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# Election SOS

## Sitemaps

- [XML Sitemap](https://electionsos.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website.

## Pages

- [Homepage](https://electionsos.com/) - Supporting journalists in responding to critical election information needs. Get Election SOS Resources, Including Articles, Guides & Workshops Election Also SOS Offers The Citizens Agenda If you're looking to create more voter-centric reporting that answers the public's most pressing questions, download our Citizens Agenda guide and find inspiration from newsrooms using this tested process. Get
- [Newsletter](https://electionsos.com/newsletter/) - About Us Stay Informed, Stay Ahead - Subscribe for Free Election Coverage Resources Are you a journalist navigating the complexities of election coverage? Stay informed with the Election SOS weekly newsletter. When you subscribe, you'll gain immediate access to: Actionable Resources: Articles, guides, and tools tailored to covering elections, cybersecurity, misinformation, and more. Exclusive
- [Extremism Coverage Prep](https://electionsos.com/extremism-coverage-prep/) - Extremism Coverage Prep Extremism Coverage prep offers concrete guidance for newsrooms on: Assessing risks Digital safety Editorial policies Sign up to receive access to videos with experts and other critical resources on extremism reporting. Due to the topic's sensitive nature, the Election SOS team will vet your submission before sharing access to the resource via
- [Expert Network](https://electionsos.com/expert-network/) - This list is informed by Hearken ElectionSOS and API's Trusted Elections Network. The American Press Institute's Trusted Elections Network was a 2020 initiative comprised of a separate private network that connected both journalists and experts to better understand and cover elections, consider strategies for addressing persistent misinformation challenges, and provided journalists with relevant expertise in
- [About Us](https://electionsos.com/about-us/) - About Us Election SOS is an initiative dedicated to supporting U.S. journalists in responding to critical election information needs. Started in 2020, we offer training for journalists, connecting them to best practices, resources, and support around election coverage. This initiative is non-partisan and is not advocating for any policy or electoral outcome. Our goal
- [Resource Directory](https://electionsos.com/resources/)
- [FAQ](https://electionsos.com/faq/) - About Us Have a question that's not addressed? Reach out to info@electionsos.org. How much does it cost to participate in Election SOS? Program participation is free. What are the program requirements? Election SOS is available to journalists at news organizations covering elections in the U.S.A. How do I sign up for resources?
- [Home](https://electionsos.com/home/)
- [Newsletter Archive](https://electionsos.com/newsletter-archive/) - About Us November 2, 2022: Midterms Support On Election Fraud Claims October 27, 2022: Midterms News You Can (Please!) Use September 1, 2022: We're back and packed with resources for midterms March 1, 2021: Getting Newsroom Buy-in Feb. 15, 2021: Restricting Voting Rights Feb. 1, 2021: Critical Reads for Covering Extremism Jan. 25, 2021:
- [2020 Initiatives](https://electionsos.com/2020-initiatives/)
- [Election SOS Resource Database](https://electionsos.com/election-sos-resource-database/) - Election SOS Resource Database Election SOS Resource Database curates top links from other organizations and partners with advice, reports, databases and other useful tools for journalists covering the elections. The database is continuously updated with current and evergreen content organized by topics. If you have any questions about this database or would like us to
- [2022 Engaged Elections Training](https://electionsos.com/2022-engaged-elections-training/) - Limited Time Offer: The Engaged Elections Cohort Back by popular demand! Our 2020 Engaged Elections training, led by engagement experts at Hearken, supported dozens of newsrooms in successfully launching a Citizens Agenda approach to their elections coverage, and helping to meet the information needs of voters they were serving. In 2022, we're offering this cohort
- [Rapid Response Fund](https://electionsos.com/rapidresponsefundesos/) - We created the Election SOS Rapid Response Fund to meet emergent needs around election coverage in 2020. In total, with the help of our funders, we distributed just over $200,000 in 38 grants to newsrooms and freelancers serving audiences in 13 states and nationally. Congratulations to journalists and newsrooms who received grants! Arizona Conecta Arizona: to
- [Fellowships](https://electionsos.com/fellowship-programs/) - About Us Thank you to Fellows and Newsrooms! Fewer journalists have been forced to cover more news with fewer resources. So, it was no surprise to us when newsrooms told us what they needed most as they prepared to cover this chaotic election: more people. In response, we launched the Election SOS fellowship program
- [Report](https://electionsos.com/report/) - Election SOS Report Newsroom lessons in engagement and trust-building from the 2020 elections The Election SOS report offers insights and lessons on trust-building and engagement from 18 national and local newsrooms, including WBEZ, USA TODAY, The Fulcrum, New Mexico PBS, KXLY, Graham Media Group, and more. This report is meant for anyone seeking to improve their
- [Summit Sessions](https://electionsos.com/summit-sessions/) - Election SOS Summit Presentations Election SOS brought together almost 300 media professionals, virtually, for a one-day summit -- "Better Journalism: A Roadmap for Engaged Democracy" -- in April 2021 for lessons on trust-building and engagement from the 2020 elections. Besides a public report, presenters gave lightning chats on insights from their engagement work during the
- [Pitch This](https://electionsos.com/pitch-this/) - About Us Election SOS Story Database The Election SOS story and pitch database showcases great examples of election coverage. It has been built for reporters who are on a deadline, searching for inspiration, or just need a bit of a break. All the examples should be easy to turn around while still informing
- [Secretaries of State](https://electionsos.com/secretaries-of-state/) - Election SOS and the American Press Institute are partnering to provide a Trusted Elections Expert Network. This database is designed for you to quickly find vetted, non-partisan diverse election experts across a variety of topics to call on for sources and for support. Election SOS is proud to list the Press and Communications professionals for each Secretary of
- [Scenario Planning Guide](https://electionsos.com/scenario-planning-guide/) - About Us Election SOS Scenario Planning Guide Understatement: It’s a complex time for the United States to be determining the direction of the country. And reporting on threats to this year’s election is a challenge unlike any before. Understaffed newsrooms have made it clear they need support and guidance to feel equipped to do
- [Voter Guide](https://electionsos.com/voter-guide/) - About Us Voter Guide Training Voter guides can be challenging to produce for newsrooms in the best of times, and in 2020 there's so much information to sort through it can feel like trying to stay ahead of an avalanche of information. That's why we created a self-paced, five-day email course on how you
- [Upcoming Workshops](https://electionsos.com/upcoming-workshops/)
- [Terms of Participation & Electronic Consent](https://electionsos.com/fellowship-programs/terms-of-participation-electronic-consent/) - Terms of Participation and Electronic Consent The Election SOS Project (“Project”) is owned and run by Hearken, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Hearken”, “we”, “us”, “our”). These Terms of Participation (“Terms” or “Agreement”) create a contractual agreement between you (“Fellow”, “Participant”, “Applicant”, “Newsroom”) and Hearken regarding your participation in the Project. ELECTRONIC CONSENT: BY SUBMITTING YOUR
- [Sign up](https://electionsos.com/apply/) - About Us We have free training and resources available for journalists covering the 2020 U.S. elections. Fill out the brief form below to tell us how we can support you, and we'll be in touch.
- [Community](https://electionsos.com/community/) - About Us Join the Conversation Finding the right source, guide, checklist, or resource is easier when you’re connected. Election SOS offers a free online community network where journalists and associated organizations can ask for resources they need and offer their expertise. This is not a forum for selling products or services, but providing
- [Stipend Application](https://electionsos.com/stipend-application/) - About Us
- [Full Application](https://electionsos.com/full-application/)
- [Contact](https://electionsos.com/contact/) - About Us Fill out the form below and we'll reach out to you shortly.
- [Sample Page](https://electionsos.com/sample-page/) - This is an example page. It's different from a blog post because it will stay in one place and will show up in your site navigation (in most themes). Most people start with an About page that introduces them to potential site visitors. It might say something like this: Hi there! I'm a bike messenger

## Coaches

- [Dale Ho](https://electionsos.com/coach/dale-ho/) - Dale Ho is a Federal Judge in the Southern District of New York. He was previously the Director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project and supervised the ACLU’s voting rights litigation nationwide. Dale had active cases in over a dozen states throughout the country. His cases have included: Department of Commerce v. New York (successfully challenging
- [Yosef Getachew](https://electionsos.com/coach/yosef-getachew/) - Yosef is Senior Policy Counsel at Reset.Tech. He previously worked on Common Cause's Media & Democracy program, where he focused on net neutrality, media consolidation, broadband privacy, broadband access and affordability, and other consumer issues. In the era of disinformation, he became an integral link between Common Cause and the major tech platforms. Prior to
- [William T. Adler, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/william-t-adler-phd/) - Will is the Associate Director of the Bipartisan Policy Center Elections Project. He previously was Senior Technologist in Elections & Democracy at CDT, where he worked to ensure that American elections are fair, accessible, and secure. Before joining CDT, Will worked on tech issues in the office of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren. He also worked
- [Virginia Kase Solomón](https://electionsos.com/coach/virginia-kase/) - Virginia Kase Solomón is the President and CEO of Common Cause. She previously was CEO of the League of the Women Voters of the United States. In her role as chief executive, Virginia led the organization to build power by engaging in advocacy, defending democracy and protecting voters through legislation and litigation, and field organizing
- [Viki Harrison](https://electionsos.com/coach/viki-harrison/) - Viki is currently Common Cause’s Director of Constitutional Convention and Protect Dissent Programs, and previously served as the Executive Director in New Mexico. Under her leadership the state advanced voter registration, campaign finance reforms including small-dollar donor matching programs, redistricting, overhauled state ethics including the establishment of an ethics commission. She is a committed organizer
- [Umer Rupani](https://electionsos.com/coach/umer-rupani/) - Umer Rupani is an expert in voter suppression, voter behavior, in-person and mail-in voting, misinformation, the Electoral College and election results. Umer was the executive director of the Georgia Muslim Voter Project (GAMVP), a non-profit dedicated to enhancing civic engagement in Muslim communities. For his work with GAMVP, Umer was selected as a Muslim Making
- [Trey Grayson](https://electionsos.com/coach/trey-grayson/) - Trey Grayson is a partner of the Florence, Kentucky office of the law firm Frost Brown Todd and managing director of the firm’s government relations affiliate, CivicPoint. Trey served as a two-term Secretary of State for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The youngest secretary of state in the country at the time of his election, he
- [Tram Nguyen](https://electionsos.com/coach/tram-nguyen/) - Tram Nguyen is the State Representative for the 18th Essex District of Massachusetts. She was previously Co-Executive Director of New Virginia Majority. Following the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, she helped fight for federal funding for a health treatment program to address the unmet physical and mental needs of rescue and recovery
- [Thessalia Merivaki, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/thessalia-merivaki-phd/) - Thessalian is the Senior Research Manager at the Center for News, Technology & Innovation, and a Visiting Researcher at the McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University. She previously was an Associate Professor in American Politics at Mississippi State University, Department of Political Science and Public Administration and a member of the Carter Center's U.S. Elections
- [Terry Ao Minnis](https://electionsos.com/coach/terry-ao-minnis/) - Terry Ao Minnis is the Vice President of the Census and Voting Programs for Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC. Mrs. Minnis was part of the litigation team in LUPE v. Ross (D. Md. and 4th Cir.) (LUPE I) that challenged the administration’s attempted addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 decennial census. The team, including
- [Tammy Patrick](https://electionsos.com/coach/tammy-patrick/) - Tammy Patrick is the CEO for Programs at the National Association of Election Officials. She previously was Senior Advisor to the Elections program at the Democracy Fund, where she helped lead the effort to foster a voter-centric elections system and work to provide election officials across the country with the tools and knowledge they need
- [Suzanne Almeida](https://electionsos.com/coach/susanne-almeida/) - Suzanne is Director of State Operations for Common Cause. Prior to joining Common Cause, Suzanne was the Executive Director of the League of Women Voters of PA. While there, she worked extensively on voting modernization and redistricting reform, including leading the League’s participation as the named plaintiff in the successful challenge to the 2011 Pennsylvania
- [Stephen Spaulding](https://electionsos.com/coach/stephen-spaulding/) - Stephen is a nationally recognized expert on election law and public policy on a range of democracy issues. He is currently Policy Director on the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules & Administration. He previously worked with Common Cause and served as Senior Elections Counsel to the Committee on House Administration where he advised Rep. Zoe
- [Shelly Jackson](https://electionsos.com/coach/shelly-jackson/) - Shelly Jackson is Deputy Elections Director of the State of Utah. Since 2014, Shelly has overseen every stage of the election process at the county level and has earned her CERA certification from the Election Center. In 2016 she accepted the Outstanding Practice Award from the Election Center, on behalf of her office, for outreach
- [Shannon Carroll](https://electionsos.com/coach/shannon-carroll/) - Shannon Carroll is the Transformation Project Manager for the United States Agency for Global Media. Previously, she managed several corporate- and foundation-funded projects at the Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service. She also oversaw operational activities on the Partnership’s Center for Presidential Transition. She previously served as a congressional assistant in the
- [Seth Flaxman](https://electionsos.com/coach/seth-flaxman/) - Seth Flaxman is President of Flaxman Strategies. Previously, he was co-founder and executive director of Democracy Works. He earned a Master of Public Policy in internet studies from Harvard University in 2011 and was selected as one of Forbes’ “30 under 30” for law and policy in 2011. Relevant Links: Democracy still works — but
- [Sarah Sobieraj](https://electionsos.com/coach/sarah-sobieraj/) - Sarah Sobieraj is an expert in American political discourse whose body of research focuses on political voice and visibility in the United States. She has conducted extensive research on marginalized voices, such as those of activists during presidential campaigns, as well as on voices that are amplified, such as those of inflammatory political opinion hosts
- [Sarah Gassen](https://electionsos.com/coach/sarah-gassen/)
- [Sara Mullen](https://electionsos.com/coach/sara-mullen/) - Sara Mullen started at the ACLU of Pennsylvania as a volunteer in its Pittsburgh office in 1997. She joined the staff as the office manager in January 1998 and became assistant director of the Pittsburgh Chapter in 2000. Sara transferred to the Philadelphia office in November 2002. Sara currently serves as the organization's advocacy and policy
- [Sandy Ma](https://electionsos.com/coach/sandy-ma/) - Sandy Ma was the Executive Director of Common Cause Hawaii. As the executive director, Sandy led campaigns, fundraising, and engages local, state, and national organizations in building coalitions around Hawaii, focusing on ethics and accountability, money and influence, and voting and elections. Sandy came to the organization with a broad range of nonprofit, corporate, and
- [Sabby Robinson](https://electionsos.com/coach/sabby-robinson/) - Sabby Robinson is an Audio Producer for The Washington Post. Previously, she was a research and production fellow with APM Reports. She produced stories for the Educate podcast and supported other investigative and documentary projects. Before joining APM Reports, she attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, where she studied journalism and human
- [Robin Carnahan](https://electionsos.com/coach/robin-carnahan/) - Robin Carnahan is an Administrator for the U.S. General Services Administration. She is also the former Secretary of State of Missouri and founded and led the State and Local Government Practice at 18F, a tech consultancy inside the US government General Services Administration. She’s a nationally recognized government technology leader and in 2017 was named
- [Ricky Leung](https://electionsos.com/coach/ricky-leung/) - Ricky is Strategic Initiatives Lead of Code the Dream. He was also co-founder and Senior Director of Programs at NCAAT. Ricky grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina, and studied journalism and mass communication at UNC-Chapel Hill, concentrating in visual communication and design. He began his career in DC at National Geographic and at the Smithsonian
- [Richard Fording](https://electionsos.com/coach/richard-fording/) - Richard C. Fording is an elections expert with a focus on election results, the Electoral College, in-person and mail-in voting, misinformation, polling, voting behavior, voter suppression, civil unrest, and extreme right/white nationalist movements. The Marilyn Williams Elmore and John Durr Elmore Endowed Professor of Political Science at the University of Alabama, he earned his B.A.
- [Regina Tsang](https://electionsos.com/coach/regina-tsang/) - Regina is a Chinese/Cantonese American interested in developing stories; she believes that they are the key to our individual and collective power. Through Rising Voices, she aims to help provide spaces for these stories, and for us to rewrite the existing narratives of our communities, build solidarity, and take collective action. She was formerly Communications
- [Rashad Gibson](https://electionsos.com/coach/rashad-gibson/) - Rashad joined NCLCV in August of 2014 as Canvass Director overseeing voter registration program in the Triad area of North Carolina. Prior to to joining NCLCV, Rashad worked for the National Urban League where he was Director of Voter Engagement for Urban League affiliates in North Carolina, Virginia, and Georgia. His primary focus was to
- [Rachel Ivey Velázquez Bernhard](https://electionsos.com/coach/rachel-ivey-velazquez-bernhard/) - Rachel Ivey Velázquez Bernhard studies the psychology of voter decision-making, especially regarding the representation of women in politics. Her current work focuses on the impact of voter stereotypes about appearance on female candidates’ success, the family- and work-related challenges women face in running for office, and the ways voters seek information about candidates before making
- [Rachel Homer](https://electionsos.com/coach/rachel-homer/) - Rachel Homer is Chief of Staff of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of the General Counsel. Prior to that, she served as Counsel at Protect Democracy. She was previously an attorney at the Department of Justice, and has worked at other federal agencies, the Senate Judiciary Committee, and as a law clerk. Her work at
- [Quentin Turner](https://electionsos.com/coach/quentin-turner/) - Quentin Turner is Executive Director of Common Cause Michigan. He started with the organization as the Election Protection Program Director for Michigan in 2020. He is an environmentalist, small-D democracy advocate and comic book enthusiast from Detroit. Quentin studied studied Biology and Conservation Science at Eastern Michigan University where he honed his love for community
- [Peter Adams](https://electionsos.com/coach/peter-adams/) - Peter Adams is the News Literacy Project’s senior vice president of education. He began his career as a classroom teacher in the New York City schools through Teach For America. He has also taught in the Chicago public schools, at Roosevelt University and at Chicago City Colleges’ Wilbur Wright campus. In addition, he has worked
- [Paul Seamus Ryan](https://electionsos.com/coach/paul-seamus-ryan/) - Paul, one of the nation’s foremost leading experts on campaign finance law and the Federal Election Commission (FEC), is Executive Director of the NYC Campaign Finance Board. He previously worked with Common Cause, where he helped guide the organization’s policy and litigation work in all substantive areas including money in politics, ethics, voting rights, and
- [Patrick Christmas](https://electionsos.com/coach/patrick-christmas/) - Patrick Christmas is Deputy Director of Policy Planning and Delivery for the City of Philadelphia. Previously, Patrick was Chief Policy Officer for Committee of Seventy. From 2014 to 2017, he oversaw the evolution of Seventy's signature Election Day field operation to a broader set of civic initiatives, including an Election Ambassador Corps for high school
- [Patricia Brigham](https://electionsos.com/coach/patricia-brigham/) - Patricia Brigham is a Florida elections expert and the Former President of the League of Women Voters of Florida. A proven national and Florida grassroots leader and coalition builder, Brigham joined the LWVFL state board in 2015 and moved into the position of president in 2018. After joining the League of Women Voters of Orange
- [Paru Shah, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/paru-shah-phd/) - Paru Shah is Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University and Senior Scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) at the Eagleton Institute of Politics. Her research interests include gender, race/ethnicity, paths to office, and descriptive and substantive representation, particularly in state and local offices. She is currently working on the 5th
- [Nyron Crawford](https://electionsos.com/coach/nyron-crawford/) - Nyron N. Crawford, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Temple University, and was previously a Visiting Associate Research Scholar at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). He is also a fellow in the Faculty Leaders Program in Policy Research and Analysis at Pardee RAND Graduate School and formerly a
- [Norman Ornstein](https://electionsos.com/coach/norman-ornstein/) - Norman Ornstein is Senior Fellow Emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a contributing editor and writer for The Atlantic and has been an election eve analyst for CBS News and BBC News. He is also Chairman of the Board of the Campaign Legal Center. He was elected as a fellow of the American
- [Nora Benavidez](https://electionsos.com/coach/nora-benavidez/) - Nora Benavidez serves as Senior Counsel and Director of Digital Justice and Civil Rights at Free Press, where she works at the intersection of law, tech, and democracy, elevating interdisciplinary solutions to complex threats facing our society. She is also a board member and Legislative Co-Chair of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation. Previously, Venavidez was
- [Nancy Martorano Miller](https://electionsos.com/coach/nancy-martorano-miller/) - Nancy Martorano Miller received her B.A. in Political Science from Clemson University (1995) and her M.A. (2000) and Ph.D. (2002) in Political Science from Rice University. She joined the University of Dayton as part of the Political Science faculty as an assistant professor in the fall of 2002. She was promoted to associate professor in
- [Miranda Cady Hallett](https://electionsos.com/coach/miranda-cady-hallett/) - Dr. Miranda Cady Hallett, Director of Human Rights Studies at the University of Dayton, is a legal anthropologist who has conducted ethnographic fieldwork in El Salvador since 1998 and with Salvadoran immigrant communities in the US since 2004. Her interests, training and expertise lie at the intersection of Latin American studies (with a particular focus
- [Michael Bustamante](https://electionsos.com/coach/michael-bustamante/) - Dr. Michael Bustamante is an expert on voter behavior and election results, particularly Cuban-American politics, Florida politics and Latinx politics. He is an associate professor of Latin American History at Florida International University, and Emilio Bacardí Moreau Chair in Cuban and Cuban-American Studies. His scholarship focus on Cuban/Cuban-American history. He is the author of "Cuban
- [Meredith McGehee](https://electionsos.com/coach/meredith-mcgehee/) - McGehee is one of the nation’s foremost experts on Congress and ethics in politics and has been described as one of the most in-the-know persons about lobbying, money-in-politics, media policy and the Washington, D.C. political scene. She has been recognized 13 times by The Hill newspaper, including the current year, as one of the top
- [Melissa Dalton](https://electionsos.com/coach/melissa-dalton/) - Melissa Dalton is Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Hemispheric Affairs. Prior to that, she served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities from January 2021 to March 2022. Previously, Melissa was a senior fellow and deputy director of the CSIS International Security Program, and director of
- [Matthew Weil](https://electionsos.com/coach/matthew-weil/) - Matthew Weil is Executive Director of BPC’s Democracy Program. Prior to joining BPC in February 2013, he worked at the Department of the Treasury on domestic finance issues in the office of public affairs. Previously, he served as a research and policy analyst at the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, working on National Voter Registration Act
- [Matt Pasternack](https://electionsos.com/coach/matt-pasternack/) - Matt Pasternack is the CEO of Once, which helps school support staff teach kindergarteners how to read. Prior to that, he was President and Co-Founder of VotingWorks, a non-profit building secure, affordable, open-source voting machines. Relevant Media "Election 2020: How print providers and younger poll workers are stepping up" on The Garage HP
- [Mary B. McCord](https://electionsos.com/coach/mary-mccord/) - Mary McCord serves as Executive Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) and Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. McCord was the Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2016 to 2017 and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the National Security
- [Maria Barsallo Lynch](https://electionsos.com/coach/maria-barsallo-lynch/) - Maria Barsallo Lynch was the Executive Director of the Defending Digital Democracy Project. Barsallo Lynch brought a background in politics and the cross-section of cybersecurity and technology to the leadership team of the Defending Digital Democracy Project (D3P) to help grow the project’s work and impact in providing solutions and tools to keep democratic processes
- [Mara Suttmann-Lea](https://electionsos.com/coach/mara-suttmann-lea/) - Mara Suttman-Lea is an Associate Professor of American Politics in the Department of Government and International Relations at Connecticut College. She researches and teaches about election laws and administration, political parties and campaigns, and political engagement. She is also the host of the podcast What Voting Means to Me, and an avid distance runner. She
- [Lela Ali](https://electionsos.com/coach/lela-ali/) - Lela Ali is a proud immigrant from Egypt and graduate of Duke University where she received her Master’s in International Development Policy and Middle East Studies. Her research focuses on social network analyses of local Muslim-American led networks in the south. She is co-founder of Muslim Women For, a grassroots organization led by Muslim women.
- [Leigh M. Chapman](https://electionsos.com/coach/leigh-m-chapman/) - Leigh Chapman is Division Director of Pro-Democracy Alliance and Structural Reform at Open Society Foundations. Previously, Chapman was Senior Policy Advisor at Let America Vote, where she advised the organization on election law and policy issues at the state and federal levels. Before that, she was appointed director of policy for the Pennsylvania Department of
- [Lawrence Burnley](https://electionsos.com/coach/lawrence-burnley/) - Dr. Lawrence A. Q. Burnley is the inaugural Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer for the Shaker Heights City School District. Prior to that, he was appointed University of Dayton's inaugural vice president for diversity and inclusion on July 1, 2016. Previously, Dr. Lawrence Burnley served as the Associate Vice President for Diversity, Equity and
- [Laura Misumi](https://electionsos.com/coach/laura-misumi/) - Laura is a fourth-generation Japanese American who believes strongly in building people’s capacity to come together to exercise their collective power, grounded in their history and identity. Currently, Laura is general counsel for Resilient Strategies LLC. She previously served as the Executive Director and Board President of Rising Voices of Asian American Families/Action Fund, organizing
- [Kica Matos](https://electionsos.com/coach/kica-matos/) - Kica Matos is President of the National Immigration Law Center. She previously was the vice president of initiatives at the Vera Institute of Justice. Prior to that, Kica was the director of Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice at the Center for Community Change, an organization whose mission is to empower the people most affected by
- [Keshia Morris Desir](https://electionsos.com/coach/keshia-morris-desir/) - Keshia is the Justice and Democracy Manager for Common Cause. She previously led the organization's 2020 Census Campaign and currently leads its efforts to end mass criminalization. Keshia guided the Census efforts working as part of the redistricting team uplifting issues of prison gerrymandering, and centered her mass incarceration work around restoring voting rights to
- [Kelly Winfrey](https://electionsos.com/coach/kelly-winfrey/) - Kelly Winfrey is an associate professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University, and interim director of the Women's and Gender Studies Program. Winfrey's research focuses on political communication and gender. She has published research on women as political candidates, women voters and campaign communication. She teaches classes in political
- [Kathay Feng](https://electionsos.com/coach/kathay-feng/) - Kathay is a nationally recognized expert in redistricting reform and the architect of California’s Independent Citizen’s Redistricting Commission (IRC), a national model that sets the standard for all redistricting efforts. The IRC was recognized as the 2017 Best Innovation in Government $100,000 prize by the Ash Center for Innovation at Harvard’s Kennedy School for Government.
- [Katharine Biele](https://electionsos.com/coach/katharine-biele/) - Kathy was born in Salt Lake City. She taught and studied in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where she worked as a stringer for Newsweek and NBC News as well as reported for a local English-language newspaper, the China Post. She has a Bachelorʼs degree in history from the University of Utah and a Masterʼs in
- [Karen Mahabir](https://electionsos.com/coach/karen-mahabir/) - Karen Mahabir is the AP’s Direct of Talent. Prior to that, she was the Fact Check and Misinformation Editor for the AP. She has worked as a reporter, editor and producer for the AP in its Mexico City, Washington and New York offices. Mahabir also served as Managing Editor of News for The Huffington Post
- [Karen Beckwith](https://electionsos.com/coach/karen-beckwith/) - Karen Beckwith’s work focuses on gender and politics in the US, women and elections, political parties and participation, and social movements. Her research concerns how citizens participate in politics through voting, social movement activism, and engagement with political parties and interest groups. She is particularly interested in how US politics shapes political opportunities and disadvantages
- [Josh Rudolph](https://electionsos.com/coach/josh-rudolph/) - Josh Rudolph is the Senior Fellow and Head of the German Marshall Fund's Transatlantic Democracy Working Group. He previously was the Fellow for Malign Finance at the Alliance for Securing Democracy, and prior to that served in a range of U.S. Government positions at the intersection of finance and national security. As advisor to the
- [Jordan Wilkie](https://electionsos.com/coach/jordan-wilkie/) - Jordan Wilkie is a Democracy Reporter for WITF, the NPR affiliate in Harrisburg, PA. Previously, he was a Report for America corps member who had covered election administration in Georgia and North Carolina since 2018. He became an expert on election administration, technology and statute in North Carolina. Relevant Media "How do I vote by
- [Jessica Trounstine, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/jessica-trounstine-phd/) - Jessica Trounstine is a Professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. She previously served as the Foundation Board of Trustees Presidential Chair of Political Science at UC Merced and as assistant professor of politics and policy at Princeton University. She is the author of two award winning books, Segregation by Design: Local Politics and Inequality
- [Jessica Brandt](https://electionsos.com/coach/jessica-brandt/) - Jessica Brandt is the Director of the Foreign Malign Influence Center, where she leads the Intelligence Community’s ongoing efforts to identify and assess foreign malign influence as part of a whole-of-government approach to safeguard democratic institutions and national interests against the hostile actions of foreign governments and non-state actors. Previously, Jessica was head of policy
- [Jessenia Eliza](https://electionsos.com/coach/jessenia-eliza/) - Jessenia is Program Manager at The Elections Group, where she innovates internal processes and collaborate on election workforce initiatives. Previously, she served as the Director of Government Initiatives at Democracy Works, navigating the intricacies of election mail and how USPS services, in particular mail tracking, can help in adding transparency and accountability to the vote-by-mail
- [Jesse Littlewood](https://electionsos.com/coach/jesse-littlewood/) - Jesse Littlewood is currently a strategist on issues combating disinformation and coaching campaigns. He developed one of the largest and most sophisticated nonpartisan rapid response efforts to combat rampant disinformation in the 2020 cycle, a significant addition that Common Cause has innovated and leads as part of our overall Election Protection work, creating the first
- [Jennifer Disla](https://electionsos.com/coach/jennifer-disla/) - Jennifer Disla is Co-Executive Director at the Leadership For Democracy and Social Justice. Previously, she was Co-Executive Director of Detroit Action. She has over 14 years in Labor Organizing experience. She has organized in Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, and Indiana. She brought home victories in Michigan during the 2015 Justice for Janitors Campaign. Additionally, she brings
- [Jennifer Chau](https://electionsos.com/coach/jennifer-chau/) - Jennifer Chau was born in Downtown Los Angeles' Chinatown and currently resides in Tempe, Arizona and works as Executive Director of AZ AANHPI. It was her personal experience being born and raised by Chinese immigrant parents that informs her interests and work today. In her career, she has been involved in and worked with organizations
- [Jack Santucci](https://electionsos.com/coach/jack-santucci/) - Jack Santucci is an expert on political parties, electoral systems, and electoral reform in the United States. This includes ranked-choice voting, among other topics. He is the author of More Parties or No Parties: The Politics of Electoral Reform in America (2022). Relevant writing: "Why Ranked-Choice Voting Is Having a Moment" in The New York
- [Hannah Fried](https://electionsos.com/coach/hannah-fried/) - Hannah Fried is the Executive Director of All Voting is Local. She previously served as the National Director and Deputy General Counsel for Voter Protection on Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. In 2012, Fried served as the Voter Protection Director for President Obama’s reelection effort in Florida, and from July 2009 to March 2012, was the
- [Georgéa Cole](https://electionsos.com/coach/georgea-cole/) - Georgéa Cole is a Mediator Volunteer at the Community Mediation Center in Gaylord, Michigan. Previously, she was Court Liaison/Mediator for Mediation Services in the Greater Wayne County area, which facilitates mediations in family and civil law Cases.
- [Enrijeta Shino](https://electionsos.com/coach/enrijeta-shino/) - Enrijeta Shino is a Assistant Professor of American Politics in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama. She earned her PhD in Political Science from the University of Florida in 2019. Her research focuses on elections, voting behavior, public opinion, and political methodology. One of the main questions that informs her research
- [Ebonee Otoo](https://electionsos.com/coach/ebonee-rice/) - Ebonee Otto is Senior Vice President of Educator Engagement at the News Literacy Project. A strategic coalition builder and community engagement expert, she has spent her career successfully scaling up campaigns and programs in the pursuit of equal access for all. From 2015 to 2017, she led the national partner engagement program at Enroll America,
- [Dr. Michelle Ferrier](https://electionsos.com/coach/dr-michelle-ferrier/) - Dr. Michelle Ferrier is Executive Director of the Media Innovation Collaboratory. She also founded TrollBusters.com, a service that helps women journalists fight online abuse and has advocated on behalf of journalists worldwide at the United Nations, SXSW, the Online News Association and the European Commission. She is a digital content architect with more than 30
- [Dr. Allison Prasch](https://electionsos.com/coach/allison-prasch/) - Allison Prasch is Associate Professor of Rhetoric, Politics, and Culture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research and teaching focuses on U.S. presidential rhetoric, public address, foreign policy, space/place, and rhetorical history, theory, and criticism. In her first book, The World is Our Stage: The Global Rhetorical Presidency and the Cold War (University of Chicago
- [Doug Spencer, Ph.D., JD](https://electionsos.com/coach/doug-spencer-ph-d-jd/) - Doug Spencer is a Professor of Law at the University of Colorado. Professor Spencer is an election law scholar whose research addresses the role of prejudice and racial attitudes in voting rights litigation, the empirical implications of various campaign finance regulations, and the ways that election rules and political campaigns contribute to growing inequality in
- [Devi Nair](https://electionsos.com/coach/devi-nair/) - Devi Nair is Associate Director and Fellow in the International Security Program at CSIS. In this position, she provides research and program support to the Defending Democratic Institutions Project and the Institutional Integrity Project. Her research looks at disinformation threats to democratic institutions, and more recently, the potential use of federal forces during presidential elections
- [David Rand](https://electionsos.com/coach/david-rand/) - David Rand is the Erwin H. Schell Professor and Professor of Management Science and Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. Bridging the fields of cognitive science, behavioral economics, and social psychology, David’s research combines behavioral experiments and online/field studies with mathematical/computational models to understand human decision-making. His work focuses on illuminating why people believe and
- [David Marchick](https://electionsos.com/coach/david-marchick/) - David Marchick is Dean of American University's Kogod School of Business. He previously served as Director of the Center for Presidential Transition at the Partnership for Public Service. Mr. Marchick spent 12 years at the Carlyle Group and served as Managing Director and Global Head of External Affairs and as a Member of Carlyle’s Management
- [David Levine](https://electionsos.com/coach/david-levine/) - David Levine is an adjust professor at George Mason University, where he teaches courses on voting systems. Prior to that, he was the Elections Integrity Fellow at the Alliance for Securing Democracy. David previously served in a range of positions administering and observing elections, and advocating for election reform. As the Ada County, Idaho Elections
- [Darragh Worland](https://electionsos.com/coach/darragh-worland/) - Darragh Worland is the News Literacy Project’s Senior Vice President for Creative Strategy. Darragh joined NLP in 2011 as the New York program coordinator and was soon promoted to program manager. In that position, she rapidly expanded the New York program. A journalist and multimedia educator and consultant, Darragh has worked for several major news
- [Danielle Cosgrove](https://electionsos.com/coach/danielle-cosgrove/) - Danielle Cosgrove is the Executive Director of Cleveland Mediation Center. Danielle has 22 years of experience working in the non-profit sector with over ten years working in the field of mediation and conflict resolution. Ms. Cosgrove worked at Cleveland Mediation Center from 2006-2013, most recently on the senior staff team as the Director of Programs
- [Daniel Smith, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/daniel-smith-phd/) - Professor Smith examines how political institutions affect political behavior across and within the American states. He has published more than a hundred scholarly articles, chapters, and reports, including in the discipline’s leading outlets. A past-president of the State Politics and Policy Section of the APSA, Smith is currently studying how initiatives, redistricting, and electoral laws
- [Dan Birdsong](https://electionsos.com/coach/dan-birdsong/) - Birdsong teaches courses on American politics; the presidency; campaigns and elections; media and politics; and public opinion and political behavior. He's co-author of “Fly-To County: The Midwest as Presidential Battleground, 1946-2016." He has a background in polling and policy research. He has researched how people consume news in an era of multiple sources and new media.
- [Courtney Kennedy](https://electionsos.com/coach/courtney-kennedy/) - Courtney Kennedy is Vice President of Methods and Innovation at Pew Research Center. Her team is responsible for the design of the Center’s U.S. surveys and maintenance of the American Trends Panel. Prior to joining Pew Research Center, Kennedy served as vice president of the advanced methods group at Abt SRBI, where she was responsible for
- [Christopher Devine](https://electionsos.com/coach/christopher-devine/) - Christopher Devine is co-author of Do Running Mates Matter? The Influence of Vice Presidential Candidates in Presidential Elections and The VP Advantage: How Running Mates Influence Home State Voting in Presidential Elections. He teaches courses on the American political system, political parties, campaigns and elections. His research interests also include the U.S. presidency and political
- [Christina S. Barsky, Ph.D., M.P.A.](https://electionsos.com/coach/christina-s-barsky-ph-d-m-p-a/) - Christina Barsky teaches courses on election administration, state and local government, poverty policy, research methods, public budgeting, nonprofit administration, and American government. She is an associate professor of Public Administration & Policy at the University of Montana, Alexander Blewett III School of Law. Her research focuses on election administration and administrators as well as themes
- [Chris Deluzio](https://electionsos.com/coach/chris-deluzio/) - Chris Deluzio is a U.S. representative for Pennsylvania's 17th congressional district. Previously, he was the policy director of the University of Pittsburgh Institute for Cyber Law, Policy, and Security (Pitt Cyber), where he focused on the intersection of technology and civil rights (especially voting rights, elections, and government algorithms). His writing and commentary have been
- [Cesar Aguilar](https://electionsos.com/coach/cesar-aguilar/) - Cesar Aguilar is a member of the 26th district of the Arizona House of Representatives. Previously, he served as Executive Director of the statewide Arizona Students Association, where he trained, organized and developed hundreds of new student activists in the state of Arizona. Cesar was also the Balsz School District Governing Board Vice President, where he
- [Carrie Brown](https://electionsos.com/coach/carrie-brown/) - Dr. Carrie Brown is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Montclair State University. Previously, she headed the Newmark J-School’s M.A. in Social Journalism program. Dr. Brown received her Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, where she studied with the director of the Center for the Study of Organizational Change. She received her MA in communication
- [Carol Davis](https://electionsos.com/coach/carol-davis/) - Carol Davis is Diné (Navajo) from the southwest Navajo Nation community of Dilkon, Arizona. Her educational background, from Northern Arizona University, is in Public Administration. Before becoming the Managing Director of the Native Organizers Alliance in 2022, Carol served as Executive Director for Diné C.A.R.E., and worked for over seventeen years as a public administrator
- [Carah Ong Whaley, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/carah-ong-whaley-phd/) - Dr. Carah Ong Whaley is the Director of Election Protection with Issue One. Previously, she was Academics Program Officer at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia, a contributing editor to Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball, and co-host of Politics Is Everything, a podcast with thoughtful discussions to inspire informed political and civic participation
- [Caitriona Fitzgerald](https://electionsos.com/coach/caitriona-fitzgerald/) - Caitriona Fitzgerald is Deputy Director for EPIC. Ms. Fitzgerald has been affiliated with EPIC since 2007, and joined EPIC full-time in 2015. In her capacity as EPIC Policy Director she provides expertise to shape strong privacy and open government laws at both the state and federal level. Ms. Fitzgerald recently authored Grading on a Curve: Privacy
- [Branden Snyder](https://electionsos.com/coach/branden-snyder/) - Born and raised on Detroit’s East Side to a working-class union family, Branden has been involved in faith, electoral and community organizing projects throughout the United States for over 10 years. He recently stepped down as the Executive Director of Detroit Action. Previously, Branden was the Deputy Organizing Director in charge of Youth Voting for
- [Beth Rotman](https://electionsos.com/coach/beth-rotman/) - Now the owner of BAR Group Strategy & Legal Services, Beth is one of the most influential election lawyers and regulators in the U.S. She used to be the national director of money in politics and ethics for Common Cause. Prior to that, Beth was the founding director of Connecticut’s Citizens’ Election Program responsible for
- [Aurora Matthews](https://electionsos.com/coach/aurora-matthews/) - Aurora Matthews is an award-winning writer and communications and public affairs strategist specializing in human security. Aurora Matthews is Senior Vice President at New Heights Communications in Washington, D.C. where she specializes in strategies for global affairs, social issues and nonprofit clients. Prior to joining New Heights Communications, Aurora was a publicist at Sunshine Sachs.
