Podcast
Is Fusion Voting Fair?
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer discuss whether fusion voting expands representation and strengthens smaller parties—or whether it muddies party lines and confuses voters.
Podcast
Is America Ready to Vote by Phone?
Archon Fung and Stephen Richer are joined by Michelle Feldman, political director at Mobile Voting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative working to make voting easier with expanded access to mobile voting.
Programs
Issues
Anchorage, Alaska, is pioneering mobile voting, allowing voters to cast ballots for municipal elections from their phones. If successful, Anchorage could offer a blueprint for the future of voting across America. But with election mistrust at record highs, will voters have faith in the accuracy of mobile votes?
To discuss the latest news and the future of voting by phone, this week, co-hosts Archon Fung and Stephen Richer will be joined by Michelle Feldman, political director at Mobile Voting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative working to make voting easier with expanded access to mobile voting.
About this Week’s Guest
Michelle Feldman is Political Director for Mobile Voting, a nonprofit, nonpartisan initiative working to make voting easier with expanded access to mobile voting, especially in local and primary elections and for voters with inherent barriers to existing voting options. Since 2018, Movile Voting has helped fund pilots in over 20 elections across seven states – Colorado, Oregon, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia – primarily for a mixture of voters, including Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) voters and voters with disabilities.
About the Hosts
Archon Fung is the Winthrop Laflin McCormack Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. His research explores policies, practices, and institutional designs that deepen the quality of democratic governance with a focus on public participation, deliberation, and transparency. He has authored five books, four edited collections, and over fifty articles appearing in professional journals. He received two S.B.s — in philosophy and physics — and his Ph.D. in political science from MIT.
Stephen Richer is the former elected Maricopa County Recorder, responsible for voter registration, early voting administration, and public recordings in Maricopa County, Arizona, the fourth largest county in the United States. Prior to being an elected official, Stephen worked at several public policy think tanks and as a business transactions attorney. Stephen received his J.D. and M.A. from The University of Chicago and his B.A. from Tulane University.
Stephen has been broadly recognized for his work in elections and American Democracy. In 2021, the Arizona Republic named Stephen “Arizonan of the Year.” In 2022, the Maricopa Bar Association awarded Stephen “Public Law Attorney of the Year.” In 2023, Stephen won “Leader of the Year” from the Arizona Capitol Times. And in 2024, Time Magazine named Stephen a “Defender of Democracy.”
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