Karen Brinson Bell has served as executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections since June 2019. She has worked in elections administration since 2006 in county, state, and national roles. As North Carolina’s chief elections official, she leads about 65 full-time employees at the state agency, which is charged with administering elections and campaign finance compliance, overseeing the 100 county boards of elections, and ensuring voting for more than 7.5 million voters.

Jocelyn Benson is Michigan’s 43rd Secretary of State. Secretary Benson’s work overseeing Michigan’s 2020 and 2022 general elections, both of which drew record-breaking turnout and were more secure than any prior election in state history, earned her national recognition, including the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award and the Presidential Citizens Medal. Benson served as dean of Wayne State University Law School in Detroit and was the youngest woman in U.S. history to lead a top-100, accredited law school. She continues to serve as vice chair of the advisory board for the Levin Center at Wayne Law, which she founded with former U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. Previously, Benson was an associate professor and associate director of Wayne Law’s Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights.

Benson is the author of State Secretaries of State: Guardians of the Democratic Process, and co-founder and former president of Military Spouses of Michigan. In 2015, she was inducted into the Michigan Women’s Hall of Fame and in 2016, she became one of a handful of women to have completed the Boston marathon while 8 months pregnant.

Joseph Kirk is an election administrator with a history of secure and transparent elections. He worked at the state and local level in multiple jurisdictions before accepting his current position as the Bartow County’s Election Supervisor in 2007. He is proud to serve the citizens of Bartow County by facilitating voting for all eligible voters, educating the electorate through public engagement, and ensuring that every voter’s ballot is counted as accurately by leading the state in post-election audits.

Joseph serves on multiple advisory boards including the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Election Task Force and the Advisory Board for the Election Official Legal Defense Network. He also works with notable organizations such as Verified Voting, the Brennan Center for Justice, and other organizations that focus on improving election administration and the voting experience. He was awarded the Eagle Award by the Georgia Secretary of State in 2024, the Defender of Democracy Award by the Center for Election Innovation and Research, and the Ann Hicks award by the Georgia Association of Voter Registrars and Election Officials for outstanding achievements in Election Administration in 2019. He also serves as the President-Elect of that association.

Lisa Posthumus Lyons was sworn in as Kent County’s Clerk/Register of Deeds in January 2017. The Clerk’s office is responsible for three major functions of county government; managing all County elections; to manage vital County records such as birth, death, marriage and business registrations; and to process and maintain all Circuit Court files. In Kent County, the Clerk is also the Register of Deeds who records all documents pertaining to real property in Kent County, including deeds, mortgages, land contracts, liens and other documents pertaining to real estate. The Clerk is also the Clerk of the Board of Commissioners, and statutorily serves on numerous county boards and commissions.

Prior to her election as Clerk/Register of Deeds, Lisa served as State Representative for the 86th District, representing portions of Kent and Ionia County.

A graduate of Michigan State University, Lisa was the Director of Public Policy & Community Outreach for the Grand Rapids Association of REALTORS and the Commercial Alliance of REALTORS prior to holding elected office.

Lisa and her husband Brad, a Kent County Sheriff’s deputy, were Lowell High School sweethearts and are raising their four children on the family’s fourth generation farm in Alto. The Lyons family greatly enjoys hunting, fishing, and all Pure Michigan activities.

Lisa M. Marra currently serves as the State Election Director for the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.

Lisa joined the executive team as Deputy State Election Director in March 2023, after serving as the Director of Elections in Cochise County, Arizona. She proudly served the residents in southern Arizona since 2012.

Lisa served three terms as the President of the Election Officials of Arizona (EOA), representing all fifteen county election directors. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business, a Certified Public Manager (CPM) certification from Arizona State University and obtained the highest professional achievement for election officials in the country, Certified Elections/Registration Administrator (CERA) presented by Auburn University through the Election Center. She serves on the advisory board for the Election Officials Legal Defense Network, a project of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Election Innovation & Research (CEIR). EOLDN connects election officials in need of advice or assistance with licensed, qualified, pro bono attorneys at no cost.

