Robin Lederer's path into voting rights work started with a letter. When her husband received notice from county elections claiming he'd moved, and he hadn't, Robin realized how little she understood about how voter rolls are actually managed, despite years of voting herself. That discovery led her to co-found the National Coalition for Voting Rights with Dr. Andrea Barrero, a gerrymandering researcher at Southern Methodist University, focused on the overlooked mechanics of "voter list maintenance."

In this conversation, Robin walks George Mason through how voters end up in "suspense" status, how to check your registration before the October 5th deadline, and why Texas has ranked at or near the bottom of the Cost of Voting Index for decades. They discuss the data on voter fraud, which Robin's research puts at just 150 cases out of 127 million ballots over 20 years, the mid-decade congressional redistricting that cut Dallas-Tarrant County representation from six seats to three, and what voters should know heading into early voting on October 19th.

Robin Lederer is a Dallas-based executive, consultant, and civic advocate. She co-founded the National Coalition for Voter Rights in September 2023 and currently serves as CEO of UniBeacon Group LLC.

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