Pam Fessler
Pam Fessler is a correspondent on NPR's National Desk, where she covers poverty, philanthropy, and voting issues.
In her reporting at NPR, Fessler does stories on homelessness, hunger, affordable housing, and income inequality. She reports on what non-profit groups, the government, and others are doing to reduce poverty and how those efforts are working. Her poverty reporting was recognized with a 2011 First Place National Headliner Award.
Fessler also covers elections and voting, including efforts to make voting more accessible, accurate, and secure. She has done countless stories on everything from the debate over state voter identification laws to Russian hacking attempts and long lines at the polls.
After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Fessler became NPR's first Homeland Security correspondent. For seven years, she reported on efforts to tighten security at ports, airports, and borders, and the debate over the impact on privacy and civil rights. She also reported on the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, The 9/11 Commission Report, Social Security, and the Census. Fessler was one of NPR's White House reporters during the Clinton and Bush administrations.
Before becoming a correspondent, Fessler was the acting senior editor on the Washington Desk and NPR's chief election editor. She coordinated all network coverage of the presidential, congressional, and state elections in 1996 and 1998. In her more than 25 years at NPR, Fessler has also been deputy Washington Desk editor and Midwest National Desk editor.
Earlier in her career, she was a senior writer at Congressional Quarterly magazine. Fessler worked there for 13 years as both a reporter and editor, covering tax, budget, and other news. She also worked as a budget specialist at the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and was a reporter at The Record newspaper in Hackensack, New Jersey.
Fessler has a master's of public administration from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a bachelor's degree from Douglass College in New Jersey.
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With about 100 days left before Election Day, election officials warned this week that they need money from the federal government to deal with the pandemic and long-standing cybersecurity threats. -
An NPR analysis finds that more than 50,000 absentee and mail-in ballots were rejected this year for arriving late. While it's a relatively small number, they could prove crucial in a close election. -
Recent primaries have exposed an overtaxed voting system and raised questions about how much can be fixed by November. -
Both parties are turning to the courts to try to ensure that election rules don't disadvantage their side. The litigation campaign has taken on a new urgency amid the coronavirus pandemic. -
Full-time election workers in New York, New Jersey and Washington, DC have fallen will with COVID-19 all while trying to make plans for carrying out upcoming elections under challenging conditions. -
The coronavirus relief package includes a number of provisions to help low-income Americans. But advocates for the poor say it's only a first step. -
The money is far less than the $4 billion some Democrats had wanted. It would allow states to expand mail-in and early voting, online voter registration and help secure in-person voting sites. -
There is growing interest in expanding voting by mail, at least for the remainder of 2020, in order to keep poll workers and voters safe. But there are many challenges to pulling it off. -
Four states were scheduled to hold presidential primaries Tuesday, but Ohio delayed its election until June to avoid the spread of the coronavirus.
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Election officials around the country are taking steps they hope will assure voters that they are safe at polling places, despite concerns about the spread of coronavirus.