EVIC in the News

The following are media clips, listed by year, featuring Paul Gronke, Paul Manson, and other members of the EVIC team – past and present – from 2004 through today.

Skip to: 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019 and earlier

If you are a member of the media and would like to speak with our team of experts, please reach out to EVIC Senior Program Advisor Michelle M. Shafer at shaferm@reed.edu to coordinate.

2023

2022

  • The Oregonian: “Oregon voter turnout improved slightly in the fall election, ranks tops in nation for now”
    • “Paul Gronke, a Reed College professor and director of Reed’s Elections and Voting Information Center, said automatic voter registration deserves a lot of credit for Oregon’s high-ranking performance. Kate Brown championed the switch to so-called “motor voter” registration as secretary of state in 2013 and signed in into law as governor in 2015.” (12/20/2022)
  • Patch: “A Quarter Of Local Election Officials Received Violent Threats After 2020 Election, Survey Finds”
    • “The survey was the fourth since 2018 from the Elections and Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland and the Democracy Fund, a nonpartisan foundation in Washington, D.C. It found that nearly 40% of election officials who are eligible to retire plan to do so before 2024, and a significant group cited the political environment and concerns about their health or personal safety as reasons to retire.” (11/09/2022)
  • KLCC: “Warning to eager voters: Oregon’s results may take longer this election”
    • “‘If ballots are coming in, postmarked on Election Day but rolling in, it may be those last two or three percentage of the ballots are going to end up deciding those races’ Gronke said. ‘Those ballots have to be processed, signatures have to be checked, all of the security protocols have to be followed. And it might be that the U.S. House, which is going to be very close, could be decided on those seats.’ Gronke thinks Oregon’s election officials are nervous: ‘The lights may be on in Oregon very brightly on election night.'” (11/09/2022)
  • Yahoo News: “‘It’s all over the place.’ Tight California congressional races are still too close to call”
    • “The popularity of mail-in ballots means that results can frequently take longer in many states, including California, than voters typically expect, said Paul Gronke, a professor of political science and director of the Elections and Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore. ‘It’s going to make it particularly difficult this year with results coming in at different rates, and it’s going to open up a window for people to charge malfeasance,’ he said.” (11/09/2022)
  • Los Angeles Times: “Early 46 million votes have been cast in the midterms, but it’s unclear what it means for election day”
    • “The pandemic prompted several states in 2020 to implement universal ballot delivery or change their laws to allow for early voting or voting by mail for the first time, said Paul Gronke, a professor of political science and director of the Elections and Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore. Gronke anticipates America will see ‘substantially higher levels of early voting for at least the next few election cycles, if not permanently.’ This also means results will likely be slower to roll out than many Americans expect, he said.” (11/08/2022).
  • Daily Kos: “‘You will be executed’: Poll workers in the infamous Maricopa County face extremist harassment”
    • “Thanks to data collected from the Elections and Voting Information Center at Reed College and the Democracy Fund, we have some important new numbers to sit with. For context, this survey was conducted between June 21 and Sept. 22, 2022. The survey included more than 900 local election workers, and responses were submitted either by mail or online.” (11/07/2022).
  • Oregon Capital Chronicle: “A week to Election Day, about 20% of registered voters have cast ballots”
    • “Both Horvick and Paul Manson, research director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, said analyzing turnout and what it means will be difficult this year. Both urged caution in interpreting the data … And the issues this year don’t mirror those of the past,  when the environment, education and land-use issues often dominated Oregon campaigns, Manson said.” (11/02/2022).
  • Oregon Capital Chronicle: “A quarter of local election officials received violent threats after 2020 election, survey finds”
    • “The survey was the fourth since 2018 from the Elections and Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland and the Democracy Fund, a nonpartisan foundation in Washington, D.C. It found that nearly 40% of election officials who are eligible to retire plan to do so before 2024, and a significant group cited the political environment and concerns about their health or personal safety as reasons to retire.” (11/02/2022)
  • ProPublica: “A County Elections Director Stood Up to Locals Who Believe the Voting System Is Rigged. They Pushed Back Harder”
    • “’Election officials in small rural offices are absolutely more vulnerable,’ said Paul Manson, who studies the demography of election officials and serves as the research director for the Elections & Voting Information Center at Reed College. Because such offices have fewer resources, Manson said, they have a harder time adapting to the increasingly controversial nature of election administration in the United States. These types of offices also represent the vast majority of the nation’s roughly 10,000 election jurisdictions, according to Manson’s research, with 48% of offices staffed by only one or two people and an additional 40% having between two and five.” (10/31/2022).
  • The Daily Evergreen: “Professor encourages skepticism of politicians’ motivations”
    • “Politicians casting doubt on the U.S. election system is deeply concerning for political science professor Paul Gronke, who believes it threatens democracy. ‘I want to be optimistic, but we are in a very tough place right now, where political actors are willing to undermine democratic principles as a political strategy,’ he said.” (10/26/2022)
  • Oregon Capital Chronicle: “Proposal for new Portland council would mark another step forward”
    • Written by Paul Gronke (10/25/2022)
  • Politifact: “Marco Rubio said someone could blow up a ballot drop box, ignoring safe track record”
    • “Paul Gronke, an expert on early voting at Reed College, said ‘one of the big advantages of voting by mail is that the ballot can be tracked and if it never arrives at an elections office, the voter can cast a replacement ballot.'” (10/19/2022)
  • The Oregonian: “Editorial endorsement November 2022: Vote ‘no’ on mega-measure to overhaul Portland city government”
    • “Paul Gronke, a measure supporter who also directs Reed College’s Elections and Voting Information Center, scoffed at the idea that a large percentage of voters might submit ballots with only one or two candidates selected, leading to someone winning a seat with less than 25% of the vote.” (10/08/2022)
  • KWTX: “How the debunked conspiracy film “2000 Mules” became Texas Republican orthodoxy.”
    • “The GOP’s continued embrace of the film has concerned election experts such as Paul Gronke, director of the Elections and Voting Information Center at Reed College. Gronke noted that the film’s findings have been routinely debunked — including by Barr, who mocked the film as ‘indefensible’ and laughed at it earlier this year. ‘It is a sad situation when political leaders, rather than competing for the votes of citizens with good policies, instead promote misinformation and false claims about the elections as part of a crass political strategy because they think that making voting harder and more complicated will lower turnout and help their side,” Gronke said. ‘And the deepest irony of all of this is that historically, voters who use absentee voting and voting by mail have leaned Republican.’” (10/07/2022)
  • Willamette Week: “Advocates for Ranked-Choice Voting Argue It Will Attract More Qualified, More Cooperative and More Representative Candidates.”
    • “Gronke presented the benefits of transferable ranked-choice voting, arguing that voters would have more and better choices than in the current, first-past-the post system where only one candidate wins. It’s a completely different way for voters to think about it,” Gronke said. “I don’t have to choose my least-worst outcome.” (10/5/2022)
  • Portland Tribune: “Our view: Portland charter reform should get ‘yes’ vote”
    • By Paul Manson and a collection of professors. (9/28/2022)
  • Oregon Capital Chronicle: “Oregon officials report new uptick in mail about election fraud conspiracies”
    • “Lawsuits like Gunter’s, the related records requests and a ‘misguided and misinformed’ push to hand-count every ballot are part of a coordinated nationwide effort, said Paul Gronke, a Reed College political science professor and director of the college’s Elections & Voting Information Center. ‘The move appears to be inspired by ongoing efforts to sow distrust in our election system, and with false claims that hand counts are somehow more accurate,’ Gronke said.” (9/15/2022)
  • NPR Politics Podcast: “Fighting Back Against Election Lies.”
    • “I mean, I talked to Paul Gronke, who’s a political scientist at Reed College, who has done a lot of work for a long time working with local election officials and kind of gauging how they’re feeling about things and how things are going at the local level. And when I sent him this research, he was a little bit taken aback. I think he had kind of viewed election denialism as a more solid base. And what he said was that he was really heartened to find that the foundation of some of these false beliefs seem to be pretty fragile, which kind of can give you a little bit of optimism looking ahead – maybe not to this election cycle but, you know, over the next five or 10 years.” (9/5/2022)
  • Willamette Weekly: “Two Candidates for Governor Turn Over Their Tax Returns. Betsy Johnson Declines.”
    • “Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College, says such transparency has been the standard for at least 50 years. ‘Certainly since Nixon, it’s been a tradition at the presidential level, because of a desire for transparency, to avoid perceived conflict of interest and, really, just to reassure the public,’ Gronke says.” (8/17/2022).
  • NPR: “New data sheds light on one method to combat election lies”
    • “When presented with them, political scientist Paul Gronke, of Reed College, who was not involved in the research, called the results “heartening.” Previously, he said he worried that people who believed election misinformation were stuck in their beliefs and unswayable. There certainly still are those people he said, but it doesn’t seem to be as big a group as previously thought. “I was not optimistic, but I read these results and it added some optimism for me,” Gronke said. “The foundation of some of these [false] beliefs seems fairly fragile.” (8/5/2022)
  • Votebeat Arizona:“Pinal County ballot debacle could foreshadow errors in other counties”
    • “Anecdotally, it’s clear that skilled people, in Arizona and across the country, are leaving their elections jobs. But there’s not much reliable data to track whether turnover is worse than a typical year, though researchers like Paul Gronke at Reed College have started surveying election workers to try to understand the problem, which is especially hard to detect among the non-elected office workers. “We have no idea how much turnover there is at the staff level,” Gronke said. “And the problem may be bigger than we even realize it is, because we don’t know about the staff.” (8/1/2022)
  • The Canby Current: “Canby’s Drazan Leads in Early Poll on Oregon Governor’s Race”
    • “(Christine) Drazan, meanwhile, was the establishment choice for governor, besting other candidates who leaned into culture war issues like abortion and false claims of election fraud. Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College, said Drazan was smart to keep her distance from those issues. ‘I think it was just smart to stay away from some of those divisive issues,’ he said. ‘It may not have helped her with some of the hardcore base, but you just can’t win in Oregon with that hardcore base.’ Gronke said the smart money would be on Kotek because Oregon still leans liberal, or liberal-libertarian, even if national trends don’t look good for Democrats this year.” (6/5/2022)
  • Reuters: “Fact Check-Does ‘2000 Mules’ provide evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 U.S. presidential election?”
    • “’My local drop box is in my public library, a location I pass probably 20 or 30 times a week,’ said Paul Gronke, Director of the Elections and Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon (evic.reed.edu/). ‘Did I deposit 20 ballots or is my drop box on a heavily trafficked street? You tell me.’” (5/27/2022)
  • The Oregonian: “Opinion: Elections where both candidates and voters win”
    • “With vote-by-mail and automatic voter registration, Oregon has made voter participation easier. But that’s only half the battle. We need ranked choice voting to give voters meaningful choices and a voice in every election. Paul Gronke and Blair Bobier: Gronke is director of the Elections & Voting Information Center and a professor of political science at Reed College. Bobier is a public interest lawyer and president of Oregon Ranked Choice Voting Advocates.” (5/22/2022)
  • USA Today: “Drop boxes were a critical tool for elections in the pandemic. Why are some states limiting them?”
    • “Paul Gronke touches on these points: 1) Drop boxes had been around for years, but more states began using them during the 2020 election. 2) After the 2020 election, several states adopting new election laws put more limits on drop boxes. 3) The 2022 primaries will be the biggest test so far for new drop-box limits in several states.” (5/17/2022)
  • OregonPublicBroadcasting: “In blue Oregon, Trump’s ties to party complicate things for GOP gubernatorial contenders”
    • “Despite Pulliam’s desire to get a nod from Trump, Oregon doesn’t appear to be on the former president’s radar. ‘I hate to say this, but I don’t think Oregon is very important for President Trump,’ said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College. But while Trump can ignore Oregon, it remains hard for Republicans in Oregon to ignore him.” (5/9/2022)
  • Oregon Public Broadcasting: “Oregon voters worry about deep divisions while blaming political rivals”
    • “‘We hope that we can move forward statewide across the party lines to resolve some of those issues,’ said Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College in Portland. ‘It’s hard. It makes it hard for political leaders, very difficult.’ Gronke noted that in recent history Democrats have ‘muscled’ policies through the Legislature by holding their caucus together and using supermajorities to pass laws. By contrast, Republicans’ only tool has been to walk out. ‘That’s also quite damaging,’ Gronke said. ‘Walking out, that’s not a governance mechanism. That’s really stopping governance and it makes it hard for any kind of leaders.'” (5/5/2022).