Her hobbies include quilting, reading election case law late into the night, and refusing to attend every fight to which she is invited. She highly recommends taking the high road whenever possible as there is almost no traffic on it these days.

County Executive Lamont McClure took office in January 2018. Previously, he’d served on Northampton County Council from 2006-2013. As Executive, Lamont moved quickly to protect open space, farmland and expand the county’s park system. He spearheaded the construction of the County’s first Forensic Center which included rooftop solar panels. In 2020, Lamont oversaw the response to the COVID-19 pandemic which included establishing drive-through testing sites and vaccination sites and distributing PPE. With the help of County Council, over $25 million in grants was distributed to over 1600 small businesses.

Under McClure’s leadership, a Suicide Prevention Taskforce has been formed and new Recovery Centers have been added to help residents struggling with addiction. He’s opened additional senior centers to serve older residents. He is also the survivor of two fraught elections he’d be happy to tell you about. A lawyer by training, Lamont attended Wilkes University, majoring in History and International studies with a minor in East European and Russian Studies and, in 1995, earned his Juris Doctorate from the Duquesne University School of Law. Early in his career, he fought for the victims of asbestos by focusing on product liability cases.

First elected in 2008 to the Office of County Clerk, Kim Pytleski is a respected professional with sixteen years of experience in county government. As the chief election official for Oconto County, specializing in leading operations, records management, and public policy, Kim works with clerks in Oconto County and across the state to ensure voters have trust in our electoral process.

She has a reputation for forging solid relationships and building consensus across multiple organizational levels and prides herself on being a leader committed to a positive experience for all those engaged in local government. Kim has been married for twenty-two years and has three children.

Brad Raffensperger is Georgia’s 29th Secretary of State, first elected in 2018 and overwhelmingly re-elected in 2022. Secretary Raffensperger is a lifelong conservative Republican. He moved to Georgia 40 years ago to raise a family and start a small business. As a licensed structural engineer, Professional Engineer, licensed in 40 states, and a licensed General Contractor in Georgia, and other states, Raffensperger successfully founded Tendon Systems, a provider of high-strength steel for construction projects. Under Raffensperger’s ownership, Tendon Systems grew to become the southeast’s largest post-tensioning specialist contractor with approximately 150 employees and projects in over 40 states. Brad also founded Trillium Structures, a structural design consulting firm with commercial mid-rise and high-rise projects throughout the southeast.

Raffensperger was elected to the City Council in Johns Creek, Georgia. Three years later he was elected to the Georgia House of Representatives where he then served for two-terms, and in 2018 Georgia voters elected him Secretary of State.

The Secretary’s top priority is secure and accessible elections.

As Secretary of State, Raffensperger delivered the largest implementation of voting machines in the history of this country, on time and on budget. Under the leadership of Secretary Raffensperger, Georgia modernized its election system by adding its first auditable paper ballot system and giving the power to secure Georgia’s elections directly to the voter. He is the first Secretary of State to pass legislation requiring photo ID for all forms of voting, and the first to hold counties accountable to voters by expanding polling places.

Brad and his wife Tricia started out as high school sweethearts and have now been married for over forty-five years. They raised three sons and immensely enjoy spoiling their three grandchildren. They are members of North Point Community Church.

Stephen Richer is the 30th Recorder of Maricopa County. He was elected in November 2020 and took office January 2021.

Prior to his election as Recorder, Stephen worked as a lawyer and business person. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Tulane University, a master’s degree from the University of Chicago, and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. Stephen and his wife live in South Phoenix.

Justin Roebuck serves as the chief election officer for Ottawa County, Michigan overseeing the elections process in 23 local cities and townships and for the county’s 220,000 voters. Justin’s passion is to build trust with honesty and transparency in the elections process. His goal is to change the way election officials interact with voters by modeling proactive, consistent, and fact-based communication using multiple platforms from social media to in person voter engagement.

