Anyone who paid attention to the ugly aftermath of the 2020 presidential election suddenly realized that a coterie of state-level bureaucrats had a whole lot more power than we ever imagined. And it was a huge wake up call for those who have chosen not to vote in past local elections. Elections matter, even small ones. This week on Sea Change Radio, we welcome political scientist and election expert Daniel Nichanian to discuss the importance of local elections in this country and how his new media venture, Bolts Magazine, intends to shine a brighter light on small, but increasingly vital races in all fifty states. We talk about the upcoming midterms, uncover arcane election laws in certain states and examine what’s on the ballot locally in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.

00:01 Narrator - This is Sea Change Radio, covering the shift to sustainability. I'm Alex Wise.

00:20 Daniel Nichanian (DN) - There are actually four states this year,Alex, where the partisan court balance could tip over in these elections, and those states are Michigan, Ohio, Illinois and in North Carolina. So in each of these states in particular, the elections in in November. Are going to have great importance on who runs state courts but also potentially on abortion access.

00:46 Narrator - Anyone who paid attention to the ugly aftermath of the 2020 presidential election suddenly realized that a coterie of state-level bureaucrats had a whole lot more power than we ever imagined. And it was a huge wake up call for those who have chosen not to vote in past local elections. Elections matter, even small ones. This week on Sea Change Radio, we welcome political scientist and election expert Daniel Nichanian to discuss the importance of local elections in this country and how his new media venture, Bolts Magazine, intends to shine a brighter light on small, but increasingly vital races in all fifty states. We talk about the upcoming midterms, uncover arcane election laws in certain states and examine what’s on the ballot locally in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.00:01:49AW

01:52 Alex Wise (AW) - I'm joined now on Sea Change Radio by Daniel Nichanian. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Bolts Magazine. Daniel, welcome to Sea Change Radio.

02:00 Daniel Nichanian (DN) It's great to join you. Thanks for having me.

02:02 AW - Well, it's a treat for me. I've been following you on Twitter at @Taniel for so many years now and have found your Twitter feed to be a real important resource for election analysis. And you really get into the weeds more than your average analyst on Twitter, so this newest venture of yours, Bolts, why don't you tell us first a little bit about the mission of this?

02:32 DN - Yeah, thank you so much for having me in and I think you already started to capture why Bolts exists. Why, when saying I get in the weeds on Twitter, for many years, I'm sure many people who are who are going to hear this interview have been interested in change. And really, who has the authority and an ability to enact change in in the US, right, and our attention usually goes, often goes to the federal government to Washington DC to Congress, obviously is very important, and the President obviously is very important but on many of the issues that really interest a lot of people, the power and greed, enact change and make a big difference is often at the state level and the county level and the municipal level. And that's where things get a little iffy in terms of people really following or the information infrastructure following and pinpointing not just the right people who are making the decisions, but also really the type of authority they have and the ability they have to ...