  • The Intercept:“At A Pivotal Moment, Democrats Failed to Modernize Elections”
    • “‘What we do know from three years of surveys of local elections officials nationwide is that consistent and reliable funding is the most commonly mentioned issue,’ Paul Gronke, the founder of the Elections & Voting Information Center at Reed College, told me. ‘We all recognize that what we are currently spending is far too low and funding is too irregular. … But hard numbers are difficult to obtain because of the diverse ways that budgets are managed.'” (4/1/2022)
  • The Oregonian:“Oregon Republicans could pick governor nominee by slim margin, due to bumper crop of candidates”
    • “‘A race like this, with this many candidates, provides an advantage to any candidate that has a very committed part of the electorate that is going to turn out for them no matter what,’ said Paul Gronke, a Reed College political science professor who directs the Early Voting Information Center. ‘It’s conceivable a candidate could get pushed forward with 20% of the vote, 25% of the vote.'” (3/20/2022)
  • Everett Daily Herald:“Editorial: The work to restore the confidence of voters”
    • “‘We are not going in a good direction right now when we have leading members of the Republican Party, one political party, unwilling to publicly accept the validity of a presidential election that was certified,’ Gronke said.” (2/27/2022)
  • KNKX:“Election officials in Washington, and nationwide, flooded with records requests from doubters”
    • “‘There was a real sea change in 2020, as everyone’s well aware of, and part of the response to that has been a coordinated effort to try to get information from elections officials,’ Gronke said. ‘And part of that is using what is a valid way of getting information, which are public records requests.'” (2/23/2022)
  • Bucks County Courier Times: “Some voter records turn up few ‘irregularities'”
    • “Even if those numbers of repeated voters were much higher, voting policy expert Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Oregon, noted that also still wouldn’t be evidence of voter fraud.” (1/30/2022)
  • Albany Herald: “Candidates fighting 2020 misinformation run to administer local elections”
    • “Paul Gronke, a professor at Reed College, has been conducting research through the Stewards of Democracy surveys on local election officials since 2018. He said there is still a vacuum when it comes to research on who runs for local election office and what motivates them. ‘There’s a need for more information about who exactly is running for local office,’ he said. ‘What are their backgrounds, what do we know about them, what motivates them to take on this service responsibility? Because it really is a service responsibility.'” (1/1/2022)

2021

2020

  • The Union:“LaMalfa joins effort to stop certification”
    • “According to Paul Gronke, professor of Political Science at Reed College and founder of the Early Voting Information Center, the display even if performative could be ‘deeply corrosive to the democratic process.'” (1/5/2021)
  • Houston Chronicle:“Fact check: Texas GOP leader claims early voting more susceptible to fraud”
    • “‘Of the minuscule level of voter fraud cases that have been documented, more are associated with absentee/voting by mail than with early in-person voting and with precinct place voting,’ said Paul Gronke, a professor and the director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College. ‘But I have to stress that the overall level is minuscule, and nearly all the documented cases have to deal with tens of ballots and in local elections.'” (11/23/2020)
  • Redding Record Searchlight: “LaMalfa chastised over comments, social media posts about election”
    • “Paul Gronke, an elections expert and political science professor at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, also took a dim view of LaMalfa’s rhetoric.” (11/18/2020)
  • USA Today:“How sports arenas ran up score on 2020 election, hosting hundreds of thousands of voters”
    • “‘Sometimes people don’t realize everything that (a voting center) needs,’ said Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College. ‘When these sports facilities started coming in, I think (for) a lot of people in my community, it was one of those head-slapping moments. Like boy, that’s obvious isn’t it? It really is. They have all of these characteristics.'” (11/13/2020)
  • The Tower: “Record-Breaking Turnout This Election, but Why Do Millions of Americans Still Not Vote?”
    • “‘That’s what really drives people to the ballot box: they cared,’ Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College and founder and director of the Early Voting Information Center.” (11/12/2020)
  • Salem Statesman Journal:“2020 election: Oregonians return record number of ballots”
    • “According to data from the United States Elections Project, about 75% of voting-eligible Oregonians — those 18 and older who aren’t incarcerated and are citizens, including those who aren’t registered to vote — returned a ballot. That rate is a ‘high water mark’ at least since 2000, Paul Gronke, a professor at Reed College, said in an email Wednesday.” (11/12/2020)
  • France 24:“US presidential election : Trump makes baseless claims of fraud”
    • “Paul Gronke, Professor of political science, Reed college, Portland, Oregon” (11/8/2020)
  • NPR: “Special Coverage Of Presidential Election Results Hour 1”
    • “An election expert, Paul Gronke of Reed College, just reached out to me. And he said – the way he categorizes it is Pennsylvania and Nevada are now outside what he calls the margin of litigation. This means that there are so many votes, you know, tens of thousands of votes – once you get that many votes dividing two candidates, the odds that any sort of litigation or any sort of recount could actually meaningfully affect the top-line result is just very, very limited.” (11/7/2020)
  • CE Noticias Financieras: English: “U.S. vote record, a failed dream”
    • The causes of such participation have different explanations. Paul Gronke, professor of political science at The University of Reed, said: ‘We are seeing a very energetic and interested electorate, and we are seeing an audience, I think, that it is responding to the message that it was necessary to vote in advance, earlier this year.'” (11/6/2020)
  • TIME:“This Is How Early Voting Became a Thing”
    • “‘Excuse-required absentee voting started during the Civil War —a product of the competition between Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan,’ says Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College and founder and director of the non-partisan Early Voting Information Center. ‘Lincoln wanted to assure that he got the votes of the soldiers who were serving away from home.'” (11/6/2020)
  • TIME: “The 2020 Election Set a Record for Voter Turnout. But Why Is It Normal for So Many Americans to Sit Out Elections?”
    • “‘A lot of people got disengaged after a series of assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy and the Nixon election, during that period, even though the laws helped bring people into the political system, the decline of these social organizations and collective movement had a negative impact,’ says Paul Gronke, a professor of Political Science at Reed College and founder and director of the Early Voting Information Center. ‘The 1960s were an optimistic period, and the 1970s period was not. That’s what really drives people to the ballot box: they cared.'” (11/5/2020)
  • CNBC: “The Early Voting Information Center director on the challenges facing states still counting votes”
    • (11/4/2020)
  • Vox:“9 questions about 2020’s record-breaking early vote, answered”
    • “‘We’re seeing a very energized, interested electorate, and we’re seeing a public, I think, that is responding to a message that you need to cast that ballot early this year,’ Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College who runs the Early Voting Information Center, said.” (11/3/2020)
  • Irish Times: “Early voting a key battleground in US presidential election”
    • “‘I cannot come up with a good reason for anyone to oppose a drop box other than to limit access,’ says Prof Paul Gronke, founder and director of the Early Voting Information Center at Oregon’s Reed College. In a pandemic, he points out, drop boxes make more sense than ever. ‘It’s a no-touch, safe way to return your ballot.’ Drop boxes are just one example. As states grapple with the pandemic and look for new accommodations to ensure safe voting and representative counts, court rulings are following thick and fast.” (11/1/2020)
  • The Oregonian: “A majority of Oregon voters have weighed in. Here’s how that could play out Tuesday”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political science professor and director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, said Oregon voters’ enthusiasm as expressed by early turnout is particularly impressive because there aren’t any barn burner statewide races this year. ‘We just blew by 50%’ by Wednesday when there were still six days left in the election, Gronke said in an interview Thursday.” (10/31/2020)
  • Times of India:“Indian-Americans seem more confident voting for Trump”
    • “‘We’re seeing a very energised, interested electorate, and we’re seeing a public that is responding to a message that you need to cast your ballot early this year,’ said Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College who runs the Early Voter Information Center.” (10/30/2020)
  • Oregon Capital Insider: “Capital Chatter: Oregon modeling mail-in election for other states”
    • “Surveys consistently show Oregonians’ faith in mail voting, including a poll this month by Reed College’s Early Voting Information Center that was conducted in partnership with the state Elections Division. Oregonians said they had few worries about voting in the pandemic. Many thought that other states could adopt Oregon’s methods without increasing election fraud, although responses followed partisan lines.” (10/29/2020)
  • KGW:“Oregon has added 755,000 registered voters since motor voter law passed”
    • “Reed College political scientist Paul Gronke said he’s a fan of the “motor voter” process. ‘I am hoping that in the long run, as automatic registration moves across the country, that we’ll have less polarized political parties because both parties will want to respond to these new voters,’ he said.” (10/27/2020)
  • The Oregonian: “Oregon voters will decide whether to expand or check Democrats’ hold on the Legislature, as some Republican-held districts go increasingly blue”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College, on Friday released the results of a recent survey of Oregonians on issues including their confidence in vote-by-mail. Respondents also signaled they might be interested generally in electing new leaders.” (10/25/2020)
  • Portland Monthly: “The Busiest Man in Oregon Right Now Is Also One of the Country’s Foremost Early Voting Experts”
    • “‘As an academic, when the world arrives at your doorstep, you are not doing research, you just drink from the firehose,’ Gronke says. ‘You try to ride the 15-foot-wave and not get crushed in the sand. Sometimes I wake up in the morning, the president has tweeted something, and there goes the next three days.'” (10/16/2020)
  • Portland Tribune:“Election jitters spark Portland push for peaceful ‘coup’ protests”
    • “The constant barrage of questions, attacks and concerns about voting have kept Paul Gronke, a Reed College political science professor who specializes in voter access and election integrity, busy. He’s fielded calls from the New York Times and other national media outlets, while doing research of his own. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever worked as hard my whole life,’ he said. ‘There’s so much … noise and static, primarily coming out of the White House… I just think democracy is on trial this election, I really do.'” (10/14/2020)
  • Austin American-Statesman:“Fact-check: Does early voting open elections up to fraud?”
    • “‘Of the minuscule level of voter fraud cases that have been documented, more are associated with absentee/voting by mail than with early in-person voting and with precinct place voting,’ said Paul Gronke, a professor and the director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College. ‘But I have to stress that the overall level is minuscule, and nearly all the documented cases have to deal with tens of ballots and in local elections.'” (10/13/2020)
  • Columbus Dispatch:“Fact check: Is Amy Coney Barrett the first Supreme Court nominee during a presidential election?”
    • “Reed College Professor Paul Gronke, who runs the nonpartisan Early Voting Information Center, said  early voting didn’t exist for the general public until the 1950s. ‘Absentee ballots were first put in place in the 1864 election. That is absolutely the earliest time you could have people casting a ballot prior to an election date,’ Gronke said. ‘It was in place for soldiers during the Civil War and then stopped.'” (10/12/2020)
  • Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer: “It’s about time we got early voting”
    • “A 2016 Time article quotes Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College, as saying that absentee voting began in 1864 when Abe Lincoln wanted to assure himself that men serving in the Army could vote for him.” (10/11/2020)
  • NPR:“Pennsylvania Supreme Court Weighs In On Mail-In Ballot Issue”
    • “Paul Gronke, an Oregon political science professor who directs the Early Voting Information Center, says the new mandate is unusual.” (10/5/2020)
  • NPR: “‘Naked Ballot’ Rule Could Lead To Thousands Of Pa. Votes Getting Rejected”
    • “Paul Gronke, an Oregon political science professor who directs the Early Voting Information Center, said the earlier approach, where counties made their own decisions about secrecy envelopes, was standard among the 16 states that use them.” (10/1/2020)
  • The Oregonian: “Oregonians from both parties agree climate change is a problem but say wrong measures being taken to address it”
    • “That might be due to a long history of bipartisan concern for the environment in the region, said Paul Manson, a visiting political science professor at Reed College. ‘In the Pacific Northwest, there has long been a broader tradition of conservation values that bridges party affiliation, most famously linked to Oregon Gov. Tom McCall,’ Manson said. ‘Despite the heightened partisanship of our current era, this tradition persists in our region and might be a path forward for meaningful policy change.'” (9/29/2020)
  • Vox: “Oregon already votes by mail. Here’s what it can teach us in 2020.”
