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Back in November, High Turnout Wide Margins hosted a film screening at Ragtag Cinema in Columbia, Missouri. The documentary called ‘No Time to Fail’ follows the work of numerous Rhode Island election administrators during the 2020 Presidential Election as they navigate their day-to-day work, the growing threat of disinformation and mistrust in elections and the global pandemic.After the screening, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey spoke with one of the film’s protagonists, Rob Rock, the Director of Elections for the state of Rhode Island, about his experiences in elections.You can learn more about the documentary at https://www.notimetofailfilm.com/

In December, host Brianna Lennon went on her first international election observation mission. She traveled to Tunisia in northern Africa to observe their December 17, 2022, Parliamentary election, which comes after a consolidation of power under their current president and a relatively new constitution that he helped craft.She and co-host Eric Fey spoke with Don Bisson, the head of the Tunisia Election Observation Mission for the Carter Center before the observation took place to learn more about his experiences, as well as more about international observation, in general.And then Brianna spoke with Justin Roebuck, the County Clerk of Ottawa County, Michigan, after the observation was completed about some of what they both learned throughout the process.

In February, High Turnout Wide Margins was invited to do a live recording at the first in-person meeting of the US Alliance for Election Excellence – a nonpartisan collaborative of election administrators and subject matter experts.Hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey spoke with two election administrators that night – Jocelyn Benson, the Michigan Secretary of State, and Pam Anderson, who ran for Colorado Secretary of State and has a long history of working in Colorado elections.

In June, hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey, along with Managing Editor Rebecca Smith, traveled to Central and Eastern Europe to learn more about election administration in democracies overseas.In this episode, our hosts are back in Moldova – a small country nestled between Romania and Ukraine that was a part of the former Soviet Union. They spoke with Mariana Novac and Nicolae Panfil with Promo-LEX, an association that organizes domestic observations of elections at all levels, shares with governmental organizations and citizens about how elections have gone, and shares ways they believe processes could be improved – to restore and build trust in the Moldovan democratic process.

In this episode, hosts Eric Fey and Brianna Lennon speak with Tom Rogers, who was the Australian Electoral Commissioner from 2014 to 2024.They spoke about the structure of Australian elections, how the country counts its ballots, and the importance of democracy sausages.

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 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.

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 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 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.