Elections 2024: UC Berkeley Journalism Students Report on the Vote

At the Oakland Lowdown, Berkeley Journalism student Alana Minkler (’26) watches a young Oaklander reflect on what’s important to the community.

In the run-up to Nov. 5, UC Berkeley Journalism students are reporting stories for national and local publications and preparing for Election Day coverage.  

Student Aisha Wallace-Palomares (’25) published a story on NPR’s All Things Considered — A concert promoter thinks regional Mexican artists could help promote Latino voter turnout — on Oct. 31 and a related piece in the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 4. Student Erin Sheridan (’26) reported for the Guardian on an Idaho woman who was jailed for registering to vote. Megumi Tanaka (’25) wrote Teens 16 and 17 get to vote in two Alameda County school board races for the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 4.

Students also have election stories in Richmondside, Oaklandside, Oakland North, and Richmond Confidential and some have been working at Oakland Lowdown events, such as the Nov. 3 Día de los Muertos festival in Fruitvale, to engage with residents on what’s important to them. 

Berkeley Journalism students are preparing for Nov. 5 election coverage when they will be reporting from polling places in Richmond and Oakland, scouring the Bay Area for reaction to state and national elections and conducting open source monitoring of social media to report on any violence or voter suppression.  

Student editors Becca Duncan, Choekyi Lhamo and Megumi Tanaka will post stories and live updates on Berkeley Journalism’s Report on the Vote site. Berkeley Journalism’s Logan Multimedia Center will be turned into elections headquarters. 

Student Aisha Wallace-Palomares (’25) reports on NPR about how a concert promoter believes regional Mexican bands can boost young Latino voter turnout.

“The students have been doing some impressive reporting and community listening in the lead up to the election,” said Professor Lisa Armstrong, who spearheaded the election coverage project and our Report on the Vote website.  “They’ll be reporting late into the night on Tuesday, some going to local watch parties which will likely be lively given Kamala Harris’ ties to the Bay Area.”

Teams of first-year students from our J-200 classes focused on Oakland will report from polling stations throughout the city, feeding reporting updates for Oakland North to students based at Berkeley Journalism. The students will publish pieces on local races they have been following this fall, as well as the recalls of the Oakland mayor and Alameda County district attorney.

First-year students in J200 classes covering Richmond will report from locations throughout the city and in El Cerrito, catching voters as they leave the polls to report on City Council races. Stories will be published on our Report on the Vote site as well as in Richmond Confidential. 

First-year students Haydee Barahona, Ellie Prickett-Morgan, and Lili Euzet are with J-200 Professor Lisa Armstrong at the Oakland Lowdown during the Dia de los Muertos celebration in Fruitvale on Nov. 3.

“The J-200 students have given Oakland and Richmond readers a number of pre-election stories to help them make their ballot decisions,” said Christine Schiavo, editor of Oakland North and Richmond Confidential. “On Tuesday, our student-reporters will get the full newsroom Election Day experience, with pizza and all.”

Faculty members who teach J-200 and other elections-related classes will be on hand as editors throughout the day. They include Armstrong, Schiavo, Nick Romeo, David Thigpen, Jessica Garrison, Greg Barber, Nancy Deville and Padmini Raghunath. 

Nine students in Garrison and Scott Kraft’s elections reporting class will be reporting from throughout the Bay Area on reaction to the presidential elections. The lecturers are reporters for the Los Angeles Times. 

Students from the Investigative Reporting Program’s Open Source Investigative Reporting class, which is co-taught with UC Berkeley’s Human Rights Center, will conduct live monitoring of social media to identify incidents of violence, voter suppression or other notable incidents. Lecturer Alexa Koenig said students from the center’s Investigations Lab and journalism students will be conducting live monitoring in the days before, during and after the election. This effort is part of collaboration with Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, Mother Jones and the War Horse.