    • “Gronke, who’s studied Oregon’s system, said the benefits are much more obvious in state and local elections, which tend to have lower turnout and don’t attract as much attention. ‘The vote-by-mail system certainly encourages people to participate regularly,’ he said. ‘There’s no doubt about that, because you get all that information.’” (9/28/2020)
  • University of Missouri Maneater: “Misinformation and lack of clarity leads to confusion about mail-in voting”
    • “Absentee voting in America can be traced as far back as the Civil War, when Abraham Lincoln wanted to ensure the votes of soldiers serving away from home would be counted, Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College, told Time Magazine. Since then, this form of mail-in voting has been used nationwide to ensure Americans under extenuating circumstances would be able to participate in elections, and 2020 will be no different.” (9/24/2020)
  • South China Morning Post: “How Trump’s fear, and loathing of mail-in voting, threatens US stability”
    • “Paul Gronke, an expert on in-person voting, from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, said voting by mail ‘is going to easily double what it was in 2016 – somewhere north of 80 million ballots’, but cautioned that ‘In some of our minds, the nightmare scenario isn’t about voting by mail, it’s a meltdown at the polling places.'” (9/21/2020)
  • Bloomberg: “Barr Floats Foreign Mail-Vote Fraud That Experts Call Impossible”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon, said the counterfeit ballot theory was from ‘the world of fantasy.’” (9/15/2020)
  • Austin American-Statesman: “POLITIFACT – Trump off on number of unsolicited ballots”
    • “Paul Gronke, an expert on voting by mail at Reed College, predicted somewhere north of 80 million ballots will be cast by mail, double 2016’s total.” (9/13/2020)
  • Bloomberg:“It’s Too Late to Expand Mail-In Voting as Trump Steps Up Attacks”
    • “It’s possible but unlikely that states such as Arizona, which already have a large percentage of voters on a list to automatically receive a ballot, could expand the practice, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College and director of the Early Voting Information Center.” (9/9/2020)
  • New York Times:“In Year of Voting by Mail, a Scramble to Beef Up In-Person Voting, Too”
    • “‘Everyone’s focusing on the rate of voting by mail, which is going to easily double what it was in 2016 — somewhere north of 80 million ballots,’ said Paul Gronke, an expert on in-person voting at Reed College in Portland, Ore. ‘But people aren’t paying attention to what might happen if there’s a spike in the pandemic or a shortage of poll workers and there’s a last-minute reduction in in-person voting. In some of our minds, the nightmare scenario isn’t about voting by mail,’ he said. ‘It’s a meltdown at the polling places.’” (9/7/2020)
  • Newsmax: “Authorities Press to Boost In-Person Voting, Make It Safer”
    • “Paul Gronke, an expert on in-person voting at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, stressed that a nightmare scenario is not problems with mail-in voting, but ‘a meltdown at the polling places.'” (9/7/2020)
  • KGW:“Straight Talk: Reed College professor Paul Gronke”
    • “Reed College professor Paul Gronke says to get ready for a long election night that could potentially extend into days.” (9/4/2020)
  • AP: “Gov’s office: Blocking all-mail voting would ‘inject chaos'”
    • “‘My best guess … is that part of the Trump campaign strategy is to sow fear and distrust in the hopes that this will motivate their base and possibly … to provide a basis to refuse to accept the election results,’ said Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and director of the Early Voting Information Center.” (9/4/2020)
  • KGW: “Prepare to wait, maybe for days, for Election Day results, Reed College professor warns”
    • “Reed College professor Paul Gronke said in the primaries, states like Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia saw the number of citizens who chose to vote by absentee ballot increase tenfold.” (9/4/2020)
  • KGW: “Sunrise Extra: Political science professor at Reed College, on the Democratic National Convention”
    • (8/21/2020)
  • Willamette Week:“Dan Ryan’s City Council Victory Over Loretta Smith Came Down to Three Key Factors”
    • “Reed College political science professor Paul Gronke notes the star of those ads—Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, who trounced Smith in 2018—may have been particularly helpful to Ryan ‘given how prominent a voice Hardesty is in today’s political environment.'” (8/19/2020)
  • Talking Points Memo: “How State Election Officials Are Scrambling To Respond To USPS’ Mail Delivery Warnings”
    • “Gronke, director of Reed’s Early Voting Information Center, said less experienced states have historically had higher rates of rejected mail ballots. That means potentially disenfranchising thousands or millions of new voters, likely disproportionately impacting minority communities.” (8/19/2020)
  • MSNBC: “Voting rights activists fighting Trump’s mail ballot attacks”
    • “What is being done to protect early voting and vote by mail ahead of the November election? Angela Lang of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities and Prof. Paul Gronke of Reed College join to discuss.” (8/15/2020)
  • Camas-Washougal Post-Record: “OPINION: Remember Trump’s vote-by-mail lies in November”
    • “One of those experts is Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland. “That is my nightmare scenario,” Gronke told Rupar in the Aug. 11 Vox article. “We gotta slow down. Trump’s gonna be tweeting, the media … have to slow down. Because he’ll claim victory, or he’ll start to claim malfeasance and fraud, lawyers will be climbing into airplanes and arriving in all these small jurisdictions, and it will be not good.”” (8/13/2020)
  • Vox:“How Trump’s mail voting sabotage could result in an election night nightmare”
    • “‘That is my nightmare scenario,’ said Paul Gronke, professor of political science at Reed College in Portland and director of the Early Voting Information Center. ‘We gotta slow down. Trump’s gonna be tweeting, the media, you, all of your counterparts, have to slow down. Because he’ll claim victory, or he’ll start to claim malfeasance and fraud, lawyers will be climbing into airplanes and arriving in all these small jurisdictions, and it will be not good.'” (8/11/2020)
  • KQED: “Smooth Vote-by-Mail Elections in Colorado, Utah Provide Model for California”
    • “Despite California’s extensive experience with mail-in voting, the state will still face challenges that didn’t exist in Colorado and Utah, said Paul Gronke, Director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College.” (7/2/2020)
  • NPR: “Attorney General Barr Says DOJ Acts Independent Of Trump’s Interests”
    • “‘It shows a fundamental lack of understanding about the soup to nuts of administering an election,’ said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College. ‘You can’t just source the paper, re-create the ballot styles, fake the signatures, on any kind of mass scale.'” (6/25/2020)
  • Springfield News-Leader: “Lawmakers say vote-by-mail bill will keep voters safe and votes secure. Will it do either?”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College in Oregon who studies elections and advises governments on best practices, said the first reason is that mail-in voter fraud is very rare, even in states like his where everyone votes by mail.” (6/7/2020)
  • Vanity Fair: “America Is Woefully Unprepared for a COVID-19 Election—And More Than a Million Votes Are at Stake”
    • “Gronke, the Reed College expert, told me that the confluence of high turnout, unprecedented at-home voting, and likely delays in processing could cause a perfect litigation storm. Many states have publicly viewable counting processes, meaning that lawyers can witness and contest individual decisions of local election officials. If this scenario plays out, “lawyers will book their flights and challenge every signature.”” (5/19/2020)
  • OPB:“Oregon Elections Officials Scrambled To Avoid COVID-19 Problems In Tuesday’s Primary”
    • “Paul Gronke is a Reed College political science professor who runs the school’s Early Voting Information Center. He said it appears Oregon has been able to avoid the problems that have bedeviled so many other states this year.” (5/15/2020)
  • Texas Public Radio:“Mail-In Ballot Battle Rages On In Texas Amid COVID-19 Concerns”
    • (5/10/2020)
  • WSU Daily Evergreen:“Scholars discuss voting politics in a pandemic”
    • “Paul Gronke, Reed College professor of political science, said five states have vote-by-mail systems, including Washington State. Voters can request no-excuse absentee mail-in ballots in 33 states, with 13 states only allowing in-person voting.” (4/17/2020)
  • ProPublica:“A Conservative Legal Group Significantly Miscalculated Data in a Report on Mail-In Voting”
    • “‘Election officials ‘know’ what happened to those ballots,’ said Paul Gronke, a professor at Reed College, who is the director of the Early Voting Information Center, a research group based there. ‘They were received by eligible citizens and not filled out. Where are they now? Most likely, in landfills,’ Gronke said by email.” (5/2/2020)
  • Belt Magazine:“Democracy by Mail”
    • “Some Rust Belt states face particular challenges in implementing mass voting by mail. In states like Michigan, election rules prevent the state from starting to process votes before election night. And Gronke, from the Early Voting Information Center, notes that the vast, decentralized electoral systems in states like Michigan and Wisconsin make it much harder to conduct a remotely-administered election. ‘Elections are not conducted at the county level, they’re conducted at the township and municipality level. The smallest election jurisdiction in Wisconsin has twenty registered voters, and Michigan’s like that as well,’ he explains.” (4/17/2020)
  • FiveThirtyEight:“The Coronavirus Could Change How We Vote, In 2020 And Beyond”
    • “Political scientist Paul Gronke has called this transformation a ‘quiet revolution,’ as over the last several decades, voting in America has gone from being a unique one-day mega-social experience to more and more of a multi-week and increasingly individualized affair. And 2020 may mark a sharp turning point, where one-day in-person voting becomes a relic of the past, like landlines and cassette tapes.” (3/26/2020)
  • Los Angeles Times:“Coronavirus threatens the November election. Can vote by mail save it?”
    • “‘Are we going to say to people they can’t vote because they have a 100-degree temperature?’ said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore. ‘I think about all the complexities involved in trying to make polling places safe for people to cast ballots, and I get very nervous.'” (3/19/2020)
  • NPR: “After Early Caucusing Period, Nevada’s Voters Turn Out On Saturday”
    • “I talked to Paul Gronke, who’s a political science professor at Reed College, and he told me just how uncommon it is for new technology to be introduced this way into an election this late in the game.” (2/21/2020)

2019 and earlier

  • OPB:“Oregon Continues To See Increase Of Nonaffiliated Voters”
    • “‘There are at least 300,000 new registrants since 2016 because of OMV [the Oregon Motor Voter Act],’ said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College. ‘And 80% or more of these did not respond to a postcard allowing them to affiliate.'” (12/28/2019)
  • Courthouse News:“House GOP Defend Trump as Blameless in Impeachment Report”
    • “Looking at the report, Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College, said the Republicans’ initial strategy to combat the impeachment proceedings appears to be to ‘create a lot of noise and confusion.'” (12/2/2019)
  • The Oregonian: “Zero hour for Gordon Sondland: The ‘pivotal figure’ in impeachment process to testify Wednesday morning”
    • “On the eve of Gordon Sondland’s highly anticipated public testimony in the House impeachment inquiry, Reed College Professor Paul Gronke says the wealthy hotelier faces a unique opportunity and a terrible dilemma: Sondland, the ambassador to the European Union, ‘can salvage his reputation and write his name in the history books’ in the same morning, Gronke said, ‘but only if he comes clean and tells all.'” (11/19/2019)
  • Gothamist:“How Affidavit Ballots Ended Up At The Center Of The Queens DA Recount”
    • “According to Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College who specializes in election behavior, it is the responsibility of local election officials to provide the correct information to affidavit voters. ‘New York state does not have the strongest reputation on the election administration community,’ Gronke told Gothamist. ‘I am not surprised to learn that many voters received bad directions—likely from poll workers due to inadequate training—about provisional voting.'” (7/12/2019)
  • NPR: “Abolishing The Electoral College Would Be More Complicated Than It May Seem”
    • “‘It really does over-represent some sparsely populated states, and it provides some skew and bias to our system that I just don’t think is healthy anymore,’ said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College. Gronke notes, however, that there would be major administrative challenges if the U.S. ever got to the point of switching to a national popular vote.” (3/22/2019)
  • NPR:“Momentum Builds To Eliminate The Electoral College”
    • “That’s Paul Gronke. He’s a professor of political science at Reed College in Oregon. He favors a national popular vote but admits there would be enormous logistical hurdles.” (3/21/2019)
  • Raleigh News and Observer:“Fact check: Is confidence in US elections at an ‘all-time low?’”
    • “For example, Stewart’s work was included in a recently published study by the Democracy Fund, “Understanding the Voter Experience: The public’s view of election administration and reform,” authored by elections researcher Natalie Adona and Reed College professor Paul Gronke.” (12/17/2018)
  • NPR: “Discrediting The Recount Process Takes Advantage Of Voters’ Lack Of Understanding”
    • “Paul Gronke is an elections expert at Reed College in Oregon. He says that because Americans know so little about how elections work, they’re more susceptible to political rhetoric.” (11/14/2018)
  • Slate: “The Angle: Early Edition – Slate’s daily newsletter on the impact of early voting, the politicization of the Pittsburgh shooting, and Silicon Valley god complexes.”
    • “A friendly reminder from political scientist Paul Gronke that—despite what you might hear from political journalists “desperate to fill space right now”—early voting doesn’t tell us much.” (11/1/2018)
  • Univision:“Early voting is way up, so what does the data reveal?”
    • “‘It is a distinctly American practice, just like making voter registration primarily the responsibility of individuals,’ says political scientist Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, in Oregon. ‘Like with registration, a lot of the impetus actually comes from politicians and political actors who want to know this. I’m not sure it improves democracy—why does it help us to know how many people have voted?’ he added.” (10/31/2018)
  • Montgomery Advertiser:“Why Alabama balks at early voting”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political science professor and creator of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon, said most election officials across the U.S. are in favor of early voting. ‘It kind of does for voting what online retailers have done to Black Friday,’ he said. ‘It spreads out the crowd and there can be a more efficient deployment of resources.'” (10/31/2018)
  • Washington Post:“Think you’ll know who won on election night? Not so fast…”
    • “Gronke said some jurisdictions that depend heavily on mail-in voting get quicker results by processing the ballots as they arrive rather than saving all the envelope-opening, signature-validating, scanning and such until after the polls close. That way, they just need to hit the button to count the ballots.” (10/29/2018)
  • Portland Press Herald: “Democrats outpacing Republicans in early absentee voting in Maine”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Oregon and the director of the Early Voting Information Center, agreed that early voting trends are not a predictor of electoral victory.” (10/24/2018)
  • Washington Post: “Kris Kobach used flawed research to defend Trump’s voter fraud panel, experts say”
    • “‘The report was amateurishly done,’ said Paul Gronke, a political-science professor at Reed College and the director of the school’s nonpartisan Early Voting Information Center. ‘They were sloppy in their use of terms, and lack of precision is a big problem when you are accusing individuals or groups of committing a felony.'” (8/7/2018)
  • Portland Tribune:“Primary turnout the lowest since 1964”
    • “”The only thing worse would be a special election held in January of an oddly-numbered year, where you’d get lower turnout,” said Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College and director of the Early Voting Information Center.” (5/17/2018)
  • ABC Australia:“How it’s easier and harder to vote in US”
    • “There is a drive to increase efficiency, integrity and access to the American voting system. At the same time, some states require photo identification before ballots can be cast. Meanwhile some states are purging their electoral rolls, requiring people to enrol again. This comes amid lingering questions about the integrity of the US voting system raised by probes of Russian influence during the 2016 presidential election and allegations of voter fraud considered by a now disbanded presidential commission. Paul Gronke and Myrna Perez discuss some of the forces at play in the US voting system.” (3/3/2018)
  • Portland Tribune:“The unrealized potential of unaffiliated voters”
    • “Nonaffiliated voters “are a much more diverse group than most realize, particularly now that we have (automatic voter registration),” said Paul Gronke, political science professor at Reed College. “I think they can be a powerful force, but only if they assert their voice, and the problem with that is their diversity. They are not all ‘middle’ as you might think.”” (11/30/2017)
  • Slate:“Too Little Integrity, Too Late – At the second meeting of Trump’s voter fraud commission, a handful of panelists developed the capacity to feel shame.”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of the nonpartisan Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, estimated this week that even the report’s overly broad definition of voter malfeasance found a fraud rate of 0.000323741007194, or three ten-thousandths of 1 percent—almost exactly the chance that a person will be struck by lightning in the course of their lifetime.” (9/13/2017)
  • Portland Tribune:“GOP cries foul over attempt to push special election”
    • “However, Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College and director of the Early Voting Information Center, said he did not see “any particular partisan advantage” in putting tax measures on the ballot in a special election.” (6/29/2017)
  • OPB:“Federal Prosecutors Won’t Charge Former Oregon Governor, Fiancee”
    • “‘It means they didn’t break federal law,’ said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College. ‘There was influence peddling, and it led to the governor’s resignation and in some respects, they both have receded from public view.'” (6/16/2017)
  • OPB: “OPB Politics Now’: How Oregon Plans To Fill A $1.4 Billion Budget Gap”
    • “And we get the highlights from political scientist Paul Gronke’s survey findings about the affect of the state’s “motor voter” law on the turnout and diversity of the Oregon electorate.” (6/8/2017)
  • OPB:“Study: Oregon ‘Motor Voter’ Program Boosted Turnout And Diversity Of Voters”
    • “A study co-authored by Paul Gronke, a Reed College political scientist and expert on voting issues, found that automatically registering voters through the DMV helped bring in more under-represented groups. In particular, it led to more voting by ethnic minorities, younger people and those who are low-income and more rural.” (6/7/2017)
  • Helena Independent Record:“In Montana, voters can’t change already-cast absentee ballots”
    • “”I’ve heard no discussion of this,” said Paul Gronke, a professor at Reed College in Portland who runs the Early Voting Information Center. Instead, general trends have emphasized increasing early voting options.” (5/25/2017)
  • The Oregonian: “Oregon Republican candidate received food stamps, court records show”
    • “Paul Gronke, a politics professor at Reed College in Portland, agreed that the arrangement was ‘odd’ and looks ‘bad.'” (1/9/2017)
  • The Oregonian:“Oregon voters shattered previous participation rates in November 2016”
    • “But 44 percent of the new ‘motor voters’ did follow through and cast a ballot, a participation rate that exceeded the highest expectation of Reed College political science professor Paul Gronke, an expert on voter turnout.” (12/12/2016)
  • The Oregonian: “Turnout among Oregon ‘motor voters’ reached 43 percent”
    • “Reed College political science professor Paul Gronke told The Oregonian/OregonLive in the run-up to Nov. 8 that he thought turnout among Oregon’s first crop of motor voters could be as high as 35 percent to 40 percent. ‘If they get to half, that will be a huge accomplishment,’ Gronke said more than two weeks before the election.” (11/14/2016)
  • Marketplace: “Economic data is good. But many aren’t feeling it.”
