The Stewards of Democracy Initiative (SDI) is an applied research effort of the Elections &
Voting Information Center (EVIC) at Reed College to understand and advance the work of
America’s local election officials (LEOs) and promote electoral integrity.


SDI is a multi-pronged collaborative research effort consisting of webinar conversations, a
cross-sector book publication, and a research convening of election science academic
researchers, local election official practitioners, and other election community stakeholders.

Webinars 

EVIC held two SDI webinars in 2021 to begin these conversations.

Our first webinar, “Stewards of Democracy Initiative: A Conversation” introduced the following SDI topics through lively and practical discussion between academic researchers and local election officials:

  • Diversity in Election Administration: Path to the Profession
  • The Voice of Local Election Officials in Election Reform
  • Nonprofit Funding & Election Performance

Our second webinar, “Stewards of Democracy Initiative: Adaptation, Adjustment, and Learning from the 2020 Election,” brought together election officials and election science researchers to discuss ways to adapt, adjust, and learn from the key challenges of 2020, while looking ahead to 2022. These topics were discussed:

  • The Challenges of Off-year Elections and Communicating State Election Legislation Changes to Voters
  • How to Minimize Turnover, Broaden Appeal, and Diversify the Workforce of Local Election Officials

Research Topics

Our SDI research agenda is built around the belief that understanding the career paths,
work environment, and beliefs and values of individual local election officials is a critical
element to improve the resiliency of the elections system in the United States in times of
rapid change and heightened partisan polarization, and in the face of attacks on its integrity.

We are addressing the following applied research topics:

  • Proven methods to broaden and diversify the LEO community
  • Education and training that foster voter-centric approaches to election
    administration
  • The impact of an increasingly polarized and competitive political environment in
    recent years on the professional ethos and work environment of LEOs and
    their staffs
  • The culture of local election administration: beliefs, norms, opinions, and
    values of local administrators
  • How public and private partnerships help to develop expertise and improve
    electoral performance by LEOs
  • Local election administration in context: in the context of local government
    and in the context of their service population

Edited Volume & Book Conference

EVIC is organizing the compilation of an annotated volume about local election
administrators in the U.S which will be published in late 2022 / early 2023. The book will
include academic chapters accompanied by essays and articles written by researchers and
practitioners. Our intent is to host a book conference at Reed Collegepost-pubication to
culminate this effort, combining the expertise and research knowledge of the election
science community with the practical experience and accumulated wisdom of state and
local election administrators, focused on understanding and strengthening the capacity
of local election administrators to act as “stewards of democracy:” spokespeople
and defenders of a safe, secure, accessible, and equitable elections system.

The book and subsequent convening, organized and overseen in partnership with leading
scholars, academic research centers, and thought leaders in the election science and
election administration community, will examine who works in local election
administration, what LEOs think and believe about electoral integrity and election
reform, and how to best support and grow a professional cadre of stewards of
democracy.

Support

The Stewards of Democracy Initiative (SDI) at the Elections & Voting Information
Center (EVIC) at Reed College is made possible by the generous support of the Democracy
Fund, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s
Election Data and Science Lab, and the University of Southern California Schwarzenegger
Institute for State and Global Policy.

Listed here are the academic centers that are collaborating with EVIC on the SDI: