Co-hosts Brianna Lennon, county clerk in Boone County, Missouri and Eric Fey, director of elections in St. Louis County, Missouri, talk to subject-matter elections experts and local election administrators to ask the questions that are most meaningful to their work and talk with colleagues about how to best approach issues like voter education, cybersecurity, and integrity.
From the High Turnout Wide Margins team:
High Turnout Wide Margins has officially wrapped a 26-episode second season. The second season won four prestigious awards this year: a regional Edward R. Murrow Award, a National Headliner Award, a Public Media Journalist Association Award, and a Missouri Broadcasters Association Certificate of Merit.
The importance of High Turnout Wide Margins is two-fold. The first, as well as the original goal of the podcast, is to give voice to the actual people running elections at the local level. We have heard from local election administrators throughout the country that this podcast has become a regular listen and the podcast has even been used in the training of election staff throughout the country. Second, HTWM educates and provides valuable insight into the process of elections for everyday voters. While voters may be aware of the electoral college, Congress, etc., this podcast draws back the curtain so that the day-to-day work of election administration can be understood more thoroughly.
Thank you for making Season 3 of HTWM a reality. With your support, a successful Kickstarter campaign and fundraising, High Turnout Wide Margins returns.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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/
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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.
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![The EAC's Commissioner Tom Hicks [right] with Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon [on Zoom]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/b90883c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1389x1389+278+0/resize/280x280!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F78%2Fc8%2Fc1a6e5894c138b30bcbc7b04d285%2Fthe-eacs-tom-hicks.jpg)
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 Commissioner 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 EAC's Commissioner Tom Hicks [right] with Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon [on Zoom]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/9406fbc/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1389x1389+278+0/resize/560x560!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F78%2Fc8%2Fc1a6e5894c138b30bcbc7b04d285%2Fthe-eacs-tom-hicks.jpg)