The Clearinghouse Awards, also known as the “Clearie” Awards, are presented annually across the U.S. for best practices in election administration by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). Established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA), the EAC is charged with serving as a clearinghouse for election administration information. To further this mission, the EAC launched the Clearies in 2016 to promote best practices in elections and celebrate the accomplishments of election officials.
The EAC is excited to recognize the hard work and innovation of the 2023 Clearie Winners. The EAC is also recognizing 20 jurisdictions with 2023 Clearie Honorable Mention awards. You can also read the press release.
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2023 Clearinghouse Award Categories
- Outstanding Use of HAVA Grants in Election Modernization
- Distinguished Voter Education and Communications Initiatives
- Improving Accessibility For Voters With Disabilities
- Outstanding Innovations in Election Cybersecurity and Technology
- Outstanding Innovations in Elections
- Best Practices in Recruiting, Retaining, and Training Poll Workers
- Outstanding Election Official State Association Program
- Creative and Original “I Voted” Sticker Design
Lake County Board of Elections and Registration, Indiana
Election Education and Quick Guide
Election integrity has taken center stage in America and confidence in the electoral process is of critical importance. Often, there is a lack of accurate information for voters and insufficient training for election staff. This erodes voter confidence and increases the chance of human error by election officials. To address this need, the Board of Elections developed the Voter Education Module to provide accurate and vetted information from subject matter experts in the form of a quick guide booklet. The Poll Worker Quick Guide has a lay-flat design, index, and uncovered tabs to provide fast answers to the most popular questions. The guide works with the county’s existing Poll Worker Quick Guide and contains information to help election employees respond to voter and poll worker questions. A HAVA grant covered professional printing. QR surveys provide feedback loops for quantifiable results. This branded bipartisan project improves public sector engagement through educational components specifically designed for four target audiences: voters, poll workers, election officials, and election administrators. Both guides can be easily adapted for use in other jurisdictions.
North Carolina State Board of Elections
A county government cyberattack during early voting in February 2020 sparked the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) to invent Attack Response Kits (ARKs). Initially assembled by NCSBE in 2021 through HAVA funds, ARKs are elections offices in a box. During an event that requires network isolation, ARKs allow counties to securely continue operations while not relying on infrastructure that may be impacted by a cyber incident. In 2023, ARKs were deployed in response to cyber-related events affecting two county governments. ARKs kept one county election office operational through municipal canvass and another during candidate filing and ballot preparation. ARKs have also been deployed in 2024. Each ARK includes laptops, accessories, and security software to allow county board employees to access the State Election Information Management System. A Tactical Rapid Communications Kit (TRaCK) provides reliable data and voice network services, even in remote areas. Batteries last up to two days. ARKs are staged at eight strategic locations across the state, allowing deployment within 90 minutes. NCSBE houses two spare kits. The ARKs are an important capability for the state and counties in their continuity of operations plans.
Large Jurisdictions
Coalition of Bay Area Election Officials, California
Coalition of Bay Area Election Officials
Public trust in elections is essential to, and the hallmark of, a well-functioning government and society. In November 2021, counties in the San Francisco Bay Area formed the Coalition of Bay Area Election Officials. The effort joins forces across 11 neighboring counties, working collaboratively to drive a regional approach to the shared media market. The Coalition expanded voter outreach and education programs to increase public awareness and understanding of elections by demystifying processes and describing the many safeguards that maintain the integrity of elections. By combining resources and bringing together experts across the region, the Coalition was able to produce a vast array of editorials, press releases, and voter education videos on topics ranging from why the vote-counting process takes time to how to fill out a ballot in your county. The Coalition also sought to quell rumors and reject falsehoods regarding elections processes. The Coalition has been preparing diligently for the 2024 elections and is well underway to serve the 4.3 million registered voters in the area. The following counties currently participate in the Coalition: Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Santa Cruz, and Sonoma.
Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, Florida
The VoteHillsborough Video Series
The VoteHillsborough Video Series is a 16-episode, three-chapter series that dives behind the scenes into the world of elections, explaining what the office does and how election officials conduct their work. The content is presented in succinct, digestible, and easy-to-understand episodes, in an effort to make the information engaging and accessible for different communities. The communications goals for 2023 focused on providing information about three municipal elections, explaining new changes in election law, and fostering a groundwork of trust in the work the county was doing to prepare for the 2024 election cycle. The videos, which were viewed more than 27,000 times, served as a foundational instrument for achieving those goals.
Office of the Iowa Secretary of State
Carrie Chapman Catt Award Program
The Carrie Chapman Catt Award program directly engages students in the voter registration process by giving students the opportunity to register to vote if they are eligible. High schools in all 99 of Iowa's counties are eligible to sign up and participate in the program. Upon enrolling, teachers and administrators receive an action kit outlining the steps and best practices for hosting voter registration events in their schools, FAQs, and information on how to register, compiled by the Iowa Secretary of State's Elections Division. Supplemental materials are also provided, including flyers, stickers, and pledge cards. Schools that participate receive an award if they register at least 90% of eligible students. In the 2023-2024 school year, 43 schools achieved this ambitious goal.
Maricopa County Elections and Department of the Board of Supervisors, Arizona
Voter Education and Communications Program
To better serve 4.5 million residents, including 2.4 million active voters representing the 2nd largest voting jurisdiction in the U.S., Maricopa County Elections, a Department of the Board of Supervisors, launched a Voter Education and Communications Program in 2022. This program aims to improve voter education, counter all types of disinformation, bolster stakeholder partnerships, and foster trust and transparency in the elections process while providing recruitment opportunities. It continues to engage voters through a mix of in-person and virtual activities, supported by social media, newsletters, and a website. Throughout calendar year 2023, the elections office participated in 58 community events and led 36 tours of their elections facility, dedicating over 300 hours to educate 4,900 voters. They launched 10 virtual workshops and produced video shorts amassing over 3,900 post views. The program was designed with few resources, on a limited budget, and is easily replicated.
Snohomish County Elections, A Division of the Auditor's Office, Washington
Unleashing the Storytelling Power of Comic Book Art to Engage and Inform Voters
Snohomish County Elections designed an eye-catching and universally approachable comic book series to inform voters on everything from voter registration to processing ballots to tabulating results. This voter education initiative proved to be popular, sustainable, cost-effective, and easily replicated by other election officials and educational partners. The creative and compelling comic books for voters have enabled the county elections team to foster trust and boost voter engagement. The recognizable and streamlined style has successfully served as a design framework that has been seamlessly shared with trusted, nonpartisan partners such as public libraries and the League of Women Voters. The initiative has become a timely and effective tool to advance safe and secure elections.
Small/Medium Jurisdictions
Alexander County Board of Elections, North Carolina
Inside Election Administration Article Series
Election administrators are regularly approached with questions such as, "What do you do all year long?" or "What do you do after an election?" The Alexander County Board of Elections partnered with a local newspaper, The Taylorsville Times, to feature a monthly guest column series called “Inside Elections Administration.” The series showcases the robust framework of election administration and the professionalism that ensures elections are conducted lawfully and fairly. This is a no- or low-cost program that broadens outreach by engaging the community and keeping them informed on elections throughout the year. Election administrators work hard to ensure elections are conducted fairly and accurately, and this series helps to explain the Board’s story and what they do to make the county’s elections work. In a 2023 pilot, five articles were published each month from January to May. The topics for the articles were: How Elections are Administered in NC, National Change of Address Mailings (NCOA), No Contact Mailings & Inactive Voters, Partisan Versus Non-Partisan Contests, and Are There any Elections Scheduled in 2023?
Beaufort County Board of Elections, North Carolina
Bringing Local Government to Your Classroom
The Beaufort County Board of Elections and Washington High School in North Carolina collaborated to pioneer a classroom-based voter education initiative. The program convenes election administrators, students, educators, and elected officials to foster civic engagement, with a particular focus on the importance of voting. By facilitating direct conversations between local elected officials and students, the initiative cultivates a sense of civic responsibility and meaningful engagement with the democratic process. Through active discussions, students participate by listening and addressing questions to officials, fostering relationships crucial for future voters. These authentic exchanges deepen students' understanding of the government and its functions. Additionally, the program has heightened officials' awareness of youth-related issues such as limited employment opportunities and rural housing challenges. Tangible community improvements, like enhancements to recreational facilities in the City of Washington, have stemmed from this collaborative effort. The program was shared with educators across the state at the 2023 North Carolina Council for the Social Studies in Greensboro. The program serves as a beacon of civic and election education, empowering students and enhancing community-government relationships to foster positive results.
