The Executive Session on Elections and Election Administration is a three-year program that brings leading election officials from across the country and political spectrum together with academics and experts to discuss the complex challenges facing election administration.
Since the beginning of 2024, the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Harvard Kennedy School has been convening the Executive Session for Elections and Election Administration. Continuing at least through early 2027, the Executive Session brings together a small, bipartisan group of local and state election officials from across the country, along with a handful of academics and experts, to meet and discuss the complex problems facing election administration today and the challenges anticipated in the years ahead. Convening in-person only over the course of three days, twice a year, the team has been working collaboratively to develop creative solutions and practical paths forward to improve and strengthen the foundation of our representative democracy: our election system.
Explore the work of the Executive Session available below.
In the coming months, please check this space for papers on the role of states associations; workplace development; funding; and empowering voters to participate in local elections.
Paper
This paper explores practical mechanisms for improving the relationship between election officials and news media to increase public confidence in the electoral process.
Paper
This report by Christine Cole, Kim Wyman, and Tina Barton examines the complicated historical relationship between voting and law enforcement in the United States, highlighting how policing experiences can influence public attitudes towards the presence of law enforcement at voting locations.
Additional Resource
This resource provides accessible, reliable information on constitutional history and the roles and responsibilities involved in administering congressional elections in the United States, with the goal of advancing civic understanding among government officials, media, civic organizations, and the American public.
Paper
This paper examines the growing role of content creators as information sources in modern society, proposing frameworks for effective collaboration between creators and election officials and offering recommendations for election officials to develop their own social media content.