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.

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with some new election administrators in the state of Missouri – all of whom have been in the job less than four years, and are now preparing for their first presidential election. They spoke about Rachel Lightfoot in Polk County, Heather Hall, the Republican Director of the Election Board in Clay County, and Adrienne Lee in Vernon County. They each spoke about how the job has been doing so far, some of the challenges they’ve faced and what they are looking forward to in November.

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Jeff Mangan. He’s a former Commissioner of Political Practice in Montana, and one of co-chairs of the Montana Election Observation Initiative [MEOI], a Carter Center-supported nonpartisan election observation effort. MEOI conducted their first pilot observation during Montana’s June 4th primary in Missoula. You can read the preliminary report – here They spoke about how these domestic election observations came about, how their first pilot went and about how nonpartisan election observation efforts could play a role in the future.

The High Turnout Wide Margins team recently traveled to Portland, Oregon, for a special workshop on State Associations hosted by the Election Center. While there, we were able to have face-to-face conversations with people working in elections across the country. In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Tom Hicks, one of the longest serving members of the Election Assistance Commission, or EAC. They spoke about Tom’s time as a commissioner, how elections can be more accessible for disabled voters, and how the EAC could play a role in developing the election administration workforce.

The High Turnout Wide Margins team recently traveled to Portland, Oregon, for a special workshop on State Associations hosted by the Election Center. While there, we were able to have face-to-face conversations with people working in elections across the country. In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Jackie Beaudry and Melanie Ryska. They’re both local clerks in Michigan and leaders of the Michigan Association of Municipal Clerks. They spoke about the implementation of some new election law in the state, how their association works alongside the Michigan Association of County Clerks, and how their association is trying to balance the needs of very large and very small municipalities.

Noah Praetz joins Brianna and Eric for a conversation about election security, transparency, and communication.