726. Stories to Fill the Hope Gap: Turning County-Level Wins Into National Change — Hannah Fried, All Voting Is Local
Stories That Fill the Hope Gap is a 10-part limited series bringing you eight extraordinary changemakers who are using story to cut through noise, build connection, shift culture, and move people to action.
From Sesame Workshop storytelling around the globe to a hyper-local hip-hop therapy program helping kids navigate mental health in the Bronx to the Center for Countering Digital Hate taking on the most haunting issues of our time, every single conversation left us feeling more hopeful. That is the invitation.
New episodes drop every Wednesday. Share your own story at weareforgood.com/hopegap.
Episode 9: Local Is Where Democracy Is Won: Turning County-Level Wins Into National Change
Meet Hannah: The Lawyer Making Democracy’s Invisible Infrastructure
Hannah Fried is the co-founder and CEO of All Voting Is Local, a national nonprofit that works with state and local election officials to make voting more accessible — focusing on the decisions that quietly determine who can cast a ballot: where polling places go, what hours they open, and how vote-by-mail actually works. She began her career after law school doing voter-protection work on political campaigns, starting as a poll observer, and launched All Voting Is Local in 2018. Incubated for several years by The Leadership Conference, a legacy civil-rights organization, All Voting Is Local became independent in 2022. A mother of two, Hannah often says her 10-year-old is her greatest teacher.
What You'll Learn in This Episode
How All Voting Is Local partnered with Native Vote allies to win a commitment for more polling places in Apache County, Arizona, after hundreds of Navajo Nation voters were shut out in 2024
Why protecting the vote is fundamentally nonpartisan, civil-rights work — not a partisan project
How to take a local win and use story to drive a national conversation (the Selma & Montgomery Day of Action as a case study)
Why "consistency and persistence" beats waiting for the perfect moment — and how to keep going when the work feels impossible
Episode Transcript
Powerful Quotes
"It is fundamentally nonpartisan work. It is civil rights work. It is about the basic rights of being an American person." — Hannah
"Voting is about people, and our work is about people at its core." — Hannah
"It's a statement from the county that we see you. We know your vote is important. We are doing our part to make it so that you can vote." — Hannah
"There is a space for every single one of us to get involved. There is a place for you, and it is never too late to take that moment." — Hannah
"We take a lot of L's in voting rights work, a whole lot. And the thing that we must do is to keep going, because that's what other people did for us." — Hannah
Resources Mentioned
All Voting Is Local: national nonprofit working in eight states to remove voting barriers for Black, Brown, and Native American communities. On Instagram, Blue Sky, and LinkedIn at @allvotingislocal
Power the Polls: sign up to become a poll worker in your community
The Leadership Conference (on Civil and Human Rights): the legacy civil-rights organization that incubated All Voting Is Local in its early years
Black Voters Matter: helped lead the National Day of Action in Selma & Montgomery, Alabama
Native Vote: partners with AVL on expanding voting access in tribal communities
League of Women Voters: nonpartisan poll monitoring and local civic engagement
NAACP: local chapters as an on-ramp to voting-rights work
Indivisible: grassroots organizing network
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