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December 29, 2022

December 29, 2022

In Focus This Week

The List
What’s in & out for election administration in 2023

By M. Mindy Moretti
Electionline.org

You’ve waited all year for it, so without further ado, here is electionline Weekly’s annual list of what’s in and what’s out in election administration for 2023.

We usually like to highlight some of the folks who left the industry each year on The List, but unfortunately, once again, there were just too many this year to include everyone so we went with not including anyone.

As always, a hat-tip to The Washington Post that began its version of The List 45 years ago in 1978 and inspired us to start ours. [Ed. Note: The Post hasn’t quite published their list for 2023 yet, but as soon as they do, we’ll link to it.]

Happy New Year and here’s to a better 2023!

Out: 2022
In: 2024 (sorry 2023, this is your Jan Brady moment)

Out: Naysayers
In: Positive visionaries

Out: Nonsensical election laws
In: Practical and efficient election laws

Out: Apathy
In: Engaged Society

Out: The Haters
In: Love for elections administrators

Out: Mis/Disinformation
In:  Trusted Sources

Out: Spreading lies about early/mail voting and depressing your own turnout
In: Encouraging your voters to actually vote in convenient ways

Out: Mail ballots uncounted because of signature errors
In: Ballot curing, even by text

Out: Hyperpartisanship
In: Everyday partisanship

Out:  Mules
In:  Algorithms

Out: Election deniers
In: Election BELIEVERS

Out: New Taylor Swift album “Midnights”
In: New Weird Al single “Election Nights”

Out: Twitter
In: *crickets

Out: Cyber Ninjas, the consulting firm
In: Cyber Ninja, the 1988 Japanese science fiction action film, which holds a 44% rotten approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes—so bad it’s good!

Out: Certifying voting systems before they have been proven in real elections
In: Pilots as part of the certification process

Out: Demanding audits when a candidate loses
In: Demanding audits when a candidate wins

Out: (Sadly) seeing nonprofits as partners in elections
In: Bans on funding and support for elections

Out: More coordination with the Justice Department
In: More coordination with local police

Out: Racehorses named Early Voting (hopefully just out to stud!)
In: More early voting for everyone!

Out: Mindy and Tammy at Democracy Fund
In: Mindy and Tammy at Election Center

Out: Seeking a community of support for election officials
In: Finding it with the US Alliance for Election Excellence

Out: “We need a new language access plan.”
In: “We’re building a new language access plan.”

Out: No time to implement GIS before redistricting
In: Plenty of time to get GIS implementation right

Out: Pop-Up Votebeat
In: Permanent Votebeat

Out: Spreading conspiracy theories about ERIC
In: Pretending you never did that

Out: Elections as a secondary priority for secretaries of state
In: Top priority, all day every day.

Out: Zuck Bucks
In: Endless efforts to get federal money

Out: Threats
In: Prosecutions

Out: Election officials are on their own
In: HHH CEA Training & Election Center

Out: Every office for themselves
In: State associations

Out: Judicial Watch, PILF, and True the Vote
In: Data

Out: Election denier secretary of state candidates
In: Competent secretaries of state

Out: Thinking about previous elections
In: Self-Care

Out: Constant media scrutiny of our job performance
In: No media attention paid to our issues

Out: Filing election lawsuits without evidence
In: Losing election lawsuits for lack of evidence

Out: Losing candidates becoming election deniers
In: Election deniers becoming losing candidates

Out: Boring, generic “I Voted” stickers
In: Aspirational, unique, creative, FUN “I Voted” stickers (come on folks, PLEASE!)

Special thanks to all of our contributors this year including: David Becker, Barb Byrum, Doug Chapin, Judd Choate, Brian Corley, Josh Goldman, Ricky Hatch, Jessica Huseman, David Levine, Whitney Quesenbery, Kurt Sampsel, Gary Sims and the team in Wake County, and a special thanks to those who contributed, but wanted to remain anonymous.

 

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