- [Atiba R. Ellis](https://electionsos.com/coach/atiba-r-ellis/) - Atiba R. Ellis is a Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University Law School. His primary research focuses on how racial and class-based oppression interact continue to abridge and deny the right to vote to communities on the margins of American democracy. He has written about how disinformation about “voter fraud” distorts democratic practices,
- [Atheendar Venkataramani, MD](https://electionsos.com/coach/atheendar-venkataramani/) - Atheendar Venkataramani, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the Perelman School of Medicine and a board-certified general internist at the University of Pennsylvania Presbyterian Medical Center. His research focuses on the life-course origins of health and socioeconomic inequality. His work examines: The effect of economic
- [Andi Egbert](https://electionsos.com/coach/andi-egbert/) - Andi Egbert relishes telling stories with data. Her research interests include demography, migration, education over the lifespan, the workforce, and especially data to reveal and remedy inequities. She explored these and other topics in data-based research and journalism on behalf of the APM Research Lab. Andi is an enthusiast of data visualization, elegant writing, and
- [American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR)](https://electionsos.com/coach/aapor/) - The American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) is a professional organization dedicated to advancing the science and practice of survey and opinion research to give people a voice in the decisions that affect their daily lives. Members of the AAPOR Executive Council and 2020 Election Task Force are experts in their fields.
- [Amber McReynolds](https://electionsos.com/coach/amber-mcreynolds/) - Amber McReynolds is one of the country’s leading experts on election administration and policy, and co-author of the book “When Women Vote”. In 2021, Amber was appointed by the President and confirmed by the US Senate to serve as a Governor on the United States Postal Service Board. Amber is an experienced election professional and
- [Amanda Gonzalez](https://electionsos.com/coach/amanda-gonzalez/) - Amanda Gonzalez is a clerk and recorder in Jefferson County, Colorado. An attorney, she previously served as executive director of Colorado Common Cause, where she led democracy campaigns and fundraising, and engaged local, state, and national organizations in building coalitions around Colorado. She previously served as the policy analyst at FRESC: Good Jobs, Strong Communities
- [Abby Kiesa](https://electionsos.com/coach/abby-kiesa/) - Abby joined CIRCLE in 2005, after working with students across the country, to focus on maintaining a conversation between research and practice. Now, as Deputy Director at CIRCLE, Abby continues that work and also provides leadership for CIRCLE’s election strategies, website content, and external communications. She has worked on several major research projects and evaluations
- [Sharon Austin](https://electionsos.com/coach/sharon-austin/) - Sharon Wright Austin is Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida. Her research focuses on African-American women’s political behavior, African-American mayoral elections, rural African-American political activism, and African-American political behavior. She is the author of Race, Power, and Political Emergence in Memphis (Garland 2000); The Transformation of Plantation Politics in the Mississippi Delta:
- [Grace Chimene](https://electionsos.com/coach/grace-chimene/) - Grace Chimene is the Communication Chair of the LWV Austin Area, whose mission is empowering voters and defending democracy. The Texas League educated well over one million Texas voters during the 2020 elections, filed numerous lawsuits and led community advocacy efforts to address voter suppression efforts in Texas. Relevant Media: 'I will not be the
- [Lindsay Nielson, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/lindsay-nielson-phd/) - My primary areas of expertise are voting and elections, election administration, voter turnout, and congressional elections and legislative behavior. I have conducted small-scale and large-scale survey research, experimental and quasi-experimental, and qualitative research designs. I currently lead the data collection team for the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Election Administration and Voting Survey (EAVS), which collects
- [Nazita Lajevardi](https://electionsos.com/coach/nazita-lajevardi/) - Dr. Lajevardi is an expert on the political behavior and political attitudes of racial, ethnic, and religious minorities in the US. Her scholarship examines how stigmatized groups — and Muslim Americans in particular — fare in American democracy. Broadly, her scholarship is related to race and ethnic politics, political behavior, voting rights and disenfranchisement, and
- [Daniel Franklin](https://electionsos.com/coach/daniel-franklin/) - Daniel Franklin is an Associate Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Georgia State University. His areas of specialization are American Chief Executives, Film and Politics, Georgia State Politics, Budgeting and the Legislative Process. He is the author of seven books, numerous articles and reviews. His latest book is on The Politics of Presidential Impeachment (with
- [Jen Heerwig](https://electionsos.com/coach/jen-heerwig/) - Jen Heerwig's research focuses on using innovative data sources and econometric methods to examine the American campaign finance system and political inequality more broadly. She is particularly interested in how individual donors allocate their monetary contributions in national elections and what these patterns tell us about how donor motivations have changed over time.
- [Sophia Jordán Wallace](https://electionsos.com/coach/sophia-jordan-wallace/) - ​Sophia Jordán Wallace's research focuses on Latino politics, immigration politics and policy, public opinion, and legislative politics. She is the co-author of Walls, Cages, and Family Separation: Race and Immigration Policy in the Trump Era (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Her work has also been published in various journals. She is currently working on two books.
- [Michael A Smith](https://electionsos.com/coach/michael-a-smith/) - Michael A. Smith is a Professor of Political Science. His teaching interests include state and local government, political philosophy, parties, campaigns and elections. Dr. Smith's recent research focuses on state and local government, civic engagement and voting laws. His newest, co-authored book is Low Taxes and Small Government: Sam Brownback’s Great Experiment in Kansas (Lexington
- [Rebecca Green](https://electionsos.com/coach/rebecca-green/) - Rebecca Green is an Associate Professor of Law at William & Mary Law School in Virginia. Professor Green Co-Directs of the Election Law Program, a joint project of the Law School and the National Center for State Courts. In that role, Green oversees its annual symposia and speaker series and undertakes a series of projects
- [Heath Brown](https://electionsos.com/coach/heath-brown/) - Heath Brown is an associate professor of public policy at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, and the CUNY Graduate Center. He has worked at the US Congressional Budget Office as a Research Fellow, at the American Bus Association as a Policy Assistant, and at the Council of Graduate
- [Dana Coester](https://electionsos.com/coach/dana-coester/) - Dana is editor in chief for the digital media outlet 100 Days in Appalachia and is a professor at the West Virginia University Reed College of Media. Dana’s work has long focused on the intersection of technology, media and rural community, and leads research and reporting teams examining online and offline extremism, media manipulation, and
- [Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky](https://electionsos.com/coach/lindsay-m-chervinsky/) - Dr. Lindsay M. Chervinsky is a presidential historian and expert on the cabinet, presidential history, and U.S. government institutions. She is currently a Senior Fellow at the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, as well as a scholar on the American presidency at the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington
- [Rachel Goodman](https://electionsos.com/coach/rachel-goodman/) - Rachel Goodman leads Protect Democracy’s work to combat anti-democratic disinformation through litigation and other forms of advocacy. In that capacity, she worked to launch Protect Democracy’s Law for Truth Project and to incubate research into election disinformation targeting communities of color. Rachel has developed and filed impact litigation for more than a decade. Previously, at
- [Vesla M. Weaver](https://electionsos.com/coach/vesla-m-weaver/) - Vesla Mae Weaver (Ph.D., Harvard, Government, and Social Policy) is the Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, a nonresident senior fellow at Brookings Metro, and faculty affiliate of the Justice Collaboratory at Yale University. A scholar of American politics, she writes about race, power, and political life. Weaver has
- [Sophia Lin Lakin](https://electionsos.com/coach/sophia-lin-lakin/) - Sophia Lin Lakin is the Director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project and supervises the ACLU’s voting rights litigation nationwide. Lakin has active cases in over a dozen states throughout the country. Currently, Lakin is lead counsel in Alpha Phi Alpha v. Raffensperger, a redistricting challenge to Georgia’s state legislative maps, Arkansas State Conference NAACP
- [Laura Edelson](https://electionsos.com/coach/laura-edelson/) - Laura Edelson is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Northeastern University and the former Chief Technologist of the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice. Laura studies online political communication and develops methods to identify inauthentic content and activity. Her research has powered reporting on social media ad spending in the New York Times,
- [Mack Shelley](https://electionsos.com/coach/mack-shelley/) - Prof. Mack Shelley is an expert on public health and gerontology as they relate to the election.
- [Amy Cooter](https://electionsos.com/coach/amy-cooter/) - Dr. Amy Cooter is a Senior Research Fellow at CTEC who focuses on antigovernment extremism. She has studied a range of groups who use a nostalgic understanding of the past to justify their actions. Her primary expertise is on U.S. domestic militias, and groups of armed individuals who see it as their civic duty to
- [Shannon Hiller](https://electionsos.com/coach/shannon-hiller/) - Shannon Hiller is Executive Director of the Bridging Divides Initiative. She most recently served as Assistant Director for International Affairs and Operations at Princeton, bringing diverse experience in start up and strategy for complex organizations. She joins the BDI team following a decade of work in international development and foreign policy, helping to manage and
- [William Frey](https://electionsos.com/coach/william-frey/) - William H. Frey, senior fellow with the Brookings Institution Metro Program, is an internationally regarded demographer, known for his research on urban populations, migration, immigration, race, aging, political demographics, and his expertise on the U.S. census. His latest book is Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America (Brookings Institution Press, 2018) and he
- [Nealin Parker](https://electionsos.com/coach/nealin-parker/) - Nealin Parker is a Lecturer at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs with a joint appointment at the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, serving as the Director of the Bridging Divides Initiative. She teaches courses on political polarization and conflict transformation, refugees, and management of aid in countries in crisis. Prior to this,
- [Maria Salazar Ferro](https://electionsos.com/coach/maria-salazar-ferro/) - Salazar-Ferro is The Times' Director of Newsroom Safety and Resilience. She is a native of Bogotá, Colombia, and grew up in New York. Fluent in Spanish, English and French, Salazar-Ferro has an MA in anthropology at Universidad de los Andes, in Bogotá and graduated from the University of Virginia with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology
- [James “Major” Woodall](https://electionsos.com/coach/james-woodall/) - James Woodall currently serves as Public Policy Associate of the Southern Center for Human Rights, Founder/CEO of The Major Wish Group LLC, and former State President of Georgia NAACP. James is also an Associate Minister at Pleasant Grove Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia. James also served as an Intelligence Analyst in the U.S. Army for 8
- [Bernard Tamas](https://electionsos.com/coach/bernard-tamas/) - Dr. Tamas is an expert on elections, electoral bias, and US third parties. His current research on electoral bias in US elections is funded by the MIT Election Data and Science Lab and the American Political Science Association. Dr. Tamas has held a Fulbright scholarship to the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at
- [Nathan Kelly](https://electionsos.com/coach/nathan-kelly/) - I seek to create new knowledge by conducting research that leads to new discoveries about the social world, helping students develop curiosity about the dynamics of power in social and political life, and sharing insights from the social sciences with policymakers and the public in ways that generate deeper understanding and more informed policy choices.
- [Ryan Voris, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/ryan-voris-phd/) - Voris, an assistant professor of political science, earned his B.A. in history and political science from Cedarville University, his M.A. in American politics/comparative politics from Ball State University, and his Ph.D. in American political behavior and comparative politics from the University of Kentucky.
- [David Doherty, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/david-doherty-phd/) - I am a professor of political science at Loyola University Chicago where I teach courses on American politics and political behavior. My research addresses a variety of issues related to political attitudes and behavior. I am particularly interested in: Public perceptions and evaluations of political processes--how people want political actors to make decisions, what procedures
- [Shannon R. Lane, LMSW, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/shannon-r-lane-lmsw-phd/) - Dr. Lane is an Associate Professor in the Wurzweiler School of Social Work and the Associate Director of Dissertation Advising for the WSSW PhD Program. She is the author (with Suzanne Pritzker) of Political Social Work: Using Power to Create Social Change (2018, Springer Publishing) and of Social Welfare Policy in a Changing World (2019,
- [Musa al-Gharbi](https://electionsos.com/coach/musa-al-gharbi/) - Musa al-Gharbi is a Paul F. Lazarsfeld Fellow in Sociology. Broadly, his research explores how we think about, talk about, and produce knowledge about social phenomena including race, inequality, social movements, extremism, policing, national security, foreign policy and domestic U.S. political contests. Prior to joining Columbia Sociology, Musa obtained a B.A. in Near Eastern Studies,
- [Melissa R. Michelson, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/melissa-r-michelson-phd/) - Dr. Melissa R. Michelson is a nationally recognized expert on Latino politics, voter mobilization experiments, and LGBTQ rights. She is the award-winning author of six books, including Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate through Get-Out-the-Vote Campaigns (2012) and, most recently, Transforming Prejudice: Identity, Fear, and Transgender Rights (2020). In her spare time, she knits and runs
- [Dr. Paul Gronke](https://electionsos.com/coach/dr-paul-gronke/) - Paul Gronke (PhD Michigan, '93, MA University of Essex ’84, BA Chicago '82) is a professor of Political Science and Director of the Early Voting Information at Reed College in Portland, OR. Dr. Gronke studies American politics, specializing in convenience and early voting, election administration, public opinion, and elections. In 2005, Dr. Gronke established the
- [Michael Peshkin, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/michael-peshkin-phd/) - Professor Peshkin was named 2011 Charles Deering McCormick Professor of Teaching Excellence, an all-University award. Recently, he has been teaching and developing the innovative course Electronics Design, in which students learn to design and debug circuits using a portable "workbench in a backpack" in place of the traditional fixed labs. Earlier, he created the course
- [Michael W. Wagner](https://electionsos.com/coach/michael-w-wagner/) - Michael W. Wagner is a professor in the University of Wisconsin Madison’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. His research, teaching, and service are animated by the question, “how well does democracy work?” Wagner approaches this question from a variety of perspectives, incorporating into his work the study of political communication, political parties, journalism, public
- [Rob Glover](https://electionsos.com/coach/rob-glover/) - Robert W. Glover is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Honors, a joint appointment in the Department of Political Science and the Honors College at the University of Maine. His research focuses generally on democratic theory, political engagement, and policy issues such as immigration and drug decriminalization. He also serves as a co-director of
- [Evan Crawford](https://electionsos.com/coach/evan-crawford/) - Evan Crawford, PhD, joined the USD Political Science faculty in 2018. His research interests include elections and voting behavior, state and local politics, educational policy, and experimental methods. He teaches upper and lower division classes on American Politics, as well as an upper division class on research methods. Dr. Crawford’s teaching interests include a variety
- [Joseph Uscinski](https://electionsos.com/coach/joseph-uscinski/) - Joseph E. Uscinski received his bachelor’s degree from Plymouth State University, his Master’s from University of New Hampshire, and his Doctorate from University of Arizona. His research has appeared in Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, and Critical Review among other scholarly outlets. His first book, The People’s News: Media, Politics, and the Demands of
- [Christopher Witko, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/christopher-witko-phd/) - Christopher Witko holds a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, an M.A. from SUNY Albany, and B.A. from SUNY Plattsburgh. Before earning his Ph.D. and becoming a faculty member, Witko worked as a transportation analyst in the New York State Senate and as a front-line bureaucrat implementing youth job and training programs
- [Jan Leighley, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/jan-leighley-phd/) - Jan E. Leighley's research and teaching interests focus on American political behavior, voter turnout, election laws, and racial/ethnic political behavior. She has published in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, among others. She is a co-author with Jonathan Nagler, NYU, of Who Votes Now? Demographics, Issues,
- [Mark Rush](https://electionsos.com/coach/mark-rush/) - Mark Rush is the Waxberg Professor of Politics and Law and Director of the Center for International Education. He has been with Washington and Lee since arriving in the summer of 1990 from Johns Hopkins where he received his Ph.D. He received his B.A. cum laude from Harvard. Prof. Rush’s scholarly interests are diverse. He
- [Benjamin Blankenship, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/benjamin-blankenship-phd/) - Dr. Blankenship is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at James Madison University. His research is primarily focused on the effects of identity, identity dimensionality, and intersectionality across various contexts, especially in socio-political domains. He currently teaches Cultural Psychology and Research Methods at James Madison University. He is also the primary investigator of the Structural Oppression
- [Andrea Benjamin](https://electionsos.com/coach/andrea-benjamin/) - Andrea Benjamin earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 2010. Her research interests include Race and Politics, Local Elections and Voting behavior, and Public Opinion. Her first book, Racial Coalition Building in Local Elections: Elite Cues and Cross-Ethnic Voting, explores the potential for Black and Latino Coalitions. Using the Co-Ethnic Elite Cues Theory,
- [Charlotte Hill, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/charlotte-hill-phd/) - I’m a policy analyst trained in political science methods. I earned my Ph.D. at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, where I also received my master’s degree. My research explores how structural reforms might improve American democracy, especially for the types of people who’ve historically been shut out of the process. I
- [David Kimball](https://electionsos.com/coach/david-kimball/) - Professor Kimball’s research and teaching focus on American government, election administration, political parties, public opinion, voting behavior and interest groups. He has participated as an expert in several court cases on election administration, voting rights, and redistricting. He is the co-author of three books: Helping America Vote, Lobbying and Policy Change, and Why Americans Split
- [Peter Miller, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/peter-miller-phd/) - Peter Miller is a researcher at the Brennan Center focusing on redistricting, voting, and elections. His research interests include U.S. and comparative politics, voting behavior, political institutions, and public opinion. His work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including the Annual Review of Political Science, Electoral Studies, Election Law Journal, American Politics Research, and
- [Mary-Kate Lizotte, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/mary-kate-lizotte-phd/) - Dr. Lizotte earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Stony Brook University. Her research interests include political behavior and gender and public opinion. Much of her work is concerned with the origins and implications of gender differences in public opinion, often referred to as "gender gaps." In additional to her work on public opinion, she
- [Matt Grossmann](https://electionsos.com/coach/matt-grossmann/) - Matt Grossmann is Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) and Professor of Political Science at Michigan State University. Most recently, Dr. Grossmann is publishing How Social Science Got Better: Overcoming Bias with More Evidence, Diversity, and Self-Reflection (Oxford University Press, 2021) on the topics of Trump's election, the Great Recession,
- [Jennie Sweet-Cushman, Ph.D.](https://electionsos.com/coach/jennie-sweet-cushman-ph-d/) - Jennie Sweet-Cushman is an associate professor of political science at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she teaches courses in public policy, American politics, women and politics, and research methods. She was the 2018-2019 “Teacher of the Year” in Chatham’s School of Arts Science and Business, the 2020 American Political Science Association’s 2020 CQ Press
- [Nathan Katz, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/nathan-katz-phd/) - Nathan is a visiting lecturer of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. He is a political and cultural sociologist who specializes in the relationship between media and politics. His dissertation, Turning Money into Speech tracks how the history of campaign finance reform influences coordination among political advertisers. He is currently working on a manuscript based
- [Richard L. Hasen](https://electionsos.com/coach/richard-l-hasen/) - Professor Richard L. Hasen is an internationally recognized expert in election law and campaign finance regulation, writing as well in the areas of legislation and statutory interpretation, remedies, and torts. He is co-author of leading casebooks in election law and remedies. Hasen served in 2020 as a CNN Election Law Analyst. He directs UCLA Law’s
- [Barry Burden](https://electionsos.com/coach/barry-burden/) - Barry C. Burden is Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also Director of the Elections Research Center and is the Lyons Family Chair in Electoral Politics. His research and teaching are based in American politics, with an emphasis on electoral politics and representation. He is co-editor of The Measure of
- [Whitney Ross Manzo, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/whitney-ross-manzo-phd/) - Dr. Manzo holds a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Dallas in Political Science and Methodology. Her general field is American politics, and her primary expertise is in the areas of public opinion, constitutional and electoral law, elections, and gender issues in politics. Dr. Manzo’s research agenda focuses on imbalances of power and issues
- [Rob Boatright](https://electionsos.com/coach/rob-boatright/) - Dr. Boatright teaches courses on American political behavior, political parties, campaigns and elections, interest groups, political participation, and political theory. He has served as a research fellow at the Campaign Finance Institute, as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, and as a research associate at the American Judicature Society. He is currently the director
- [David Schultz, Ph.D., J.D, LLM](https://electionsos.com/coach/david-schultz-ph-d-j-d-llm/) - Professor David Schultz is a national expert on election law, professional ethics, state constitutional law, and eminent domain and land use law. He teaches courses in Election Law, State Constitutional Law, Constitutional Law, and Professional Responsibility. A professor in the political science department at Hamline University, Schultz teaches classes in American politics and public policy.
