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.