Brunswick County Board of Elections, North Carolina
The Election Education Seminar Series and Expo was produced to provide educational opportunities for the community to engage in and better understand the election administration process. A seven-episode hybrid seminar series was developed to provide a deeper dive into specific election areas of public interest in conjunction with an in-person Elections Expo. Attendees could participate in the live seminars online or in person. They could also watch them on their own time through the county’s YouTube channel. Each seminar was promoted through social media channels, newsprint, television, and elections email lists. Seminar topics were Introduction to Elections, Voter Registration, Accessible Voting, Absentee by Mail Voting, Voting Equipment, Prepare to Vote, and Certifying an Election. The Expo brought in community members and featured a range of interactive exhibits, stations, and resources designed to educate voters on the registration process, logistics, voting options, and voting equipment. Attendees had the opportunity to meet with board of elections staff and participate in a mock election to gain hands-on experience with the voting process and equipment. This no-pressure environment provided an opportunity to understand how the equipment worked and why certain processes and procedures were in place.
Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder, Colorado
Building Bridges, Igniting Votes: A Collaborative Campaign for Increased Turnout
The Jefferson County Clerk and Recorder's office conducted a six-month campaign leading up to the November 2023 election, aiming to boost voter turnout in a low-attention year. This effort focused on expanding communication channels to reach low-engagement voters by forging key partnerships with an advisory committee, local businesses, and municipalities. Collaboration with businesses during National Vote Early Week garnered media attention, increasing voter awareness. Municipal partnerships facilitated the distribution of accurate election information and led to joint events like "Bagels & Ballots" with city clerks. This communications initiative helped increase turnout from 43% to 47% and the office was the only county in the state to surpass 200,000 returned ballots (despite ranking third in total active registered voters). The success resulted not only in the increased voter turnout but also in the unsolicited positive feedback received from community members of all political backgrounds.
Nassau County Supervisor of Elections Office, Florida
Early Voting and Election Day Mass Text Messages to Voters
The Nassau County Supervisor of Elections office sent mass text messages to voters during early voting, reminding them of the hours and locations where they could vote. Text messages were restricted to those voters who had not yet cast a ballot in the election. On election day, text messages were personalized to each voter with the address and a picture of their precinct location. Through this initiative, the county found that effective communication is achieved by communicating often, using different methods, and providing information to voters when they want to receive it. With changing precinct lines and different polling locations in a redistricting year, providing just-in-time information to voters about voting opportunities and their assigned precinct location was the county’s mission. Increasing voter awareness of voting opportunities is an important service and adding customized text messages to Nassau’s communication strategies is an inexpensive way to achieve this mission.
Knox County Clerk, Indiana
Before July 2023, all Indiana Counties were required to post paper sample ballots at every voting location. In Vote Center Counties, this could mean thousands of pages of sample ballots. Knox County received permission from the Indiana Election Division to test the use of electronic sample ballots for the November 2022 General Election. By using electronic sample ballots, voters had every ballot at their fingertips in an accessible format to review prior to voting. Images and content in the electronic sample ballots could be enlarged to assist voters with vision impairment. The feedback from the 2022 general election was extremely positive. A legislative proposal was created for the 2023 General Session, which was approved, making it the only Clerk-related bill to pass in that session. The bill also permitted, for the first time, the use of repurposed e-poll books for this program. This has decreased e-waste, printing costs, and paper consumption throughout Indiana. The state law that allowed the use of electronic sample ballots can be found under Indiana Code 3-11-3-25.