- [Boris Heersink](https://electionsos.com/coach/boris-heersink/) - I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Fordham University. My research focuses on American political parties and election campaigns. I am the co-author of Republican Party Politics and the American South, 1865-1968 (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and have published in journals such as The Journal of Politics, Political Analysis, Perspectives
- [Dewey Clayton, Ph.D](https://electionsos.com/coach/dewey-clayton-ph-d/) - Dewey M. Clayton, professor of political science at the University of Louisville, is an expert on American politics and U.S. social movements. His most recent book is The Presidential Campaign of Barack Obama: a critical analysis of a racially transcendent strategy. He is also the author of numerous scholarly articles including “Black Lives Matter and
- [Alex Keyssar](https://electionsos.com/coach/alex-keyssar/) - Alexander Keyssar is the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy. A historian by training, he has specialized in the exploration of historical problems that have contemporary policy implications. His book, The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States (2000), was named the best book in U.S.
- [Aunna Dennis](https://electionsos.com/coach/aunna-dennis/) - As Executive Director of Common Cause Georgia, Aunna aims to combine her passions for social impact, culture, boots on the ground organizing, policy, and elections. She plans to deepen Common Cause’s engagement locally, statewide, and nationally. Aunna brings to Common Cause her expertise in elections mobilization, issue advocacy, and voting rights. Prior to joining the
- [Vanita Gupta](https://electionsos.com/coach/vanita-gupta/) - Vanita Gupta is an experienced leader and litigator who has devoted her entire career to civil rights work. Most recently, from October 15, 2014, to January 20, 2017, she served as Acting Assistant Attorney General and Head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division. Appointed by President Barack Obama as the chief civil rights
- [Prabha Sankaranarayan](https://electionsos.com/coach/prabha-sankaranarayan/) - Prabha Sankaranarayan is the President and CEO of Mediators Beyond Borders International, an international impact organization whose mission is to build local skills for peace and promote mediation worldwide. She is committed to partnership, as evidenced by the organization’s collaboration with over 120 organizations globally. She leads MBBI’s recent partnership with Rotary International, a global
- [Edward B. Foley](https://electionsos.com/coach/edward-b-foley/) - Edward B. Foley holds the Ebersold Chair in Constitutional Law at The Ohio State University. He is currently serving as an NBC News election law analyst for the 2020 election season. In 2016, his book “Ballot Battles: The History of Disputed Elections in the United States” was named a finalist for the David J. Langum
- [Jennifer McCoy](https://electionsos.com/coach/jennifer-mccoy/) - Jennifer McCoy specializes in democratic transitions and backsliding, crisis prevention and conflict resolution, and electoral processes, including electronic voting and international election monitoring. Her current research is on polarized polities around the world and on the politics of transitional justice in the Colombian peace talks. She has done extensive election monitoring in Latin America and
- [Ciara Torres-Spelliscy](https://electionsos.com/coach/ciara-torres-spelliscy/) - Ciara Torres-Spelliscy’s work focuses primarily on the issue of money in politics, but also works on strengthening election laws more generally, as well as improving corporate governance. She is a Brennan Center Fellow, on the board of directors for both the National Institute on Money in State Politics and the Mertz Gilmore Foundation. Torres-Spelliscy is
- [Erika Fowler](https://electionsos.com/coach/erika-fowler/) - Erika Fowler’s research centers on questions of communication, political discourse and citizen learning in elections and in the health policy context. In particular, she analyzes the factors that shape media messages in both advertisements and in news coverage and what the influence of such messages are on public opinion, knowledge and ultimately behavior. Fowler also
- [Zoltan Hajnal](https://electionsos.com/coach/zoltan-hajnal/) - Zoltan Hajnal is a scholar of racial and ethnic politics, urban politics, immigration, and political behavior. Hajnal is the author of a range of books and articles on partisan politics, voter turnout, minority representation, and local spending. Hajnal has published in the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, and numerous
- [Amel Ahmed](https://electionsos.com/coach/amel-ahmed/) - Amel Ahmed’s main area of expertise is the study of democratic institutions and particularly electoral systems. She is especially interested in how the “rules of the game” affect democratic outcomes: who participates, how influential certain groups are, and what are the policy consequences of these two issues. She studies the development of electoral systems historically
- [Ray Block](https://electionsos.com/coach/ray-block/) - Ray Block did his undergraduate training at Howard, received his Ph.D. from Ohio State, and specializes in the areas of racial, ethnic, and gender group politics, voting behavior, and public opinion. Overarching themes in Block's writings include group differences in civic involvement, the formation and mutability of social identity, campaigns and elections, and other topics.
- [Joseph Anthony](https://electionsos.com/coach/joseph-anthony/) - Anthony's research focuses on systems that structure political participation as well as institutions that incentivize and mobilize participation. Specifically, Joseph studies election systems, administration and policy, and political organizations. Joseph worked in political arenas for 15 years before beginning his doctoral program at the University of Missouri in St. Louis in 2014 (graduating in August
- [Arisha Hatch](https://electionsos.com/coach/arisha-hatch/) - Arisha Michelle Hatch is the Vice President and Chief of Campaigns at Color Of Change, leading campaigns on civic engagement, voting rights, criminal justice, and corporate and media accountability. Arisha is a leader and innovator in the racial justice movement, organizing Black People’s Brunches which brought together more than 12,500 people in 2018 and helping
- [Rashad Robinson](https://electionsos.com/coach/rashad-robinson/) - Rashad Robinson is the President of Color Of Change, a leading racial justice organization driven by more than 7 million members who are building power for Black communities. Color Of Change uses innovative strategies to bring about system change in the industries that affect Black people’s lives: Silicon Valley, Wall Street, Hollywood, Washington, corporate board
- [Val Benavidez](https://electionsos.com/coach/val-benavidez/) - Val Benavidez is the president and executive director for the Texas Freedom Network, a non-partisan, grassroots organization of progressive religious and community leaders and young Texans based in Austin. TFN’s youth-organizing program, Texas Rising, engages Texans ages 18-29 through extensive voter registration campaigns, GOTV work, and training in grassroots advocacy. The organization’s Just Texas program
- [Christina Sanders](https://electionsos.com/coach/christina-sanders/) - Born and raised in Texas, Christina Sanders, Founder of PoliChic Engagement Fund, has nearly two-decades of voter education, voter registration and policy advocacy experience. Christina has led and assisted countless local, state and national voter registration and policy advocacy efforts. She served as Senior Program Manager of Expansion at The Andrew Goodman Foundation and State
- [Brendan Nyhan](https://electionsos.com/coach/brendan-nyhan/) - I am a Professor in the Department of Government at Dartmouth College. My research, which focuses on misperceptions about politics and health care, has been published in journals including the American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Pediatrics, and Vaccine. I received my Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at
- [Jay Young](https://electionsos.com/coach/jay-young/) - Jay Young is the Executive Director for Common Cause Illinois. Jay joined Common Cause in October 2017. He is the chief spokesperson for the organization and is primarily responsible for fundraising, lobbying, legislative and program strategy, media appearances, and all other activities, including supervision of staff and determining budget priorities. Before joining Common Cause, Jay
- [Julia Vaughn](https://electionsos.com/coach/julia-vaughn/) - Julia Vaughn joined the organization in 1995 and is responsible for policy development, lobbying, grassroots organizing and coalition building in the Hoosier State. She previously served as director of health policy for the Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, and as director of Count Us IN, a project sponsored by the Governor’s Council for People with
- [Joanne Antoine](https://electionsos.com/coach/joanne-antoine/) - Joanne Antoine joined Common Cause Maryland in January 2017, managing state outreach and engagement for key policy campaigns, specifically around money in politics and voting rights. She now serves as Executive Director where she is responsible for creating and implementing the Maryland organization’s policy campaigns and building its capacity. Prior to joining Common Cause Maryland,
- [Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera](https://electionsos.com/coach/annastacia-belladonna-carrera/) - Annastacia Belladonna-Carrera is the Executive Director for Common Cause Minnesota. Annastacia provides Common Cause MN leadership in identifying and developing equity-based strategic grassroots alliances to achieve collective democracy-based outcomes for Minnesotans. Annastacia previously worked as Legislative Director for a Minnesota state agency; the Minnesota Council on Latino Affairs (MCLA). Prior to joining the Minnesota Council
- [Heather Ferguson](https://electionsos.com/coach/heather-ferguson/) - Heather serves as the Executive Director for Common Cause New Mexico. She manages a team that includes three full-time staff, and multiple independent contractors. Her duties include policy initiatives, strategic management of campaigns, fundraising, elected official outreach, communications, media relations and administration of the organization. Before joining Common Cause, Heather Ferguson was the paralegal to
- [Cheri Quikmire](https://electionsos.com/coach/cheri-quikmire/) - Cheri Quickmire joined Common Cause in 2009 and is responsible for all aspects of organizational, board development and policy work in Connecticut. She has more than two decades of experience as an activist, organizer and administrator. Prior to joining Common Cause, Cheri served as Executive Director of One Connecticut, a statewide coalition of 100 organizations
- [Susan Lerner](https://electionsos.com/coach/susan-lerner/) - Susan Lerner is executive director of Common Cause New York. Susan joined Common Cause in December 2007. She is responsible for setting priorities, strategy, lobbying, serving as a spokesperson, fund-raising and leading the team for the New York organization. Before joining Common Cause, Susan served from 2003-07 as executive director of the California Clean Money
- [Catherine Turcer](https://electionsos.com/coach/catherine-turcer/) - Catherine Turcer is the Executive Director for Common Cause Ohio. An expert on redistricting reform and state level campaign finance, Catherine advocates for greater transparency and more accountable government and helped lead Ohio’s successful efforts to address gerrymandering. Before joining Common Cause Ohio in April 2012, Catherine was Ohio Citizen Action’s legislative director. During her
- [Gavin Geis](https://electionsos.com/coach/gavin-geis/) - Gavin Geis joined Common Cause in July 2013 as Nebraska executive director. He served on the Common Cause Nebraska board as state treasurer from 2010-2013. A Nebraska native, Gavin graduated from the University of Nebraska at Omaha with a BA degree in English and earned his law degree at the Nebraska School of Law in
- [Kate Titus](https://electionsos.com/coach/kate-titus/) - Kate Titus serves as executive director of Common Cause Oregon. She brings to this work a background in public policy and community organizing, having worked previously for a number of other public interest organizations including Public Citizen and Oregon Action. Kate is a graduate of Connecticut College, and earned a Masters in Public Administration from
- [John Marion](https://electionsos.com/coach/john-marion/) - John Marion has been executive director of Common Cause Rhode Island since 2008. In that role he serves as the organization’s lead advocate and spokesperson. During his tenure John has led successful legislative campaigns to reform the state’s campaign finance disclosure system, restore the full jurisdiction of the state Ethics Commission over members of the
- [Angelia Tolbert](https://electionsos.com/coach/angelia-tolbert/) - Angelia Tolbert, Esq. is the Executive Director Arkansas Community Dispute Resolution Centers, Inc. based in Little Rock, Arkansas. She is a mediator, arbitrator, facilitator, conflict resolution service provider, and has served as a neutral in disputes covering a full range of issues, including agriculture, banking/finance, business dissolution, commercial and real estate, contracts, construction, partnership, probate/trust,
- [Jill Cheeks](https://electionsos.com/coach/jill-cheeks/) - Jill Cheeks is the Executive Director of the Mediation Center, which provides the coastal community with access to mediation and other alternative dispute resolution methods as an alternative to litigation. Services provided by The Mediation Center are confidential, inexpensive, prompt and readily accessible to everyone. We maintain a trained, qualified and competent staff to provide
- [Jonathan Mehta Stein](https://electionsos.com/coach/jonathan-mehta-stein/) - A civil rights attorney and long-time democracy reform advocate, Jonathan became the Executive Director of California Common Cause on May 1, 2020, after 10 years on the California Common Cause Board of Directors and four years as Board Chair. Jonathan previously spent four years as the head of the Voting Rights & Census Program at
- [Elena Nunez](https://electionsos.com/coach/elena-nunez/) - Elena is co-author of Democracy on the Ballot 2020, the third volume looking at ballot initiatives across the country where voters can vote on various democracy reforms and part of team leading our nonpartisan Election Protection effort. She is also the former Executive Director of Colorado Common Cause where she won reforms to promote voting
- [Marilyn Carpinteyro](https://electionsos.com/coach/marilyn-carpinteyro/) - Marilyn leads Common Cause’s Election Protection work done in conjunction with the Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights Under Law. Election Protection is the largest nonpartisan effort to protect the vote, coordinating more than 45,000 lay volunteers coordinated through ProtectTheVote.net and 25,000 lawyers who help voters at polling places or answer questions voters have at 866-OUR-VOTE.
- [Shoshana Zuboff](https://electionsos.com/coach/shoshana-zuboff/) - Shoshana Zuboff is the author of three books, each of which signaled the start of a new epoch in technological society. In the late 1980s her decade-in-the-making In the Age of the Smart Machine: The Future of Work and Power became an instant classic that foresaw how computers would revolutionize the modern workplace. At the
- [Niyati Shah](https://electionsos.com/coach/niyati-shah/) - Niyati Shah is the Director of Litigation at Advancing Justice | AAJC. Most recently, Niyati worked as an Election Counsel at Project Vote where she investigated, litigated, and advocated against violations of federal constitutional and statutory law nationwide. She is an expert on the implementation of Sections 5 and 7 of the National Voter Registration
- [John C. Yang](https://electionsos.com/coach/john-c-yang/) - John C. Yang is the president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC. At Advancing Justice | AAJC, John leads the organization’s efforts to fight for civil rights and empower Asian Americans to create a more just America for all through public policy advocacy, education, and litigation. His extensive legal background enables
- [Dr. Melissa Michelson](https://electionsos.com/coach/melissa-michelson/) - Dr. Melissa R. Michelson is an accomplished teacher, scholar, and leader in her profession. Originally from the island of Alameda, California, she now bicycles to work at Menlo College in Atherton, California, where she is Dean of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science. Dr. Michelson is also a founding Executive Committee member of
- [Jerry Gonzalez](https://electionsos.com/coach/jerry-gonzalez/) - Jerry Gonzalez is the founding and current Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials (GALEO) and the GALEO Latino Community Development Fund. GALEO, a statewide nonprofit and non-partisan organization, has a mission to increase civic engagement and leadership development of the Latino community across Georgia. Gonzalez is a native of
- [Nina Khrushcheva](https://electionsos.com/coach/nina-khrushcheva/) - Nina Khrushcheva is a Professor of International Affairs at The New School in New York and an expert in Propaganda. She is a senior fellow of World Policy Institute, contributing editor to Project Syndicate: Association of Newspapers Around the World, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Her articles have appeared in The
- [Gayle Alberda, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/gayle-alberda-phd/) - Gayle Alberda joined Fairfield University in 2016 as an assistant professor of Politics and Public Administration. Dr. Alberda teaches undergraduate American politics courses and public administration graduate courses. She is a first-generation college graduate; she obtained her Ph.D. from Wayne State University and her M.P.A. and B.S. degree are both from Central Michigan University. Dr. Alberda’s research focuses on
- [Sylvia Albert](https://electionsos.com/coach/sylvia-albert/) - As Director of Voting and Elections, Sylvia works with national staff and Common Cause state offices to press for reforms that expand access to the ballot for eligible voters and promote fair representation in our democracy. Sylvia brings more than a decade of professional experience in public interest law and public policy campaigns expanding ballot
- [Farida Jalalzai](https://electionsos.com/coach/farida-jalalzai/) - Dr. Farida Jalalzai is an election expert specializing in women candidates and voters. The associate dean for Global Initiatives and Engagement, College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences and professor (PhD, University of Buffalo, 2004), her research analyzes the role of gender in the political arena including women national leaders. Her books include: "Shattered, Cracked
- [Farbod Faraji](https://electionsos.com/coach/farbod-faraji/) - Farbod Faraji is a counsel at Protect Democracy. Before joining Protect Democracy, Farbod was a Gibbons Fellow in Public Interest & Constitutional Law, where he worked on a range of impact litigation cases in the areas of racial justice, immigration, and national security. Farbod previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Jacqueline Nguyen
- [Cecilia Ballí, PhD](https://electionsos.com/coach/cecilia-balli-phd/) - Cecilia Ballí, PhD is a narrative journalist with 22 years of experience publishing in top newspapers and magazines, and a cultural anthropologist with 20 years of experience conducting qualitative research. I have strong topical expertise in U.S.-Mexico border issues and Latino/a communities in the United States. I recently launched a cultural and communications consultancy, Culture
- [Elaine Kamarck](https://electionsos.com/coach/elaine-kamarck/) - Elaine C. Kamarck is a Senior Fellow in the Governance Studies program as well as the Director of the Center for Effective Public Management at the Brookings Institution. She is an expert on American electoral politics and government innovation and reform in the United States, OECD nations, and developing countries. She focuses her research on
- [Judith Kim](https://electionsos.com/coach/judith-kim/) - Judith Kim is a hard-nosed journalist with an appetite for the difficult, no matter how controversial. She always has at least 35 tabs open on her Mac, which range from deep TED talks to exposés on the 1st amendment. A former surfer, snowboarder, but current skater and beer-enthusiast, Kim was born in Glendale, CA–Kim Kardashian’s
- [Jim McCormick](https://electionsos.com/coach/jim-mccormick/) - Jim McCormick is an expert on trade and foreign policy.