    • “”Even though there’s been growth, the growth has been uneven,” said Paul Gronke, professor of political science at Reed College. Incomes have risen at both the low and the high end of the spectrum, but “there’s been a much more dramatic bump in income among higher-income groups.”” (11/9/2016)
  • Indiana Statesman: “The rise of early voting in 2016”
    • “An argument made against early voting is the candidates could do something unexpected prior to Nov. 8 when votes are supposed to be cast. Paul Gronke argues that, “Individuals who cast an early ballot make up their minds early.”” (11/8/2016)
  • KGW: “Electionland project tackles reports of voter fraud”
    • “Reed college professor Paul Gronke thinks Electionland is a great idea. “I don’t think it’s going to be so much before the election as afterwards. When we talk about it, you’re going to again be able to provide some context and nuance to a story that otherwise would be dominated by the loudest and most extreme voices,” he said.” (11/7/2016)
  • Christian Science Monitor: “Why Americans are voting early, more often”
    • “As voting options expand, the percentage of voters nationwide casting their ballots early have soared from about 11 percent in 1996 to 33 percent in 2012, Pew reports. Data for 2016 suggests the trend will hold. In states such as Nevada and Colorado, nearly half the total electorate had already cast their votes five days before the election, says Paul Gronke, founder and director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore. In Tennessee and Arizona, nearly two thirds have turned in their ballots.” (11/4/2016)
  • National Journal:“Opponents of Early Voting Seize on Comey’s Letter to Make Their Case”
    • ““Past research … shows no evidence that early voters regret their choice,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center and coauthor of a 2008 study entitled “The Psychological and Institutional Determinants of Early Voting.”” (11/4/2016)
  • Portland Tribune: “Can the local election be rigged?”
    • “Paul Gronke, a Reed College professor who oversees the Early Voting Information Center, a Reed academic research center, says Oregon’s system is good — but it might not neccessarily be exportable to other states.” (11/3/2016)
  • The Atlantic:“Trump’s Latest Gambit: Early-Voting ‘Buyer’s Remorse'”
    • “It may seem like just another of Trump’s whoppers, like his claim about the vote being “rigged”—to name just one of his many examples. But in this case, the Republican nominee is at least partially correct, said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center in California.” (11/2/2016)
  • Christian Science Monitor:“Some early voters get a do-over – but are they taking it?”
    • ““October ‘surprises’ can’t be launched at the last minute any more,” Paul Gronke, a professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore., who directs the Early Voting Information Center, tells the Monitor in an email. “Think about that for a second: Early voting may actually reduce the possibility of a ‘planned’ campaign October surprise. Unplanned ones … are a lot more difficult.”” (11/2/2016)
  • Johnson City Press:“Early voting on the rise in Washington County, statewide”
    • “Candidates will likely visit early and often in states with wide-open early voting, Gronke said, evidenced by both Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s frequent appearances in Florida last week.” (10/31/2016)
  • NPR: “5 Questions About Early Voting, Answered”
    • “The more votes are cast before Nov. 8, the more work Clinton and Donald Trump will have wrapped up by Election Day. As early voting expert Paul Gronke told NPR, that changes campaign strategy.” (10/28/2016)
  • Christian Science Monitor:“Wisconsin clerk rejects early voting site: Is that a form of voter suppression?”
    • ““Historically, voting extension and restrictions have always been driven by competition” along partisan lines, Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center, tells The Christian Science Monitor. “There’s some evidence that when states have cut back on early voting, particularly in the southeast, particular segments of the population are harmed, like African Americans.”” (10/26/2016)
  • The Oregonian: “Quarter-million new ‘motor voters’ could sway outcome in Oregon’s races”
    • “Paul Gronke, a Reed College political science professor who specializes in studying voting behavior, said the ease of mail-in ballots– along with Oregonians’ general propensity to participate in civic life – could drive turnout as high as 35 percent to 40 percent among motor voters.” (10/21/2016)
  • Albuquerque Journal:“Trump’s election-rigging allegations are affecting people’s faith in democracy”
    • “A political scientist at MIT, Charles Stewart III, who writes on election-related issues at Cal Tech’s Election Updates blog, dug up the 2012 numbers this week. Stewart and his colleague Paul Gronke included a couple questions on election confidence in the 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, which is administered in the fall of election years.” (10/19/2016)
  • Bloomberg:“Clinton campaign makes drive for early votes to sew up North Carolina”
    • “”The Clinton campaign has good relations with the state and local parties, with the folks who have information on voters who in the past have cast either early in person or no excuse absentee ballots,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College. “By all reports the Trump campaign has lagged in terms of putting together a get out the vote operation. The same thing applies to get out the early vote.”” (10/13/2016)
  • Anniston Star: “Selase has less than two weeks to file election challenge; Little refutes suggestions of fraud in absentee voting”
    • “”There is virtually no voter fraud in this country. That has been documented many times,” Gronke wrote in a message to The Star on Wednesday in response to questions on absentee ballot fraud. “It is true that absentee ballots are the most prone to fraud, but within the context of very little fraud.”” (10/5/2016)
  • NPR: “A Complete Guide To Early And Absentee Voting”
    • “This could be a component for each of the campaigns’ successes or failures, especially in battleground states that allow early and no-excuse absentee ballot voting. Florida, for instance, saw almost 4 in 10 people vote early (20 percent early in-person, 19 percent absentee). Professor Paul Gronke of Reed College and founder of the Early Voting Information Center told NPR’s Scott Simon that Florida could see an even bigger early vote turnout this year.” (9/23/2016)
  • Marketplace: “This election’s about — and causing — anxiety”
    • “”I think everyone could benefit a little bit from hopping in their cars and taking a drive and seeing what the country’s experiencing,” said Paul Gronke, professor of political science at Reed college. “Rural or mountain areas, coal country Appalachia have not been doing well.”” (9/15/2016)
  • AP: “Get your ballots ready: Voting in White House race underway”
    • “”If one campaign does significantly better in harvesting early votes, that campaign will have a substantial advantage as election day approaches,” said Paul Gronke, a Reed College professor and director of the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Oregon.” (9/9/2016)
  • Christian Science Monitor:“Why early voting could favor Democrats in key states”
    • ““This is going to change the dynamics in [battleground] states, so that you will expect to see early rallies timed when the early voting opens up likely in Florida, Ohio, North Carolina,” Prof. Paul Gronke, founder and director of the Early Voting Information Center and a professor at Reed College, told NPR. “The candidates travel schedule will reflect this because they want to follow up this kind of enthusiasm and get people to the polls right away.”” (9/3/2016)
  • NPR:“Early Voting Kicks Off”
    • “Paul Gronke is a professor of political science at Reed College in Portland, Ore. He’s founder and director of the Early Voting Information Center. He joins us from Philadelphia. Professor Gronke, thanks for being with us.” (9/3/2016)
  • Asian News International: “Does early voting affect political campaigns, election outcomes?”
    • “Paul Gronke, editor of an election journal, explained: “Typically, most observers think of the ‘early vote’ as one homogenous mass of voters who choose to cast their ballots prior to Election Day. These authors discover that ‘early’ early voters tend to be older and more partisan, while ‘late deciding’ early voters are younger and more likely to be independents.”” (8/21/2016)
  • The Oregonian: “State starts phase two of DMV ‘motor voter’ sign-up”
    • ““We may have some problems emerging among individuals who were added through this system that are older and are not used to fixing their registration online, registering with a party online,” Gronke said.” (6/12/2016)
  • The Oregonian: “State funding at center of tax debate”
    • ““This is the big battle for us in the fall,” said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College. “There’s a lot of money and momentum behind it and huge forces arrayed against it, as well. It’s a good way for this debate to be fought. May the best side win.”” (5/25/2016)
  • Portland Tribune:“Big primary matchups? Big voter turnout? Meh, not so much”
    • ““It’s an important symbolic threshold, but also the state is growing,” said Paul Gronke, a political science professor and director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College. “It’s sort of like those box office records that have been broken every year. They’re kind of meaningless.”” (5/18/2016)
  • Portland Tribune: “Candidates, parties shake off ‘bland’ politics to attract young voters”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political science professor and director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, offered a different perspective. Gronke said Oregon has a highly educated electorate and attracts large crowds to political rallies. “But then when you look at the political leadership, it’s so bland,” Gronke said. “Who’s the next hot shot in Oregon politics? I don’t know.”” (5/3/2016)
  • The Oregonian: “Hurry! Oregon’s voter registration deadline is Tuesday, April 26”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College, said the state parties and a handful of national groups have all been targeting Oregon voters in the run-up to May 17. But Gronke said there’s something simpler at play. Oregonians, used to picking presidents late in the game, and with few competitive state primaries, appreciate at least the semblance of a contest. ‘If you want to get young people engaged, you need to have a competitive election,’ he said. ‘When we have noncompetitive races, people detach.'” (4/22/2016)
  • The Oregonian:“Jeff Merkley talks about his ‘very comfortable’ Bernie Sanders endorsement”
    • “‘Sanders has a very tough road,’ said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College, noting Clinton’s lingering strength in both New York and California.” (4/13/2016)
  • The Oregonian:“Oregon sees surge in unaffiliated voters now willing to pick a party””
    • “Nearly three-fourth of Oregon’s 2.2 million registered voters are eligible to vote in the state’s presidential primaries. It’s unclear whether the relatively tiny number of people who are changing parties will impact the outcome, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Portland-based Reed College who specializes in voter behavior.” (4/2/2016)
  • Seattle Times:“Automatic voter registration takes hold on West Coast”
    • “Voter registration laws in the U.S. have only been around for about 150 years, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland who specializes in voter behavior.” (3/6/2016)
  • KATU:“Oregon sees spike in unaffiliated voters choosing a party”
    • “Nearly 3/4 of Oregon’s 2.2 million registered voters are eligible to vote in the state’s presidential primaries. It’s unclear whether the relatively tiny number of people who are changing parties will impact the outcome, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Portland-based Reed College who specializes in voter behavior.” (1/1/2016)
  • The Oregonian: “Monica Wehby’s PAC forges unusual path, connections”
    • “‘I’ve never heard of this being done through a PAC’ in Oregon, said Paul Gronke, a Reed College political science professor. Developing a data tool for Republicans could be ‘a smart thing,’ he said, but building such an operation around a failed candidate is ‘really unusual.'” (9/18/2015)
  • The Oregonian: “Why incumbents have upper hand — especially in Portland”
    • “Portland’s political system is also largely self-reinforcing, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College.” (9/15/2015)
  • The Oregonian: “Anatomy of an implosion: No one wins in Oregon road-funding collapse”
    • “‘This was an example that she could move beyond the perception that she’s only a Portland liberal leader,’ said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College.” (6/27/2015)
  • The Oregonian:“Kate Brown, Senate work to pressure House on road-funding deal”
    • “‘You have to credit Republicans for moving on this one. Democrats aren’t going to want to hear that,’ said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College. ‘They’re holding the gun to their own head and refusing to accept an agreement they should be in favor of.'” (6/20/2015)
  • The Oregonian: “The surprises in Oregon’s pioneering new voter registration system: a Q&A”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College, said younger and less-affluent voters are more apt to favor Democrats. They also are more often likely to be unregistered, in large part because they are more likely to move frequently.” (3/14/2015)
  • New York Times:“Voter ID Laws Scrutinized for Impact on Midterms”
    • ““Turnout is complex and affected by many things,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College. “I think it is far too early to assess the impact of changes in voting laws on turnout.”” (11/19/2014)
  • USA Today: “New way to get out the vote: Public shaming”
    • “Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore., said the app “does feel like Big Brother is looking over your shoulder.”” (10/31/2014)
  • Daily Astorian:“Bad signatures top reason for ballot rejection”
    • “Paul Gronke, political director for DHM Research and the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, said counties could make it easier for people to vote on time, if they installed more drop boxes in convenient locations. Gronke was less concerned about ballots rejected because the signatures did not match, because he said signature verification is an important measure to prevent fraud.” (10/29/2014)
  • NPR:“Want Your Absentee Vote To Count? Don’t Make These Mistakes”
    • “Paul Gronke, who runs the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon, says he’s concerned about all these lost votes. ‘After the 2000 election, a lot of attention was paid in this country to voting machines to make sure that no one was denied the right to vote because of a machine that didn’t function properly, or a chad that did not hang properly,’ Gronke says.” (10/22/2014)
  • Madisonville Messenger:“Why can’t Kentuckians vote early?”
