in South Carolina, as well as a member of the EAC’s Technical Guidelines Development Committee. This committee is currently looking at ways the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines, or VVSG, may be updated in the future.
They spoke about Cramer’s role on this board, the importance of including voices and perspectives from voters of all abilities and about what these new guidelines could mean for election administrations in South Carolina and across the country.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Moana Lutey, the county clerk in Maui County, Hawaii.
They spoke about the impact the 2023 Hawaii wildfires had on the communities of Maui – including figuring out how to run elections. They also spoke about the efforts in Maui County to get residents to update their signatures, in an effort to ensure that every voter’s vote gets counted.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Rachel Raper, the Director of Elections for Orange County, North Carolina.
They spoke about the unique way the state tracks and traces back mail ballots to voters, and about how election administrators have overcome many of the challenges that have impacted North Carolina in the last few years.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Barbara Smith Warner, the current executive director of the National Vote at Home Institute, a national organization working to “increase voters’ access to, use of and confidence in voting at home.”
They spoke about how local election administrators can best work to inform state legislators about election administration, as well as about the resources the National Vote at Home Institute has for election administrators across the country – both those in universal vote from home states and those in states with more limits on ballot access.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Cristy Lynn, the County Clerk and Recorder in Ouray County, Colorado. She and many of fellow county officials are politically unaffiliated, which means they do not represent or run as a member of either major political party.
They spoke about Lynn’s decision to run unaffiliated, how her community has responded to that decision and why she believes this could be a way to bridge the divisiveness of the current political landscape at the local level.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Catherine McMullen. She’s the Clerk in Clackamas County, Oregon. Her office is “the keeper of all county public records,” which means in addition to administering elections, the office also officiates weddings, handles property records and has to be notified in the case of missing property that the finder wants to keep.
They spoke about these unique responsibilities, as well as how the Clackamas County Clerk’s office finds balance – and funding – for all of their numerous duties.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Amanda McColley. She’s the Regional Supervisor for the Division of Elections Region III office in Alaska, which covers Fairbanks and the interior of Alaska.
They spoke about some of the unique challenges Alaskan election administrations can face – think having to load election equipment onto small charter planes – as well as some of the challenges they share with the lower 48, such as voter education around rank choice voting and training election staff.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Tina Guilford. She’s the Town Clerk in Derry, New Hampshire – home to the largest polling place in the United States (One polling location for 21,000 voters).
They spoke about a newer law in New Hampshire that requires all people to provide proof of United States citizenship to register to vote, as well as how this new law has impacted the administration of elections in the state.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with married election officials Akyn and Noah Beck in Georgia. Akyn is the Elections Supervisor in Floyd County, and husband Noah is the Elections Director in neighboring Polk County.
They spoke about how the couple met and fell in love – over poll books and precinct population data, and about how they have seen the landscape of Georgia election administration change in the last few years.
In January, the HTWM team was invited to record a live episode at the Southern Political Science Association meeting held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Brianna and Eric sat down with Paul Gronke and Paul Manson of the Elections & Voting Information Center about results of this last year's Local Election Official Survey Project, looking at challenges, attitudes, and job satisfaction.
In January, the HTWM team was invited to record a live episode at the Southern Political Science Association meeting held in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
In a fun turn of events, our “guests” put Brianna and Eric on the receiving end of questions – giving them the opportunity to reflect on the administration of the November 2024 general election.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Mark Kampf, the former clerk in Nye County, Nevada. He stepped into the role in the summer of 2022 after the Nye County Commission voted to move to hand counting ballots and his predecessor resigned.
That fall, Kampf proposed a plan for Nye County to hand count during the midterm elections, which faced a legal challenge from the ACLU (https://news3lv.com/news/local/nye-county-clerk-tempers-hand-count-expectations-calls-it-a-test), and ultimately served as a parallel trial of hand counting. In March 2024, Kampf resigned from the position of Nye County Clerk.
They spoke about these hand counting efforts, as well as Kampf’s work to beef up chain of custody processes during his tenure in office.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Trent Tripple in Ada County, Idaho. Trent was integral in implementing the new Ballot Verifier system in Ada County that allows voters to view ballot images and cast vote records side-by-side.
They spoke about how this ballot verifier came to be, how it’s helped decrease distrust in elections in Idaho and how it’s won his office back time that used to be spent fielding public records requests.
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Sarah Archambault and Margo Guernsey. They are the production team behind the documentary “No Time to Fail,” and of a new documentary, “The Officials” that continues to shine a light on the work of local election officials.
They spoke about why they chose to focus their work on local elections, how they have built a connection to the elections administration community and what everyday Americans could take away from the nonpartisan nature and focus of the field.
You can watch the new 27-minute documentary at https://time.com/7017573/the-officials/
In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Peggy McGaugh. She’s the State Representative for the 7th District, which includes Carroll, Linn, Livingston, and part of Ray counties. Before being elected to the House, she served for 33 years in the Carroll County Clerk’s Office.
They spoke about McGaugh’s experience, the benefits of state legislators coming from election administration backgrounds, and how clerks and state legislators can better work together.
