“What’s On the Ballot,” a cheat sheet of elections everywhere. is the brainchild of Daniel Nichanian, a reporter and the founder of Bolts Magazine. Bolts covers the “nuts and bolts of power and political change” with a bottom-up approach, focusing primarily on state and local issues that shape public policy but are largely overlooked by the national media.

** WEKU is working hard to be a leading source for public service, and fact-based journalism. Monthly supporters are the top funding source for this growing nonprofit news organization. Please join others in your community who support WEKU by making your donation.

39 states elect at least some of their judges. The amount of money raised and spent in judicial campaigns has soared. Joining us to discuss the implications are Joanna Shepherd and Michael Kang, authors of “Free to Judge: The Power of Campaign Money in Judicial Elections.” Kang is a law professor at Northwestern University and Shepherd is a professor of law at Emory University.

** WEKU is working hard to be a leading source for public service, and fact-based journalism. Monthly supporters are the top funding source for this growing nonprofit news organization. Please join others in your community who support WEKU by making your donation.

Most people agree that the Kentucky Republicans drew a severely gerrymandered map in this past redistricting cycle, helping to turn their legislative majority into a supermajority. Democrats challenged the state House and congressional maps, and the case went all the way to the Kentucky Supreme Court, where the court upheld the maps as drawn. But Justice Michelle Keller dissented from part of that ruling. Justice Keller joins us to discuss the case.

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County clerks are at the frontlines of our elections. They are the people who decide where the polling places are located, which voting machines to use, and how to ensure there are enough poll workers. Two Kentucky county clerks join us to explain how elections operate. Susan Lamb is the county clerk of Fayette County, which includes Lexington, the state’s second-largest city. Kenny Barger is the county clerk in Madison County, which encompasses Richmond, Ky.

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David Becker, Executive Director and Founder of the nonpartisan, non-profit Center for Election Innovation and Research is our guest. You’ve heard about Zuckerbucks, right? Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Pricilla Chan donated almost $400 million to local election officials to help run the 2020 election during the pandemic. Critics claim the funds were used in only liberal-leaning places. Is that true? Josh takes up that issue and more with David Becker.

** WEKU is working hard to be a leading source for public service, and fact-based journalism. Monthly supporters are the top funding source for this growing nonprofit news organization. Please join others in your community who support WEKU by making your donation.

Voter turnout in America is usually quite low: about 66 percent of the electorate cast ballots in 2020, which was considered high, but one-third of registered voters didn’t vote. Could we adopt compulsory voting, like they have in Australia, Belgium, and several places in South America and Latin America? Our guest: EJ Dionne, Washington Post columnist, Brookings Institution senior fellow in governance studies, and co-author with Miles Rapaport of 100% Democracy, The Case for Universal Voting.

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What is the role of the journalist concerning American democracy? Our guest: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joe Sonka, whose work with the Louisville Courier-Journal and Kentucky Public Radio has been vital to awareness of the workings of democracy in Kentucky.

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Amber McReynolds, vice chair of the United States Postal Service Board of Governors, is our guest in this episode. McReynolds focuses on the postal service’s processing of mail-in ballots and is the person who guarantees that millions of ballots are processed correctly.

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Officers of the League of Women Voters of Kentucky join Josh to discuss the power of a nonprofit advocacy organization with a storied history to fight for significant changes to how we run our elections. The League has been active in debates on the state’s voter ID law, redistricting, and efforts to improve transparency within Kentucky’s government. Our guests: Jennifer Jackson, President; Becky Jones, First Vice President; and Laura Weinstein, Voter Services Chair.

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Voter ID is one of the biggest hot-button issues in election law today with 38 states now requiring some form of ID to vote. Though there have been many legal challenges to these laws, there’s also an effort to ensure voters have the IDs they need. One group, VoteRiders, has been at the forefront of this effort. Host Josh Douglas welcomes Lauren Kunis, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director of VoteRiders, to learn how VoteRiders educates voters and helps them obtain IDs—which impacts not only their ability to vote but many other aspects of their lives as well.

** WEKU is working hard to be a leading source for public service, and fact-based journalism. Monthly supporters are the top funding source for this growing nonprofit news organization. Please join others in your community who support WEKU by making your donation.