Election Essentials:
Voting in Our Community

Election Essentials: Voting in Our Community

Tools and resources

A Tool for Local Election Officials

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Check out the living list of resources below from colleague organizations working to unite Americans across political divides and increase trust in elections.

Election Process Resources

Voter Education & Messaging

Communicating Across Political Divides

Additional Resources from Colleague Organizations

ELECTION PROCESS RESOURCES

1

Brennan Center for Justice – Securing the 2024 Election: Report on how Federal, state, and local officials must work together to safeguard the democratic process.

2

Bipartisan Policy Center — Task Force on Elections: The Task Force is comprised of a geographically and politically diverse group of state and local election officials devoted to making meaningful improvements to United States elections. The task force was based on the idea that the voice of the public servants who implement election laws—election officials—is often overlooked when state legislatures and Congress consider election reform.

3

Issue One – Faces of Democracy: A campaign of election officials and poll workers to strengthen U.S. elections.

4

National Council on Election Integrity: A bipartisan group of 40 government, political, and civic leaders who are devoted to defending the legitimacy of our elections.

5

National Task Force on Election Crises: Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our democracy. The National Task Force on Election Crises is a cross-partisan collection of more than 50 experts dedicated to ensuring free and fair elections by recommending responses to a range of potential election crises. The only electoral outcome this group advocates is that elections are free and fair.

6

VoterCast: VoterCast is a new tool for election officials to access outreach content proven to be effective in supporting voters with free and paid plans.

VOTER EDUCATION AND MESSAGING RESOURCES

1

Ad Hoc Committee for 2024 Election Fairness and Legitimacy —24 for ’24: Urgent Recommendations in Law, Media, Politics, and Tech for Fair and Legitimate 2024 U.S. Elections: Read this set of recommendations by a group of funders (Democracy Fund, Hewlett Foundation, Knight Foundation, and Mertz Gilmore Foundation) for ways that law, media, political actors, and tech companies can improve election fairness and integrity.

2

Braver Angels –Trustworthy Elections Campaign: Conservatives and liberals distrust our electoral system for vastly different reasons — from voter fraud and election security to voter suppression and peaceful transfer of power. Leading up to the 2024 election, Braver Angels worked to rebuild this trust by seeking solutions supported by people across the political spectrum. This report is based on 26 workshops with 194 evenly-balanced Red and Blue participants. Together, they found 727 unanimous points of agreement across values, concerns, and solutions.

3

Bipartisan Policy Center, Issue One, and the R Street Institute Report – United in Security: How Every State Protects Your Vote: details the security and integrity protections that make American elections strong, resilient, and trustworthy in every jurisdiction.

4

Interfaith America – Faith in Elections Playbook: The Faith in Elections Playbook supports faith-based, civic, and campus communities with accessible, actionable resources to support the 2024 election. This playbook is designed to make it easier for faith and community leaders to join work that is already happening across America to help the 2024 elections run smoothly, so that all eligible voters can access a ballot and every valid vote is counted. This Playbook aims to enable organizations to focus on taking actions that best align with their interests, their skills, and the needs of their communities.

COMMUNICATING ACROSS POLITICAL DIVIDES

1

Living Room Conversations Trust in Elections Initiative: Alongside providing a community and tools for building trust across differences around elections, Living Room Conversations offers a simple, sociable and structured way to practice communicating across differences while building understanding and relationships. Typically, 4-7 people meet in person or by video call for about 90 minutes to listen to and be heard by others on one of over 150 topics. Rather than debating or convincing others, participants take turns talking to share and learn and be curious. No preparation is required, though background links with balanced views are available.

ADDITIONAL ELECTION RESOURCES FROM COLLEAGUE ORGANIZATIONS

1

Alliance for Securing Democracy and Issue One — Securing 2024: Defending US Elections through Investment and Reform: Thirteen policy recommendations for federal and state lawmakers to meet 2024 administrative challenges.

2

AllSides: Get balanced news on election reform and voting through the AllSides™ news feed.

3

Common Ground Committee – Voting & Elections: Another comprehensive resource compilation featuring simple explanations on the process, how to vote, and how to be active in a democracy, alongside Common Ground Committee’s signature podcasts, and more!

4

Team Democracy — Candidate Principles for Trusted Elections: Sign the petition! Candidates who agree to the Candidate Principles for Trusted Elections uphold five core doctrines of democratic elections: integrity, nonviolence, security, oversight, and the peaceful transfer of power. Voters and organizations can lend their names to these principles, telling candidates to lead by example to help restore trust in elections.