Election Day is upon us! I know it’s been a long and challenging year, but the national campaign is finally over and voters get one last chance to have their say. As someone who has made a career out of being an election geek—not a political junkie—here’s a short election viewer’s guide that I have developed in more than two decades of watching Election Day: Don’t overreact in ...
Elections
Improving the Voting Experience Begins Online
The onset of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a shift to mail voting. States saw huge increases in mail voting during their primary elections, and this shift is likely to carry over to the November 3, 2020 General Election. Although millions of Americans will be casting absentee ballots for the first time in 2020, U.S. citizens living overseas, active duty m ...
A Shift to Vote-by-Mail Won’t Disadvantage Populations At Risk of COVID-19 in November 2020
As the nation’s election community continues to grapple with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, calls are increasing for the nation to shift primarily to vote-by-mail (VBM) ballots as a way to protect voters and poll workers in November. That push is raising some concerns that populations at greater risk of COVID-19—especially voters 65 and older and African Americans–are als ...
Coronavirus Added to the Long List of Threats to the Electoral Process
Election officials in states and localities across the country have always been aware of the need for preparedness. Managing the voting process by its very nature requires extensive preparation—choosing and staffing polling places, designing and printing ballots, building and maintaining voter lists, procuring and managing voting technology, etc.—but increasingly, the work of g ...
Preparing for the 2020 Election
On Tuesday, January 14, Fors Marsh Group’s (FMG) election experts will participate in the United States Election Assistance Commission’s (EAC) 2020 Election Summit. The summit gathers the nation’s election community for lively discussion on key issues such as ensuring accessibility for voters with disabilities and securing the process against outside threats. As trusted advisor ...
Fresh from the “Kitchen”: FVAPs New Standardized UOCAVA Data
One of the biggest changes I have experienced in my move to the Elections Research team at Fors Marsh Group is the extent to which I get a close-up look at key research before it’s released. As I’ve told several people, it’s like the #electiongeek equivalent of transitioning from foodie to sous chef – going from a connoisseur of fine data to someone intimately familiar with the ...
New Security Video Helps Voters See Election Security at Work
When I serve as a poll worker at my local precinct in Northern Virginia, voters often ask how they can be confident that their vote will be counted. When the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) asked Fors Marsh Group to create an informational video about election security, I thought about these interactions with voters and how appreciative they were to learn about the va ...
An Election Geek’s Suggestions About How to Watch Election Day 2018
We are now five days away from the opening of polls. I know many of you are interested in how the process works; moreover, it’s always fun to be “in the know” on what’s happening on Election Day. So in the spirit of “look smart to your friends and family,” here’s a short election viewer’s guide that I have developed in more than two decades of watching voting from an election g ...