October 7, 2025

Cultivating the Election Workforce: Training Every Role in Election Offices

The election workforce is the backbone of American democracy, responsible for implementing complex election systems with integrity, accuracy, and transparency. While several programs and initiatives have emerged to support, cultivate, and train the people who run our elections, much of this attention has centered on two groups – chief election officials and poll workers. Far less has been devoted to the talented individuals and teams who manage the day-to-day: coordinating logistics, ensuring compliance, communicating with the public, and more.

In a recent Books & Ballots webinar, we explored what it means to train the full bench of talent in election offices. The session featured ongoing research by The Center for Election Innovation & Research examining the gaps and needs for such training, open questions and challenges that remain, and promising approaches for election offices and others in the field to consider.

This conversation was part of the Books & Ballots series, presented in partnership with The Center for Election Innovation & Research and Arizona State University’s Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory.