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.