In addition to his work in Ottawa County, Justin currently serves on the Standards Board of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC), on the Michigan Council of Election Officials, an on the Legislative Committee of the Michigan Association of County Clerks. He was appointed by the Michigan Supreme Court to the Michigan Judicial Council, which exists to create and implement a statewide strategic plan for the judicial branch. Justin was named “County Clerk of the Year” in 2021 by his colleagues in the Michigan Association of County Clerks.

Justin is a graduate of Hillsdale College, with a B.A. in History and Political Science, and resides in Zeeland, Michigan with his wife and two children.

Pennsylvania Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt has spent his career working in nonpartisan and bipartisan environments. Prior to his 2023 appointment as Secretary, Schmidt was president and chief executive officer at the Committee of Seventy, a nonprofit, nonpartisan good-government organization focused on strengthening democracy and combatting political corruption. Before that, Schmidt served for 10 years as a Philadelphia City Commissioner, where he was vice chairman of the three-member bipartisan Board of Elections and worked to modernize election operations, improve efficiency, and bring greater integrity to the election process. Originally from Pittsburgh, Schmidt holds a doctorate in history from Brandeis University and a bachelor’s degree in history from Allegheny College.

Lisa Tollefson is the current County Clerk for Rock County, Wisconsin. She began her journey in election administration as a town clerk in 2010.  In 2015, she was appointed Rock County Clerk.  In her time as County Clerk, Lisa has mentored and trained clerks and poll workers across Wisconsin.  She works with state legislators to draft common sense election legislation.  Growing up on a dairy farm in central Wisconsin, Lisa developed a strong work ethic which enhances her commitment to fair, transparent and efficient elections.

Tim Tsujii is the elections director for Forsyth County. Prior to joining Forsyth County, Tsujii worked at the Guilford County Board of Elections from 2005 to 2016, serving as early voting director and eventually deputy director of elections.

He leads an organization responsible for conducting elections in Forsyth County, maintaining voter records, verifying petitions, and auditing campaign finance reports. The election staff also recruits and trains poll workers, secures adequate polling places, tests and maintains voting equipment, and audits ballots cast to ensure the accuracy of election results.

Tsujii strives to improve voter services in Forsyth County through innovation. His office, in collaboration with MapForsyth and Forsyth County MIS, implemented a polling place wait time tracking application in the 2016 general election that was the first of its kind in the state. The application allows voters to see how long current wait times are at each polling place during early voting and also provides turn-by-turn directions to the nearest voting site. The three departments were recognized by the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information Analysis in 2017 for the implementation of this innovative tool.

In 2014, Tsujii earned his professional election certification through the national Election Center and Auburn University Certified Elections and Registration Administrator (CERA) program. He has also been a Certified North Carolina Elections Administrator through the North Carolina State Board of Elections since 2009. Tsujii earned his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from George Washington University and his Master of Public Affairs from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro

Meagan Wolfe is the administrator of the Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), serving as the state’s chief election official. Meagan was appointed by the bi-partisan, six-member Commission in February of 2018 and unanimously confirmed by the Wisconsin State Senate in May of 2019 for a four-year term. Serving as an election security advocate and ambassador for the needs of Wisconsin’s clerks and voters are among her highest priorities. A significant part of her job is ensuring that Wisconsin’s 1,922 local election officials (the most of any state) have the resources and technology they need to conduct elections.

Wolfe previously served as WEC’s Deputy Administrator and IT Director, managing the teams that develop and maintain the statewide voter registration system, election security, and all other IT applications of the Commission. She joined state service in 2011, starting as the state’s voter outreach coordinator and later as an elections IT project manager leading a major redesign of the MyVote Wisconsin voter information portal (myvote.wi.gov).