How Arizona State University's Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory is training the next generation of election officials with AI-powered collaboration

The big picture

• Roundtable serves as the operational backbone for ASU Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory (MODL)’s AI + Elections Bootcamps, connecting elections officials from across the country and enabling real-time collaboration during training.
• Elections officials face unprecedented challenges; bringing election officials together improves election administration because public servants can share best practices from across the country.
• AI represents both risk and opportunity for election administration. MODL uses Roundtable to teach officials how to protect elections from AI-driven threats while leveraging AI to improve voter services and operational efficiency.

Building community among elections officials under pressure

At Arizona State University's Watts College of Public Policy and Community Solutions, the focus is on supporting current elections officials and training the next generation through convenings that bring together public servants from across the elections ecosystem. 

"Elections officials are dealing with challenges unlike any that elections officials have ever had to deal with," said Bill Gates, Executive Director of MODL and a Professor of Practice at ASU Watts College of Public Service of Community Solutions. "So to get them together in a room from other parts of the country, bipartisan, and sharing stories has great value.”

“It makes election administration better as they get together and share best practices," Gates continued. 

AI + Elections bootcamps, in particular, are designed to give elections officials exposure to AI and how it can make their work more efficient and improve the voter experience — while teaching them how to guard against AI-driven threats. 

"There are two pieces," Gates explained. "One is understanding AI so you can better protect your elections and voters from the dangers of AI. We emphasize security, that information is being protected and the elections process is being protected."

But the bootcamps also focus on AI for good. "AI has value in all types of elections jurisdictions, big to small, and from a communications perspective, it can really help elections officials to communicate with voters more effectively and efficiently."

For smaller jurisdictions without extensive resources, AI can be a force multiplier — creating election plans, converting poll worker manuals into compelling PowerPoint presentations, and translating materials for multilingual communities.

Roundtable is a trusted platform to bring AI to life

When MODL decided to incorporate hands-on AI training into their bootcamps, they needed a platform that elections officials would trust.

"We've got a specific audience — many election officials are familiar with Roundtable, they've used it, and it’s seen as a trusted partner," Gates explained. "Meeting with the team at Roundtable, we were all so impressed that they cared about us. They cared about our success."

During bootcamps, participants work on real-world scenarios using Roundtable's AI capabilities to generate content they can use in their jurisdictions — internal communications about natural disasters that might impact election day operations, memos to elected officials, and media response strategies were the kinds of sample materials that bootcamp participants learned to create with Roundtable’s trusted AI capabilities. 

But the most compelling element of the bootcamps wasn't just the AI outputs, Gates told us — it was the collaborative learning environment Roundtable enabled.

"To me, the best piece of all of this was how everyone shared what they were working on in Roundtable, so the facilitators and the participants could see this work as it was being done," Gates said. By conducting the bootcamp “live” in Roundtable’s government operations platform, facilitators could highlight participants' work in real-time, asking them to share their process and the roadblocks they encountered. This transparency created peer-to-peer learning opportunities that wouldn't have been possible with traditional presentation formats or siloed work.

"I think Roundtable could be one of the most helpful deployments of AI, specifically because AI-generated answers and content in Roundtable are based on an organization’s own data. They can trust Roundtable’s accuracy," Gates said. "In general, the off-the-shelf chatbots are pitiful at answering questions related to elections because there are nuances from jurisdiction to jurisdiction that can’t be generalized."

Tight budgets and expanding expectations

Gates told us he sees AI impacting all areas of the public domain, and elections are not immune. As states and localities manage shrinking budgets and, at the same time, higher expectations from constituents, AI can be a critical unlock.

"I'm interested as AI is developed and people get more comfortable with it, the way AI could make operations more efficient. We are going into some tough budgetary environment in a lot of these jurisdictions, so the extent to which AI can be used to provide great service without an increase in expenditures is something public servants should be looking at,” said Gates. 

“That said, I think we've got to do some work, because AI can be a bit of a lightning rod. That's why these bootcamps, the exposure to AI in action, collaboration between colleagues — all of which Roundtable supports — is so, so critical,” Gates continued. 

Ultimately, Gates is optimistic. “If elections officials can be faster and more efficient and serve voters more effectively while safeguarding data and privacy, that’s a tremendous win. And I believe we’ll get there.”