Replay: Books and Ballots Conversation on Rural Election Administration

Bringing research and practitioner experience together to better understand the day-to-day realities of rural election administration

There are more than 10,000 election jurisdictions in the United States. The majority of these are small townships or counties generally located in rural areas of our country. And while election administrators adhere to the same laws and regulations, rural election officials face different challenges than those faced in the large, urban jurisdictions.

This conversation explored the unique challenges of rural election administration and the research behind it.

Joining the discussion:

• Dr. Cameron Wimpy, Director of the Institute for Rural Initiatives (IRI) at Arkansas State University

• Jennifer Clack, Election Coordinator, Craighead County, Arkansas

• Sydney Romine, Election Director, Surry County, North Carolina

IRI was recently awarded a grant to explore how election administration practices vary across the urban-rural spectrum. Dr. Wimpy recently hosted the Rural Election Administration Symposium to map out some of the challenges and opportunities that distinguish rural election administration. The discussion took a deeper look at this research effort and heard some of Dr. Wimpy's initial findings as well as the firsthand experience of election practitioners.

Books & Ballots is a webinar series – now found on Substack and as a podcast on Spotify – hosted in partnership with Ready for Tuesday, the Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR), and MIT Election Data + Science Lab (MEDSL).