PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Oct. 4, 2024) – Several election law authorities, elected officials, election administration experts, and others discussed potential mail-in ballot counting delays, the challenges of reporting on inaccurate fraud claims, and other election dynamics on the horizon in Pennsylvania. The discussion took place during an online event with media hosted by the Election Overtime Project, which supports journalists in their coverage of close and contested elections. Election Overtime is an initiative of the Election Reformers Network (ERN).
 
The event, “Journalists: Preparing for Pennsylvania Election Overtime,” featured a panel of esteemed experts including Judge John Jones, retired chief judge ofthe U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania, who presided over critical 2020 election challenges; former Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Kathy Boockvar, who was a defendant in suits filed by President Donald Trump; Jennifer Morrell, a leading consultant on election administration and auditing; and Emma Shoucair, a legal specialist focused on voting issues.
 
The event was the third in a series of election media briefings that will continue through the election cylce. (A video  of the briefing is available here.)
 
Panelists agreed that state election officials are in a good position to finish the count earlier this year than in 2020, when “four excruciating days” passed before Pennsylvania issued preliminary results, in the words of election attorney Emma Shoucair. Shoucair cited several reasons for the 2020 delay, including the pandemic and the very recent adoption of universal mail-in voting, which was passed at the end of 2019. Reasons to expect a quicker turnaround in 2024, according to Shoucair, include that “the boards of elections have refined their processes for counting mail-in ballots and have invested in additional personnel and equipment.”
 
But there are still structural hurdles. “What folks need to know,” said Judge Jones, “is that because our General Assembly lacks the political will to fix a broken election code, we do not have appropriate pre-canvassing [preparing mailed ballots for tabulation] in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. That’s a dreadful flaw, and it leads to delayed results. It will be a couple of days, which will lead into the narrative that there have been these phantom vote drops and something nefarious going on. And that’s not it at all.”
 
Judge Jones urged reporters to reality test allegations before reporting on them. 
 
Former Secretary Boockvar agreed, and she pleaded with journalists on the call to be informed and thoughtful about their election reporting. Boockvar pointed out the importance of not allowing reporting the news of something outrageous said by a politician look like confirmation of that politician’s statement. That “can end up unintentionally becoming a source of disinformation that then leads to threats against election officials,” she explained.
 
Jennifer Morrell, the co-founder of The Elections Group, cautioned against misrepresenting audits and recounts as an indication that voting results are flawed.
 
“An audit is a routine part of the post-election process,” Morrell explained. “It’s designed to ensure the systems work as expected. It’s not a bad word. A recount is performed in response to something that happened in a specific contest, such as a close margin, or it could be initiated automatically by statute or requested by a candidate.”
 
Getting more information in circulation about these procedural elements of election is the goal of the “Election Overtime Project.” The project website offers a comprehensive set of resources for journalists including guides for reporting on election transparency, verification processes, and judicial procedures. The program also offers an extensive speaker bureau to connect journalists with expert commentary for local and national coverage. The program focuses on Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
 
As ERN Executive Director Kevin Johnson explained, the program is anchored in the idea that, just as in sports, “who won an election is not a subjective question. It’s amatter of fact and a matter of law.”  Johnson stressed the importance of helping “voters see the full process of what happens when elections are close and ‘go into overtime” so that it will be “well known and clear that elections, too, have rules that make it absolutely clear who won.”
 
ERN Vice President Heather Balas called attention to key facts voters should know about presidential elections that are summarized here on the Election Overtime website.  “We believe that sound news coverage of the election process – not just of the horse race – is crucial to the future of our democratic republic,” said Balas. “So, with humility, we offer our support to the hardworking election reporters of this nation.”
 
Materials under this program have been produced with the generous support of The Carter Center, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, and the Bridge Alliance. The contents are the responsibility of the Election Reformers Network and do not necessarily reflect the views of its funders.
 
ELECTION REFORMERS NETWORK
 
Election Reformers Network advances election innovations that protect democracy from polarization. ERN favors neither the left nor the right and pursues policy change to ensure the institutions running U.S. elections are as impartial as possible.

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Note: The Election Overtime Team will be your reliable support system throughout the election season.

