My reporting in 2020 revolved around the election. My beat started focusing on voting rights and voter suppression in February, before nuances about absentee ballot procedures were of mainstream interest. But when the novel coronavirus began to impact everyone’s lives in the U.S., I saw early on how it would impact the general election and the many primary elections still to come. This year, my reporting has taken me on the ground in five different states, and led to hundreds of hours of interviews and a partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Here’s the best of my year at the Prospect:
“The Many Varieties of Voter Suppression”
On election night, did you find yourself questioning why New Jersey could count most of its ballots on Election Day but Pennsylvania couldn’t? Or why it was easier to get a mail-in ballot in California compared to South Carolina? This feature will shed some light on the quirks and issues within the American election system. Its decentralized nature has advantages, but it also leads to inequalities of access depending on where you live. Now that the United States has survived 2020, it’s time to pose the question: Is the United States’ democracy better than it was 20 years ago? Or perhaps, are things getting worse?
“A Frustrating, Dangerous Election Day in Wisconsin”
This assignment was the first example of adjusting to COVID reporting. While sheltering in place at the height of virus fears in April, I found out that Wisconsin was going to forge ahead with its previously scheduled primary election. I interviewed sources remotely who shared their fears going to vote and some who couldn’t vote at all that day.
“Cori Bush Seeks to Be a Congresswoman Organizer”
The first time I interviewed Cori Bush was in March, just before the coronavirus would stop all normal campaign operations in St. Louis, Missouri. Then-candidate Bush shared part of her journey from organizer to “congresswoman-in-organizing,” as she now calls herself. As a Black Lives Matter organizer, a nurse, a COVID-19 survivor, and now the representative for Missouri’s First Congressional District, Bush is in the center of every issue in American life and politics. This profile is from just before she won her primary against a 20-year incumbent (in the new Justice Democrats fashion), and now that she’s officially taking office, Bush is definitely someone to watch in Washington.
“New York Voters With Disabilities Left Out of the Absentee Voting System”
I wrote a lot of stories about vote-by-mail procedures and litigation to change those procedures this year. This article is one of my favorites because it highlights how important very mundane bureaucratic decisions are in election planning. The stories from these voters with disabilities who were not able to privately and independently cast their mail-in ballots because New York State’s election commission failed to consider their needs is just one small example of how administrative choices can shape elections. (Also, who even has legal-sized paper at home?)
“Establishment Democrats vs. Working Families Democrats”
While in other states political divides are between Republicans and Democrats, in solidly blue New York the lines are drawn between establishment Democrats and progressives. The dynamic is most visible in primary races when groups like the Working Families Party or the Democratic Socialists of America field candidates to the left of the mainstream party. Last November, the Working Families Party’s ballot line was in jeopardy because of a new vote total requirement passed by the state government. But WFP survived the bureaucratic challenge and got more votes than it ever has before. However, I won’t be taking my attention off New York, and next year I’ll be ready to report on the election, the political battles, and the controversies in New York City’s mayoral race.
