Part of the Electoral Frontiers webinar series, including "Political Engagement in the Digital Age" and "Democracy's Challenge to Rising Authoritarianism."
The right to vote has become a contentious issue in the United States. Hasty, politically motivated changes to voting rules and procedures pose significant challenges. In particular, they can undermine the ability of people of color, rural residents, low-income individuals, and non-native English speakers to fully participate in the democratic process.
Join the Pulitzer Center for a conversation on efforts to boost voter participation by enhancing transparency and accessibility across all communities, despite growing challenges to election systems. Panelists will discuss systemic disenfranchisement, including changing voter identification and mail-in ballot procedures, arcane polling information, and legislation limiting voter registration drives.
Pulitzer Center grantee Brittany Gibson will moderate the discussion with Arlyssa Becenti, Aaron Mendelson, and Ashton Pittman. The conversation will be followed by an audience Q&A. Registration is required.
Panelists include:
- Grantee Arlyssa Becenti is a Diné journalist with more than a decade of experience reporting on Navajo Nation. She reported on Indigenous communities’ experiences voting in Arizona's 2022 midterm.
- Aaron Mendelson, a Pulitzer Center grantee, covered voting, elections, and democracy at the Center for Public Integrity. He reported on legislative efforts to curb voter registration drives, which are particularly crucial for multilingual communities and voters of color.
- Ashton Pittman is a news editor at the Mississippi Free Press and a 2024 StoryReach U.S. Fellow at the Pulitzer Center. His team is investigating systemic issues that deter Mississippi voters, including outdated and unclear polling information and access.
The conversation will be moderated by Brittany Gibson, a politics reporter at POLITICO.

Arizona is an epicenter of election disinformation, and dozens of candidates up and down the ballot...