- [David Peterson](https://electionsos.com/coach/david-peterson/) - I am the Lucken Professor of Political Science, in the Department of Political Science at Iowa State University, and former editor of Political Behavior. My research focuses on American politics, particularly elections, public opinion, and voting behavior. My new book Ignored Racism is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. I have several current projects I am working on. The first
- [Jonathan Hassid, Ph.D.](https://electionsos.com/coach/jonathan-hassid/) - Jonathan Hassid is a Professor in Political Science. Prior to coming to Iowa State in 2015, he received his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley (2010) and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Technology, Sydney (2010-2014). A China specialist, his research interests mainly revolve around the politics of the Chinese news
- [Shane Hamlin](https://electionsos.com/coach/shane-hamlin/) - Shane Hamlin is the Executive Director of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). ERIC is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization dedicated to helping states improve the accuracy of America’s voter rolls and increasing access to voter registration for all eligible citizens. Shane has worked in elections policy and elections administration at the state and national level for over
- [Jean Reith Schroedel](https://electionsos.com/coach/jean-reith-schroedel/) - Jean Reith Schroedel is the Thornton F. Bradshaw Professor, emeritus, of politics and policy at Claremont Graduate University. She has written or co-edited six books, including Is the Fetus a Person? A Comparison Across the Fifty States that was given the American Political Science Association’s Victoria Schuck Prize, as well as more than 50 scholarly
- [David J. Becker](https://electionsos.com/coach/david-becker/) - David Becker is the Executive Director and Founder of the Center for Election Innovation & Research, leading this cutting-edge non-profit’s work to improve election administration through research, data, and technology. David created CEIR to be the first effort of its kind, with a proven track record of working with election officials and experts from around
- [Christopher Borick](https://electionsos.com/coach/christopher-borick/) - Dr. Christopher P. Borick is a Professor of Political Science and Director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion. He is a nationally recognized public opinion researcher, who has conducted over 350 large-scale public opinion surveys during the past quarter century. The results of these surveys have appeared in numerous periodicals including The Wall
- [Ponsella Hardaway](https://electionsos.com/coach/ponsella-hardaway/) - Ponsella Hardaway is a native Detroiter. Since 1996 she has been an organizer with MOSES; She is also a national trainer with the Gamaliel Foundation. In addition to leaders across Detroit, the state of Michigan, and the country, she has trained congregation members in South Africa, Swaziland, and in the United Kingdom. Ms. Hardaway has
- [Charles Bullock](https://electionsos.com/coach/charles-bullock/) - CHARLES S. BULLOCK, III, holds the Richard B. Russell Chair in Political Science and is Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor and University Professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia. He has been at the University of Georgia since 1968 with the exception of two years when he was Professor of Political
- [Sarah Kendzior](https://electionsos.com/coach/sarah-kendzior/) - I am a writer who lives in St Louis, Missouri. I am best known for my best-selling essay collection The View From Flyover Country, my reporting on political and economic problems in the US, my prescient coverage of the 2016 election and the Trump administration, and my academic research on authoritarian states in Central Asia. I am also the co-host
- [Manisha Sinha](https://electionsos.com/coach/manisha-sinha/) - Manisha Sinha is the James L. and Shirley A. Draper Chair in American History at the University of Connecticut and a leading authority on the history of slavery and abolition and the Civil War and Reconstruction. She was born in India and received her Ph.D from Columbia University where her dissertation was nominated for the
- [Susan Benesh](https://electionsos.com/coach/susan-benesh/) - Susan Benesch founded and directs the Dangerous Speech Project, to study speech that can inspire violence - and to find ways to prevent this, without infringing on freedom of expression. To that end, she conducts research on methods to diminish harmful speech online, or the harm itself. She also serves tech companies as an unpaid,
- [David Armiak](https://electionsos.com/coach/david-armiak/) - David Armiak is research director with the Center for Media and Democracy. David joined CMD in 2015, has conducted extensive investigations on dark money, corporate corruption, and right-wing networks, and is responsible for filing and analyzing hundreds of public records requests every year. David has a strong research interest in social movements and political power, and
- [Nathaniel Persily](https://electionsos.com/coach/nathaniel-persily/) - Nathaniel Persily is the James B. McClatchy Professor of Law at Stanford Law School, with appointments in the departments of Political Science, Communication, and FSI. Professor Persily’s scholarship and legal practice focus on American election law or what is sometimes called the “law of democracy,” which addresses issues such as voting rights, political parties, campaign
- [Ben Geffen](https://electionsos.com/coach/ben-geffen/) - Benjamin Geffen joined the Law Center in 2010 as a staff attorney. At the Law Center, Mr. Geffen works across our practice areas, including employment law, healthcare, voting rights, and access to public records. Mr. Geffen’s successful cases at the Law Center have included striking down Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered congressional map and its Voter ID law,
- [Quinn Raymond](https://electionsos.com/coach/raymond-quinn/) - Quinn Raymond is the co-founder of VoteShield, which tracks changes to voter registration data and flags suspicious anomalies for election administrators. The system monitors 120 million voter records in 19 states. Quinn has been working on local, state, and national political campaigns since 2001, with a focus on the use of voter data in campaigns.
- [Erica Newland](https://electionsos.com/coach/erica-newland/) - Erica Newland is Counsel at Protect Democracy. Before joining Protect Democracy, she was an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, in the Office of Legal Counsel.
- [Robert Weissman](https://electionsos.com/coach/robert-weissman/) - A staunch public interest advocate and activist, as well as an expert on corporate and government accountability. He is an expert on the effect of money on politics, economic and regulatory policy, corporate crime and wrongdoing, trade and globalization, financial reform, prescription drug pricing and access to the courts.
- [Jennifer Morrell](https://electionsos.com/coach/jennifer-morrell/) - Former local election official in Utah and Colorado. Consult with states and local jurisdictions on election administration and auditing. Work as a consultant with Democracy Fund leading the Election Validation Project and serve as a subject matter expert for CISA.
- [Tom Coleman](https://electionsos.com/coach/tom-coleman/) - Tom Coleman is a former eight-term Member of Congress from Missouri and government affairs professional with forty years of experience in Washington, DC. Prior to his congressional service he was an assistant attorney general of Missouri appointed by then Attorney General John C. Danforth. In 1972 he became the first Republican in the 150-year history
- [Larry Garber](https://electionsos.com/coach/larry-garber/) - After 35+ years focusing on elections overseas, including observing elections in more than 30 countries, Larry Garber and several former NDI colleagues formed Election Reformers Network in 2017 to bring lessons from their global experiences to the United States. Larry currently is serving as a member of the National Task Force on Election Crises, which
- [Theodore T. Allen, Ph.D.](https://electionsos.com/coach/theodore-t-allen-ph-d/) - Theodore T. Allen, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor with tenure in Integrated Systems Engineering at the Ohio State University. He is also the president and founder of factSpread, which is a non-partisan, tax exempt non-profit dedicated to an informed citizenry through public service advertising. Dr. Allen received his A.B. in physics from Princeton, his M.S.
- [Matt Haverstick](https://electionsos.com/coach/matt-haverstick/) - Matt Haverstick is a managing partner at Kleinbard LLC in Philadelphia. For over 20 years, he has represented government officials, private entities and individuals in high-profile, media intensive matters, ranging from major grand jury investigations to the defense of the constitutionality of state laws. Referred to in media reports as “counsel of choice for state
- [Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor](https://electionsos.com/coach/jessica-ann-mitchell-aiwuyor/) - Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor is a cultural communications specialist based in the Washington, DC area. Aiwuyor is the founder of the National Black Cultural Information Trust, an initiative that uses communications, media, cultural information, and resources to combat disinformation targeting Black communities. In her past role as the Associate Director of Communications at the National Fair Housing Alliance (NFHA), Aiwuyor
- [Greg Smith](https://electionsos.com/coach/greg-smith/) - Gregory A. Smith is associate director of research at Pew Research Center. He helps to coordinate the Center’s domestic polling on religion. Smith also writes reports and provides information to news media and others about religion and public opinion, religion and American politics, and the political views of Catholics. Smith holds a doctorate in government from
- [Melissa K. Miller, Ph.D.](https://electionsos.com/coach/melissa-k-miller/) - Dr. Melissa Miller is an expert on American politics with a specific focus on elections and voting behavior, women in American politics, public opinion, and the media. She teaches courses in American Government, Political Parties, Voter Behavior, Women in American Politics, and Research Methods. In 2016 Dr. Miller was named Master Teacher -- the highest
- [Christine Chen](https://electionsos.com/coach/christine-chen/) - Christine Chen, the founding executive director from 2006-2008 returned to APIAVote in January 2011 to serve as its current Executive Director. During her tenure she had strengthened and expanded APIAVote's partners into 28 states. APIAVote’s research and polling of Asian American voters and their regional trainings and field programs have strengthened the local grassroots programs in reaching
- [Charlie Gerow](https://electionsos.com/coach/charlie-gerow/) - Charlie Gerow, Quantum's CEO, is a nationally recognized leader in strategic communications and a trusted advisor to leaders in government and business. Named to the prestigious "Influencers 500" list by Campaigns and Elections magazine, Charlie has also been selected as one of the 50 most influential Pennsylvania Republicans by Politics Magazine and one of the
- [Tomas Lopez](https://electionsos.com/coach/tomas-lopez/) - Tomas Lopez became Democracy North Carolina’s Executive Director in January 2018. Previously, he was Counsel with the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, a non-partisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve the nation’s systems of democracy and justice. As a voting rights attorney there, he litigated
- [Dr. Michael Hanmer](https://electionsos.com/coach/dr-michael-hanmer/) - Dr. Michael Hanmer is a Professor in the Department of Government and Politics and Research Director for the Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement at the University of Maryland (UMD). His research focuses on political participation, public opinion, and political methodology. He is on the advisory board for the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge and
- [Austin Sarat](https://electionsos.com/coach/austin-sarat/) - Austin Sarat is Associate Provost, Associate Dean of the Faculty and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science at Amherst College. He is currently the editor of Law, Culture and the Humanities and of Studies in Law, Politics, and Society. He is the author or editor of more than 90 books. His publications
- [Marc Meredith](https://electionsos.com/coach/marc-meredith/) - Marc Meredith holds a BA in Economics and Mathematical Methods in the Social Science from Northwestern University, a MA in Economics from Northwestern University, a MA in Political Science from Stanford University, and a PhD in Political Economics from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. His research examines the political economy of American elections, with
- [Irene Godínez](https://electionsos.com/coach/irene-godinez/) - Irene Godínez is a North Carolinian of Mexican heritage. Irene is the Founder and Executive Director of Poder NC Action, a values-based 501(c)(4) organization. Poder is running one of the most robust Latinx voter outreach program in the state and has distinguished itself with its innovative mail program. Irene was previously the Co-Executive Director at
- [William Burke White](https://electionsos.com/coach/william-burke-white/) - William Burke-White is Professor of Law at the University of Pennsylvania and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Burke-White, an international lawyer and political scientist, researches and writes on the relationships between law, politics, and economics in international affairs. Burke-White is a leading expert on US foreign policy and international law. He has particular
- [Pam Wilmot](https://electionsos.com/coach/pam-wilmot/) - Pam Wilmot heads up a senior leadership team responsible for leading state-level democracy reform efforts nationwide and is an expert on reforming the Electoral College with the National Popular Vote Compact. The Compact is an agreement made by several states that once their total reaches the 270 Electors needed to elect the president they will
- [Ociele Hawkins](https://electionsos.com/coach/ociele-hawkins/) - Ociele recruits, trains, and manages member leaders and volunteers for D4A’s campaign organizing and voter engagement work. This includes running phone banks, text banks, canvassing, and Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) events, as well as developing members to build the political power of people of color and poor & working-class people. She is committed to D4A’s plan of
- [Stevie Valles](https://electionsos.com/coach/stevie-valles/) - Stevie grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio but has lived all over the place – Michigan, Virginia, Alabama, Washington DC, Dallas, Austin, and now Chicago. Even though he isn’t from the “Windy City”, he often says he got here as soon as he could. A graduate of Oakwood University (HBCU) with a Bachelors in Social Work, Stevie has committed
- [Kaji Reyes](https://electionsos.com/coach/kaji-reyes/) - Kaji works collectively with our staff and board to manage the well-being of Durham For All (D4A) through organizational and leadership development, fundraising, and long-term visioning. Kaji is fiercely committed to relationships with those around him. He strives to be nurtured and nudged by his people and to be in struggle to find a path
- [Chavi Khanna Koneru](https://electionsos.com/coach/chavi-khanna-koneru/) - Chavi Khanna Koneru is co-founder and Executive Director of North Carolina Asian Americans Together (NCAAT). Koneru moved to North Carolina in 1989 and has spent the majority of her life living in the state, including attending college and law school locally at the University of North Carolina. This has allowed her to gain a deep,
- [Alison Dagnes](https://electionsos.com/coach/alison-dagnes/) - Alison Dagnes is Professor of Political Science at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, and she earned her doctorate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. She is the author of three books about the American political media: "Super Mad at Everything All the Time" (2019), "A Conservative Walks Into a Bar" (2012) and "Politics on Demand"
- [Anjenys Gonzalez-Eilert](https://electionsos.com/coach/anjenys-gonzalez-eilert/) - Anjenys Gonzalez-Eilert is the Executive Director of Common Cause Florida, a post she has held since January 2018. She is responsible for leading democracy reform efforts statewide. Anjenys has extensive managerial experience in the non-profit sector where she has designed, lead, and implemented grassroots initiatives, predominately focused on civic engagement and government policy. She served
- [Michael Morley](https://electionsos.com/coach/michael-morley/) - Professor Michael Morley joined FSU Law in 2018, and teaches and writes in the areas of election law, constitutional law, remedies, and the federal courts. He is best known for his work on election emergencies and post-election litigation, nationwide and other defendant-oriented injunctions, the jurisdiction of the federal courts and their equitable powers more generally.
- [Jacqueline De León](https://electionsos.com/coach/jacqueline-deleon/) - Jacqueline De León is an enrolled member of the Isleta Pueblo. As a staff attorney at NARF, she helped lead field hearings across Indian Country on Native American voting rights, co-authored NARF’s report, Obstacles at Every Turn: Barriers to Political Participation Faced by Native American Voters, and practices ongoing voter rights litigation. She has testified before Congress
- [Danielle Brian](https://electionsos.com/coach/danielle-brian/) - Danielle Brian is the Executive Director of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO). Under her leadership, the organization has grown from two employees and a budget in the thousands of dollars in 1993 to an organization with over forty staff and a budget of six million. Danielle Brian is an expert in government accountability and
- [Jeremi Suri](https://electionsos.com/coach/jeremi-suri/) - Jeremi Suri holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He is a professor in the university's Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Dr. Jeremy Suri is the author and editor of nine books on contemporary politics and foreign policy, most
- [Sendolo Diaminah](https://electionsos.com/coach/sendolo-diaminah/) - Sendolo Diaminah is an organizer, trainer, and strategist with experience in community and electoral organizing, as well as elected office. For the last four years Sendolo has been training director at Black Organizing for Leadership & Dignity (BOLD), where he developed somatically-based leadership curriculum for organizers and executive directors and are currently Co-Director at the
- [Bob Phillips](https://electionsos.com/coach/bob-phillips/) - Bob Phillips has served as Executive Director of Common Cause North Carolina since 2001. Bob’s work includes lobbying the legislature and building statewide grassroots campaigns for good-government reforms. He is a North Carolina native, a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and worked as a broadcast journalist in Raleigh and press secretary for former Lt. Gov. Dennis
- [Austin Evers](https://electionsos.com/coach/austin-evers/) - Austin Evers founded American Oversight in 2017 to leverage his experience as a litigator and government attorney to promote accountability in government. He served most recently as Senior Counsel in the Department of State for oversight and transparency matters where he advised the Department on responding to congressional, law enforcement, advocacy group, and media investigations.
- [Richard Briffault](https://electionsos.com/coach/richard-briffault/) - Since joining the Columbia Law School faculty in 1983, Richard Briffault has combined public and government service with teaching, research, and scholarship. He is the Law School’s authority on state and local government; the news media often turns to him for his expert insight into and analysis of issues central to democracy and the political
- [Nilda I. Ruiz](https://electionsos.com/coach/nilda-i-ruiz/) - Nilda Iris Ruiz is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha, Inc. (APM) since 2005. As a successor to APM’s founder, she has been involved with the agency as staff and/or funder for over 25 years. Ruiz is known for her progressive stands on neighborhood revitalization, leadership development, self-empowerment, passion for
- [Anthony Gutierrez](https://electionsos.com/coach/anthony-gutierrez/) - Anthony Gutierrez is the Executive Director of Common Cause Texas. He directs all aspects of our Texas operation from legislative advocacy and media relations to grassroots organizing and coalition building. Prior to joining Common Cause in the summer of 2016, Anthony had been working in Texas politics for 15 years. That experience included nonpartisan work
- [Jay Heck](https://electionsos.com/coach/jay-heck/) - Jay became the executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin (CC/WI) in 1996. CC/WI is Wisconsin’s largest non-partisan citizens reform advocacy organization with more than 2,500 members. It is considered by Wisconsin’s major newspaper editorial boards and by pro-reform legislators of both major political parties to be Wisconsin’s most effective and influential state reform organization.
- [Mitchell Brown, Ph.D](https://electionsos.com/coach/mitchell-brown/) - Mitchell Brown, Ph.D., is Professor of Political Science at Auburn University and an Associate Editor of the Journal of Political Science Education (Science of Teaching and Learning). Her work as a researcher, evaluator, trainer and consultant focuses on applied projects around the country centering on election administration, community building, and community-based problem solving. From 2015-2018
- [Suzanne Spaulding](https://electionsos.com/coach/suzanne-spaulding/) - Ms. Spaulding also recently served as a commissioner on the Cyberspace Solarium Commission. Previously, she served as Undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where she led the National Protection and Programs Directorate, now called the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
- [Joshua Tucker](https://electionsos.com/coach/joshua-tucker/) - Joshua A. Tucker is Professor of Politics, affiliated Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, and affiliated Professor of Data Science at New York University. He is the Director of NYU’s Jordan Center for Advanced Study of Russia, a co-Director of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics, and a co-author/editor of the award-winning politics
- [Southern Poverty Law Center Organization](https://electionsos.com/coach/southern-poverty-law-center-organization/) - Southern Poverty Law Center monitors hate groups and other extremists throughout the U.S. and exposes their activities to law enforcement agencies, the media and the public.
