Needs
In the suburbs of Washington D.C., the City of Alexandria's Office of Elections faced a significant challenge: managing complex election processes for a dynamic population with limited resources. With approximately 100,000 active registered voters across 32 precincts, the office needed an efficient solution to streamline operations. With these challenges, Angie Maniglia-Turner, General Registrar and Director of Elections, selected U.S. Digital Response’s (USDR) Election Administration Platform to enhance how the City manages its election staff.
The Election Administration Platform has become an indispensable tool, enabling the office to dedicate more time and energy to critical aspects of administering safe, secure, and accessible elections by streamlining election worker coordination.
Navigating outdated systems for complex elections
Alexandria's election landscape presents distinct challenges:
- Diverse voting methods to support, including in-person early voting (starting 45 days before each election) and vote-by-mail
- Approximately 9,000 to 10,000 voters on the permanent vote-by-mail list
- High voter turnover due to the transient nature of the D.C. suburb population (which also means high turnover of election workers)
- A small team of seven full-time staff members managing elections for 100,000 voters
Before adopting USDR's platform, Alexandria's election office grappled with several critical issues when managing its election staff:
- Inefficient data management: The old system was slow and difficult, requiring numerous clicks for simple updates.
- Inflexible systems: The prior tool didn't accommodate the reality of frequent staff changes. Tony Berardo, Assistant Elections Manager, explained, "The previous software was designed for jurisdictions with stable election and poll workers who worked with a jurisdiction for decades. It didn't fit our reality of frequent staff changes."
- Manual communication: Tracking changes in election worker information was challenging."We would lose track of election workers when they changed their email addresses or moved. There was no easy way for them to update their information,” Angie said.
- Poor vendor support: When issues arose, the previous vendor's support was unresponsive, leaving the team on their own to troubleshoot during critical periods.
These challenges created a stressful work environment, particularly as elections approached. Tony recalled spending up to half a day just managing worker changes, time that could have been better spent on other critical tasks.
Our approach
Discovering a configurable solution
The Alexandria team explored several options to address their challenges but found that most software solutions didn't fully address their unique needs. Angie learned about USDR's Election Administration Platform through their local voter registrar's association.
Key features that appealed to the Alexandria team included:
- Flexibility: The platform could be adjusted to Alexandria's specific processes.
- User-friendly interface: The Election Administration Platform is built using Airtable, which has a similar interface to Microsoft Excel.
- Comprehensive management: The system handles various aspects of election management, from worker scheduling to training tracking, all in one place.
- Responsive support: Tony emphasized the quick turnaround on support requests, saying, "When we have a question or request, I've never seen people turn things around so quickly."
Smooth implementation, immediate impact
The implementation process was swift and efficient. Alexandria’s elections team appreciated the weekly check-ins with USDR during the initial setup phase, which ensured the platform was configured to their specific needs. The impact of the new system was immediately apparent:
- Dramatic time savings: Tasks that took half a day were now completed in about 20 minutes, allowing staff to focus on other critical tasks.
- Improved communication: The system's automated reminders for training and placement information significantly improved consistency in messaging to election workers.
- Enhanced transparency: The team can easily see the staffing situation and determine if more workers need to be recruited.
- Streamlined recruitment: A user-friendly online sign-up form made it easier to recruit and onboard new election workers.
- Flexible scheduling: The system efficiently manages not just Election Day staffing, but also early voting shifts, mail processing teams, and other office support roles.
- Reduced double-booking: The new system provides a clear picture of each person's assignments across all tasks, minimizing scheduling conflicts.
Angie summed up the overall impact, “It has reduced repetitive data entry, which has lowered stress levels and generally improved our efficiency and communication with election officers.”
Looking ahead: A foundation for future elections
The Alexandria team found value not just in the product itself, but in the partnership with USDR. They appreciated the collaborative nature of the relationship and the responsive customer support.The team also benefited from being part of a larger community of election offices using the platform. "Being part of this collaborative lets us benefit from seeing what other jurisdictions are implementing, what problems they're solving, and the solutions USDR is developing," Mark Hirschman, the Elections Manager, said. This collaborative aspect has allowed Alexandria to learn from and share experiences with other jurisdictions, further enhancing their election management processes.
Tony reflected on their experience, “Efficiency-wise, it exceeded my expectations. I came in with lower expectations, having been disappointed by vendor promises. But this system has been fantastic - I couldn't praise it enough."
Alexandria's journey with USDR's Election Administration Platform demonstrates how local governments can leverage digital tools to serve their communities better and strengthen democratic processes, even with limited resources and complex requirements.
"Efficiency-wise, it exceeded my expectations. I came in with lower expectations, having been disappointed by vendor promises. But this system has been fantastic - I couldn't praise it enough."
Tony Berardo
Assistant Elections Manager
Office of Elections, City of Alexandria