    • “Some early voting experts agreed that eventually early voting will be in every state. It’s just too popular of an issue to oppose, said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center, which tracks early voting around the country.” (10/6/2014)
  • Dalles Chronicle:“Walden spending draws media notice – Reports show $300, 000 spent on meals since 2011”
    • “In the KGW report, Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland, said “a little bit of perspective is important here.”” (9/10/2014)
  • KGW:“Oregon congressman spent $300K on meals”
    • “Gronke explained campaign contributions can’t be used for personal expenses. But lawmakers have wide discretion on how they spend the money, including fancy meals.” (9/5/2014)
  • Portland Press Herald:“Early voting trend ripples through Maine’s gubernatorial race”
    • “The electoral sea change described by Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College in Oregon and director of the Early Voting Information Center, may go unnoticed by the general public, but it is a major concern for local and national political campaigns. In 2008 and 2012, the start of early voting in swing states dictated the timing of campaign stops by the presidential candidates. For the gubernatorial campaign committees of Republican Gov. Paul LePage, Democrat U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud and independent Eliot Cutler, as well as their aligned political organizations, the prevalence of early voting – or in Maine no-excuse absentee voting – is the target of scrutiny, hand-wringing and sophisticated efforts designed to ensure that loyal supporters actually vote.” (8/17/2014)
  • The Oregonian: “Portland power axis: How the political system, voting behavior limit east Portland’s voice”
    • “‘It seems like every other city determined long ago that that’s the best way to do things,’ said Paul Gronke, a Reed College political science professor and political research director for polling firm DHM Research. ‘Except Portland.'” (7/28/2014)
  • AP: “Political parties fight to manipulate voting times”
    • “Early voting generally increases voter turnout by 2-4 percent, which is statistically significant, said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.” (6/8/2014)
  • The Oregonian:“Reed College professor Paul Gronke headed to Ukraine to monitor volatile presidential vote”
    • “Gronke, who heads the Early Voting Information Center at Reed, is a volunteer observer for OSCE, which stands for Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. It’s a post-World War II group that formed to mediate conflicts and press for human rights among 57 participating nations.” (5/14/2014)
  • The Oregonian:“Gov. John Kitzhaber, once seen as re-election shoo-in, has a fight on his hands”
    • “‘We like to be a leader and an innovator,’ when it comes to health care, said Paul Gronke, political science professor at Reed College. ‘Now we’re like a national joke.'” (5/9/2014)
  • South China Morning Post:“Hong Kong still seeking a middle ground on electoral reform”
    • ““It is not possible to reconcile block voting with the requirement of universal and equal suffrage as detailed in ICCPR,” said Professor Paul Gronke, co-editor of Election Law Journal and a political scientist at Reed College in Oregon.” (5/6/2014)
  • The Oregonian:“The politics of water: Portland’s fight over its drinking supply is constant and contentious”
    • ““The politics of water in most places is that there isn’t much. You turn on the tap, it comes out. That’s all there is to it,” said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College. “Things are different here.”” (4/25/2014)
  • South China Morning Post:“Anson Chan puts forward plan for 2017 chief executive election”
    • “Professor Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College, US, and the editor of the Election Law Journal, was shocked by Beijing’s stipulation that the chief executive must be patriotic, a requirement not stated in the city’s mini-constitution. It was undemocratic and comparable to “military democracy”, he said. “The government should not control candidates’ ideology.”” (3/21/2014)
  • Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: “Analyzing early voting is no easy task”
    • “”There’s only so much more you can do,” said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College and director of the Early Voting Information Center.” (3/19/2014)
  • Slate:“The New Conservative Assault on Early Voting”
    • “The claim is empirically false. As Doug Chapin explains: “This argument, which was popular a decade ago, is undercut by research by Paul Gronke and others showing that early voters are not only more partisan but less undecided, meaning that they have no interest in ‘taking in the full back and forth of the campaign.’ It also flies in the face of voters, well, voting with their feet by choosing to cast ballots outside of the traditional polling place.”” (2/10/2014)
  • The Oregonian: “In trying to save career, Jeff Cogen follows Sam Adams’ playbook”
    • “”The strategy is straightforward,” said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College. “You ask for due process. Then you defer. You keep your head down for a while. You hope it passes.”” (7/27/2013)
  • Connecticut Post: “Voting Rights Act must be restored”
    • “A study in 2011 by Paul Gronke of Reed College and Charles Stewart of Massachusetts Institute of Technology titled “Early Voting in Florida” showed that a reduction in the number of early hours for voting lessened the turnout of black voters.” (7/5/2013)
  • The Oregonian: “Steve Duin: Is Portland learning from its mistakes?”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political-science professor at Reed College, cuts to the heart of the problem when he says: ‘The Council doesn’t act as a legislature to critically oversee proposals, and you don’t have a single executive. You have five executives who don’t like to tread on each other’s territory.'” (5/22/2013)
  • ProPublica:“Can Vote-By-Mail Fix Those Long Lines At The Polls?”
    • “Proponents of mail and absentee voting say it can encourage higher voter turnout. Last November, Oregon had the sixth-highest voter turnout of eligible voters in the country, though the five states with higher turnout had a mix of mail and in-person voting. Mail-only elections also require fewer staff and resources, said professor Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (2/19/2013)
  • Newark Star-Ledger: “N.J. Dems to push for early voting”
    • “”Voters make more mistakes with absentee ballots because you don’t have the immediate feedback of an election machine,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore. “This is why more states have gone for early, in-person voting.”” (11/9/2012)
  • The Oregonian: “Oregon stays put on pot while other states may make historic changes”
    • “‘We are starting to look a little stodgy, aren’t we?’ said Paul Gronke, political science professor at Reed College. One reason may be that Oregon is still dusting itself off from the recession and is wary about change, he said. ‘It tends to take a little of the sheen off being a maverick.'”(11/7/2012)
  • Washington Times: “Long lines expected at polls despite early voting”
    • “”It ought to, but there are so many weedy details,” said Paul Gronke, a professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore., who runs its Early Voting Information Center and is considered the go-to expert on the phenomenon.” (11/6/2012)
  • Minnesota Public Radio:“Is early voting killing ‘Election Day?'”
    • “Paul Gronke, founder and director of the Early Voting Information Center and professor of political science at Reed College, said he compares it to the plumbing in your house.” (11/5/2012)
  • Washington Post:“Ruth Marcus: Early voting’s pros and cons”
    • “In what early voting expert Paul Gronke of Reed College has termed a “quiet revolution” in American politics, the country no longer has Election Day — we have Election Month.” (11/1/2012)
  • Miami Herald:“Obama casts vote as he and Romney scramble for other early voters”
    • “Obama voted Thursday in Chicago, the first time an incumbent president has voted early. He implored supporters to do the same. Thirty-five percent of all voters are expected to cast early ballots, up from 31 percent four years ago, according to Paul Gronke, director of the Reed College Early Voting Information Center in Oregon.” (10/30/2012)
  • Newsmax: “Campaigns Target Absentee Voters”
    • “”Both parties have these long lists with millions of names on them,” Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Oregon’s Reed College, told the Times-Dispatch. “It’s a big checklist, and they’re trying to check your name off.”” (10/29/2012)
  • Houston Chronicle: “Election 2012 – Thousands get out the vote”
    • “Early voting began gaining ground in some parts of the country more than two decades ago and since has been adopted widely nationwide and in some foreign countries, according to a 2008 paper by Reed College political scientist Paul Gronke, who runs the Early Voting Information Center.” (10/27/2012)
  • Daily Beast: “Democrats Showing Momentum in Early Voting”
    • ““The Democratic enthusiasm in those two states exceeds 2008” when it comes to early voting, said Paul Gronke, an early-voting expert who teaches political science at Reed College.” (10/26/2012)
  • Baltimore Sun: “Early voting starts Saturday, runs 6 days”
    • “”Clerks generally like this because it reduces pressure on Election Day — as long as the funding is there,” he said. Gronke said early voting has won wide acceptance in the South and West but has run into resistance in the more tradition-minded Northeast. “It seems more geographic than partisan,” he said.” (10/26/2012)
  • CNN:“By the numbers: early voting”
    • “In 2004, 22% of Americans voted early and that rate rose to more than 30% in 2008, according to Paul Gronke, professor of Political Science who founded and runs the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon. Gronke estimates that as much as 40% of eligible voters will cast an early ballot during the 2012 election.” (10/25/2012)
  • AP: “Absentee voting’s rise means more risk of problems”
    • “”The rejected ballots are overwhelmingly due to voter error — usually bad signatures or unsigned envelopes,” Gronke said in an email.” (10/25/2012)
  • NPR:“Is Early Voting A ‘Quiet Revolution?'”
    • “The Pew Center on the States estimates that as many of 35 percent of all votes will come in before Election Day. We wanted to talk more about this so we’ve called Paul Gronke. He is the director of the Early Voting Information Center. That’s a nonpartisan research firm that looks at early voting trends across the country. He’s also a political science professor at Reed College in Oregon.” (10/24/2012)
  • The Oregonian: “Dissatisfaction with Portland mayoral candidates could prompt voters to fill in the blank”
    • “‘I am surprised at the level of dissatisfaction I’m seeing expressed,’ said political science professor Paul Gronke, who teaches at Reed College.” (10/23/2012)
  • The Oregonian: “Portland Public Schools hopes restructured bond plan will lead to approval”
    • “A presidential election could help tip the scales in the district’s favor by attracting more young voters open to taxes, but some may find it hard to vote for all three because of their pocketbooks, according to Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College. “We’re a tax-tolerant city and county,” he said, “but there’s going to be a point where people say, that’s kind of too much.”” (10/22/2012)
  • KGW: “Reed Chair: Debate was close, ‘good television'”
    • “The second debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney could be viewed as a toss-up, with the spirited sparring making for “pretty good television,” said Paul Gronke, chair of the Reed College political science department.” (10/17/2012)
  • Honolulu Star-Advertiser: “Campaigns must target early and regular voters”
    • “What tactical advantage that gives is not clear. Paul Gronke, head of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore., says the early votes may just be votes that a candidate would have gotten anyway.” (10/16/2012)
  • Indian Country Today: “Elections 2012: Who Wins With Early Voting?”
    • “One difference between early voting is in person or by mail. “There are some partisan patterns to early voting; Democrats tend to use early in-person voting more frequently and Republicans tend to vote by mail,” writes Paul Gronke for the Early Voting Information Center. “My own belief is that these patterns have their roots in longstanding mobilization strategies and are not inherent to the mode of balloting. The GOP built up direct mail lists in the last 1970s, for instance, and began to encourage absentee voting in the 80s. Democrats came to the early voting game later, and the states they focused on happened to have a larger proportion of early in-person voters.”” (10/16/2012)
  • KCRW: “Election Day Is Becoming Election Month”
    • (10/1/2012)
  • KCRW: “Early Voting Transforms Campaign Strategy”
    • (10/1/2012)
  • Washington Post:“Who are the early voters, and why do they matter?”
    • “First, Gronke stresses that it’s a misconception that most early voters will miss out on all of the debates: In Florida, for instance, early voting doesn’t start until Oct. 27, just a week before the election. So while early voting is extremely popular in certain states—in Nevada and Colorado, it accounts for more than two-thirds of the ballots cast—many of these voters will actually be waiting until late October to cast their ballots. Right now, ‘very few people are actually casting ballots,’ Gronke says.” (9/28/2012)
  • NPR:“Election Day? Expert Says 35 Percent Of All Votes Could Be Cast Before Nov. 6”
    • “Gronke tells NPR’s Morning Edition that he expects some 35 percent of all votes in the race between President Obama and Mitt Romney to be cast before Election Day on Nov. 6, even though some states this year have limited early voting.” (9/27/2012)
  • NPR:“‘Decided Voters’ Take Advantage Of Early Voting”
    • “Some people are actually already voting. Early voting is underway in several states, and today Iowa joins that club. In total, 34 states allow early voting in one form or another. It’s becoming a much more popular option with each election, and we wanted to learn more, so we reached Paul Gronke. He’s director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College. Professor Gronke, welcome to the program.” (9/27/2012)
  • Bangor Daily News:“Absentee voting is for benefit of voters, not candidates”
    • “At least one study, “Early Voting and Turnout” by Paul Gronke, Eva Galanes-Rosenbaum and Peter A. Miller of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore., shows that early voting does not boost turnout significantly — unless coupled with same-day voter registration. Early voters told Gronke, Galanes-Rosenbaum and Miller that they would have voted on Election Day if the advance option was not available, and the researchers found no strong evidence that the availability of early voting encouraged people who otherwise would not have cast a ballot to do so.” (9/26/2012)
  • Spokane Spokesman-Review:“Early voting alters campaign strategies”
    • “Paul Gronke, who directs the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland,said most early voters don’t cast their ballots until the final week or two before an election. “The real danger period for candidates is three or four days before the election,” he said.” (9/25/2012)
  • Dubuque Telegraph Herald: “Requests for absentee ballots soar”
    • “Clearly, absentee voting is a growing trend. According to one report, 22 percent of Americans voted early in 2004 and 34 percent in 2008. That figure is expected to rise this year to as much as 40 percent, said the report from Paul Gronke, a professor of political science who founded and runs the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon.” (9/24/2012)
  • CNN:“In voting, the early bird skips the line”
    • “In 2004, 22% of Americans voted early and that rate rose to 34% in 2008, according to Paul Gronke, Professor of Political Science who founded and runs the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon.” (9/23/2012)
  • UPI: “States gear up for early, absentee voting”
    • “Since 2000 the rate of increase has been 50 percent in every presidential election Paul Gronke, Director of the Early Voting Center at Reed College, told ABC News. In 2000 it was about 15 percent; in 2004 it was about 22 percent; in 2008 it was about 33 percent.” (9/20/2012)
  • Madisonville Messenger: “Kentucky among 16 states needing excuse for early voting”
    • “A flurry of states after 2000 began allowing early voting after it migrated eastward from California and Oregon. Those two states in the 1970s became the first to enact laws allowing voters to cast ballots before Election Day without having to provide a reason, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Oregon and founder of the Early Voting Information Center.” (9/18/2012)
  • The Oregonian: “My OPB Friday political chat: Casino advertising, convention wrap-up, fluoridation”
    • “Political scientist Paul Gronke (filling in for Bill Lunch), OPB host Geoff Norcross and I also talked about Portland’s fluoridation plans and we summarized what we thought of the political conventions.” (9/7/2012)
  • Tampa Bay Times:“Florida’s early-vote ‘expert’ unconvincing”
    • “Leaning heavily on Gronke’s analysis, the judges concluded that, yes, the effect of early-voting changes would be harmful to blacks, but they suggested a possible remedy: The five affected counties should offer early voting from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for eight days from Oct. 27 through Nov. 3, including one Sunday, Oct. 28.” (9/4/2012)
  • The Oregonian:“Early voting kicks off in some states, weeks before Nov. 6 election”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore., said that without the level of enthusiasm and excitement that existed in 2008 the early voting patterns might build up more slowly. He also noted, however, that Romney, unlike McCain, has embraced some of the same social media techniques that Obama used in 2008 to motivate his early voters.” (9/4/2012)
  • Daily Astorian: “Personal Limits Muddy Mayoral Race Money Picture”
    • “Paul Gronke is a professor of Political Science at Reed College. He points out the candidates chose different kinds of restrictions for their fundraising: Hales picked a $600 per donor limit and a ban on out-of-state donations, Smith chose a higher, $1000 per donor limit, and pledged an overall spending cap of $500,000, unless more is spent on behalf of his opponent.” (8/28/2012)
  • Dayton Daily News: “Ohio in middle on access”
    • ““Where Ohio stands right now is basically, square in the middle,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center, and a professor of political science at Reed College in Oregon.” (8/21/2012)
  • The Astorian: “Hales: Former Commissioner Trying To Stand Out In Crowded Field”
    • “Of course, Adams and Hales had very different kinds of careers at City Hall. And Gronke adds he does think the voters will be looking for some stability, given the tough times the city has endured recently.” (4/2/2012)
  • USA Today: “More voters casting ballots ahead of time”
    • “”It generally benefits the better organized candidates with more money, because it’s costly to do this,” says Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Oregon who runs the Early Voting Information Center.” (1/16/2012)
  • Columbus Dispatch: “Banned voting options popular”
    • “Early voting should start at least 10 days before an election to be truly convenient, Gronke said. It also should include some weekend hours. Ohio’s new law would allow weekend voting from 8 a.m. until noon on Saturdays.” (7/24/2011)
  • The Oregonian: “Portland school leaders plan to dial back new construction bond”
    • “‘There’s resistance on the part of Oregonians to endorse spending measures in this economy,’ said Reed College political science professor Paul Gronke. ‘There is a pretty big gap between what an economist will tell you about where we are economically, that we’re in recovery, and what ordinary citizens are feeling in terms of job growth, income, home values and economic security.'” (5/19/2011)
  • Rocky Mount Telegram: “Early-voting time reduced in N.C. House proposal”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon, said some states with Republican-led legislatures such as Georgia and Florida this year have considered or passed bills reducing early voting periods. The reasons they give appear to be more about fiscal management than voter suppression, he said.” (5/11/2011)
  • The Oregonian: “City Hall: Portland’s publicly funded campaign system ends without reaching aspirations”
    • “‘If we had retained it, no one would have noticed,’ said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College, who pointed to efforts in Arizona and Maine as the best public-finance models.” (11/3/2010)
  • The Oregonian: “Many Oregon voters say they need more time and details before they mail back their ballots”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, says he’s noticed a trend since 2000, when Oregon started vote-by-mail. ‘The first few vote-by-mail elections saw a lot of ‘early’ early voters,’ he said. ‘That trend has lessened as the novelty of early voting has worn off.'” (10/24/2010)
  • Casper Star-Tribune: “More people like to vote early”
    • “Election watchers don’t expect the rate of early voting to be that high in this year’s elections, said Paul Gronke of Reed College and the Early Voting Information Center.” (10/24/2010)
  • Bloomberg: “Former NBA player makes play”
    • ““There is likely to be an upset, and it will be the biggest seismic change in Oregon politics in the last quarter-century,” said Paul Gronke, a Democrat and poll expert.” (10/19/2010)
  • Eugene Examiner: “Obama chooses Portland when stumping for Oregon Democrats Wednesday”
    • ““The White House may have thought Oregon was a safe state for Democrats,” said Paul Gronke during a radio interview in Portland. “I think the president needs some wins. I think the Oregon race is one they had in their win column. It’s tighter than I think they expected. In fact, some of the recent polls indicate Kitzhaber is behind.”” (10/19/2010)
  • NPR:“How Early Voting Is Changing Elections”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Oregon’s Reed College, says for campaigns, early voting has become a vital tool for mobilizing voters and monitoring turnout. In Oregon, Florida and other states, elections officials make public the names and addresses of early voters — oftentimes just hours after they cast their votes.” (10/17/2010)
  • The Oregonian: “City Hall: Voters finally get say in voter-owned elections”
    • “‘If we continue the system we have, no one’s going to take much notice,’ said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College. ‘The only situation that’s going to be noticed is if we turn away from it, and that’s because (voting against it) runs contrary to Portland’s national image.'” (10/16/2010)
  • The Oregonian: “Democracy or just a dole?”
