On this episode: Former president Donald Trump has won the race for the White House with Vice President Kamala Harris conceding earlier this afternoon. Republicans have won control of the Senate, while it still may be some time until we know the outcome of the House. With results rolling in, we take a closer look at what we know about state-level elections thus far, including state legislative chambers, state SCOTUS,’ and more.  

(This episode was recorded at 3:30pm ET. Be sure to check out our site for the latest news!)

- Follow along with our updates here: https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2024 

- Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.

On this episode: A late night look at the results rolling in for presidential, congressional, state, and local elections, as well ballot measures. (This episode was recorded at 12am ET. Georgia was called for Trump immediately after we concluded recording, and other updates have likely arrived since publishing — so be sure to check out our site for the latest news!)

– Follow along with our updates here: https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2024 

– Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.

On this episode: At least 83 million people have voted early in this year's election (78 at the time this episode was recorded). How does that compare to what we saw in 2020? And what can we learn from who’s choosing to vote early this time around?

With less than 24 hours to go(!) until election day, we welcome the University of Florida’s Michael McDonald—one of the country’s foremost experts on early voting—to the show to break down his analysis of early voting, key anecdotes of from swing states, what to make of the Selzer poll out of Iowa, and more.

- Follow along with election results: https://ballotpedia.org/Election_results,_2024 

- Check out Michael’s work on early voting at UF’s Election Lab: https://election.lab.ufl.edu/early-vote/2024-early-voting/ 

- Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole. 

Stream "On the Ballot" on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have questions, comments, or love for BP, feel free to reach out at [email protected] or on X (formerly Twitter) @Ballotpedia.

On this episode: A brief overview of the 15 races we’re watching including races for U.S. Senate, House, governors, other state executives, state supreme court judgeships, and state legislatures. Our  editorial department selected these elections based on past election results, unique election-specific circumstances, and election race ratings. The final selections include a mix of federal, state, and local races. Briana Ryan, Ethan Sorell, and Lara Bonatesta of our elections team join the show for a lightning round preview of the races that stick out most to them. 

Explore our report here: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia%27s_Top_15_Elections_to_Watch,_2024 

Our full list of the 15 elections we're watching includes: 

Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.

On this episode: Voters in 41 states will decide on 146 statewide ballot measures at the general election on November 5. A few members of our ballot measures team join the show to break down our top 15 to watch across the country, which address issues like abortion, ranked-choice voting, non-citizen voting, criminal justice, wages, and drug-use policies. 

Explore our full report here: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia%27s_Top_15_Ballot_Measures_and_Trends_to_Watch,_2024 

Our Top 15 ballot measures to watch next week include:

Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

Stream "On the Ballot" on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have questions, comments, or love for BP, feel free to reach out at [email protected] or on X (formerly Twitter) @Ballotpedia.

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.

On this episode: There might not be anything we take more seriously than our status as one of the leading nonpartisan political outlets in the country. We look out for and identify 25 distinct types of bias when it comes to political coverage — from speech tribe language to cherry-picking favorable sources and parroting the news. Kelly Coyle, who helps lead and craft our approach to bias, joins the show for a little Bias 101 with less than a week to go to the election. 

Learn more about how we categorize bias and the 25 distinct types we look out for: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia:How_we_categorize_bias

Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole. 

Stream "On the Ballot" on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have questions, comments, or love for BP, feel free to reach out at [email protected] or on X (formerly Twitter) @Ballotpedia.

On this episode: Since 2018, more than 15,000 candidates for political office have completed Ballotpedia’s candidate survey. This tool is a wonderful way to help voters learn more about their candidates, and we’ve processed more than 6,000 for this election cycle alone for federal, state and local elections. Four members of our staff who work closely on the survey every year — Sarah Groat, Ken Carbullido, Spencer Richardson, and Sam Wonacott — join the show to share some of their favorite anecdotes about this year’s results and the impact these surveys can have on races big and small.  

Learn more about the survey: https://ballotpedia.org/Survey 

Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

 Stream "On the Ballot" on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have questions, comments, or love for BP, feel free to reach out at [email protected] or on X (formerly Twitter) @Ballotpedia.

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.

On this episode: Democrat Kathy Boockvar and Republican Kim Wyman each served as secretary of state in Pennsylvania and Washington, respectively, during the 2020 presidential election. They’ve come together this year to help educate voters about the electoral process and share insights from their years of experience. Our Editor-in-Chief Geoff Pallay picks their brains about what administering elections was like in 2020, the challenges we’ll see play out over the next few weeks and months, and how to speak across the aisle when it comes to restoring confidence in our system. 

OTB will be coming to you DAILY over the next two weeks! Please follow, like, and share the show to help us reach more listeners like you who are looking for unbiased, fact-heavy coverage of election season. 

Check out Kathy’s page on BP: https://ballotpedia.org/Kathy_Boockvar 

Check out Kim’s page on BP: https://ballotpedia.org/Kim_Wyman 

Learn more about your state’s electoral system here: https://ballotpedia.org/Electoral_systems_by_state 

Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

Stream "On the Ballot" on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have questions, comments, or love for BP, feel free to reach out at [email protected] or on X (formerly Twitter) @Ballotpedia.

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.

On this episode: Ballotpedia founder and CEO Leslie Graves joins our social media manager Abby Campbell for a chat about how Ballotpedia can help young prospective voters get informed and empowered in what promises to be an exciting year of elections. 

Leslie and Abby discuss weeding through the abundance of news online, how to identify reliable political information, and share some stories about their first voting experiences. 

NOTE: This episode was originally published in April '24.

Stream "On the Ballot" on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have questions, comments, or love for BP, feel free to reach out at [email protected] or on X (formerly Twitter) @Ballotpedia.

Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole. 

On this episode: Our annual Ballot Measure Readability report explores the complexity of statewide ballot measure titles and summaries to determine the educational level voters might need to fully understand what they’re being asked to weigh in on. We use the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (FKGL) and Flesch Reading Ease (FRE) scales to determine how accessible these texts are based on objective factors, such as the number of syllables, words, and sentences in a text (Note: These scores focus solely on language structure, NOT the complexity of the ideas themselves). 

For the 159 statewide ballot measures certified in 41 states for elections this fall, we found that the average FKGL was 16, which correlates with a bachelor's degree. The average FRE for ballot titles was 20, which also corresponds with college graduates. 

Is that a big deal?

Ballotpedia’s Ryan Byrne runs through a handful of example measures from around the country while unpacking how developing measures works in different states and recent legislation aimed at making measures easier to understand for the average American.

Check out the report to see the readability scores for measures in your state: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_measure_readability_scores,_2024 

Sign up for our Newsletters: https://ballotpedia.org/Ballotpedia_Email_Updates 

Stream "On the Ballot" on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you have questions, comments, or love for BP, feel free to reach out at [email protected] or on X (formerly Twitter) @Ballotpedia.

*On The Ballot is a conversational podcast featuring interviews with guests across the political spectrum. The views and opinions expressed by them are solely their own and are not representative of the views of the host or Ballotpedia as a whole.