PRESS RELEASE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Oct. 2, 2024) – To support Arizona journalists with the unique job of covering close and contested elections,  The Election Reformers Network(ERN) and the Arizona Democracy Resilience Network convened a distinguished panel of seven election law authorities, elected officials, media experts, and others on September 30th to unveil Arizona-specific briefings that are a featured part of the “Election Overtime Project” – a set of resources including: litigation monitoring; guides for reporting on election transparency, verification processes, and judicial procedures; and an extensive speaker bureau to connect journalists with expert commentary for local and national coverage. The program focuses on Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Mexico, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
 
The event, “Journalists: Preparing for Arizona Election Overtime,” was the second in a series of media briefings designed to as Election Day approaches.
 
Don Henninger, former editor of the Arizona Republic, spoke of the incredibly important function of journalists in the democratic process. “The job that journalists do today has never been more important, and it’s never been more difficult,” said Henninger, a Republican and senior advisor to the Arizona Democracy Resilience Network. “The threat of violence that we face today is real.We’ve seen intimidation at the ballot drop boxes. We’ve seen a Democrat campaign office now shot at two weeks in a row. The most important tool to build trust in our elections and prevent political unrest is sound, accurate,and timely reporting.”
 
Former Congressman Ron Barber, a Democrat who represented Arizona’s 2nd and 8th Congressional districts, highlighted an inherent challenge Arizona will likely face due to the high turnover in county election offices.
 
“Because of the harassment surrounding recent elections, 12 out of 15 counties in Arizona have lost their election officials,” Congressman Barber said. “That means either the recorder who puts together their ballot or the election director who manages the elections, or in some instances both, resigned. And it’s because these people are sick and tired of being under threat. So, we’ve lost a lot of institutional knowledge that could have helped us prepared for 2024.”
 
Arizona State Senator Ken Bennett, who also served as Arizona’s Secretary of State from 2009 to 2014,offered insights into the realities of election administration. “Elections are not perfect because the people who run elections are not perfect,” said Senator Bennett. “Errors can be made, but they are usually unintentional, and they do not change the outcome of an election.”
 
Bennett recalled an extraordinary close election during his time in office, in which a state-wide ballot initiative lost by only 126 votes, triggering an automatic recount. The recount meant that “the results changed by 42 votes out of two million,” Sen. Bennett noted, highlighting the extraordinary accuracy in the election procedures, which recounts and audits serve to confirm.
 
Jackie Salit, president of IndependentVoting.org, emphasized the role independents play in elections. “Independents have chosen the last three presidents of the United States. They broke for Barack Obama by 8 points in 2008, for Donald Trump by 4 points in 2016, and by 13 points for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020. In the last presidential election, 40 percent of the electorate in Arizona were independents. So, the expectation is that 2024 independent voter turnout will be key.”
 
Panelist Jenny Flynn, representing the Local News Fund of Southern Arizona, offered perspectives on her organization’s investments in newsrooms, wanting local news to provide information their audiences most need. She offered advice for journalists doing the difficult and complex job of covering close and contested elections. “I hope that the reporters will spread the word about the Election Overtime Project,” Flynn said. “Take advantage of the speaker’s bureau, the research resources, and the incredible folks on this panel.”
 
“As a journalist, you probably don’t have time to go through a 400-page election policy manual of procedures, regulations, and statutes when you’re on a deadline,” said ERN Vice President Heather Balas. “So, we talked with reporters about what they would most likely need to know and collected the most relevant legal details for close or contested races. We believe that sound news coverage of the election process – not just the horse race – is crucial to the future of our democratic republic. So, with humility, we offer our support to the hardworking election reporters of this nation.”
 
Two panelists, ERN Executive Director Kevin Johnson and Sen. Bennett, drew on sports metaphors in describing elections and recounts. “There’s a simple analogy behind this program: sports fans trust the final score win or lose, and part of the reason for that is they really know the rules,” said Johnson. “Wouldn’t it be great if America voters came to know as much about the rules of elections as 9-year-old sports fans know about the rules of football?”
 
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Note: The Election Overtime Team will be your reliable support system throughout the election season.