We help journalists cover elections & their aftermath.
The Election SOS newsletter is a dedicated resource for journalists covering the 2020 election. We provide critical resources to help with your coverage, safety and service.
Frequency Change - Newsletter 2 Times / Month
Last week we shared that the Election SOS newsletter will continue to provide you with a compilation of top resources and advice on topics of extremism, misinformation, and accountability and offer a deeper insight into lessons learned during this election cycle. Since there are fewer urgent needs at this time, we're going to switch the frequency of this newsletter to twice per month. Election SOS in the process of gathering your feedback and building out new valuable offerings, so stay tuned and keep reading for more.
As always, please don't hesitate to reach out for additional support. You can reply to this email or email us at info@electionsos.org.
Critical Reads for Covering Extremism
Extremist groups have not disappeared from the radar after the inauguration. The threats continue, and there is a critical need for responsible and contextualized coverage. For journalists tackling stories on extremism, it’s vital to understand the history and the context behind the fascist movements. Whether you have time to read an article or looking for a book on far-right politics, we encourage you to deepen your research for stronger and safer coverage. Here is the list of critical reads for covering extremism.
The riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 has further surfaced the urgent need for resources on extremist movements in the U.S. To help journalists navigate the complex world of extremism, Election SOS has added a resident expert. The expert will provide your newsroom with free advice and resources to help you better understand and report on extremist groups, as well as 1-1 support.
If you used our website & training resources, we'd love to hear about your experience! There's always an election around the corner, so we'll use this survey to better support everyone involved next go-round.
Please take 10 minutes to fill out the survey below, specific to the Election SOS website and Switchboard. Your responses will not be made public other than as an aggregated report. To everyone who filled out our survey before Jan. 31, Gift Card winners will be announced and notified soon. If you missed the gift card cut off, we still encourage you to fill out the survey to help us support democracy.
The conversation around extremism lingers, especially after Jan. 6. Last week we had an insightful talk with Dr. Manisha Sinha, a Draper Chair in American History at UConn, and Thorsten Wagner, the Executive Director of FASPE – Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics. If you missed the workshop, you can now watch it to learn how the Capitol riots compare and parallel to historical events and how journalists can cover followers of extreme movements moving forward.
As calls for accountability for the Capitol Riots and other Trump era transgressions rise, journalists may wonder what is meant by accountability? What actors may bring it about? What role should the press play in holding Trump’s enablers to account as well as itself? A panel of experts guided us through these questions:
Most Americans have long preferred a national popular vote, and Congress has attempted on many occasions to alter or scuttle the Electoral College. Several of these efforts—one as recently as 1970—came very close to winning approval. Yet this controversial system remains. Speakers: Alexander Keyssar is a Stirling Professor of History and Social Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and the author of numerous books, including Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College? Dr. Kyle T. Kattelman is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Fairleigh Dickinson University. When: Feb. 18, 7:30 - 9:30 pm ET
A behind-the-scenes look at how WSJ's handled their election coverage. WSJ shared the key features and the technical challenges involved in the process of completely rebuilding their live-coverage system from the ground up.
New social media platforms are popping up every day, and you might be interested in joining them to inform your work. Joining a social media platform for professional purposes should be approached with caution and consideration of all potential risks. First Draft offers a 1-page downloadable guide to evaluate a platform.
Solutions Journalism Network believes Complicating the Narratives is essential for our polarized times. It creates a path for journalists to get to the depths of an issue rather than getting stuck in the noise and chaos of the moment. When it’s all too easy to resort to simplified “he said, she said” reporting and “us vs. them” narratives, CTN illuminates a problem (or a solution to an issue) in a way that makes the conflict more comprehensible to those who rely on our coverage. Complicating the Narratives is based on four pillars that help journalists: 1. Listen differently. 2.Go beneath the problem. 3. Embrace complexity 4. Counter confirmation bias.
The Republican chair of Arizona's state House Ways and Means Committee introduced a bill Wednesday that would give the Legislature authority to override the secretary of state’s certification of its electoral votes. GOP Rep. Shawnna Bolick introduced the bill, which rewrites parts of the state's election law, such as sections on election observers and securing and auditing ballots, among other measures. One section grants the Legislature, which is currently under GOP control, the ability to revoke the secretary of state's certification "by majority vote at any time before the presidential inauguration.
QAnon is not a static conspiracy theory. Since it first emerged in 2017, it has continuously evolved, focusing on different key topics and adopting elements of other conspiracy theories. With the inauguration of US President Joe Biden, QAnon’s faithful are adrift and confused. Their distress has caused some observers to ask whether their cult may collapse entirely. That might be premature. If we cannot predict its end, we can at least trace QAnon from its beginning.
Alma breaks down all (the known) conspiracy beliefs that Taylor Greene holds, which largely overlap with QAnon but also dabble in other conspiracies, like the idea that deadly mass shootings — Sandy Hook and Parkland, for example — were planned events by Democrats trying to enact gun laws. It’s hard to even fathom these conspiracies, but they are Greene’s beliefs — and the beliefs of many, many Americans.
A new Brennan Center report shows an unprecedented amount of legislation seeking to restrict voting access has been introduced in state legislatures this year. State legislators in 28 states have filed 106 bills restricting the franchisethus far in 2021 — and the overwhelming majority have come from Republicans. Compare that to last year at this time: Then, only 35 such bills had been filed in six states.
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