75 Election Administration Experts Will Answer Urgent Questions
Votebeat, a nonprofit newsroom covering election administration in five key states and at national levels, has launched a free “Expert Desk” service for journalists to help strengthen their coverage of complex election issues ahead of the November election.
The free service will consist of a Slack channel of up to 75 election experts – including former election officials, technology experts, and election law scholars – offering quick-turnaround answers to journalists in need of trustworthy background information and context to what are often complex issues in need of urgent coverage. The experts have been assembled by Votebeat editorial director Jessica Huseman, selected for their independence and depth of knowledge.
The service is being offered to journalists from nonprofit and local independent media as a part of the “Knight Election Hub” collection of resources. CalTech’s Election Integrity Project, and the Voting Technology Project from both CalTech and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have partnered with Votebeat to ensure access to qualified experts.
More than 175 journalists from around the country have signed up.
“There has never been a more important time to arm journalists and their communities with trustworthy facts and context about our elections,” Huseman said.
“Our democracy has been repeatedly threatened by lies and misinformation about our elections,” Votebeat editor-in-chief Chad Lorenz said, “and our role in the coming weeks both at Votebeat and across our industry will be to clearly, carefully, and courageously divide fact from fiction. I’m thrilled that other journalists will benefit from the depth of knowledge and sourcing our team has developed through its coverage.”
Votebeat was launched as a pop-up newsroom in 2020 by Civic News Company and established as a permanent part of its operation in 2022. Votebeat offers reporting and analysis on election administration with reporters working in, with, and for communities in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin. Its reporting is regularly republished by partners like Bridge Michigan, Spotlight PA, The Texas Tribune, and Wisconsin Watch.
About Votebeat
Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization committed to reporting the nuanced truth about elections and voting at a time of crisis in America.
Our approach is to cover and explain the mechanics of voting — no political polls, candidate platforms, or Election Day results. Instead, we focus on how elections are run, from early and mail-in voting to voter registration and election security. Because we believe that elections are fundamentally a local issue, our coverage is rooted in local communities.
We report from and about five states: Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin, and are a Civic News Company newsroom.