    • “”If we continue the system we have, no one’s going to take much notice,” said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College. “The only situation that’s going to be noticed is if we turn away from it, and that’s because (voting against it) runs contrary to Portland’s national image.”” (10/16/2010)
  • AP: Fight for Congress could last past Election Day”
    • “”Alaska has the real potential for a meltdown,” said Paul Gronke, a Reed College professor who studies elections. “If it’s close and the Senate’s close, wow — then I’m thinking we all better be booking our trips to Anchorage.”” (10/6/2010)
  • Wichita Eagle:“Should the state require you to show ID to vote?”
    • “Paul Gronke, an author and political science professor at Reed College in Oregon who specializes in studying elections, said he has mixed feelings about the photo ID laws.” (10/5/2010)
  • Lorain Morning Journal:“RICHARD OSBORNE: Voters should be doing their homework for this election”
    • “Early voters tend to be “older, better educated, and more cognitively engaged in the campaign and in politics,” according to Paul Gronke and Daniel Krantz, political scientists at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. They made their observations in a 2008 paper they wrote for the Journal of Social Issues.” (10/3/2010)
  • USA Today: “Early voting changes campaigns, if not turnout”
    • “Paul Gronke, who runs the Early Voting Information Center at Oregon’s Reed College, said that a significant percentage of the early voters in 2008 were black supporters of President Barack Obama, particularly in southeastern states, who were inspired by the prospect of the first black president. Gronke said Obama even had an early-voting rally in Florida two weeks before the 2008 election.” (9/16/2010)
  • Baltimore Sun:“State sees low turnout in first early voting run”
    • “Based on previous Maryland gubernatorial primaries, election officials are expecting a 30 percent turnout, meaning that early voting would make up about 8 percent of the votes cast in the primary. Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon, said that percentage seems slight. “I would expect more people to be taking advantage of it,” he said.” (9/10/2010)
  • Politico:“State parties look past RNC for cash”
    • “In fact, absentee ballots in some states could go out as early as Sept. 20 — just a little than three weeks after the traditional Labor Day start to the general election season, said Paul Gronke, chairman of Reed College’s political science department.” (9/3/2010)
  • AP: “A top Vt. senator claims victory in governor race”
    • “But Paul Gronke, professor of political science at Reed College, said a recount “should not harm the Democrat’s chances if it is completed in a timely fashion.”” (8/25/2010)
  • Tampa Bay Times: “Thousands of early voters cast their ballots in Florida’s contentious primary election”
    • “Since then, other states have followed Florida’s lead, and the percent of voters in the country who take advantage of early voting laws has increased about 50 percent each election year, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Oregon and an expert on early voting.” (8/19/2010)
  • Tuscaloosa News: “Initiative in California Would Change How It Votes”
    • “Regardless of the proposition’s intent, electoral experts say its impact is unclear. Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, worked to defeat a similar ballot measure in Oregon in 2008.” (5/27/2010)
  • New York Times:“California Puts Vote Overhaul on the Ballot”
    • “Regardless of the proposition’s intent, electoral experts say its impact is unclear. Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, worked to defeat a similar ballot measure in Oregon in 2008. ‘I felt like it was snake oil,’ Mr. Gronke said. ‘It was like a little carny barker going around saying, ‘It’s going to cure everything.’’” (5/26/2010)
  • The Oregonian: “Unlike in Oregon, voting by mail not easy in many states”
    • “Paul Gronke, a Reed College professor who is an expert on early voting, says the restrictions on absentee voting may seem strange to Oregonians. But as he notes, our ban on self-service gas also probably seems pretty odd to outsiders.” (5/7/2010)
  • Greensboro News & Record: “Public awareness spurs early voting increase since ’06”
    • “”We are taking away Election Day voters,” Tsujii said, referring to studies by Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (4/24/2010)
  • USA Today: “Election reflections”
    • “A gaggle of studies shows that early voting has helped boost turnout by a few percentage points, says Reed College voting expert Paul Gronke. In local and state elections, where there’s less excitement than in a presidential or even midterm campaign like this year’s, its impact is greater. Convenience counts when you’re asked to slog to the polls for a bond issue or a school board race. That’s all for the better.” (4/3/2010)
  • New York Times: “A Push to Supplement Tuesday Voting With Weekends”
    • “Some states have limited voting on the Saturday before a Tuesday election in centralized locations, like county election offices or other governmental offices, said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College.” (3/10/2010)
  • Newark Star-Ledger: “State puts its stamp of approval on vote-by-mail”
    • Paul Gronke, who teaches courses on political behavior and heads up Reed College’s Early Voting Research Center, said the chain of custody is important.” (10/2/2009)
  • Philadelphia Inquirer: “Bill passed to make voting by mail easier in N.J.”
    • “New Jersey didn’t go as far as states such as Oregon and Washington, which vote almost entirely by mail. Even so, offering a “permanent” mail option will likely boost New Jersey’s turnout, especially in the typically low-interest school board or municipal elections, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (6/1/2009)
  • Syracuse Post-Standard: “Changing the way we vote”
    • “”Early voting does encourage turnout among regular voters for low-intensity contests, but it does not help solve the participation puzzle for new voters or those outside the system for reasons of disinterest, language, disability or other burdens,” says Reed College political science professor Paul Gronke, an expert on early voting. “But it is possible that this relationship may change as voters become used to early voting systems, as early voting locations become more easily accessible and as political organizations adapt to the early voting system.”” (5/24/2009)
  • Omaha World-Herald: “Early drive in mayoral race”
    • “”Early voting has dramatically changed campaigns, but in a way that is beneath the surface, that a lot of people don’t notice,” said Paul Gronke, director of the nonpartisan Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (4/27/2009)
  • AP: “MN Senate fiasco could boost early voting efforts”
    • “”I think it will make states look closely at their own laws and procedures for handling absentee ballots,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon. Asked whether that would extend to early voting, Gronke said: “Definitely.”” (2/16/2009)
  • Tampa Bay Times: “Early-voting sites inadequate, state elections chief says”
    • “But little evidence suggests either type of voting actually favors any group, said Paul Gronke, a Pew consultant and director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon. “It doesn’t change the makeup of the electorate. What it does is shift them around.”” (12/10/2008)
  • MinnPost: “Minnesota elections are already a national leader, but could they be better?”
    • “Soon, every state, including Minnesota, may be forced to have some form of early voting. Gronke says pending federal legislation sponsored by Hillary Rodham Clinton and others would mandate no-excuse absentee voting and a 15-day early-voting period nationwide for all federal elections.” (11/14/2008)
  • Hazleton Standard-Speaker: “Advocates: Pa. early voting on horizon”
    • “Paul Gronke, Ph.D., the Reed College political science professor who directs the Early Voting Information Center, said in an e-mail that states where early voting is not allowed tend to have traditional political cultures and party systems. Often, there is also an element of partisanship that “slows things down,” he said.” (11/10/2008)
  • NPR: “Early Voting Grows In Popularity”
    • “An increasing number of people are taking advantage of early voting to avoid the crowds on Election Day. Professor Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore., says there are more early voters now, in part, because more states are offering the option of early voting.” (11/7/2008)
  • The World: “Vote counting continues in Georgia and elsewhere”
    • “Georgia is still red for a fourth consecutive presidential election, but in the Senate race, things aren’t clear two days after Election Day. Votes are still being counted, and there may well be a runoff election called for Dec. 2 between Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democratic challenger Jim Martin. Georgia Public Broadcasting News Director Susanna Capelouto explains the status of the race, while Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, scores Tuesday’s voting process.” (11/6/2008)
  • The Astorian: “Voters stingy about approving state ballot measures”
    • “Reed College political science Prof. Paul Gronke said with so many measures on the ballot, a lot of Oregonians just voted no, as they did resoundingly against Measure 65, calling for open primaries. With 43 percent of the vote counted, it was rejected 66 percent to 44 percent.” (11/5/2008)
  • Los Angeles Times: “Record Voter Turnout Causes Long Waits at Polls”
    • “”It was breathtaking,” said Mark Ritchie, secretary of state for Minnesota, where 80 percent of registered voters had cast ballots by early evening with an hour left to go at the polls. Waits at the polls would have been even longer except for a dramatic surge in early voting, which appears to have accounted about one-third of the votes cast in the presidential race, compared with 14 percent eight years ago, according to Paul Gronke, a researcher with the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Ore. In North Carolina, the number of early voters equaled 70 percent of the entire turnout in 2004. In Colorado, more than half the vote came in early.” (11/4/2008)
  • St. Paul Pioneer Press: “Voters marvel at record-shattering turnouts”
    • “Waits at the polls would have been even longer except for a dramatic surge in early voting, which appears to have accounted for about one-third of the votes cast in the presidential race, compared with 14 percent eight years ago, according to Paul Gronke, a researcher with the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Ore. In North Carolina, the number of early voters equaled 70 percent of the entire turnout in 2004. In Colorado, more than half the vote came in early.” (11/4/2008)
  • CNN:“Past trouble spots could flare again, election analyst says”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Oregon’s Reed College, said Florida, Ohio and New Mexico — which also had a long count in 2004 — are likely to be ‘trouble spots’ again.” (11/3/2008)
  • The Oregonian:“Tomorrow’s vote could break century-old record”
    • “‘The level of voter enthusiasm and excitement indicates that this is a 100-year storm of elections,’ said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Portland’s Reed College.” (11/3/2008)
  • KCRW:“Election Day Headaches Are Starting Early This Year”
    • (11/3/2008)
  • UPI: “Congress may seek early voting expansion”
    • “It is almost certain that after the election there will be legislation proposed in the next session of Congress that will mandate no-excuse absentee balloting nationwide, said Paul Gronke, director of the non-partisan Early Voting Institute.” (11/3/2008)
  • WKRG: “Early Voting Could Go Nationwide”
    • “This historic election is expected to fuel congressional support for a law that allows voters to cast early ballots without providing an excuse, said the director of the nonpartisan Early Voting Institute, professor Paul Gronke.” (11/3/2008)
  • Los Angeles Times: “Early Voting Boom Could Portend Huge Turnout”
    • “”The level of voter enthusiasm and excitement indicates that this is a 100-year storm of elections,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (11/3/2008)
  • Newark Star-Ledger: “A vandal’s purple marker can’t blot out new idealism”
    • “Paul Gronke, executive director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College, told the New York Times that there are “more African-American, Hispanic and the young” among the early voters. Early voters in the past typically have been an older, higher-income bunch. The presidential race has become important to people my age – we’re talking about it, blogging, watching the debates. Why? Because this year, we’ve dared to hope.” (11/2/2008)
  • Seattle Times: “Washington’s pokey election system”
    • “Disenfranchising is an overwrought term, says Paul Gronke, professor of political science at Reed College in Oregon. He ought to know. Oregon requires ballots to be received by Election Day and provides many options for Election Day drop-off at libraries, stores — even McDonald’s.” (11/2/2008)
  • Montana Standard: “Early voting surges”
    • “Nationally, in past presidential elections, early voters have been more Republican, said Paul Gronke, of the Early Voting Center at Reed College, Oregon. Gronke has been a pundit of choice this election, appearing in the New York Times, the Washington Post and several cable news networks trying to decipher the affects of early voting, now that voters in 33 states can vote absentee without providing an excuse for not waiting.” (11/2/2008)
  • Portland Press Herald: “Democrats rush to polls”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political science professor who studies early voting patterns at Reed College in Portland, Ore., thinks Obama’s candidacy will benefit other Democrats.” (11/2/2008)
  • San Antonio Express-News: “Results are in: This year’s big winner is voting ahead of time”
    • “”Typically, early voters have been older, whiter, higher-income, better-educated,” said Paul Gronke of Reed College’s Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Oregon. “This year they have been younger, African American and more Democratic.”” (11/1/2008)
  • Billings Gazette: “Early voting catches on, experts: don’t read too much into it”
    • “Nationally, in past presidential elections, early voters have been more Republican, said Paul Gronke, of the Early Voting Center at Reed College in Oregon. Gronke has been a pundit of choice this election, appearing in the New York Times, the Washington Post and several cable news networks trying to decipher the effects of early voting, now that voters in 33 states can vote absentee without providing an excuse for not waiting.” (11/1/2008)
  • Jackson County Floridan: “Record numbers voting early this year”
    • “The Senate races could be a different story, said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center. Polls show tight races in a handful of states, and the outcome of some of those contests could be decided by just a few ballots, Gronke said.” (10/31/2008)
  • USA Today: “To beat Election Day rush, throngs waiting to vote early”
    • “Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon predicts that up to one-third of voters will vote early, up from 20% in 2004.” (10/30/2008)
  • Daily Beast: “Has Obama Already Won?”
