What journalists need to know about potential threats to the ballot initiative process
In this commentary, the manager of a voter empowerment project discusses what it takes for citizens to get a proposition on the ballot.
Josh Visnaw
Josh Visnaw is the Project Manager for VoteFlare, a voter-monitoring and empowerment tool at Harvard Kennedy School's Public Interest Technology Lab. He is an advocacy, policy and political strategist who has worked in several roles in campaigns, community engagement and international development. Josh has experience across 11 states, including recent campaign roles for the Wisconsin Democratic Party in 2020, Bernie 2020, Michigan Democratic Party in 2018, and Bernie 2016. His international experiences include managing development projects for NGOs in Central America and Southeast Asia, along with advising Belize’s Ministry of Education and Timor-Leste’s Secretary of Youth. As a Fulbright Public Policy Scholar in Timor-Leste, he supported government officials on issues relating to youth participation in democracy and civil society. He went on to consult for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, producing a study on improving livelihoods for rural youth. His foundations in public service stem from the completion of three AmeriCorps terms that involved flood disaster relief for low-income homeowners, where he had the privilege of working alongside the community of New Orleans -- "unquestionably the greatest city in the US," he says -- after Hurricane Katrina. He is originally from Saginaw, Michigan, and is a first-generation college graduate, holding a bachelors’ degree from Central Michigan University and master’s degree in public service from the University of Arkansas Clinton School.
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