- [Brentin Mock](https://electionsos.com/coach/brentin-mock/) - Brentin Mock is a news editor and writer for Bloomberg CityLab focusing on issues racial justice, environment/climate policies, and economic inequalities in urban landscapes. Relevant Articles "How Voter Intimidation Could Get Uglier" by Brentin Mock for Bloomberg CityLab
- [john powell](https://electionsos.com/coach/john-powell/) - john a. powell is an election expert, with a focus on racial anxiety/tensions, policing, free speech and civil liberties. He is the director of the Othering and Belonging Institute and Professor of Law, African American, and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He was previously the Executive Director at the Kirwan Institute for
- [Trey Hood](https://electionsos.com/coach/trey-hood/) - M.V. (Trey) Hood III is a Southern politics and election sciences expert, with specialties in election results, Electoral College, election security, forecasting, in-person voting, mail-in voting, and voter behavior. A professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Georgia, he has been conducting research in American politics and policy at UGA since
- [Genevieve Nadeau](https://electionsos.com/coach/genevieve-nadeau/) - Genevieve Nadeau is a Counsel with the nonpartisan nonprofit Protect Democracy. In that role, she works with a team of lawyers, policy advocates, and other professional staff to develop legal, policy, and communications strategies to defend the rule of law and guard against democratic decline. Among other things, Genevieve has litigated First Amendment retaliation and
- [Damon McCoy](https://electionsos.com/coach/damon-mccoy/) - Damon McCoy, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering. His research focuses on security and privacy issues at the intersection of technology and society. Relevant Media "Academics, journalists and lawyers rally behind NYU researchers in showdown with Facebook" on CBS News "Facebook asks academics to stop using tool
- [D.G. Mawn](https://electionsos.com/coach/d-g-mawn/) - D.G. Mawn, M.A., J.D., is the current President of the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM). As President Mr. Mawn supports the efforts of NAFCM’s members to amplify the voice, aggregate the wisdom and advance the work of community mediation across the continent. His work has strengthened NAFCM’s ability to serve as the hub and
- [R. Michael Alvarez](https://electionsos.com/coach/r-michael-alvarez/) - R. Michael Alvarez received his B.A. from Carleton College, and his Ph.D. from Duke University, both in political science. He has taught at the California Institute of Technology his entire career, focusing on elections, voting behavior, election technology, and research methodologies, and is a Professor of Political and Computational Social Science. He has written or
- [Jorge Duany](https://electionsos.com/coach/jorge-duany/) - Dr. Jorge Duany is an expert in election results and the Latino vote. He is Director of the Cuban Research Institute and Professor of Anthropology at Florida International University in Miami. He has written extensively about Cuban and Puerto Rican migration, ethnicity, race, nationalism, and transnationalism, as well as about Latinos in the United States.
- [Rachael Cobb](https://electionsos.com/coach/rachael-cobb/) - Rachael V. Cobb, Ph.D. is Chair and Associate Professor of Government at Suffolk University. Cobb specializes in U.S. elections, election administration, electoral politics, civic engagement, and political participation. In 2006, Professor Cobb received a grant from the United States Election Assistance Commission to establish the University Pollworkers Project, a nonpartisan program designed to recruit college students as poll workers as a response to reports of
- [Juan Gilbert](https://electionsos.com/coach/juan-gilbert/) - Dr. Juan E. Gilbert is the Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Professor and Chair of the Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department at the University of Florida where he leads the Human Experience Research Lab. He is also an ACM Fellow, a Fellow of the American Association of the Advancement of Science, a Fellow
- [Lisa Lee](https://electionsos.com/coach/lisa-lee/) - Lisa M. Lee is an expert in voting safety, public health, COVID-19 and research integrity at Virginia Tech. She spent 14 years at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and served as the executive director of President Barack Obama’s bioethics commission. Relevant Media: Is it safe to sit in the middle seat
- [Karen Hult](https://electionsos.com/coach/karen-hult/) - Karen M. Hult is a presidential expert with specialties in election results, the Electoral College, election security, in-person and mail-in voting, voter behavior, and misinformation. She is a professor of Political Science at Virginia Tech, where she also is a core faculty member in the Center for Public Administration & Policy in the School of
- [George Hawley](https://electionsos.com/coach/george-hawley/) - George Hawley is an expert in election results, misinformation, voter behavior, civil unrest and immigration. He is an associate professor of political science at the University of Alabama. He is the author of six books and his research interests include religion and politics, electoral behavior, political parties, the radical right, and the conservative movement in America.
- [Kevin Wagner](https://electionsos.com/coach/kevin-wagner/) - Dr. Kevin Wagner is an election results and electoral college expert at Florida Atlantic University. He received his J.D. from the University of Florida and worked as an attorney and member of the Florida Bar in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. He left the full-time practice of law and returned to the University of Florida to
- [Kat Calvin](https://electionsos.com/coach/kat-calvin/) - Kat Calvin is the founder and executive director of Spread The Vote and the co-founder and CEO of the Project ID Action Fund. A lawyer, activist, and social entrepreneur, Kat has built a national organization that helps Americans obtain the IDs they need for jobs, housing, and life and that also allows them to go
- [Cameron Kistler](https://electionsos.com/coach/cameron-kistler/) - Cameron Kistler is a counsel at Protect Democracy, where his practice primarily consists of voting rights and constitutional litigation. He has extensively litigated and published on the federal laws prohibiting voter intimidation. In addition, before joining Protect Democracy, Cameron clerked for judges on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals and the Eastern District of Louisiana
- [Bruce Shapiro](https://electionsos.com/coach/bruce-shapiro/) - Bruce Shapiro is Executive Director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, a project of Columbia Journalism School encouraging innovative reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy worldwide. An award-winning reporter on human rights, criminal justice and politics, Shapiro is a contributing editor at The Nation and U.S. correspondent for Late Night Live on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Radio National.
- [Bret Schafer](https://electionsos.com/coach/bret-schafer/) - Bret Schafer is the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s Media and Digital Disinformation Fellow. As an expert in computational propaganda, he has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, and he has been interviewed on NPR, MSNBC, CNN, Al Jazeera, and CBS and BBC radio. Prior to
- [Bill Adair](https://electionsos.com/coach/bill-adair/) - Bill Adair is the Knight Professor of the Practice of Journalism & Public Policy and the Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy. One of 25 Knight Chairs at universities around the country, Adair's research and teaching focuses on fact-checking and accountability journalism. The creator of the Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact, Adair
- [Audrey Haynes](https://electionsos.com/coach/audrey-haynes/) - Audrey Haynes is a Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor and Director of the Applied Politics Program at the University of Georgia. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science at The Ohio State University in American Politics. Her research focused on presidential primaries, parties and general elections, candidate messaging, and most recently, voting during the pandemic.
- [Amesh A. Adalja, MD FIDSA FACP FACEP](https://electionsos.com/coach/amesh-adalja/) - Dr. Adalja is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. His work is focused on emerging infectious disease, pandemic preparedness, and biosecurity. He received an MD from the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and a BS in industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Adalja is a
- [Vivian Schiller](https://electionsos.com/coach/vivian-schiller/) - Vivian Schiller joined the Aspen Institute in January 2020 as Executive Director of Aspen Digital, which empowers policymakers, civic organizations, companies, and the public to be responsible stewards of technology and media in the service of an informed, just, and equitable world. A longtime executive at the intersection of journalism, media and technology, Schiller has
- [Witold Walczak](https://electionsos.com/coach/witold-walczak/) - In his two-decade career with the ACLU of Pennsylvania, Legal Director Witold "Vic" Walczak has earned a reputation as a formidable defender of civil liberties. He's famously tangled with creationists, immigration opponents, corrupt police forces and even a district attorney eager to prosecute under-age girls for texting clothed photos of themselves. He is a darling
- [Dr. Peniel E. Joseph](https://electionsos.com/coach/peniel-joseph/) - Peniel Joseph holds a joint professorship appointment at the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the History Department in the College of Liberal Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. He is also the founding director of the LBJ School's Center for the Study of Race and Democracy (CSRD). His career focus has been on
- [Joe Szakos](https://electionsos.com/coach/joe-szakos/) - Joe Szakos is an expert in election security, in-person and mail-in voting, and restoration of voting rights. He was the founding executive director of Virginia Organizing from 1994-2017 and now serves as an organizer out of the Charlottesville office. Joe was the founding coordinator of the Virginia Civic Engagement Table in 2008. He was also
- [Kathleen Bartzen Culver](https://electionsos.com/coach/kathleen-bartzen-culver/) - Long interested in the implications of digital media on journalism and public interest communication, Culver focuses on the ethical dimensions of social tools, technological advances and networked information. She combines these interests with a background in law and free expression. Culver is currently studying the ethical implications of data, sensors and drones in journalism and
- [Lisa Graves](https://electionsos.com/coach/lisa-graves/) - Lisa Graves is President of the Board of the Center for Media and Democracy and President of True North Research. She is a well-known researcher, writer, and public speaker. Her research and analysis have been cited by every major paper in the country and featured in critically acclaimed books and documentaries, including Ava Du Vernay’s award-winning film,
- [Suzanne Mettler](https://electionsos.com/coach/suzanne-mettler/) - Suzanne Mettler is the John L. Senior Professor of American Institutions in the Government Department at Cornell University. Her research and teaching interests include American political development, inequality, public policy, political behavior, and democracy. Mettler has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and awarded Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships. She serves on the steering
- [Lonna Rae Atkeson](https://electionsos.com/coach/lonna-rae-atkeson/) - Professor Atkeson's general research program involves a wide number of subfields within political science including elections, campaigns, election administration, public opinion, political behavior, the media, political psychology, state politics, gender politics, and political methodology. She is a national expert in the field of election administration. Dr. Atkeson is the Director for the Center for the
- [Rich Robinson](https://electionsos.com/coach/rich-robinson/)

## Resources

- [How to be effective at post-election engagement](https://electionsos.com/resource/how-to-be-effective-at-post-election-engagement/) - By Massarah Mikati Communities’ information needs don’t disappear once an election is over. As the Trump administration’s barrage of executive orders, the numerous attacks on First Amendment rights and an increasingly polarized political environment demonstrated after the 2024 election, the emotional weight of the news can weigh heavy. In such times, it’s more important than
- [Case Study: Platforming Black people’s political power](https://electionsos.com/resource/case-study-platforming-black-peoples-political-power/) - By Massarah Mikati Going into the 2024 presidential election, Capital B knew they had a monstrous task ahead of them to fulfill their mission of serving Black audiences during a critical election year. Black voters hold a significant amount of political power in the U.S., but the complexity and diversity within their communities are often
- [Case study: Wisconsin’s Main Street Agenda partnership uncovers voter concerns](https://electionsos.com/resource/case-study-wisconsins-main-street-agenda-partnership-uncovers-voter-concerns/) - By Massarah Mikati As the 2024 election neared, staff at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel knew they wanted to tailor their reporting to readers’ needs, priorities and questions — and they knew they couldn’t assume what those needs, priorities and questions would be. With engagement initiatives such as the Citizens’ Agenda already under their belt, the
- [Case study: Putting together an election guide of the people in Santa Cruz](https://electionsos.com/resource/case-study-putting-together-an-election-guide-of-the-people-in-santa-cruz/) - By Massarah Mikati Every election season, Santa Cruz Local has one big product that serves as the core of their election coverage: the People’s Agenda. Like many other election guides, the People’s Agenda covers local races, ballot measures and candidate positions. But unlike other election guides, Santa Cruz Local’s election guide is almost entirely based
- [Case Study: Kansas City Defender pursues engagement through activism](https://electionsos.com/resource/case-study-kansas-city-defender-pursues-engagement-through-activism/) - By Massarah Mikati The Kansas City Defender isn’t like any other newsroom. In fact, founder Ryan Sorrell doesn’t even call it a news outlet, but rather a community organization. Since its founding in July 2021, the Kansas City Defender has redefined local journalism and community engagement by embedding itself within Black communities in Kansas City.
- [Announcing Election Urgent Care: Connecting U.S. journalists to tools and resources in the post-election period](https://electionsos.com/resource/announcing-election-urgent-care-connecting-u-s-journalists-to-tools-and-resources-in-the-post-election-period/) - Newsrooms can now sign up for free resources to enhance their coverage of the post-election period in the U.S. through Election Urgent Care from a coalition of organizations led by the Knight Election Hub, Votebeat, and Hearken. Journalists covering U.S. elections may face unexpected challenges following the election. The Election Urgent Care team will help
- [Make your political coverage stand out](https://electionsos.com/resource/make-your-political-coverage-stand-out/) - By Massarah Mikati As 2024 election day fast approaches, it’s hard to not fall into familiar patterns of political coverage: horse race stories that focus on polls, campaign strategies and the back-and-forth of political theater. But how can you make your political coverage stand out amongst the noise? Don’t make it more salacious — make
- [Earn trust in your election coverage](https://electionsos.com/resource/earn-trust-in-your-election-coverage/) - By Massarah Mikati Most people are overwhelmed by information and don’t really understand what makes responsible journalism different from the rest of the noise in their feeds. That’s normal! It’s also especially problematic during election season, when journalists’ job is to equip people to navigate civic life and democracy. Election SOS joined Trusting News as
- [Engage communities of color with your election coverage](https://electionsos.com/resource/engage-communities-of-color-with-your-election-coverage/) - By Massarah Mikati Communities of color have been the focal point of elections and campaigns, especially over the past few years. But because of a history of media harming those communities, many lack trust in news outlets. Election SOS’ Massarah Mikati was joined in conversation by Brandon Tensley, Capital B political reporter, Kavitha Rajagopalan, Asian
- [December Coverage Roadmap for Elections Aftermath](https://electionsos.com/resource/december-coverage-roadmap-for-elections-aftermath/) - By Pam Fessler, The Elections Group and former NPR News correspondent It turns out that the big surprise this year was a fairly smooth election. Expectations that the country would be mired for weeks in post-election litigation, certification delays and even violence did not materialize, in large part because those who promoted such tactics in
- [1 Week to Go! Election Day Coverage Roadmap for Reporters](https://electionsos.com/resource/1-week-to-go-election-day-coverage-roadmap-for-reporters/) - By Pam Fessler, The Elections Group and former NPR News correspondent Election Day is Nov. 5, but we all know the election began weeks ago. More than 42 million voters had cast their ballots, either by mail or in person, as of Oct. 28. It also will be well after Election Day before the results are final.
- [LOCALIZE IT: Vote-counting takes time. Here’s what you need to know to prebunk misinformation](https://electionsos.com/resource/localize-it-vote-counting-takes-time-heres-what-you-need-to-know-to-prebunk-misinformation/) - By The Associated Press EDITORS/NEWS DIRECTORS: One of the hallmarks of American elections is that there’s a lot of waiting. The 2020 presidential contest, for example, wasn’t called until four days after the election. As we look ahead to the 2024 election, we can expect some more waiting on election night. There’s no national body
- [Online Abuse Self-Defense Training](https://electionsos.com/resource/online-abuse-self-defense-training/) - ElectionSOS hosted Viktorya Vilk, Program Director for Digital Safety and Free Expression at PEN America, for a training on online abuse self-defense. In this workshop, Viktorya breaks down what online abuse actually is, different ways you can prepare for it and respond to it if it happens, ways to support peers experiencing online abuse, and
- [Covering communities of color: A guide](https://electionsos.com/resource/covering-communities-of-color-a-guide/) - Updated Dec. 4, 2024 By Massarah Mikati In many ways, race has been a central focal point in this election, with both presidential candidates relying heavily on votes from communities of color to win. As communities of color continue to be a main story in this election, what has your reporting looked like? Leading up
- [5 engagement lessons journalists can learn from the Democrats' presidential campaign](https://electionsos.com/resource/5-engagement-lessons-journalists-can-learn-from-the-democrats-presidential-campaign/) - By Massarah Mikati Analyses and hypotheses have been rolling in nonstop since this year’s presidential election results were finalized, with particular focus on what went wrong with the Democratic Party’s campaign. As the takes have been coming in, though, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between the complaints and criticisms lodged against the Democrats’ campaign
- [Use This Story Template To Set Expectations on Results](https://electionsos.com/resource/use-this-story-template-to-set-expectations-on-results/) - By Pam Fessler, The Elections Group and former NPR News correspondent One thing you can do now, before Election Day, is produce a story about when people can expect to know the results. It’s a complicated process that has led to confusion, mistrust and misinformation in the past. Below, we provide a story template to help you
- [Our 2024 Scenario Planning Guide](https://electionsos.com/resource/our-2024-scenario-planning-guide/) - Back by popular demand, here is the Election SOS Scenario Planning Guide for 2024. This guide illuminates a variety of challenges that journalists and newsroom leaders are contending with, and provides thought-provoking questions, actionable insights and links to support. The guide is broken up into three sections: PROTECTING STAFF FROM HARM PROTECTING THE ACT OF
- [Need a last-minute idea for Democracy Day coverage? Here are three.](https://electionsos.com/resource/need-a-last-minute-idea-for-democracy-day-coverage-here-are-three/) - Sunday is Democracy Day, a collaborative reporting project in which newsrooms around the U.S. are producing stories that shine a light on threats to democracy — and sharing practical information with their audiences about how our system works. Interested in participating in Democracy Day but not sure what to write about? Here are three quick
- [Dinner & a Doc: Scenario Plan Through War Game](https://electionsos.com/resource/dinner-a-doc-scenario-plan-through-war-game/) - Hey journalists covering US elections: here is a special invitation to screen a very important documentary film about US democracy called War Game this weekend, and participate in a follow-up discussion with one of the film's directors, Jesse Moss, next week. This critically acclaimed film follows an elaborate simulation that dramatically escalates the threat posed by the
- [5 Weeks to Go! October Coverage Roadmap for Election Reporters](https://electionsos.com/resource/5-weeks-to-go-october-coverage-roadmap-for-election-reporters/) - By Pam Fessler, The Elections Group and former NPR News correspondent Things are heating up as Election Day nears – misinformation, mistakes, disagreements, enthusiasm. This makes it especially important for reporters covering this story to get their facts right and explain what’s going on in the clearest way possible. It also makes that job a lot more
- [Develop your Election Day coverage game plan](https://electionsos.com/resource/develop-your-election-day-coverage-game-plan/) - By Massarah Mikati Election Day is around the corner — are you ready to cover it? We don’t need to tell you that the best way to prepare for the grind and chaos of Election Day is to prepare early. We joined Jessica Huseman, editorial director of Votebeat, and Ana Radelat, D.C. reporter for MinnPost,
- [Reaching new communities with your engaged elections reporting](https://electionsos.com/resource/reaching-new-communities-with-your-engaged-elections-reporting/) - By Massarah Mikati You did the thing: the community engagement, the story that’s not just relevant to communities of color, but also serves them with appropriate language and framing, in addition to critical information. But how do you get the story in front of the communities you wrote for? Here are a few ideas for
- [Save the Dates: 2024 Election SOS Webinars](https://electionsos.com/resource/save-the-dates-public-power-your-election-coverage-series/) - By Massarah Mikati November may be two months away, but newsrooms should start preparing now for community-centered election coverage leading up to, during and after the elections. Our team has been hosting regular webinars to support you in your coverage plans and reporting, with topics ranging from preparing for possible political violence to incorporating community engagement
- [Combat election misinformation with your reporting](https://electionsos.com/resource/combat-election-misinformation-with-your-reporting/) - By Massarah Mikati For years now, we’ve been dealing with a rapid spread of mis- and disinformation, particularly around elections. And while news media has traditionally been the solution to counter false information, it has also been experiencing a decline in trust from the public — making the effectiveness and reach of our work more
- [Newsroom Help Desk: Staying ahead of Democratic nomination developments](https://electionsos.com/resource/newsroom-help-desk-staying-ahead-of-democratic-nomination-developments/) - By Bridget Thoreson and Massarah Mikati Updated July 30, 2024 President Joe Biden withdrawing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination weeks ahead of Chicago’s convention has upended the march toward the general election in November. Through the twists and turns as this develops, consider this your go-to reference menu of best practices for coverage that
- [14 Weeks to Go! Coverage Roadmap for Election Reporters](https://electionsos.com/resource/14-weeks-to-go-coverage-roadmap-for-election-reporters/) - By Pam Fessler, The Elections Group and former NPR News correspondent Voting in this year’s general election will begin as early as Sept. 20, only seven weeks away. Newsrooms have little time left to line up routine election coverage, let alone prepare for what will likely be a flood of unexpected news developments. It’s already
- [Get Hearken's EMS & Engaged Elections Training - Deadline Aug 13](https://electionsos.com/resource/get-hearkens-ems-engaged-elections-training-deadline-aug-13/) - Engaged Elections Training + Hearken’s EMS = Winning Combo Back by popular demand, we're offering the Engaged Elections cohort training. Thanks to generous support from the Knight Foundation, we’re able to subsidize a limited number of newsrooms in participating in this training for free as well as receive a free 6 month subscription to Hearken’s Engagement
- [10 Weeks to Go! September Coverage Roadmap for Election Reporters](https://electionsos.com/resource/10-weeks-to-go-september-coverage-roadmap-for-election-reporters/) - By Pam Fessler, The Elections Group and former NPR News correspondent This is it, folks. September marks the start of the big push by candidates and election officials to reach the finish line (hopefully, in November). Journalists will be under intense pressure to inform the public accurately amid rapid news developments, a constant stream of
- [Make Your Voter Guide ICONIC](https://electionsos.com/resource/make-your-voter-guide-iconic/) - As hard as it can be for journalists to appreciate, most Americans aren’t paying attention to the daily roller coasters of campaigns, polls, and exactly who is running for office. It’s common for people to show up at the polls scanning the ballot for their party over the particular person. This creates extra pressure on
- [Reporting checklist: Responsible pro-Palestine community coverage](https://electionsos.com/resource/reporting-checklist-responsible-pro-palestine-community-coverage/) - By Massarah Mikati and Jennifer Brandel Author’s note: Growing up as an Arab American Muslim in the post-9/11 world, I rarely felt that the mainstream media properly represented my communities with nuance and context — and I saw that coverage depicted and harmed not only my own community, but all communities of color. I’ve always
- [‘Tread lightly and be selfish’: A partnerships guide for BIPOC-focused newsrooms](https://electionsos.com/resource/tread-lightly-and-be-selfish-a-partnerships-guide-for-bipoc-focused-newsrooms/) - By Massarah Mikati You’re a news outlet serving communities of color, and you were just approached by a mainstream, predominantly white media organization for a partnership or collaboration. Maybe they told you they’re trying to improve their outreach and engagement in communities of color, and specifically, the communities your outlet is dedicated to serving. What
