Washington, DC, Oct. 05, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Fulcrum, the first nonpartisan news site devoted to covering the challenges to American democracy, is launching a blog focused on unpacking the threats to a comprehensive, safe and trustworthy 2020 election.
Starting today — and ending whenever the presidential winner becomes clear — Election Dissection will feature a panel of established nonpartisan election experts who are spending virtually every waking moment tracking disputes over voting rights and election administration.
This isn’t about who is winning or losing — it’s about how the vote itself is happening, and what’s being done to protect the integrity of the vote both before Election Day and after.
Our experts will offer their insights about what’s most important about the skirmishes in the courts, the fights about how ballots get counted and other efforts to broaden or narrow the electorate. Election Dissection will be a forum for some of the best-informed former government officials, academics and nonprofit advocates to direct our attention to the make-or-break issues about the vote, before it happens and during the likely disputes afterward.
“Election Dissection will be one-stop shopping for anyone trying to sort through the noise in the most consequential election of our lifetimes,” said David Hawkings, editor-in-chief of The Fulcrum. “It will be a go-to resource for anyone needing straightforward, nonpartisan assessments about how the vote gets conducted and counted.”
Since the coronavirus pandemic broke out, media coverage has started paying attention to issues like voting by mail, deadlines for returning ballots, the Postal Service’s capacity to handle the coming crush of ballots, the potential for disinformation to suppress turnout — and what the mechanics are for contesting the results of the presidential race. But there is still plenty to understand, and cover. And many of these issues will only become more complex in the weeks before (and probably after) Election Day.
The experts contributing to Election Dissection, often in near real time, now include:
- Kristen Clarke of the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law
- Gilda Daniels of the Advancement Project
- Soren Dayton of Protect Democracy
- Edward Foley of the election law program at The Ohio State University
- Kei Kawashima Ginsberg and Abby Kiesa of Tufts University’s Tisch College of Civic Life
- Rachel Kleinfeld of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
- David Levine of the Alliance for Securing Democracy
- Kevin Johnson of the Election Reformers Network
- Amber McReynolds of the National Vote at Home Institute
- Quentin Palfrey of the Voter Protection Corps
- Tammy Patrick of the Democracy Fund
Reporters and editors are encouraged to use Election Dissection to inform their own reporting, whether by incorporating our experts’ work into their own articles or by reaching out to our contributors for interviews and further information.
Anyone may sign up for The Fulcrum’s free newsletters to receive regular updates from Election Dissection and our reporters.
About The Fulcrum
The Fulcrum is a digital news organization focused exclusively on efforts to reverse the dysfunctions that plague American democracy. We are nonprofit and nonpartisan. Our original stories, the news we gather from across the country and our opinion forum are all tightly focused on money in politics, redistricting, voting rights, election access, government ethics, civic engagement and the imbalance of powers.
That's because our coverage is all about efforts to make our democratic republic less partisan, our elections more competitive, our politicians less beholden to moneyed interests, our officials more attentive to real evidence in their policy-making and our Congress more effective, ethical and civil.
The Fulcrum is a journalistically independent project of Issue One, which describes itself as “the leading cross-partisan political reform group in Washington.”