    • “Until very recently, Obama was clearly benefiting from the Democrat-heavy early voting, but Gronke says that “the recent increase in mail-in absentee ballots is the first positive piece of news I’ve seen for McCain in a week or two.”” (10/29/2008)
  • Los Angeles Times: “Stakes Are High in Early Voting”
    • “Paul Gronke, Director of Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, said that “typically, early voters have been older, whiter, higher-income, better educated. This year they’ve been younger, African American and more Democratic.”” (10/29/2008)
  • Tulsa World: “Early bird voting”
    • “Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center predicts nearly a third of the U.S. electorate will vote early this year. That’s astounding, up from 15 percent in 2000 and 20 percent in 2004. In closely contested Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, about half the voters are expected to cast ballots before Election Day.” (10/29/2008)
  • Waterbury Republican-American: “Big turnout at the polls could bring the issue to Hartford”
    • “Most Northeastern states don’t have early voting. There is no clear reason why, but Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore., believes it’s because states nationwide seem to adopt early voting in response to electoral stress or crisis. He uses Florida, Georgia and Ohio as examples.” (10/28/2008)
  • Columbus Dispatch: “Early vote very Democratic”
    • “”It cannot be good news for the GOP that early voting turnout is trending so heavily Democratic,” said Paul Gronke, executive director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon.” (10/27/2008)
  • Star Tribune: “For voters by mail, campaign is history”
    • “Voting by mail, something of a broad expansion of absentee voting, began on a limited basis in Minnesota in 1987. This year, Minnesota is one of 28 states that provide it, according to Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center in Oregon, where all voting is done by mail. Nationally, about 30 percent of this year’s presidential election ballots are expected to be cast early, either by mail or in person.” (10/27/2008)
  • Stabroek News: “The race for the White House”
    • “This trend is the more noteworthy because in both 2000 and 2004 Bush won the early vote by some 20 per cent. “But what we are seeing now is that they are more African-American, Hispanic and the young,” said Paul Gronke, executive director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon. “I look at this and I go, ‘Wow!’ This is quite different.”” (10/26/2008)
  • Star Tribune: “Absentee voting drawing a crowd”
    • “Between absentee voting and early voting — allowed in 31 states — a third of the nation’s voters are expected to vote before Nov. 4, said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon. That’s up from 20 percent in 2004 and 15 percent in 2000, he said.” (10/26/2008)
  • Agence France-Presse: “Americans turn out heavily to vote early in US election”
    • “”Early voting has steadily increased from 14 percent in 2000 to 20 percent in 2004, and (we) predict that as many as a third of the electorate in 2008 will cast their votes before November 4,” said Paul Gronke, who heads the Early Voting Center at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.” (10/24/2008)
  • Kalamazoo Gazette: “Michigan should join states with early voting”
    • “USA Today last month cited Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center, who said he anticipates that up to a third of the electorate will vote early this year, up from 15 percent in 2000.” (10/24/2008)
  • Los Angeles Times: “Early Voters Favor Obama”
    • “”Historically, we’ve seen that early voters are older, they tend to be white, have higher incomes and are better educated,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon. “And that group of people tends to trend Republican. Now we have a mirror image in this campaign.”” (10/24/2008)
  • San Francisco Chronicle: “Early votes smashing records”
    • “The same sort of excitement can be seen in all of the 31 states that offer early voting, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Oregon’s Reed College who runs the Early Voting Information Center.” (10/24/2008)
  • USA Today: “Dems get big boost in early voting”
    • “”This is like a mirror image of what we’ve seen in the past,” says Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College. President Bush won 60% of the early votes in 2000 and 2004, he says.” (10/22/2008)
  • Peoria Journal Star: “Pushing to be heard”
    • “Homeowners with kids, people on a swing shift or punching a time clock, but also people with complicated lives who travel or have long commutes or don’t know if they’ll be out of town,’ Gronke said. ‘Early voting gives a window of opportunity to adjust, work out any problems.'” (10/19/2008)
  • NPR:“Early Voting Gets The Jump On Election”
    • “Are you so excited about the presidential campaign you can’t wait for the polls to open on November 4? Well, in 34 states you don’t have to. Voters in those states can cast their ballots before Election Day. Paul Gronke joins us from Portland, Oregon. He is director of the Early Voting Information Center and a consultant for The Pew Center on the States. Mr. Gronke, thanks so much for being with us.” (10/17/2008)
  • The Guardian: “Ballots already cast overwhelmingly favour Democrats, exit surveys suggest”
    • “Paul Gronke, of the Early Voting Information Centre, predicts that about 30% will cast their votes before November 4.” (10/16/2008)
  • Durham Herald-Sun: “Same-day registration helps turnout”
    • “In his research, Gronke says he believes early voters tend to be older and better educated and have longer commutes than the electorate as a whole. They don’t seem to have higher incomes, to be more partisan or to favor Democrats or Republicans, but Gronke writes that early voters are more trusting of government and are more active and engaged in the political process.” (10/16/2008)
  • Henry Daily Herald: “Record number of early voters, so far”
    • “The Associated Press reported last month at least 34 states, as well as the District of Columbia, would employ a form of early voting in anticipation of Election Day. Paul Gronke, of the Early Voting Information Center, said he anticipates nearly a third of the electorate in the country will cast ballots early this year.” (10/14/2008)
  • The Oregonian: “Measure 65, ending partisan primaries in Oregon, raises lots of questions”
    • “But Paul Gronke, a Reed College political science professor, predicted the open primary would produce more, not less, partisanship, and possibly a return to ‘smoke-filled rooms’ where party bosses dictate who the party’s nominees will be. ‘Measure 65 is a solution without a problem,’ Gronke said. ‘It is reform for reform’s sake.'” (10/11/2008)
  • Dayton Daily News: “Which party will benefit from early voting in Ohio?”
    • “Ohio is one of 25 states now casting ballots as part of early voting programs, and it’s one of 31 states that allow voters to vote early without providing an excuse, according to Paul Gronke, a consultant with the Pew Center on the States and a professor of political science at Reed College in Oregon.” (10/5/2008)
  • UPI: “Early voting gaining popularity in U.S.”
    • “Paul Gronke, a researcher at the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Ore., ventures that one-in-three votes cast in the general elections this year will be cast early by mail or in person, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. That would be up from 14 percent in 2000.” (10/1/2008)
  • Los Angeles Times: “Campaigns Adjust as Early Voting Rises”
    • “But nationally, early voting, by mail or in person, is becoming more common and is likely to account for one-third of all votes cast in the November elections, up from 14 percent in 2000, predicts Paul Gronke, a researcher with the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Ore.” (10/1/2008)
  • The World: “Early voting: Up to a third of voters could make a choice before Election Day”
    • “You might think that voting day is November 4th, but, for many, Americans voting day is tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after. It’s estimated that up to a third of voters this year will vote early. Paul Gronke of the Reed College Early Voting Information Center joins The Takeaway to tell us more about early voters as a growing demographic. Linda Howe, the head of the Lucas County, Ohio Board of Elections joins us to tell us how she’s preparing for the expected influx of early voters. Guests: Linda Howe, Lucas County (Ohio) Board of Elections, and Paul Gronke, director of the Reed College Early Voting Information Center” (9/29/2008)
  • Williamson Daily News: “Early voting on the rise”
    • “Researchers say early ballots have been on the rise in recent years, especially during presidential elections. In 2004, 22 percent of voters cast an early presidential ballot and in 2000, 16 percent voted early. Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center predicts “nearly a third of the electorate will vote early this year.”” (9/26/2008)
  • New York Times:“Early Voting Begins”
    • “One reason for early voting is to reduce pressure on precincts on Nov. 4. Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center predicts that about a third of voters will cast ballots, by mail or in person, before Election Day.” (9/24/2008)
  • Los Angeles Times: “Early-Voting Laws Kick In”
    • “About 14 percent of the electorate voted early in the 2000 campaign. That figure jumped to 20 percent in 2004, and this time around it could rise to more than 30 percent, according to Paul Gronke, head of the early voting information center at Reed College in Oregon.” (9/24/2008)
  • Charleston Post and Courier: “What’s the voting rush?”
    • “Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center projected that nearly a third of the electorate nationwide – and roughly half of it in the swing states of Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico – will vote before Election Day this year.” (9/23/2008)
  • USA Today: “Some voters can pull lever today – Georgia, Virginia among early states”
    • “Experts such as Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center predict nearly a third of the electorate will vote early this year, up from 15% in 2000 and 20% in 2004. In closely contested Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico, about half the voters are expected to cast ballots before Election Day. Florida could be 40%.” (9/22/2008)
  • AP: “A third of electorate could vote before Nov. 4”
    • “”You can’t hold your big guns right to the end,” said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon. “When up to 25 or 30 percent of the electorate has already cast a ballot, it might not be wise to wait until the last minute” to make a game-changing play for votes.” (9/21/2008)
  • Lexington Herald-Leader: “Absentee balloting begins”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of The Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore., said he thought Kentucky was the first state to begin in-person early voting. Louisville’s Jefferson County opened the first polling site Thursday and other counties will soon follow.” (9/19/2008)
  • Baton Rouge Advocate: “Election time is changing”
    • “One expert told The New York Times that he expects a third of all votes to be cast early, by mail or other means. Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon – a state where voting-by-mail was pioneered – said the number of early votes has been rising. In 2004, about 20 percent of votes were cast before election day.” (9/16/2008)
  • The Guardian: “US election: Early voting could alter campaign strategies”
    • “Early voting will have a “tremendous” impact on the campaign, said Paul Gronke, professor of Reed university and director of the university’s Early Voting Information Centre.” (9/13/2008)
  • USA Today: “100 days to go – Red-letter days for this record-setting presidential campaign”
    • “In the 2002 elections, 14% of voters nationwide cast early ballots; in 2004, that number rose to 20%; in 2006, to 25%. This time, “it will certainly be over 30%, and it could be as high as a third,” says Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon.” (7/28/2008)
  • AP: “Senate bill would allow all-mail voting”
    • “In Oregon, which has had mail-only balloting in all elections since 1998, results have been mixed, according to a 2005 report prepared for the Commission on Federal Election Reform. Turnout has increased by about 10 percent, but the increase is due to keeping voters on the rolls and not from attracting new voters into the system, the report by political science Professor Paul Gronke of Reed College said.” (5/22/2008)
  • Politico: “Five things to watch in Oregon”
    • “Be careful not to read too much into the early tabulations, which are likely to heavily favor Obama because they will come out of Portland and Multnomah County, said Paul Gronke, a Reed College political science professor.” (5/20/2008)
  • The Oregonian: “Clinton campaign focusing on small towns in Oregon”
    • “Reed College political science Prof. Paul Gronke said he did not think the Pennsylvania small-town strategy would work as well in Oregon, where the demographics and economic issues are different — ranches instead of farms, one major population center instead of several, and a continuing growth in population, instead of a loss. ‘The old politics sells well in Pennsylvania, because it’s an old state,’ Gronke said. ‘But Oregon is a young state,’ both in terms of its history and population.” (4/25/2008)
  • USA Today: “Fla. Democrats drafting plan for mail-in primary”
    • “Clinton and Obama, who each raised more than $100 million last year, have the resources to wage a short vote-by-mail campaign, said Paul Gronke, a political scientist and expert on mail-in voting at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (3/12/2008)
  • AP: “Clinton, Obama hope to gain upper hand through early Texas voting”
    • “”Texas is on the leading edge of early voting in this country — they have a lot more locations available and are more creative about putting them in places where people actually go,” said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Oregon’s Reed College who studies early voting. “Most other states make you go to county buildings and libraries. I am not familiar with any other state that makes locations as available as Texas does.”” (2/28/2008)
  • AP: “Registrars begins slow task of tallying Calif. primary votes”
    • “”We may not even get a rough count of how many ballots are out there,” said Paul Gronke, a political scientist from Reed College in Oregon who was in California to observe the election.” (2/6/2008)
  • Christian Science Monitor: “How early voting may swing Super Tuesday results”
    • “”It’s no longer just election day, it’s ‘election weeks,'” says Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (2/1/2008)
  • Palm Beach Post: “Early votes’ rise stirs unease”
    • “”It has been a very heavy turnout for an election in which supposedly the Democrats aren’t running,” said Paul Gronke, a political consultant on leave from the Early Voting Information Center in Portland, Ore.” (1/29/2008)
  • New York Times: “Surge in Early Balloting Shifts Florida Races”
    • ““This is a case where some of the flaws in early voting are exposed,” said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College in Portland, Ore., who is a consultant to Electionline.org.” (1/27/2008)
  • Naperville Sun: “Will early voting make a difference in election?”
