Principal - Sarah Vaughan

Sarah is a political operative with extensive experience working on both sides of the aisle to advance policy that is impactful. She has experience in running successful  legislative campaigns, bipartisan lobbying, and issue advocacy. She is currently serving as the Managing Director of the Center for Secure and Modern Elections (CSME) where she has focused on passing pro-voter legislation for the last 5 plus years. Since joining the CSME team she has helped create and execute the program to pass automated voter registration (AVR) and other policies that have added close to 20 million voters to the roles across the states- going from 4 states with AVR to 33. 

Prior to voter-land, she was the policy director at Gill Action, an organization dedicated to advancing LGBT equality at the state level. In this role, she created and managed Gill Action’s legislative strategy to pass pro-LGBT policy in multiple states controlled by both Republicans and Democrats. Sarah was on the political team at Gill Action when marriage for same-sex couples passed in New York—the first marriage equality bill to receive approval by a Republican-controlled chamber. She was also the political lead in efforts to advance relationship recognition in Delaware, Minnesota, Colorado, and Rhode Island. 

Before joining Gill Action, Sarah served as political director at the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, working to retain and win democratic majorities in state legislatures throughout the country. During Sarah’s election cycle tenure at the DLCC, her work resulted in a net gain of seats for Democrats. Prior to the DLCC, Sarah worked as caucus director in the Colorado senate for the first female president of the Colorado Senate, Joan Fitz-Gerald. 

Sarah completed her undergraduate degree and Master’s of Public Administration at the University of Colorado. She is originally from North Carolina and currently resides with her husband Michael, son Carter, daughter June, and dog Lucy in Golden, Colorado. .