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. 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.