I have a new job!

No, it's not with the Red Sox, but it does have to do with voting.

Amid the pandemic, election officials turned Fenway Park into a vote center for the 2020 election.

After FiveThirtyEight was shuttered earlier this year, I faced the daunting task of figuring out what I wanted to do next. I knew I wanted to stay in political journalism; I knew I wanted to continue doing the important work of informing people about elections; and I knew I wanted to keep doing it with a tight-knit team of like-minded nerds. The problem is, there are precious few news outlets left that offer all those things. (You might have heard that times are tough in the journalism industry.)

Luckily for me, though, one of those places—and one of the ones I’ve admired most over the years—happened to be hiring. It was a job that would let me continue doing the people management and editorial direction-setting that I had graduated into at FiveThirtyEight (and found I really enjoyed). It was also a job that focused on one of my favorite beats in the Elections Cinematic Universe: the nuts and bolts of how elections actually work. In a word, it was perfect. And for some reason, they liked me back enough to offer me the job.

So I’m pleased to share that today is my first day as the new Managing Editor of Votebeat. If you’re not familiar with them, they’re a nonprofit news site specifically devoted to covering election administration and voting rights.¹ They have reporters in five key states—Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin—keeping tabs on everything from disputes over mail-in voting to allegations of voter fraud. Their articles are free to read and republished widely in many outlets you’ve probably heard of.

With all due respect to the polls, my passion at FiveThirtyEight was always the elections themselves. Although we were best known for our horse-race coverage and forecasts, I was most proud of the work I did on redistricting, voting restrictions and expansions, election reforms, election denialism, and how the COVID-19 pandemic scrambled the way elections were run. That’s the type of coverage I’m excited to continue doing at Votebeat, especially heading into a pair of election cycles where election administration will be under a microscope. President Donald Trump and his allies have zeroed in on several previously obscure aspects of election administration as part of their crusade against (extremely rare) voter fraud, and they’re attempting to make sweeping changes to election law through both executive orders and lawsuits.

It’s still TBD how successful these efforts will be, but given how strongly both Trump and his opponents feel about the issue, a huge fight could be brewing over not just the outcomes of the 2026 and 2028 elections, but the mechanics of democracy itself. And while many Democrats’ worries about the future of democracy go too far (no, Trump can’t cancel the 2028 election), some people’s enfranchisement could be the casualty of this fight, and the odds of a contested election in our future feel higher than normal. Amid that backdrop, Votebeat’s mission of “reporting the nuanced truth about elections and voting” has never been more important.

I’m ready to get to work, and I hope you’ll keep following along. You can sign up for Votebeat’s weekly newsletter here. Also, if you’re excited for me and for this new marriage, instead of leaving a note in the comments, consider expressing your excitement in the form of a small donation to Votebeat. As I mentioned, they’re a nonprofit news organization that depends on donations to survive, and unlike FiveThirtyEight, you can directly and personally contribute to keeping it around. Plus, any donations between now and December 31 will be doubled thanks to a few foundations that are doing matching gifts. Thanks in advance, and see you at the voting booths!

1. They’re part of Civic News Company, which also brings us Chalkbeat (which covers education policy) and Healthbeat (which covers health policy).