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2023 Clearie Award Winner
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) is celebrating 10 years of the Clearinghouse Awards in 2026. Also known as “the Clearies,” these awards highlight best practices in election administration and applaud the accomplishments of election officials nationwide. As part of the 10th anniversary, the EAC is spotlighting previous Clearie winners.
The EAC interviewed Craig Latimer, Hillsborough County Florida Supervisor of Elections, on the office’s 2023 Clearinghouse Award for Best Practices in Recruiting, Retaining, and Training Poll Workers in the Small/Medium Jurisdictions category.
The office was recognized with this award for developing VoteHillsborough Training Labs, interactive training modules focused on the real-world application of technology in polling places. This training equips poll workers with essential skills while providing election staff an opportunity to monitor and evaluate poll worker performance and engagement in real time. This enables election staff to identify those requiring additional training support or those who are prime candidates for leadership roles in forthcoming elections.
In addition to this award, the Hillsborough County Florida Supervisor of Elections office has received two other Clearie Awards—one in 2022 for Innovations or New Practices in Election Administration and another in 2023 for Distinguished Voter Education and Communications Initiatives—as well as multiple honorable mentions.
EAC Q&A: CRAIG LATIMER, HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY FLORIDA SUPERVISOR OF ELECTIONS
1. How did you learn about the EAC’s Clearinghouse Awards and what motivated you to author your jurisdiction’s Clearie entry?
The buzz around the EAC’s Clearie Awards has steadily increased over the years, so I’ve been aware of the program for a long time. The EAC is really good about communicating with elections administrators, and the director of the Florida Division of Elections reminds us about the Clearie program each year. We embrace a culture of continuous innovation at the Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office and our annual Clearie Awards submissions have become part of our ongoing effort to assess and document the strides we’re making every year to do things better.
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2. What was the motivation behind creating your VoteHillsborough Training Labs?
We wanted to centralize training in one accessible location and adopt a self-paced format tailored for adult learners. We also wanted the training environment to allow for personalized interaction and feedback, so that our Poll Worker Services team could better assess each poll worker’s performance, provide individualized guidance and enhance the learning experience.
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3. What results have you seen since the implementation of your VoteHillsborough Training Labs?
Our poll workers are more confident and perform better since the implementation of our VoteHillsborough Training Labs. We know that because we’ve seen fewer errors and received fewer calls from poll workers asking about technical or procedural issues. In surveys, 99.7% of our poll workers rated their training “very good” or “excellent,” and 97.9% of poll workers rated their election experience as “very good” or “excellent.”
4. What does recognition of your jurisdiction’s entry by the EAC’s Clearies mean to Hillsborough County and what early impact has that recognition generated?
This recognition means a lot for several reasons. We’re being compared to our peers, we’re being recognized by an entity that understands the complexity and intricacies of running elections, and most of all, because these awards show the public the work that’s being done in our office and throughout the country to conduct great elections. People see the awards on our website and in our offices and they are impressed. They see how hard we are working for them, and it helps me to earn their trust. That then impacts our community as a whole, because if we want people to engage in our elections as candidates and voters, they have to trust the work we are doing.
5. Would you recommend other election jurisdictions author and submit a future Clearie entry featuring one of their “Best Practices” and why?
Absolutely! I like that this is a national program and that the contest differentiates between small and large jurisdictions, which often operate much differently from each other. Over the years, EAC has added new award categories, which has been great because it elicits entries that are topical and relevant. We all have so much to learn from each other. And don’t forget our constituents. They learn from this, too. By engaging in this call for entries, you give the public the opportunity to read case studies that describe the thoughtful, careful, innovative work that is being done to provide voters with a voice in our government. The more jurisdictions that enter, the more we can all gain.