Declare Talks with Stephen Richer

Lessons for how states can increase confidence while still being careful, accurate, and fair.

Inaccurate characterizations of a very real error obscure what the public should know about how it gets fixed.

Declare tours a county of around 57,000 residents with the local election official responsible for organizing their primary election.

With the latest round being attempted after a Supreme Court decision, there’s a question of who this actually is supposed to benefit. Some recent polling suggests that the voters don’t believe it’s them.

A 2024 law that did away with a method for counting votes didn’t create a necessary process for replacing it. Now against an implementation deadline with no solution, officials are uncertain — but the lesson is clear.

Former Kentucky secretary of state Trey Grayson talks about federalism and the shoe finding the other foot, in response to President Trump’s executive order on elections.

The reasons vary, from bureaucratic competence, to presidential authority, to how many Americans are ‘comfortable’ with a national voter registry.

The SAVE America Act is described as too big an instrument for too small an issue, by those who’ve run the election process at county-level.

A suit between the RNC and Mississippi will determine the fate of mail ballot rules in at least 14 states. Declare reports from outside the Supreme Court.

Primary season in the Magnolia State is concluding, but the calendar quickly turns to a mail ballot issue before the high court that involves their state’s leadership and could affect the general election across the U.S.

The Washoe County government, home of Reno, used its findings from its “list maintenance” during the last year to make a larger point about election work.

Amelia Powers Gardner, a Utah County (Utah) Commissioner, writes to her state’s legislature about scrupulously examining election systems — and being honest with equal care about what it finds.

13 GOP members of Congress wrote the Postmaster General this month, asking for the steps his agency is taking to ensure mail ballots are “processed, postmarked, and delivered in a timely manner.”

A new poll from the University of California, San Diego, finds faith in election accuracy falling across the board.

A cohort in Illinois is sounding the alarm based on what they say they learned during a call with the agency.

A list of election policy goals stated by House Administration Committee chairman Bryan Steil helps clarify what national Republicans might want beyond the status quo.

Local and state officials mostly default to opposing federal intervention in elections. But many Republicans at the federal level are rejecting the very idea, too.

An explainer about the developments there, and how they fit with times that are hard to make sense of.

A look at the Illinois county clerks’ association, who met in January to discuss new guidance from the Postal Service that has implications for voters — and the trust they put in election officials.