This article was originally published on Electionline Weekly. 

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As part of its work to build a strong community of leaders in the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) held an in-person conference in early February – The Debrief – where local election officials could come together, debrief about the common challenges they faced during the 2022 election, and share solutions.

The three-day conference included a series of bipartisan panel discussions on resilient and sustainable election funding, communications that can build public confidence in elections, and a panel discussion on the evolving landscape of safety, security and the trustworthiness of elections. Breakout sessions allowed participants to collaborate with each other and drill down even deeper on specific topics.

“What I learned from this conference is that we need more opportunities for election officials to come together in community to share their common challenges and ideas with each other, especially as we chart a path forward through a trying time for democracy,” said Tiana Epps-Johnson, executive director of the Center for Tech and Civic Life. “I saw election officials learn from each other, make connections, celebrate their hard work, and leave with new energy. We need more of these kinds of moments for professional development in the field.”

The conference included a diverse group of local election officials from rural, suburban and urban communities across the country, representing as few as 3,000 voters to more than 1 million voters.

Other events at the conference included a screening of the film “No Time to Fail,” a documentary that gives voice to the experiences of election workers during a critical time in our country’s relationship with election management. Director/Producer Margo Guernsey held a talkback after the screening to share what she learned from shadowing election workers in Rhode Island during the height of the pandemic.

Brianna Lennon, county clerk in Boone County, Missouri and Eric Fey, director of elections in St. Louis County, Missouri, broke some history with the first-ever live recording of their “High Turnout, Wide Margins” podcast in front of an audience of election officials. Podcast guests included Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Pam Anderson, the 2022 Republican nominee for Secretary of State in Colorado.

The U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is a nonpartisan collaborative that is bringing together election officials, designers, technologists, and other experts to envision, support, and celebrate excellence in U.S. election administration. The collaborative is led by the Center for Tech and Civic Life with its partners the Center for Civic Design, Center for Secure and Modern Elections, the Elections Group, Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school) at Stanford University, Prototyping Systems Lab, and U.S. Digital Response.