- [Build your community-centered voter guide](https://electionsos.com/resource/build-your-community-centered-voter-guide/) - By Massarah Mikati Our job as journalists during election season is to get critical, useful information out to our audiences that will increase civic engagement. But how can we get readers to engage with our work? And how can we get that information to them in the most effective, helpful way? We spoke with voter
- [Scenario Planning for Political Violence](https://electionsos.com/resource/scenario-planning-for-political-violence/) - We hosted a training in late September about Extremism and Police Violence that featured two speakers from More in Common (MIC), a nonpartisan research nonprofit that works to counter polarization and social division, who shared insight into how newsrooms can mitigate fear and pessimism. Here’s a recap of this training and scenario planning with some
- [Accurately reporting on election threats and interrupting the spread of anti-democratic lies](https://electionsos.com/resource/accurately-reporting-on-election-threats-and-anti-democratic-lies/) - This explainer piece is for reporters covering elections. It offers valuable, actionable tips and provides context for what many communities will experience around claims of voter fraud. Let’s get to it. Get perspective on the landscape Federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies are warning of a “heightened threat” of domestic violent extremism during the midterm
- [Reaching Republican Voters](https://electionsos.com/resource/reaching-republican-voters/) - Our third webinar, “Reaching Republican Voters,” featured speakers from three organizations that shared insight into how journalists can connect and engage with conservative voters and politicians. Understanding how conservatives think and depolarizing conversations(3:15) are key, said Steve Saltwick on the national leadership team of Braver Angels, a national, grassroots, organization aimed at bridging the partisan
- [Tour the Knight Election Hub](https://electionsos.com/resource/tour-the-knight-election-hub/) - By Massarah Mikati If your newsroom could use help covering the 2024 election, you'll want to check out this webinar touring the Knight Election Hub! The Knight Election Hub is your one-stop shop for free or reduced-price resources and services for U.S. newsrooms to give audiences the information they need to make informed voting decisions, have
- [Newsroom Help Desk: Navigating election coverage after Trump rally shooting](https://electionsos.com/resource/covering-political-violence/) - By Massarah Mikati Updated Wednesday, July 17, 2024 At a rally in Pennsylvania on July 13, former President Donald Trump was shot at. Politicians from every persuasion have issued statements condemning political violence, saying it has no place in American democracy. We’ve pulled together some resources to support journalists as they rush to cover this
- [Cybersecurity 101](https://electionsos.com/resource/cybersecurity-101/) - Reporting during a contentious election cycle exposes both reporters and newsrooms to a host of cybersecurity concerns. And, chances are, between campaign speeches, tight publication deadlines and on-background sources, you need tools and resources you can use right now to protect yourself. Global Cyber Alliance’s Cybersecurity Toolkit for Journalists does just that. Here’s a bite-sized
- [Preparing for Democracy Day - September 15, 2024](https://electionsos.com/resource/preparing-for-democracy-day/) - September 15 is the International Day of Democracy. We are calling on newsrooms across the United States to turn their coverage toward threats to democracy and solutions to those threats. It’s critical for Americans to understand that the real threats could end democracy in the U.S. as we know it, and it’s clear journalists need to
- [The ‘sore loser effect’: Rejecting election results can destabilize democracy and drive terrorism](https://electionsos.com/resource/the-sore-loser-effect-rejecting-election-results-can-destabilize-democracy-and-drive-terrorism/) - James Piazza, Penn State An attendee at an October 2021 political rally hosted by right-wing activist Charlie Kirk asked: “How many elections are they going to steal before we kill these people?” The attendee was referring to the baseless allegation that Joe Biden stole the 2020 U.S. presidential election and that he unfairly denied
- [Golden Insights: Lessons from Election SOS Newsrooms](https://electionsos.com/resource/golden-insights-lessons-from-election-sos-newsrooms/) - With any initiative Hearken does, we do our best to make time for reflection. It can be tough to do it — being reactive to incoming requests and planning for the future is constantly tugging at any blocked out time to just process, think, and learn. But it’s always, always worth it. We spent January
- [Reporting on Extremist Groups](https://electionsos.com/resource/reporting-on-extremist-groups/) - Over Zero has put together new guidance for reporting on extremist groups after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Some highlights: Be explicit in naming these groups. Identify individuals or groups as white supremacists, hate groups, etc. Be clear about how their actions are intentional in causing violence. Acknowledge what is being done
- [Critical Reads for Covering Extremism](https://electionsos.com/resource/critical-reads-for-covering-extremism/) - Extremist groups have not disappeared from the radar after the inauguration. The threats continue, and there is a critical need for responsible and contextualized coverage. For journalists tackling stories on extremism, it’s vital to understand the history and the context behind the fascist movements. Whether you have time to read an article or looking for
- [Extremism Roundup: Jan. 6 and Beyond ](https://electionsos.com/resource/extremism-roundup-jan-6-and-beyond/) - The spectre of right-wing extremism in America has become a much more pressing issue for newsrooms since the events of January 6th. Here is our overview of the events and the key insight you’ll need to help contextualize your reporting. This Past Week The Storming of the Capitol Background: On January 6th, a massive coalition
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: Misinformation](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-sos-first-aid-kit-misinformation/) - Rampant misinformation ultimately fueled a pro-Trump mob to storm the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Here's how your newsroom can combat misinformation now and beyond inauguration day. Take a Class First, learn how to protect yourself and your community from misinformation with First Draft News' free two-week text message course. Available in English and Spanish,
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: Messaging on Violence](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-sos-first-aid-kit-messaging-on-violence/) - UPDATE: January 13, 2021 After a very helpful conversation with Dorothy Tucker, the President of NABJ (the National Association of Black Journalists), we have adjusted this guide in the following substantive ways: We added a note for journalists to “consider the source” of these recommendations (in this case, peace-builders) when deciding which pieces of advice apply to their
- [Citizens Solutions and Engaged Elections](https://electionsos.com/resource/citizens-solutions-and-engaged-elections/) - In our second webinar, Solutions Journalism Network’s Linda Shaw and Jaisal Noor presented key takeaways on how to use Solutions Journalism to engage with audiences: Together, Solutions Journalism and Engagement Journalism can effectively be used to cover only who gets elected but hold them accountable. If you can show that others are doing it better,
- [Best Practices for Voting Guides 2022](https://electionsos.com/resource/best-practices-for-voting-guides-2022/) - With a highly consequential midterm election rapidly approaching, journalists are looking for ways to inform their audience with the information they need to be active participants in the democratic process. Here at Election SOS, we recently hosted three webinars that offer powerful insights from leaders in the field. In Best Practices for Voter Guides, a
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: Trauma in Journalism](https://electionsos.com/resource/how-to-deal-with-journalism-trauma/) - It's an overwhelming time to be a journalist. Covering mob violence, police brutality, natural disasters, civil unrest, and a magnitude of other issues all amidst a pandemic can be traumatizing. It's important to find time for yourself and seek help when needed. Here's are some tips and resources for coping with trauma and exposure to
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: Safety Checklists](https://electionsos.com/resource/safety-checklists/) - Election SOS hosted a series of webinars with our colleagues Dr. Michelle Ferrier of Trollbusters and Viktorya Vilk of PEN America about digital and physical safety while reporting. Some of their tips include how to conduct a threat assessment for your own work and how to sorta dox yourself. Throughout our sessions, certain tips and
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: Covering Conflict](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-sos-first-aid-kit-covering-conflict/) - This election has many experts and citizens alike worried about a potential conflict. Here's a roundup of helpful resources if you're covering violence. Apply Lessons from Abroad We often associate contested, violent elections with unstable governments elsewhere. This year, we might face such a situation here at home. Expert panelists discuss their experiences covering elections
- [2022 Engaged Elections Training](https://electionsos.com/resource/2022-engaged-elections-training/) - Limited Time Offer: The Engaged Elections Cohort “This training provided WSHU with the needed framework to really understand the work that we need to do, how we want to accomplish the work and a way to communicate the change and importance of this work to our different stakeholders.” – Rima Dael, General Manager, WSHU Public
- [Deprogramming Followers: Covering Extremism Post-Capitol Riots](https://electionsos.com/resource/deprogramming-followers-covering-extremism-post-capitol-riots/) - The conversation around extremism lingers, especially after Jan. 6. Watch this webinar with Dr. Manisha Sinha, a Draper Chair in American History at UConn, and Thorsten Wagner, the Executive Director of FASPE - Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, to learn about: How the Capitol riots compare and parallel to historical events.
- [Journalism and Accountability After Capitol Riots](https://electionsos.com/resource/journalism-and-accountability-after-capitol-riots/) - As calls for accountability for the Capitol Riots and other Trump era transgressions rise, journalists may wonder what is meant by accountability? What actors may bring it about? What role should the press play in holding Trump's enablers to account as well as itself? A panel of experts guides us through these questions: Grant Tudor
- [Roundup: Presidential Pardons](https://electionsos.com/resource/roundup-presidential-pardons/) - President Trump has begun in earnest an activity typical of outgoing presidents: granting pardons to people convicted of federal crimes. The president's ability to give clemency was built into our democracy by the framers of the Constitution as a way to correct possible miscarriages of justice. The framers left this power unchecked, and the courts
- [International Standards and Practice](https://electionsos.com/resource/oct-26-international-standards-and-practice/) - Watch this webinar to learn about international standards for elections and how they relate to critical aspects of the electoral process, as well as lessons from election experiences overseas. The panelists feature: Olufunto Akinduro, Senior Programme Officer at the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance Larry Garber, an independent consultant and co-founder of Election
- [How to Verify Almost 5 Million Votes in Georgia](https://electionsos.com/resource/this-tv-producer-helped-verify-millions-of-votes-in-georgia/) - After three counts of almost 5 million votes, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger re-certified the state's presidential election results Dec. 7. 11Alive Executive Producer Erin Peterson has been deep in the numbers, too. Full transparancy: I've now spent a full week calculating and verifying nearly 5 million #Georgia votes for 159 counties for @11AliveNews.
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: Covering Georgia Runoffs](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-sos-first-aid-kit-covering-georgia-runoffs/) - Georgia may have already certified their presidential election results, but another election is already scheduled for next month. The Jan. 5 runoff election in the Peach State will decide which party controls the U.S. Senate. Here's what you and your newsroom need to be mindful of: Key Dates Besides Jan. 5, there are several other
- [Campaign Finance Follow-Ups: Following the Money Beyond Nov. 3](https://electionsos.com/resource/nov-23-campaign-finance-follow-ups-following-the-money-beyond-nov-3/) - We're beyond Nov. 3, but campaign finance stories are still out there, especially as it relates to the upcoming runoffs for U.S. Senate in Georgia. Watch Karl Evers-Hillstrom, OpenSecrets.org’s money-in-politics reporter, and Jeremy B. Merrill, a data journalist whose work has appeared in ProPublica, to learn about: Upcoming campaign finance filings and outside spending (super PACs,
- [What Comes Next: Key Dates in Georgia](https://electionsos.com/resource/what-comes-next-key-dates-in-georgia/) - Georgia's election season is ongoing for a few reasons. Most notably, Georgia's two Senate seats were up for election this year due to a unique combination of circumstances. Both of those Senate races were so close that they are going into runoff elections. In addition to the Senate runoff election, Georgia (like other states) still
- [Roundup: Election Litigation](https://electionsos.com/resource/roundup-legal-challenges/) - Voting has virtually ended, but the election is far from over. Election lawsuits have sprung up all over the country in an effort to overturn the results of the election. Although lawsuits are common after any election, this election season's lawsuits stand out for their number, scope, and political slant. Journalists need to understand election
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: After Tuesday](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-sos-first-aid-kit-beyond-november-3/) - The polls have closed, but the electoral process is still underway. Experts have warned that announcing the results of this election could take longer than what the American public and the media are used to. This roundup will prepare you to cover this period of uncertainty with integrity and confidence. Covering Results Responsibly Explain that
- [Roundup: Lame Duck Period](https://electionsos.com/resource/roundup-lame-duck-period/) - Nearly three weeks passed between the time the AP and all other major media organizations called the Presidential race for Joe Biden and the time that the Trump administration allowed the transition process to begin. These next 8 or so weeks should serve as an onboarding period for the new president and ensure a secure
- [What Comes Next: Key Dates in Wisconsin](https://electionsos.com/resource/what-comes-next-wisconsin/) - Wisconsin's recount rules allow a candidate to request a recount when they trail by less than 1% of the vote. Per the latest results in Wisconsin, Biden leads Trump by less than 1% of the vote, meaning that the Trump campaign can (and has stated that it will) request a recount. We've rounded up the
- [What Comes Next: Key Dates in Pennsylvania](https://electionsos.com/resource/key-dates-pennsylvania/) - Pennsylvania was one of the most contested states during this year's Presidential election. As we have clarified before, the election is ongoing until the transfer of power is complete. With that in mind, it remains important to pay attention to key dates in Pennsylvania after November 3rd. Knowing what step in the election takes place
- [Follow the Money: Campaign Finance Dates to Monitor](https://electionsos.com/resource/follow-the-money-campaign-finance-dates-to-monitor/) - We're just days away from the next campaign finance deadline. Remember these dates so you can use these new filings in your continuing election coverage: Next Steps: Download the infographic Watch the "Campaign Finance Follow-Ups: Following the Money Beyond Nov. 3" webinar Still need a story? Check out our Pitch database Find a source in
- [Tracking Digital Political Ads](https://electionsos.com/resource/tracking-digital-political-ads/) - As Facebook is likely to soon lift their ban on digital political ads, there's an opportunity for newsrooms to find stories in these ads, even if they're not covering the upcoming runoff for U.S. Senate in Georgia. NYU's Ad Observatory allows you to do just that. Here's a primer on how it works: Next Steps:
- [Election Recounts 101](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-recounts-101/) - It's not a few hundred votes in Florida like in 2000, but several states may soon start their processes of election recounts. So, what does that mean for your newsroom coverage? Let's take a look at recount policies across the states that may see one soon, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Georgia:
- [Lessons from Abroad: How to Cover Election Conflict](https://electionsos.com/resource/oct-13-lessons-from-abroad-how-to-cover-election-conflict/) - Journalist Amanda Ripley, of the Atlantic and the Washington Post, lead a panel with Patricia Torres, a politics reporter in Caracas, Venezuela; Zafar Sobhan, editor-in-chief of the Dhaka Tribune in Btangladesh; and Joseph Jimmy Sankaituah, country director at Search for Common Ground in Sierra Leone and Liberia that delved into election conflict abroad. Watch this
- [How to Cover Electoral Conflict / Cómo Cubrir Conflictos Electorales](https://electionsos.com/resource/how-to-cover-electoral-conflict/) - Investigative journalist Amanda Ripley and Carnegie fellow Rachel Kleinfeld have put together a comprehensive guidebook ahead of the Nov. 3 election, everything from reaching out to crisis sources to not repeating misinformation. Check out the full guide in both English and Spanish below:   Next Steps: Download the guidebook Download the guidebook en español Sign
- [Reporting in Contentious Times: Insights on Election Violence](https://electionsos.com/resource/reporting-in-contentious-times-insights-on-election-violence/) - Over Zero Founder and Executive Director Rachel Brown dives into everything journalists should know surrounding election violence. Watch this video to learn: How the media influences conflict dynamics, no matter what. Why you should get into specifics when reporting on election processes. How words like "chaos" and "unrest" portray different groups. Next Steps: Get Over
- [Three Ways to Cover Political Conflict](https://electionsos.com/resource/three-ways-to-cover-political-conflict/) - With storefronts already boarded up in cities across the country, Americans are bracing for potential political conflict. Here's how you and your newsroom should cover these situations, if they come up: Next Steps: Watch the "Political Violence 101" webinar Get the slide deck, too Still need a story? Check out our Pitch database Download our
- [This Network Monitors & De-Escalates Conflicts](https://electionsos.com/resource/this-network-will-monitor-election-risks/) - Mediators Beyond Borders International (MBBI) and the National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM) recently launched a TRUST Network aimed at monitoring election risks. The non-partisan network's Early Warning Early Response (EWER) system is made up of hundreds of volunteers that use "content analysis and digital mapping" to identify risks. Here's how journalists can use their
- [Story Ideas - Six Ways to Cover Vote-by-Mail](https://electionsos.com/resource/six-ideas-to-cover-vote-by-mail/) - We teamed up with Democracy Fund's Tammy Patrick to learn more about voting by mail, including what it is, why it's under attack, and how to cover it. Based on our learnings, here are 6 story ideas about voting by mail. Some of these stories have already started to be covered by major outlets, but
- [Six Story Ideas from an Election Official](https://electionsos.com/resource/6-story-ideas-from-an-election-official/) - The run up to Nov. 3 -- and beyond -- promises to be chaotic. Here are several story ideas you and your newsroom could report on both before and on Election Day: Next Steps: Watch “Election Officials and Their Capacity to Serve Voters” webinar Join Election SOS Switchboard to connect with other journalists
- [#VoteReady - How to Reach Young and First-time Voters with Vote.org](https://electionsos.com/resource/voteready-how-to-reach-young-voters-and-first-time-voters/) - Najaah Daniels, Chief of Staff at Vote.org, breaks down the barriers to engaging young and first-time voters in this webinar jam-packed with surprising statistics, nuanced insights, and helpful tips (for example, you can ask Siri how you can register to vote). Key Takeaways: It's important to differentiate between young voters and new/first-time voters. Not all
- [Three Ways Pew Research Center Can Help Your Newsroom](https://electionsos.com/resource/three-ways-pews-research-can-help-your-newsroom/) - Chances are, you've seen or reported on something from Pew Research Center. Here are three resources they have that can help you and your newsroom ahead of the upcoming election: Survey data: Pew Research Center's American News Pathways project, an initiative focused on Americans' news habits and attitudes, allows journalists to create tables of answers
- [Post-Election Toolkit / Guía de cobertura para después de las votaciones](https://electionsos.com/resource/post-election-toolkit-guia-de-cobertura-para-despues-de-las-votaciones/) - The electoral process is playing out just like it should and the National Task Force on Election Crises has a post-voting period toolkit, in both English and Spanish, for all your coverage needs. El proceso electoral continua a desenvolverse conforme a la ley. El National Task Force on Election Crises ha creado una guía con
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: Social Media](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-sos-first-aid-kit-social-media/) - Many Americans will get their news from social media this election. Unfortunately, mis- and disinformation love social media. In this roundup, we highlight tips and resources to help social media editors cut through the noise. Establish a plan First, read Joy Mayer's article in Poynter for its comprehensive approach to social media. Next, create a
- [Five Resources for Tackling Misinformation](https://electionsos.com/resource/five-resources-for-tackling-misinformation/) - Our partner First Draft News, a non-profit focused on fighting misinformation, has several resources for reporters and newsrooms on how to tackle and report on the topic. Access daily misinformation insights: Sign up to join First Draft's CrossCheck Slack community where the investigative research team distributes daily insights to local and national reporters about disinformation
- [How to Support Staff Facing Online Abuse: Best Practices for Editors and Managers](https://electionsos.com/resource/how-to-support-staff-facing-online-abuse-best-practices-for-editors-and-managers/) - Viktorya Vilk, Program Director for Digital Safety and Free Expression at PEN America, joined Election SOS and a panel of newsroom leaders and digital safety experts to exchange strategies to protect and support staff facing online abuse, which disproportionately impacts women, LGBTQ+ and/or BIPOC journalists. Panel participants included Donte Stewart, formerly Senior Director of Security
- [Fake News Game Show: Tackling Misinformation](https://electionsos.com/resource/fake-news-game-show-tackling-misinformation/) - Election SOS's very own Christiana Lilly challenged our Election SOS Fellows to spot fake news in this interactive training on online dis- and misinformation. Play along with our team to polish your tackling misinformation skills and spot fake news swirling around this election. Key Takeaways and Best Practices: It’s so simple, but a byline and a
- [Physical Security During Protest And Poll Coverage](https://electionsos.com/resource/oct-8-physical-security-during-protest-and-poll-coverage/) - Dr. Michelle Ferrier, a digital content architect with 30 years of experience in media entrepreneurship and a founder of Troll-busters.com, joined us once more for a conversation on how journalists can protect themselves, their equipment, and their sources from physical damage and violence. This guidance complements prior guidance on digital safety and is especially useful for journalists
- [Political Season and Journalism: Overview of Threats and Tactics](https://electionsos.com/resource/oct-1-political-season-and-journalism-overview-of-threats-and-tactics/) - Dr. Michelle Ferrier, a digital content architect with 30 years of experience in media entrepreneurship and a founder of Troll-busters.com, joined ElectionSOS for a conversation about threats journalists face this election season and how they can protect themselves. Key Takeaways & Best Practices: In the last 5 years, threats of violence against journalists have increased,
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: Before Tuesday](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-sos-first-aid-kit-before-tuesday/) - We're officially in the election already with record numbers of ballots already cast in early and absentee voting. Our goal at ElectionSOS is to provide context, not conflict as the election unfolds. Here are the top tools and resources for journalists covering the days before Nov. 3 and beyond. Audience-First Focus on your audience and
- [Election SOS First Aid Kit: Election Day](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-sos-first-aid-kit-election-day/) - It's finally here: Tuesday, Nov. 3. Election Day. Whether you're in a newsroom or out in the field, here's what you need to know to cover Election Day effectively. Covering the Polls: VotingWorks has put together a handy guide on what to do when the polls close. This is a given, but there won't be
- [Say This, Not That](https://electionsos.com/resource/say-this-not-that-election-edition/) - Say This, Not That During an election, accuracy matters. Too often, we are prone to sacrificing nuance for the sake of brevity or a deadline. We put together this resource to highlight simple changes to wording or coverage approaches that can have a big impact. Below each suggestion, you will also find real-world examples of
- [Vote Curing 101](https://electionsos.com/resource/vote-curing-101/) - Vote curing, or "fixing" one's ballot so it is counted (because of a missing signature, for example), looks to be a lingering issue on and around Election Day. The process varies by state. So what does the vote curing process actually look like? Democracy Fund's Tammy Patrick, a former election administrator, notes that there are
- [Where the Justice Department Will Be on Election Day](https://electionsos.com/resource/where-the-justice-department-will-be-on-election-day/) - The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division plans to deploy staff to 44 jurisdictions across 18 states Tuesday to monitor compliance with voting rights laws. "Our federal laws protect the right of all American citizens to vote without suffering discrimination, intimidation, and harassment," Eric S. Dreiband, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division,
- [Ongoing - Trustworthy Election Coverage SMS Course](https://electionsos.com/resource/trustworthy-elections-coverage/) - Tired of complaints about biased elections coverage and “fake news” from your audience? Join this free, 10-day SMS course, where the Trusting News team will share tips for defending your work and building trust with your community.
