A nationwide collaborative journalism initiative empowering local newsrooms to produce voter guides and civic engagement resources for underserved communities across America.
A nationwide collaborative journalism project working with hundreds of local newsrooms to publish pro-democracy journalism and increase civic engagement.
U.S. Democracy Day is a nationwide collaborative journalism project of the Center for Cooperative Media, housed at Montclair State University's College of Communication and Media in New Jersey. Since 2022, U.S. Democracy Day has worked with hundreds of local newsrooms across all 50 states to publish more than 700 pieces of pro-democracy journalism.
Over the past four years, U.S. Democracy Day has catalyzed and coordinated a movement of several hundred local journalism partners reporting on core elements of democracy, with a particular focus on community engagement.
The project took a pause to rethink its strategy in 2025 in order to evolve and meet the current needs of journalists and communities. In a survey conducted with Democracy Day partners, about 75% of local newsrooms reported that robust election information and voter engagement on the local level were the biggest needs.
Journalists need help to produce more non-partisan voting information and then get that voting information in front of people who need it.
Despite the proliferation of voter resources across the country, there are hundreds of local municipal races and school board elections that still have very little or zero coverage. Many communities also receive minimal information about key elections due to lack of voter engagement or awareness, language barriers, and dwindling news coverage.
Source: Pew Research Center. While voter turnout has been growing in recent general and midterm elections, it still often lags behind in local and municipal races.
U.S. Democracy Day's goal is — and has always been — to promote pro-democracy reporting initiatives in an effort to get more voters civically engaged.
That's why, as the project looks ahead to the 2026 and 2027 election cycles, U.S. Democracy Day will offer funding and a suite of resources to a cohort of local newsrooms focused on producing voter guides for elections that wouldn't otherwise be covered in their communities, serving quality voting information to audiences that are often left out.
Democracy Day will help local news organizations expand their production of voter guides and make them as accessible as possible. This will include support and stipends to fund voter guide production, encourage community participation in surveys, host unique (and fun!) voter engagement events or candidate forums, produce printed materials, translate content and more. Democracy Day will prioritize communities with the most need and projects that are innovative in how they seek to actually get their voter guide information in front of people who need it.
Democracy Day will facilitate access to software tools and platforms like ElectUp and Govpack, which make it much easier for local newsrooms to produce interactive digital voter guides, collect candidate responses or voter input, and collaborate with other local news or community organizations.
Webinars and training sessions on how to successfully host events like a voter forum or candidate town hall, shared resources and best practices on putting together voter guides and community surveys, and guidance on reaching underserved communities with strategies for trust, engagement, and safety.
Many Democracy Day partners have already piloted such strategies and proved them out in the communities they serve.
In 2024, with financial assistance from Democracy Day, the Mat-Su Sentinel produced the region's first-ever voter guides for three municipal races. According to founder Amy Bushatz, the guides could not have been produced without Democracy Day's support, which paid for software tools and staff resources. Additional 2025 funding allowed them to execute a candidate forum with interactive audience polling — the first such local election event in more than 15 years.
This bilingual local news organization addressed a lack of trust and safety to encourage voter participation in Cicero, a majority immigrant and Spanish-speaking community outside Chicago. Co-founder Irene Romulo explained that they provided live election coverage in both Spanish and English for local town board races in February 2025 — the first time that had ever been done locally. They partnered with a civil rights firm and the County Clerk to protect voter rights, and received feedback that their efforts helped people feel like their votes mattered.
"More funding is needed for Mat-Su Sentinel, and other similar local news organizations, to produce voter guides and election events for their communities."
It's these strategies to reach underserved communities that require additional funding, support, and coaching. For more information about Democracy Day, read our 2025 report with partner examples, survey information, and key takeaways.
The following budget is a sample outline of what it may cost to fund U.S. Democracy Day on a national scale. The national budget assumes a cohort of 25 news organizations; statewide (10 newsrooms) and local (6 newsrooms) budgets can flex accordingly. All budgets assume the same coordinator time.
| Expense item | Per year | 2-year total |
|---|---|---|
| Democracy Day coordinator 600 hours at $55/hour plus 9.2% fringe | $36,036 | $72,072 |
| Voter guide production and accessibility stipends 6 stipends of $10,000 each | $60,000 | $120,000 |
| Technology support $1,500 for up to 20 participants | $9,000 | $18,000 |
| Webinars and training consultants | $6,000 | $12,000 |
| General operating Software, travel | $1,500 | $3,000 |
| Total | $112,536 | $225,072 |
The following budget scenarios illustrate how this initiative can scale to different geographic scopes and newsroom cohort sizes.
| Expense item | Per year | 2-year total |
|---|---|---|
| Democracy Day coordinator600 hrs × $55/hr + 9.2% fringe | $36,036 | $72,072 |
| Voter guide stipends25 stipends × $10,000 | $250,000 | $500,000 |
| Technology support$1,500 × 20 participants | $30,000 | $60,000 |
| Webinars, training consultants | $25,000 | $50,000 |
| General operatingSoftware, travel | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| Total | $346,036 | $692,072 |
| Expense item | Per year | 2-year total |
|---|---|---|
| Democracy Day coordinator600 hrs × $55/hr + 9.2% fringe | $36,036 | $72,072 |
| Voter guide stipends10 stipends × $10,000 | $100,000 | $200,000 |
| Technology support$1,500 × 10 participants | $15,000 | $30,000 |
| Webinars, training consultants | $12,000 | $24,000 |
| General operatingSoftware, travel | $2,500 | $5,000 |
| Total | $165,536 | $331,072 |
| Expense item | Per year | 2-year total |
|---|---|---|
| Democracy Day coordinator600 hrs × $55/hr + 9.2% fringe | $36,036 | $72,072 |
| Voter guide stipends6 stipends × $10,000 | $60,000 | $120,000 |
| Technology support$1,500 × 6 participants | $9,000 | $18,000 |
| Webinars, training consultants | $6,000 | $12,000 |
| General operatingSoftware, travel | $1,500 | $3,000 |
| Total | $112,536 | $225,072 |