Benjamin Swasey
Ben Swasey is a senior editor on the Washington desk who leads NPR's coverage of voting and election administration.
Swasey co-edited a 2023 investigation detailing how conservative pressure drove states to abandon a tool that helps catch voter fraud. That investigation was a finalist for the Peabody Award and the Toner Prize for Excellence in National Political Reporting.
In 2025, he co-edited reporting on a controversial Trump administration data system to check U.S. citizenship that was also a Toner prize finalist.
He edited campaign stories for the 2020, 2022 and 2024 election cycles as well.
Originally from Massachusetts, Swasey was previously a political editor and digital manager at WBUR in Boston. At WBUR he was an editor on teams that won two national RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Awards and an Online Journalism Award.
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With just months until the midterms, President Trump relieved the remaining members of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, a move condemned by Democrats and voting rights advocates. -
Alabama will hold a special primary election for four of its seven congressional districts, after the Supreme Court cleared the way — and as redistricting ripples through the South. -
Tennessee Republicans' map would crack Shelby County — home to majority-Black Memphis — into three different districts, in an effort to eliminate the state's lone remaining Democratic-held seat. -
Louisiana suspended its upcoming primaries for the U.S. House, following Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the state's congressional map is an "unconstitutional racial gerrymander." -
Trump's executive order seeks to create lists of U.S. citizens who are eligible to vote in each state and instruct the U.S. Postal Service to send mail ballots only to verified voters. -
Several Republican-led states have passed their own versions of the SAVE America Act, Trump-backed legislation that would introduce new proof-of-citizenship requirements to register to vote. -
Arizona's state Senate president says he has complied with a subpoena he received last week seeking records from a flawed, Republican-led review of the 2020 election in Maricopa County. -
A Republican voting overhaul is back on Capitol Hill — with an added photo identification provision and an altered name. Opponents say the legislation would disenfranchise millions of voters. -
For the 2026 elections, NPR has collected deadlines and information on how to register to vote — online, in person or by mail — in every U.S. state and territory. -
A Michigan judge has dismissed criminal charges against 15 people who signed false certificates saying Donald Trump won the state's electoral votes in 2020. -
The major parties' redistricting battle escalated this week, with lawmakers in the country's two most populous states each taking a notable step toward a new congressional map. -
Republicans in the Texas House have released a proposed new redistricting map that seeks to fulfill President Trump's desire to add up to five additional GOP congressional seats in the state.
