Why Hand Counting Votes Makes Every Vote Count

From Maine to Alaska, Manual Tallies Bring Trust and Transparency to Nerve-Racking Elections

Just before the polls closed on election night, I met with 12 of my townspeople at our town hall in Maine, raised my right hand, and took an oath to uphold the federal and state constitutions.

We were then assigned to bipartisan pairs (Republican, Democrat, and Unaffiliated) to spend the next two-and-a-half hours elbow to elbow, reading aloud each of the 350 ballots cast in our town of 419 registered voters (out of a total of 500 or so residents). With our identical red pens and tallies, along with our …

By Lisa Margonelli | November 15, 2016

I’ll Vote, But First, Let Me Take A Selfie

Snapping and Sharing a Photo of Your Ballot Is Good for Democracy

By Mark Joseph Stern | September 27, 2016

Voting, James Madison once wrote, is fundamental in a constitutional republic like America. Yet “at the same time,” he noted, its “regulation” is “a task of peculiar delicacy.”

Madison was talking …

Take It From a Poll Worker, the System Isn’t Rigged

The People Who Staff Voting Precincts Put Aside Their Opinions So That You Can Express Yours

By Sara Harrison | August 19, 2016

Recently, Donald Trump issued a typically bombastic call for supporters to go to polling stations and watch for voter fraud, strongly suggesting that the only way he would lose the …

How I Help My Mississippi Neighbors Vote

A Transplanted Californian Finds Himself on the Front Lines of Democracy—Part-Time

By Clay Russell | November 30, 2015

When I moved from big-city California to small-town Mississippi earlier this year, one thing I did to participate in my community was sign up as an election worker. It was …

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