When voters, candidates and political parties think about post-election data, they typically have results and turnout data in mind. They want to know: Which candidates and parties won? Who turned out to vote? How did the results and participation rates differ from past elections? What does it all mean for the candidates, parties and policies they support?
It is a key duty of election officials to generate results and participation data to help election stakeholders, and the general public, answer these questions. But this is only a small part of the data generated by election officials in the post-election period.
After Election Day, most election officials must adjudicate all provisional ballots cast in the election and many are required to initiate post-election audits. A growing number of election offices further work to assess their performance and effectiveness during the election and record their findings through after-action reporting or other lessons-learned and evaluation processes.
In partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of State, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) will host an Election Data Summit in Philadelphia on July 12, 2018. The fourth and final panel at the event will offer a platform for election officials and election data experts to share their experiences using data-driven approaches to strengthen post-election processes and inform decision-making.
Moderated by Kathy Boockvar, Senior Advisor to the Governor on Elections Modernization for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the summit’s final panel will focus on post-election processes and include discussion from four expert panelists:
- Rey Valenzuela, Director of Elections, Maricopa County, AZ
- Jennifer Morrell, Consultant, Election Validation Project, Democracy Fund
- Kara Rahn, Director of Elections, Chester County, PA
- Dr. Bridgett King, Assistant Professor, Auburn University
Each of these expert panelists will bring a unique perspective to the conversation about how best to use election data and research trends moving forward. We look forward to hearing from them about data-driven processes in the post-election period, including provisional ballot resolution tools, post-election audits, after-action reports and evaluations.
The Election Data Summit is free and open to the public and to media. We hope you will join us for this important event. RSVPs are required and space is limited.