Tennessee Secretary of State, Division of Elections
American Sign Language (ASL) Video Project
The Tennessee Secretary of State's Office partnered with Disability Rights Tennessee to address concerns from the deaf community regarding four proposed constitutional amendments appearing on the ballot. The concern was that with more intricate legal language, like that contained within constitutional amendments, there is an increased possibility of confusion for those who read English but sign ASL. Five videos featuring an ASL interpreter were filmed in response. The first video explained the process for voting and passing proposed constitutional amendments. Four additional videos were created for each of the proposed constitutional amendments. The videos included the same information provided in English to those who visited the Secretary of State's webpage. The series was a low-cost, resoundingly successful way to provide trusted information to those who use ASL. By implementing this project, the Tennessee Secretary of State's Office was able to provide essential information to drastically decrease the likelihood that voters who are deaf would be uninformed about components of the constitutional amendments featured on the ballot.
Arizona Secretary of State
Arizona's first-of-its-kind election security tabletop training exercise featured deep fake and other AI disruptions, as well as other real-world events to increase readiness and resilience in protecting Arizona's election infrastructure by exposing participants to realistic scenarios and challenges that may occur during an election. The various threats and situations included cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns, natural disasters, and more. The training was tailored for all county leaders who play a role in safeguarding elections including election directors, recorders, supervisors, managers, law enforcement, emergency management directors, IT experts, communication officials, and facility directors. These government officials were joined by organizations working on or interested in how election administrators are preparing to address election security issues. Representatives from prominent technology firms working on AI issues, including Open AI, Institute for the Future, and Microsoft, were involved to share information firsthand about how emerging technologies could impact election security. As stated by Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, "Advances in AI and deepfake technology heighten the potential for chaos. We are going to make sure we are prepared for what is coming our way." A summary of the event can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/wkxXL-SF0pg.
Knox County Clerk, Indiana
ePoll Book Encoder Stabilizer Bracket
The County Clerk’s Office created and produced an ePoll Book Encoder Stabilizer Bracket to respond to a known election administration need. With KNOWiNK ePoll Books, an encoder is used to pre-program a vote card to pull up the correct ballot for a voter. The connection point of the encoder was not stable, causing encoding errors and diminishing the public confidence in our elections. Weaknesses identified included both the connection point of the encoder into the ePoll book, as well as the power connection to the encoder itself. The stabilizer bracket eliminated the connectivity issues and encoding errors. An Indiana company, Shelton Specialties, LLC, was created to produce, market, and sell the brackets, initially in Indiana. The Shelton Specialties Encoder Stabilizer Bracket is patent pending. The Stabilizer Bracket was used in two Indiana counties in 2023 and has been utilized by 15 counties across the state.
Large Jurisdictions
Pierce County Elections, Washington
Pierce County has a distinct envelope branding style for voter ballots. Building on this established visual language, officials created new cure envelopes that seamlessly integrate with existing ballot design, creating a unified and unmistakable identity. When voters receive a cure letter adorned with the county’s distinctive envelope, they instantly recognize its significance - a vital companion to their ballot. Combined with the county’s other methods to assist voters in curing their ballot, this envelope design helped decrease the overall rejection rate. In the 2023 general election, Pierce County had the lowest challenge rate in the state for the ballots received on time.
Pierce County Elections, Washington
Pierce County is Washington's second-largest jurisdiction with over 550,000 registered voters. The county has been voting by mail since 2011, making drop boxes a vital and critical part of the jurisdiction’s elections. With questions around the security of ballot drop boxes creating concern among some voters, the county consulted with political parties to establish a new drop box observer program in the summer of 2022. Through this initiative, Pierce County Elections partners with observers on election night to monitor the 50 drop boxes located across the county. The drop box observer program helps create accountability by political parties observing and confirming that legal requirements and internal policies are being met.
