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Looking Back at the EAC Summit: The 2018 Federal Election

Election Administration

The EAC hosted an all-day summit on Wednesday, January 10, 2018 to highlight a spectrum of issues state and local election officials will face as they work to administer secure, accessible and efficient federal elections in 2018 and beyond. 

More than 175 election officials, voting rights activists, academics and others in the election community attended the event, which featured keynote speakers and expert on topics such as election security, voting accessibility, and how to use election data to improve the voter experience. 

Doug Chapin, Director of the Program for Excellence in Election Administration at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs, kicked off the event by delving into how the field of election administration is changing, and the demands these changes place on election officials. Watch Doug’s full keynote here.

During the first panel of the day, “Election Efficiency and Integrity: Improving the Voter Experience,” EAC Commissioner Christy McCormick spoke with experts about how data is used to administer elections, improve voter experience and track the impact of policy changes overtime. Watch the complete discussion here.

EAC Chairman Matthew Masterson moderated a panel on “Election Security: Solutions and Opportunities” about how to improve election integrity without compromising access, how election officials have worked with the Department of Homeland Security following the Critical Infrastructure designation, and the election community’s partnerships with academia. Watch the complete discussion here.

Bob Kolasky, Acting Deputy Undersecretary for the Department of Homeland Security’s National Protection and Programs Directorate, delivered the summit’s keynote address and spoke with Chairman Masterson how crucial information sharing and communication is to running secure elections. Watch Kolasky’s speech and Q&A here.

Vice Chairman Thomas Hicks was joined by election officials and voting rights advocates during his panel “Election Accessibility: Protecting Privacy and Improving Reliability.” Panelists spoke about how to best serve voters with disabilities, voters who needed language assistance at the polls and uniformed and overseas voters. Watch the complete discussion here.

The summit concluded with an open mic session with EAC Executive Director Brian Newby and EAC Commissioners Matthew Masterson, Christy McCormick and Thomas Hicks. Watch the complete session here.

The EAC would like to thank those who attended the summit and encourage conversations surrounding these critical issues to continue. 

As EAC Executive Director Brian Newby said, “It has been an EAC initiative to ‘make it real’ and meaningful for those we serve. We hope that is evident in this event today and the work we do every day.” 

Keywords
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