Pam Fessler
Pam Fessler is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk, where she covers poverty, philanthropy, and voting issues.
In her reporting at NPR, Fessler does stories on homelessness, hunger, affordable housing, and income inequality. She reports on what non-profit groups, the government, and others are doing to reduce poverty and how those efforts are working. Her poverty reporting was recognized with a 2011 First Place National Headliner Award.
Fessler also covers elections and voting, including efforts to make voting more accessible, accurate, and secure. She has done countless stories on everything from the debate over state voter identification laws to Russian hacking attempts and long lines at the polls.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Fessler became NPR's first Homeland Security correspondent. For seven years, she reported on efforts to tighten security at ports, airports, and borders, and the debate over the impact on privacy and civil rights. She also reported on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, The 9/11 Commission Report, Social Security, and the Census. Fessler was one of NPR's White House reporters during the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Before becoming a correspondent, Fessler was the acting senior editor on the Washington Desk and NPR's chief election editor. She coordinated all network coverage of the presidential, congressional, and state elections in 1996 and 1998. In her more than 25 years at NPR, Fessler has also been deputy Washington Desk editor and Midwest National Desk editor.
Earlier in her career, she was a senior writer at Congressional Quarterly magazine. Fessler worked there for 13 years as both a reporter and editor, covering tax, budget, and other news. She also worked as a budget specialist at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and was a reporter at The Record newspaper in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Fessler has a master's of public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree from Douglass College in New Jersey.
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President Trump has threatened to cut off unspecified federal funding to Michigan and Nevada because of their plans to expand absentee voting. He claims that such voting is ripe for rampant fraud.
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Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams campaigned on fighting voter fraud but says it isn't very common. He's now trying to make "the concept of absentee voting less toxic for Republicans." -
Many Republican secretaries of state are pushing to expand mail-in voting during the pandemic, but they face pushback from some party members who say it invites voter fraud.
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States are considering more mail-in voting this year. It would be a major change for many states and would require them to find someone to print and mail all the ballots.
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With mail-in voting set to grow due to the coronavirus, experts warn that the companies that print ballots could get overwhelmed. One of the country's biggest vendors is ramping up capacity quickly. -
A slew of lawsuits about mail-in voting have been filed in recent weeks. Some challenge efforts to make it easier to get absentee ballots; others call on states to do more to make voting accessible. -
The push to expand mail-in voting during the pandemic has led to a new legal battle between political parties and related interest groups. The conflict might have a major impact on upcoming elections.
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Both parties are turning to the courts to try to ensure that election rules don't disadvantage their side. The litigation campaign has taken on a new urgency amid the coronavirus pandemic. -
This week's primary in Wisconsin, which produced long lines of voters waiting in protective gear to cast their ballots, is a dire warning of what could lie ahead. -
Full-time election workers in New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC have fallen will with COVID-19 all while trying to make plans for carrying out upcoming elections under challenging conditions.