- [Why You Need to Cover Voting Rights Lawsuits](https://electionsos.com/resource/why-you-need-to-cover-voting-rights-lawsuits/) - Covering voting rights lawsuits is vital to help your audience navigate the voting process. The Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University has analyzed the spike in lawsuits this election year compared to 2016 and found an 82% increase. Read on to learn why it matters, how you can cover it, and examples from other
- [Federal Forces and the Election](https://electionsos.com/resource/federal-forces-and-the-election/) - How will federal forces impact the election, if at all? The Center for Strategic & International Studies, a bi-partisan think tank, published a detailed primer on the topic, which includes breakdowns of laws around when federal forces can be deployed and how they can be used. Three Key Takeaways There is no wiggle room when
- [Be Patient During Election Season 2020](https://electionsos.com/resource/be-patient-on-election-night-2020/) - The Poynter Institute spoke with election experts and media outlets about the difficulties in covering an election in which the final vote counts may not be tallied until well after Election Day. Key Takeaways for Outlets and Audiences News organizations should explain why vote counts take so long, from contextualizing vote-by-mail deadlines in each state
- [Election Night Results: What Journalists Need to Know](https://electionsos.com/resource/oct-5-election-night-results-what-journalists-need-to-know/) - Liz Howard, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, talks about how to cover election night. Watch this webinar to learn: An overview of election day/night tabulation. How policies and infrastructure in contested states will impact election night result expectations. The reporting process for unofficial results. Next Steps: Get the slide deck Sign up
- [Covering an Unprecedented Election](https://electionsos.com/resource/covering-an-unprecedented-election/) - Hosted by the National Task Force on Election Crises, cross-partisan election experts provide a host of resources and tips for journalists to cover before, during and after the Nov. 3 election. Watch this webinar to learn: What to expect on Election Day and why the presidential race likely won't be called that night. What to
- [Election 2020 Reporters Guide](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-2020-reporters-guide/) - Our friends at PEN America have curated a comprehensive Reporters Guide ahead of the upcoming election. The three-part guide features tips on everything from using social media thoughtfully to debunking misinformation by providing facts and content.  Next Steps: Download the guide from PEN America Sign up for the Election SOS newsletter Join Election SOS
- [Transparency: A Key to Public Confidence in Elections](https://electionsos.com/resource/transparency-and-public-confidence-in-elections/) - The key to public confidence in elections is transparency in the electoral process. Lia Merivaki, a member of the Carter Center’s U.S. Election Expert Study Team and an assistant professor in American politics at Mississippi State University, led a panel of experts in a discussion of the biggest challenges facing journalists covering the election, the
- [Vicarious Trauma and Protecting Yourself as the Reporter](https://electionsos.com/resource/oct-26-vicarious-trauma-and-protecting-yourself-as-the-reporter/) - How does trauma impact journalists? Heath Druzin, Boise State Public Radio's Guns & America reporter, and Lori A. Zoellner, Ph.D., a Director of the University of Washington Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress, talk about trauma and protecting yourself as a reporter, in a conversation moderated by The Carter Center's Kari Cobham. Watch this webinar
- [Political and Election Violence](https://electionsos.com/resource/political-and-election-violence/) - The ElectionSOS Fellows joined a conversation with Professor Nealin Parker, of Princeton's Bridging Divides Initiative, and Mary McCord, Legal Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) at Georgetown Law to learn more about election and political violence. Our fellows and experts discussed best practices for covering and tracking incidents of political violence,
- [Voter Suppression 101](https://electionsos.com/resource/voter-suppression-101/) - Common Cause's Sylvia Albert and Jesse Littlewood give ElectionSOS an overview of the latest tactics of voter suppression and how to cover them responsibly. Key Takeaways: Voter suppression in the U.S. has a long history, from poll taxes and literacy tests in the post-reconstruction South to consolidation and closures of polling places and other changes
- [Bolster Your Digital Safety: An Anti-Hacking, Anti-Doxxing Training](https://electionsos.com/resource/bolster-your-digital-safety-an-anti-hacking-anti-doxing-workshop/) - Harlo Holmes, Director of Digital Security at Freedom of the Press Foundation, and Viktorya Vilk, Program Director for Digital Safety and Free Expression at PEN America provided hands-on training on how to prevent and respond to specific types of online abuse--doxxing and hacking. Building from our previous webinar on digital safety, this workshop was designed
- [Key Election Dates After Nov. 3](https://electionsos.com/resource/key-election-dates/) - November 3rd, or "Election Day" is really the last day for voters to cast ballots. In many states, it is also the first day for counting ballots and tallying results. Even though we've gotten used to knowing the outcomes of elections some hours after the polls close, that is not a deadline for declaring winners. Deadlines
- [What Journalists Should Do When the Polls Close](https://electionsos.com/resource/what-journalists-should-do-when-the-polls-close/) - What should journalists do when the polls close on Election Night? Our friends at VotingWorks, a non-partisan non-profit focused on voting technology, have put together two guides that delve into the election process once the polls close and ensuring a candidate actually won through risk-limiting audits. Three Key Takeaways There are never official results on
- [Election Coverage Checklist: Putting the Audience First](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-coverage-checklist-putting-the-audience-first/) - At Election SOS, we believe that democracy must be preserved and newsrooms have the responsibility to meaningfully listen and respond to the communities they serve and aim to serve, so the public can fully participate in the democratic process. Here is a checklist for journalists to use at each state of the reporting process to
- [Voter Guides 101](https://electionsos.com/resource/voter-guides-101/) - Bridget Thoreson, one of the project leads for ElectionSOS, joins API's John Hernandez and The Markup's Mia Sato for a comprehensive discussion of voter guides. In this webinar, you can learn best practices for creating a voter guide and where to find reliable information for your guide. Mia Sto also details her experience creating voter
- [Analyzing Election Polls 101](https://electionsos.com/resource/analyzing-election-polls-101/) - In this webinar, ElectionSOS's Christiana Lilly, who also forms part of Florida's chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, joins the ElectionSOS Fellows to outline ways to consider polling in this unique election. Watch this webinar if you plan on covering this election and want to navigate the confusing world of poll-watching. (Almost) everything you
- [This Election Network's Recommendations for Covering the Election](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-network-recommendations/) - The Election Coverage and Democracy Network, or ECAD, has mined decades of electoral research to put together a list of recommendations for journalists covering the upcoming election. Their guide includes steps reporters can take between now and Nov. 3, what happens if there's a contested election and what to do in the case of civil
- [How to Cover Vote-By-Mail](https://electionsos.com/resource/how-to-cover-vote-by-mail/) - Tammy Patrick, a senior advisor for the Democracy Fund and an election administration expert, provides both national and state-specific perspective on voting by mail. Get up to speed on the key topics and important nuances so you can best cover vote by mail for your communities. Watch this webinar to learn: What does the
- [Reporting Insights from an Election Administrator](https://electionsos.com/resource/reporting-insights-from-election-administrator/) - Tammy Patrick, a senior advisor for the Democracy Fund, provides critical insights on voter registration and voter access. Patrick, who was a local election official for years, shares vital background information on local election offices as well as storylines that every journalist should be covering. Watch this webinar to learn: The basics of election administration
- [Running an Election in a Pandemic, in 10 Steps](https://electionsos.com/resource/running-an-election-in-a-pandemic-in-10-steps/) - The Center for Public Integrity and Stateline spoke to multiple election experts and local election officials about running an election during a pandemic. Three Key Takeaways Vote-by-mail deadlines are important. Make that clear. Make sure voter rolls are accurate (updated addresses, etc.), especially when it comes to vote-by-mail. Be prepared to answer questions. Voters and
- [Covering Disinformation Ahead of the 2020 Election](https://electionsos.com/resource/oct-6-covering-disinformation-ahead-of-the-2020-election/) - Ian Vandewalker, senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, discusses how to recognize and cover disinformation. Watch this webinar to learn: Examples of disinformation and how grassroots and voter protection groups are responding. How can state and local election officials, Congress and internet companies prepare for disinformation and protect voters. Steps the press and
- [Reporting on Civil Unrest this Election Season](https://electionsos.com/resource/oct-13-reporting-on-civil-unrest-this-election-season/) - Our friends at Free Press will host a webinar on how to cover social unrest this election season.
- [How to Track Political Violence in Your Coverage Area](https://electionsos.com/resource/how-to-track-political-violence-in-your-coverage-area/) - Princeton University's Bridging Divides Initiative, a peace building effort aimed at mitigating political violence, has a real-time political violence map your newsroom could use to see what's going in your state and throughout the country. Check out their map and other resources below:  Next Steps: Sign up for the Election SOS newsletter Join Election
- [How to Monitor Online Comments](https://electionsos.com/resource/how-to-monitor-online-comments/) - Andrew Losowsky over at Coral by Vox Media has put together a primer on online comments -- and why your newsroom should have a strategy for this alongside election coverage. Three Key Takeaways Comments on your news outlet's website should not be a "free speech" zone, especially if they encourage the spread of misinformation. Content
- [Follow the Money: 3 Steps to Covering Campaign Finance](https://electionsos.com/resource/follow-the-money-3-steps-to-covering-campaign-finance/) - The federal candidates in your coverage area have to file campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission. That means you can keep track of how much money their campaigns both spend and receive. The next big campaign finance deadline is Oct. 15, and in the meantime, you can access OpenSecrets.org for analyzed and simplified
- [Reporting on Money in Politics Ahead of the 2020 Election](https://electionsos.com/resource/moneyinpolitics/) - Karl Evers-Hillstrom, OpenSecrets.org's money-in-politics reporter, talks about the ins and outs of campaign finance reporting. Watch this webinar to learn: How to use OpenSecrets.org and the Federal Election Commission website to track campaign finance reports from federal candidates. Important campaign finance deadlines for congressional candidates and influential political action committees you need to be aware
- [Myth vs. Reality: Voting by Mail](https://electionsos.com/resource/myth-vs-reality-voting-by-mail/) - Along with the many physical and logistical challenges that election officials, voters, and journalists face this election, we also have to contend with rampant misinformation. In this resource, we highlight some common misconceptions about voting by mail and explain the reality in each case. We draw from our webinar with Democracy Fund's Tammy Patrick, a
- [How to Use an Action Plan When Facing Online Harassment](https://electionsos.com/resource/sept-30-how-to-build-an-action-plan-for-dealing-with-online-harassment/) - Terri Harel, Executive Director at OnlineSOS, discusses online harassment experience and strategies for protection, response and recovery. Watch this webinar to learn: About the current state of online harassment and its effects on media, journalists and broader society Protection, response, self-care and recovery basics How to use an Action Plan when weighing options for response to
- [How Media Habits Relate to Voter Participation](https://electionsos.com/resource/how-media-habits-relate-to-voter-participation/) - A February 2020 Knight Foundation study examines the relationship between media habits and voter participation. Three Key Takeaways Non-voters who rely on partisan-leaning news are more likely to vote than those who consume news from centrist media outlets. Hearing news through friends are family via social media and word of mouth is associated with being
- [Tools for Tracking Political Advertising](https://electionsos.com/resource/tools-for-tracking-political-advertising/) - Social media platforms such as Facebook and Google are not legally required to report information about who is behind political ads on their sites. Archives such as the Facebook Ad Library are provided voluntarily and can be unreliable and difficult to use. These tools from research groups can help you track trends on how voters
- [How to Cover Elections: 4 Tips From an Election Administrator](https://electionsos.com/resource/how-to-cover-elections-4-tips-from-an-election-administrator/) - The build-up to Election Day brings about a host of processes -- after the fact, too. Here are four tips from a former election administrator, Democracy Fund's Tammy Patrick, on what to look for: Next Steps: Watch "Reporting Insights From an Election Administrator" webinar Join Election SOS Switchboard to connect with other journalists
- [Five Examples From Electionland](https://electionsos.com/resource/five-examples-from-electionland/) - ProPublica's Electionland partners with journalists and news organizations across the country to track and report on election issues up to and on Election Day. The resources they offer include story leads and contact lists for state elections officials. Read on to get inspired by coverage topics and story examples Electionland and its partners have produced.
- [Covering In-Person Voting During a Pandemic](https://electionsos.com/resource/resource-name-will-go-here-and-display-up-to-two-lines/) - Though voting by mail is in the spotlight, the majority of Americans may still vote in-person this fall. In a rapidly changing policy and public health environment, American election administrators are moving quickly to implement emerging approaches to keep tens of millions of in-person voters safe. Josh Goldman, a Program Manager at The Center for
- [Behind the Scenes at Electionland](https://electionsos.com/resource/resource-name-will-go-here-and-display-up-to-two-lines-2/) - ProPublica’s Electionland project has been home to some of the most thoughtful and innovative elections reporting in the industry. In this session, Rachel Glickhouse, partner manager for the Electionland, walked us through the process behind the reporting and how they are tackling COVID-related voting issues. Watch this webinar to learn: How the project progressed over
- [Covering Election Security with The Fulcrum](https://electionsos.com/resource/covering-election-security-with-the-fulcrum/) - As threats to elections mount across the country, reporters need to be prepared to cover election security. William Theobald, a senior reporter from The Fulcrum, explains how he approaches building and covering this complex and ever-changing beat, providing you with practical tips, insights, and storylines along the way. Watch this webinar to learn: What are
- [Jay Rosen Presents The Citizens Agenda](https://electionsos.com/resource/jay-rosen-presents-the-citizens-agenda/) - Jay Rosen, an NYU Professor, has been refining the election reporting model for decades. The Citizens Agenda was developed to help newsrooms to reimagine their election coverage. This talk blends a powerful philosophy with the practical and tactical ways of shifting the power for what politicians talk about to the public. Watch this webinar to
- [Election Officials and Their Capacity to Serve Voters: Storylines](https://electionsos.com/resource/election-officials-and-their-capacity-to-serve-voters-storylines/) - Tammy Patrick, a senior advisor for the Democracy Fund, discusses how election officials are preparing for November as well as offers stories for journalists to consider. Watch this webinar to learn: What is going on with vote by mail and in-person voting To what extent COVID is impacting election planning Important stories that haven’t been covered