    • “Researchers Paul Gronke and Peter Miller of Reed College found “little evidence” that early voting increases voter turnout in a study in the October issue of PS: Political Science & Politics, a journal of the American Political Science Association.” (1/25/2008)
  • AP: “Early voting in 2008 presidential race playing an important role”
    • “”The fluidity and uncertainty in the race would normally lead people to hold their ballots,” said Paul Gronke, who directs the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore. “What is cutting in the other direction is that the campaigns are out there mobilizing people to vote early.”” (1/22/2008)
  • New York Times: “Mail-In Voters Become the Latest Prize”
    • “It makes for an “extensive, grueling and expensive get-out-the-vote operation,” said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore., who is an expert on early voting. Mr. Gronke said surveys had shown that voters who use absentee ballots tend to be older, more affluent, better educated and more partisan.” (1/14/2008)
  • USA Today: “Some voters don’t wait for election year”
    • “For candidates who have the money and manpower “truly well organized and focused on these voters, they’re essentially able to take a few steps beyond the starting line,” says Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College in Oregon and an expert on early voting.” (12/24/2007)
  • KPCC: “California Absentee Voters Get a Head Start in Presidential Election”
    • “Political scientist Paul Gronke at Oregon’s Reed College says the trend is growing, fed in part by the people who run the elections.” (12/10/2007)
  • Tampa Bay Times: “Florida’s absentee voters will be first”
    • “Sunshine State absentee voters will be the first to vote in the presidential primary, according to a survey of elections deadlines across the country by Paul Gronke, an elections expert at Reed College in Oregon. Florida’s deadline for sending out overseas absentee ballots is Christmas Day, though many supervisors are sending them earlier.” (12/9/2007)
  • Newark Star-Ledger: “Parties want to increase early voting”
    • “Paul Gronke, a professor at Reed College and consultant to electionline.org, said about 10 percent of voters use no excuse absentee ballots when it is implemented. In the Illinois 2005 election, 8 percent of the voters used them.” (11/18/2007)
  • Stamford-Norwalk Advocate: “Pitney Bowes turns mailing savvy into election security”
    • “Some 29 states allow no-excuse absentee voting, meaning that any registered voter may cast a ballot through the mail without providing a reason, said Paul Gronke, professor of political science at Reed College in Oregon and a consultant to Electionline.org, a nonpartisan voter and election information provider.” (11/14/2007)
  • AP: “Who needs Primary Election Day when you can vote early? More states let voters get a jump”
    • “Early voting, initially popular mostly in the West, gained momentum after the contentious 2000 presidential election, which inspired a wave of election overhauls. At least 34 states now offer some form of early voting, according to Paul Gronke, who directs the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College and works with electionline.org, part of the Pew Center on the States.” (10/11/2007)
  • Contra Costa Times: “Go back to basics: Vote by mail”
    • “Mail voting in Oregon increases turnout, perhaps by as much as 10 percent, but the increase is noticeable only in low-profile races, according to a 2005 report to the Commission on Federal Election Reform by Paul Gronke, director at the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland.” (9/30/2007)
  • Los Angeles Times: “California Absentees Might Vote Before Iowa, New Hampshire”
    • “But California, with its hundreds of delegates, is the big prize — and challenge. California is one of only five states in which more than 25 percent of voters routinely cast absentee ballots, said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon. The others are Washington, Texas, Tennessee and Iowa, though absentee voting doesn’t apply to the in-person caucuses.” (6/10/2007)
  • New York Times: “In Clinton Aide’s Advice, an Early Voting Dilemma”
    • ““Candidates are facing this much more complicated environment and are going to have to get out on the ground in these other states much earlier,” said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore., and an expert on early voting. “It’s a fascinating study in voter behavior, too. Will voters in California hold their ballots, waiting to see what Iowa and New Hampshire do? Or will they feel they already know these candidates well enough by then, especially Hillary and Obama?”” (5/27/2007)
  • AP: “Early voting could upend presidential primary season”
    • “Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Oregon’s Reed College and the director of the Early Voting Information Center there, said the early voting trends combined with the Feb. 5 primaries are a boon for the “well-funded, well-known campaign. You have to begin your mobilization efforts so much earlier — you simply cannot ignore those absentee voters.”” (3/21/2007)
  • Spokane Spokesman-Review: “Debating the ballot box”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center, said the level of mail-voting fraud is “extremely low,” adding that states with a history of corruption should be more concerned.” (2/11/2007)
  • AP: “November election shows spread in vote-by-mail trend”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, estimates that about 30 percent of voters in the November election either cast their ballot by mail or filled it out in the early election centers set up by some states.” (1/1/2007)
  • The Oregonian: “U.S. following Oregon’s mail vote”
    • “About 30 percent of voters in the November election either cast their ballot by mail or filled it out in the early election centers set up by some states, according to estimates by Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland.” (1/1/2007)
  • Tampa Tribune: “Early Voting To Help Iorio”
    • “Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center, said early voting tends to benefit well-organized, well-funded campaigns. Incumbents generally have stronger footing in those areas than challengers.” (12/28/2006)
  • AP: “Despite dire predictions, and sporadic hiccups, voting went relatively smoothly”
    • “Paul Gronke, chairman of political science at Reed College in Oregon, said additional problems may crop up as election officials undergo recounts, possibly in Virginia and elsewhere.” (11/8/2006)
  • Deutsche Press-Agentur: “Americans voting by mail in record numbers”
    • “At least 25 million voters have already participated via absentee ballot in Tuesday’s hotly-contested congressional elections – a record number, according to Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Centre based in Portland, Oregon, at Reed College.” (11/7/2006)
  • AP: “Candidates skip ballot box photo-op for new trend: early voting”
    • “”You’ve got to get out the picture early,” said Paul Gronke, a political science professor and head of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore. “If you hold onto that media opportunity, you’ve already missed a large part of the voters. That’s just a larger example of why candidates need a longer mobilization effort.”” (11/6/2006)
  • Sacramento Bee: “Counting on security”
    • “Partly in response to problems like those seen in Maryland, an increasing number of voters are choosing absentee ballots. In California, absentee votes may outnumber votes cast in person at polling places in this election. Some counties expect half of all votes to be cast by absentee voters. But many election watchers are wary of absentee voting because it is more susceptible to vote selling and voter coercion. Early voting — using large, dedicated polling places that are staffed in the weeks before Election Day — largely eliminates this danger. Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Oregon’s Reed College, estimates that 25 percent to 30 percent of registered voters in this election cycle will vote before Election Day, either with an absentee ballot or through early voting.” (11/5/2006)
  • NPR:“Early Voting: Getting the Jump on Election Day”
    • “Voters and politicians alike are racing to understand the new phenomenon that gives more than half the nation’s voting age population the chance to vote before Nov. 7. ‘Election Day is no longer Election Day but rather election weeks and that’s what we now have in the United States,’ says Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon, the only state to vote exclusively by mail-in ballot.” (11/4/2006)
  • NPR:“Early-Voting Trends Multiply”
    • “Paul Gronke says this information gap could even have a neutralizing effect on negative campaigning. Gronke heads the Early Voting Information Center in Oregon, where the entire state votes by mail.” (10/29/2006)
  • USA Today: “More voters aren’t waiting for Election Day”
    • “”These kind of growth rates are not unprecedented. … It does not surprise me,” says Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland, Ore. “Two things are happening here — voters are learning more about early voting and, over time, campaigns are learning more about targeting these voters.”” (10/27/2006)
  • Fort Worth Star-Telegram: “Citizens vote early more often”
    • “There are no reliable national figures for 1996 and earlier, said Paul Gronke, director of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Oregon.” (10/23/2006)
  • Idaho Falls Post Register: “The new ballot box?”
    • “A study by Dr. Paul Gronke of the Early Voting Information Center at Reed College in Portland concluded that although there is no clear evidence on cost savings, what does seem apparent is that an all-mail system is less expensive to administer than a ‘hybrid’ system of polling place and absentee balloting.” (10/1/2006)
  • Vancouver Columbian: “Oregon primary exposes generational voting gap”
    • “Paul Gronke, chairman of Reed College’s political science department, said the numbers are shocking, and show why Medicaid and Social Security get lots of money and attention while the costs of higher education rise and support for student loans falls.” (7/5/2006)
  • The Oregonian: “Vanishing species: voters under 45”
    • “Paul Gronke, chairman of Reed College’s political science department and a specialist in American politics and voting, says even he finds that “shocking.”” (7/2/2006)
  • Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “State law seen as factor in voting woes”
    • “Runoffs are mostly confined to Southern states and are a legacy of the Democratic Party’s historical dominance, said Paul Gronke, associate professor of political science at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (6/1/2006)
  • The Oregonian: “War opponents hear silent majority”
    • “Many hope midterm elections will significantly change the face of Congress. But Paul Gronke, chairman of Reed College’s political science department, said changing U.S. policy in Iraq will be a difficult task for the peace movement.” (3/18/2006)
  • Everett Daily Herald: “When ballots lose their secrecy”
    • “Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College in Portland, Ore., agrees. “From the perspective of a battered woman lacking a lot of power, going into the voting booth is individual empowerment. It’s a civil act,” said Gronke, who last year completed an extensive study titled “Ballot Integrity and Voting by Mail: The Oregon Experience.”” (1/29/2006)
  • Oroville Mercury-Register: “Alameda official wants to hold an all-mail election”
    • “Political science professor Paul Gronke at Oregon’s Reed College, a leading authority on all-mail and early voting systems, says the notion that mail elections boost turnout is a “myth” fostered by elections officials who like those elections for other reasons.” (1/9/2006)
  • Mobile Press-Register: “Voting by telephone is a truly horrible idea”
    • “The right question was asked by Paul Gronke, a political science professor from Oregon who specializes in nontraditional voting methods. “How can phone voting be set up so you’re assured the person on the other end of the line is the appropriate party?” he asked the Journal.” (10/10/2005)
  • Vancouver Columbian: “Open primary gains momentum in N.W.”
    • “If open primaries are to spread, it’s a good bet they’ll take root first in the West, said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland. “Oregon, Washington and California are populist and progressive,” Gronke said. “They are like social scientists who say, ‘Let’s try it, and see what happens.'”” (1/22/2005)
  • Charlotte Observer: “Early voting favors no party”
    • “A better-funded candidate also can afford a longer get-out-the-vote effort while the opponent may only be able to mobilize supporters on Election Day, said Paul Gronke. He is a political analyst at Reed College in Portland, Ore., and author of the forthcoming book, “Voting Early = Voting Wisely?”” (12/15/2004)
  • AP: “Oregon voter turnout hits 84 percent”
    • “”What would it take to bring out the last portion of voters?” asked Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College who has analyzed voting data. “You would need to make politics much more relevant to people’s lives.”” (11/6/2004)
  • San Jose Mercury News: “Absentee voters changing campaigns”
    • “Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College in Oregon, said that while absentee balloting and early voting is often sold as a way to increase turnout that hasn’t necessarily been the case.” (10/2/2004)
  • Hartford Courant: “Passion politics”
    • “Paul Gronke, a professor of political science at Reed College in Oregon, said the more intense passions result from increased party polarization. He said research shows that people who identify with a political party are voting more consistently with that one party than they did 20 years ago. “Far fewer are splitting their tickets,” said Gronke.” (9/29/2004)
  • The Oregonian: “Generations split over same-sex marriage”
    • “”These are the children of the sexual revolution,” says Paul Gronke, a Reed College political science professor.” (9/6/2004)
  • Press of Atlantic City: “Republican National Convention: Bush, GOP reduce Kerry to punch line”
    • “”Humor has long been known as effective negative advertising and a way to deflect criticism upon the person making the negative attack because you laugh, if the joke is good,” said Paul Gronke, the chairman of the political science department at Reed College in Portland, Ore. “Good political humor always has a biting edge to it.”” (9/5/2004)
  • Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “ELECTION 2004: Republican Convention: Take polls with a grain of salt”
    • “As a result, it takes more time and money to call enough willing people to get a sample representative of the country, said Paul Gronke, a polling expert at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (9/3/2004)
  • USA Today: “Daily Show’ puts Kerry ‘out there'”
    • “”He’s trying to put a more human face on John Kerry,” said Paul Gronke, chairman of the political science department at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (8/25/2004)
  • AP: “War and economy weigh on Bush’s hopes for second term”
    • “Many Americans have lingering concerns about whether the invasion was justified and whether Bush leveled with the nation about the reasons for the war, said Paul Gronke, a political scientist at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (7/28/2004)
  • Star Tribune: “Burning Bush”
    • “”He became a voice for the left,” says politician scientist Dr Paul Gronke. “With Bowling for Columbine, he showed he’s very smart about putting his finger on what bothers regular Americans.”” (7/11/2004)
  • Adelaide Sunday Mail: “Turning up the blow torch”
    • “”They should be somewhat fearful because what this movie has the potential of doing is energising activists,” said political scientist Professor Paul Gronke, of Reed College in Portland, Oregon.” (7/4/2004)
  • The Oregonian: “Portland moviegoers hot to see ‘Fahrenheit'”
    • “Paul Gronke, an associate professor of political science at Reed College, hadn’t seen the movie yet Friday but said he “couldn’t recall another movie focused in this way on a specific figure in hopes of affecting a particular campaign. But I don’t think it’s going to have a tremendous impact. I think it’s going to reinforce the suspicions of those who are already suspicious of George W. Bush and those who are supportive of Bush either will not see the movie or reject most of its characterizations. At this particular political moment we’re in, the electorate is deeply divided.”” (6/26/2004)
  • UPI: “The Web: Blogs reshaping political news”
    • “Dean is going to be pointed to for a long time as the pioneer of a new, interactive method for voters to speak to each other, said Paul Gronke, chairman of the political science department at Reed College, a leading liberal arts school, in Portland, Ore. What I find fascinating is that his campaign has ended, but his blog is still alive — the Blog for America, he told UPI.” (6/16/2004)
  • USA Today: “Campaigns trade fire on military”
    • “Political scientists called Bush’s ad a smart move and an unusual one. “I think we’ll see a lot of precedents set in this campaign, and this could be one of them — aiming ads right at the places your opponent is visiting,” said Paul Gronke, a political science professor at Reed College in Portland, Ore.” (3/17/2004)