Steven Rosenfeld, a national political reporter who has covered democracy issues since the 1990s, created Voting Booth in 2018 to probe what is needed for transparent and accurate elections. Our reporting involves voting rights, election administration and technology, which affects who votes, and how votes are cast, counted, and verified.

Voting Booth chose this focus as online disinformation was rising and many states were buying new voting systems for the first time in many years. Its early reporting focused on how the new technology could make elections more transparent and the results more trustable—and opposition to that use. Our coverage of the Democratic National Committee’s plans to use online voting in 2020’s presidential caucuses proved prescient, after breakdowns marred key early contests.

Our 2020 coverage began by assessing the new voting systems debuting in the presidential primaries. After the pandemic broke in March, Voting Booth’s coverage turned to the response, which has been led by a shift to mailed-out ballots. Our priority has been pinpointing key or overlooked problems and the solutions for 2020’s presidential and nationwide elections.

In 2021, our focus has returned to the project’s roots: following the evidence trail that affirms the accuracy of vote counts and offers explanations in close contests. We have focused on Arizona’s privatized and problematic post-election “audits,” which are being exported to battleground states. We also have been working with grassroots activists from Georgia to recount their successful 2020 campaigns.      

Voting Booth is a project of Independent Media Institute, a non-profit based in New York City. It is supported by foundation grants and private donations.