Salt Lake County Clerk Elections Division, Utah
Stick It To 'Em: Reconciliation Log Stickers for Ballot Batches
Move over, "I Voted" sticker—there's a new label in town! Salt Lake County Elections created an adhesive worth its weight in glue regarding security and public confidence. Tacky wordplay aside, Salt Lake County launched an improved ballot reconciliation procedure. The key? A big yellow sticker! This sticker is an 8.5 by 11-inches ballot batch log, easily printed in bulk, stuck to the top of a by-mail ballot batch box that stays with the ballots throughout processing. It has pre-printed lines for every step from batching ballots through tabulating, where election workers record the date and time of completion, initialing at each point and easily attaching the AGILIS tag. With a glance around the room, a worker or poll watcher can quickly confirm every batch has a sunny-colored log, ensuring the logs won't get lost or torn when batch boxes are stacked for storage. The log is also a useful tool in helping concerned citizens understand the security of election procedures. During public tours, the office uses the log as a guide to follow a ballot throughout its life cycle, easily demonstrating how officials monitor, control, and ensure accuracy along the way.
Small/Medium Jurisdictions
City of Minneapolis, Elections & Voter Services, Minnesota
Leveraging Pop-Up Voting to Expand Ballot Access
Law changes in 2023 allowed for pop-up-style voting in Minnesota. Prior even to the passage of the new law, Minneapolis Elections & Voter Services (EVS) met with connections across the University of Minnesota, including Student Government and Civic Engagement entities, to discuss opportunities to engage with the campus community. Each group was energized to envision novel ways of bringing voting to campus. Following an extensive process, EVS selected the University of Minnesota as an ideal location for a 2023 pilot. Given the expected lower turnout of this municipal election, the presence of only one race, and the fact this was the first pop-up, a low turnout was predicted for the site. However, a total of 95 voters cast their ballot at the pop-up polling place, which was roughly double the optimistic internal EVS projections. Building on this success, Minneapolis has created an extensive city-wide plan for the 2024 general elections, which addresses language needs, low turnout, and innovative marketing to expand access to the ballot box.
Nassau County Supervisor of Elections Office, Florida
During early voting and on Election Day, the Supervisor of Elections Office wants to be a fly on the wall at every polling location to know what is happening. Have all election workers arrived? Are there any issues or problems? Will the polling location open on time? And with limited phone lines, finding an alternative means of communicating with and supporting election workers is a priority. The Nassau County Supervisor of Elections Office developed a precinct management app to facilitate this interaction. Using an iPad, election workers communicate directly with the office about their needs without even picking up the phone. Election workers mark attendance every morning, providing real-time updates to office staff. Election administrators know when each election worker arrives and can anticipate when to contact alternative workers. Clerks mark each step of the poll opening on the app with real-time communication on the office dashboard. For example, the elections office can see if workers have only completed three of 40 steps and can dispatch help to ensure the poll opens on time. When clerks submit an inventory request, office staff receive an instant notification. At the end of the day, clerks check off each closing step, allowing officials to know when the polling location closed and their approximate arrival time at the office.
Nassau County Supervisor of Elections Office, Florida
Within seconds of accessing the Nassau County Supervisor of Elections Office website, voters are greeted with a pop-up asking if the office can help. If the voter clicks “Chat with us,” they are asked if they need help with early voting, a vote-by-mail ballot, finding a voting location, dropping off a ballot, or something else. Based on the voter's response, the chatbot directs them to the appropriate page on the elections website or asks them to describe in one or two sentences how workers can help. The chatbot prompts the voter for their name, phone, and email and then advises the voter that the office will promptly reach out to them. This information is then emailed to several staff members who follow up with the voter. The office has improved voter services by ensuring that the person with the right skill set completes the follow-up and handles the issue in one call. This innovative and emerging method of communication has improved voter engagement. Since its implementation in February 2023, hundreds of voters have chatted with the office, with nearly half of these voters receiving the help they needed without staff assistance.
Hamilton County Elections, Ohio
Nowadays, when we need to learn how to perform a new task, like a home repair or exercise, people turn to online videos to help. Elections administration is no different. During the 2020 election, Hamilton County created a virtual training program. While the county has returned to in-person training in the years since the pandemic, the Board of Elections (BOE) has maintained online training resources to be available to poll workers 24/7. In 2023, the BOE began incorporating its online training video library into the physical reference materials provided at the polling location. As an example, when a poll worker turns to the page in the quick guide with instructions on how to set up the ballot collection box, there is a QR code that takes the poll worker to a YouTube video demonstrating how to set it up. Since most poll workers have smart phones, the workers can pull up the training videos quickly on election day. Deploying the videos in this fashion helps cut down on calls to the BOE on election day and also accommodates poll workers with different learning styles.
Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections, Florida
VoteHillsborough Training Labs
The Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Office developed VoteHillsborough Training Labs, an immersive experience for poll workers that has vastly improved training on election technology while increasing worker confidence. This training experience not only equips poll workers with essential skills but also provides elections staff an opportunity to monitor and evaluate poll worker performance and engagement in real-time. Moreover, the in-person labs enable elections staff to accurately identify individuals requiring additional training support and those demonstrating a firm grasp of the technology, positioning them as prime candidates for leadership roles in forthcoming elections.
Nassau County Supervisor of Elections Office, Florida
ROAR: Recruitment, Orientation, Assignment, Retention
Searching for a way to save postage, the office redesigned its voter information cards to include a postcard return for voters to express interest in being part of the elections team. Over 1,200 voters responded. As a small county with less than 75,000 voters, this response represented over four times the number of 2020 election workers. To measure the respondents' level of commitment, the office also implemented an election worker orientation program. This orientation provided an opportunity to learn what it means to be an election worker, ranging from training, election security, the process behind elections, the number of hours required, and a culture of community and service. In 2020, the office struggled to find election workers, often relying on county employees to fill critical positions with too few election workers assigned as alternates. With the implementation of the ROAR program, the county has nearly doubled the election worker pool, expanded the number of positions to improve workflow, and trained 428 election workers for the 2024 presidential preference primary. Building a culture where election workers want to be a long-standing part of the county’s election team is a win-win for voters and the community.
Salt Lake County Clerk and Elections Division, Utah
Custom Dynamic Poll Worker Database
The Salt Lake County Clerk's Office developed a dynamic relational database for organizing, assigning, and communicating with poll workers. This database, built in Airtable, utilizes filters and color-coded tags to track work history, expertise areas, availability, relationships to other poll workers, and more. The Clerk's in-person voting team utilizes ArcGIS surveys to capture availability and other information from potential workers, inputting this data directly into the database. Poll workers can be filtered into groups for a specific assignment, and these groups can drag and drop into the custom, dynamic Microsoft Word mail merge email or text templates designed to integrate with this system. The Clerk's Office can send mass communications that are automatically tailored to each worker's assignment details. The database has made it easier to assign poll workers to vote centers in their local community and identify the most engaged and experienced poll workers for promotion to team leaders. This new structured and efficient approach has resulted in improved election worker retention and a greater capacity to focus on in-depth training.
Solano County Registrar of Voters, California
Poll Worker Electronic Self-Scheduling for Election Day
Solano County has successfully implemented a forward-looking online election worker portal, which has proven instrumental in both time and cost savings, elevating poll worker engagement and retention rates. Traditionally, the Solano County Registrar of Voters would manually assign election workers to designated locations and positions for Election Day. This process demanded a considerable allocation of staff resources, addressing both worker scheduling and fielding inquiries about Election Day assignments. Solano County has embraced a contemporary and efficient approach by deploying an election force solution in collaboration with Tenex Software Solutions. This innovative election worker management tool facilitates a streamlined “self-scheduling" mechanism for election workers, mitigating the county's administrative overhead. The introduction of this solution has empowered election workers to independently schedule themselves for election shifts, resulting in a notable reduction in administrative burden, enhanced worker empowerment, increased retention rates, a decrease in the average age of workers, and a substantial reduction in no-show rates.
Wake County Board of Elections, North Carolina
The Wake County Board of Elections decided to improve their self-paced online and Zoom training classes based on feedback from a post-election survey to election officials. When officials previously took these online courses, they would read the printed material along with the instructions on the screen. However, this did not have the same effect as an in-person instructor-led training using printed materials for exercises, scenario questions, and role-playing. To make their online training just as engaging and helpful as the in-person training, they created an interactive manual. This interactive online flipbook gives officials the ability to quickly search for answers and allows flexibility in choosing how and when they want to learn. Through this manual, election officials can now easily transition from paper to electronic copies on the go. This tool has greatly increased officials’ ability to become more familiar with the county’s other online resources and more confident with electronic resources as election administrators move further into an online world.
