Over the past few years, I’ve had the chance to host dozens of conversations with election officials, researchers, and others who think deeply about how elections actually work and how we can make them work better.
They’ve been the best kind of conversations, where people share what they’ve tried, what worked, what didn’t, and what they wish they’d known sooner.
About two years ago, after the annual Election Science, Reform, and Administration Conference, we started calling a subset of these conversations Books & Ballots. The idea was simple: bring the research (“books”) into conversation with the real-world work of administering elections (“ballots”).
Now, as the series heads into its third year – in collaboration with partners at the Center for Election Innovation & Research and the MIT Election Data + Science Lab – this Substack is the new home for those conversations.
Here you’ll find recordings and takeaways from our webinars and workshops, along with practical insights drawn from both research and lived experience. We’ll continue to focus on ideas you can use in your own office, whether that’s improving hiring and training, planning budgets, or designing better processes.
My hope is that this space makes good thinking more accessible and a little less abstract.
I’m glad you’re here.