Civic News Company, the nonprofit publisher of Chalkbeat, Votebeat, and Healthbeat, is expanding Votebeat’s national reporting through a grant from More Perfect, which will support the growth of its national desk, the hiring of a national reporter, and the relaunch of its experts desk in 2026. As part of that expansion, Civic News Company has hired Nathaniel Rakich as Votebeat’s managing editor.
Rakich was most recently a senior editor and senior elections analyst at the website FiveThirtyEight, where he oversaw editorial operations, managed interactive projects, and wrote articles on elections and redistricting.
“We’re all excited to work with Nathaniel and bring his smart, data-driven approach to Votebeat,” said Carrie Levine, Votebeat’s editor-in-chief. “He has a deep understanding of election administration, a sharp eye, and an unrivaled commitment to clarity and journalism that serves the public interest. And his baseball expertise is a bonus if an election goes to extra innings.”
Rakich will work to ensure that the newsroom’s high-impact coverage of election administration and voting remains deeply reported, accessible, and nonpartisan.
“I’ve been a Votebeat reader since it launched back in 2020, so I’m thrilled to now have the opportunity to work alongside its team of talented and wonky journalists. For a guy who’s mildly obsessed with elections and how they run, this is truly a dream job,” said Rakich. “And at a time when American democracy is under acute strain and scrutiny, Votebeat’s mission has never been more important. I’m thrilled and honored to be a part of it.”
Founded as a pop-up in 2020, and permanently established in 2022, Votebeat’s award-winning journalism is supported by Civic News Company’s shared leadership, strategy, and operations. In its five years of existence, Votebeat has established itself as a leading nonprofit newsroom focused exclusively on election administration coverage — from voting access to election-management systems, from secretaries of state to county clerks. The newsroom has reporters in Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin and publishes stories free of charge for news outlets to republish.
About Civic News Company
Civic News Company is the publisher of nonprofit newsrooms Chalkbeat, Votebeat, and Healthbeat.
In 2014, Chalkbeat was founded by Elizabeth Green as a multilocal newsroom covering education in New York City, Colorado, Indiana, and Tennessee. By 2020, it had expanded to four more communities and helped to inspire a new wave of local nonprofit news organizations. In 2023, seeing the need for trusted local information beyond education, she established Civic News Company as a nonprofit umbrella publisher of multiple topic-based newsrooms. Today the organization has a staff of 80, including a newsroom of 50, with local Chalkbeat bureaus covering education in New York City, Colorado, Tennessee, Indiana, Chicago, Detroit, Newark, and Philadelphia; local Votebeat bureaus covering election administration and voting in Arizona, Texas, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin; and local Healthbeat bureaus covering public health in New York City and Atlanta.
Civic News Company also has a longstanding commitment to field-building. CEO Elizabeth Green co-founded the American Journalism Project in 2019, the country’s first venture philanthropy firm dedicated to local journalism. The organization also led the collaborative drafting of The Roadmap for Local News, which helped to kickstart the creation of Press Forward.
Other members of Civic News Company’s Board of Directors include Gideon Stein, President of Moriah Fund; Ann Sardini, President & Founder of In Progress Advisors; Kang-Xing Jin, former VP & Head of Health at Meta; Jill Barkin, Director at The Beacon Fund; Roberto Yanez, Jr., President & Regional General Manager at TelevisaUnivision; David Rousseau, VP & Executive Director at KFF; and Rebecca Van Dyck, Chief Marketing Officer at Airbnb.