Iowa State Association of County Auditors (ISACA)
ISACA State Election Administration Training
The ISACA State Election Administration Training (SEAT) is a three-level election certification training program geared toward Iowa election administrators. It initially started with HAVA funds through a partnership with Iowa State University, the Iowa Secretary of State's Office, and ISACA. It is now organized solely by ISACA. SEAT has three levels of training. Level I includes the basics of elections as an online training and is intended for those who help at the counter during elections. Level II is for those who are more hands-on with elections throughout the year. Level III is designed for the County Auditor and deputies who manage elections. Levels II & III are in-person trainings to promote networking among election administrators in the state. The SEAT program also offers continuing education courses—once in even-numbered years and twice in odd-numbered years. These agendas change based on hot topics and upcoming election cycles and are great opportunities to share best practices. Agendas from sessions in 2023 can be viewed in the accompanying material to show the variety of topics that are covered.
Denver Elections Division, Colorado - Artful Civic Engagement: "I Voted" Sticker Design Competition in Denver Jails
The Denver Elections Division's (DED) Confined Voting Program conducted an "I Voted" sticker design competition aimed at promoting civic engagement among incarcerated individuals by providing a platform for participation in the electoral process. This initiative recognized the significance of fostering a sense of purpose and community for individuals navigating the justice system. Through collaborative efforts with city and community partners, the competition highlighted the important role of civic rights and responsibilities and resulted in two unique and vibrant designs appearing in the November 2024 general election mail ballot packets. The program’s low cost, sustainable nature, and replicability across jurisdictions underscored its potential as a model for future initiatives. One winning design features the Colorado flag on a prominent yellow background with “I voted 2024” written across the flag’s stripes. The “D” in voted is a stylized image of a brick-red building with a sun and purple mountains. Another winning design features a sunset with purple mountains above a grassy plain. “I voted” is sketched in fading black with a yellow flower forming the “o.” The Colorado flag, affixed to a curving flagpole, flies above the mountain range.
Pierce County Elections, Washington - The Mountain of Democracy
Pierce County Elections brought back the "I Voted" sticker with a personalized touch after taking a hiatus since 2016. The sticker proudly features the majestic Mt. Rainier, a symbol synonymous with Pierce County itself. Standing tall and resolute, Mt. Rainier is a constant presence on Pierce County's horizon, visible from every corner of the county. It serves as a powerful reminder that, regardless of the individual neighborhoods or communities, the voters of Pierce County are all connected by the awe-inspiring beauty of the mountain and a shared commitment to democracy. The circular sticker features a stylized white outline of the mountain, with evergreen trees at its base, against a navy-blue background. Above the mountain, “I voted” is written in bold white font with a red checkmark in the “o” and “Pierce County” written underneath in a smaller font.
Santa Fe County Clerk's Office, New Mexico – "Future Voter" and "First-Time Voter" Sticker Design Contests
In 2023, the Santa Fe County Clerk's Office launched a sticker design contest aimed at specific groups of voters: "Future Voter" and "First Time Voter," with the goal of promoting civic engagement among young students in Santa Fe County. This initiative served as an expansion of the County’s successful "I Voted" sticker design contest from 2021. Santa Fe County employees determined the winners anonymously via ranked choice voting, which was implemented by Santa Fe in 2018. These stickers were distributed beginning in the regular local election of 2023 and will continue to be distributed in future Santa Fe County elections. The winning stickers were highly sought after by voters, encouraging first-time voters to participate in the electoral process. Over 4,000 of each sticker were given away in the local election. In partnership with MeowWolf, a local multimedia production company and immersive museum, all students who participated in the contest received free admission tickets to the museum. The first-time voter sticker features a red chili pepper against a bright green background with “I voted for the first time” written in white in both Spanish and English. The colorful future-voter sticker prominently displays the red Zia sun symbol of the New Mexico flag on top of a yellow and blue background. “Vote” is written in dark blue in the center of the symbol and “Vote New Mexico” and “Future” are written in yellow on the symbol in both Spanish and English.
