My colleague and fellow AI & Elections Clinic Advisory Board Member Noah Praetz talks often about the professional shift election officials have experienced in the last several years. Last year, he led a conversation with election officials from small, medium and large jurisdictions about how the job has evolved – and how election officials now operate more like chief executives managing complex organizations.
The message is simple, even though navigating the practical implications are hard: If you work in elections today, your job has changed. Running an election office no longer looks like managing a mostly non-technical process that comes together a few times every couple of years. Now, it looks like leading a complex public organization under scrutiny, pressure and constant change. In other words: Election officials are now functioning as CEOs.
Bringing the CEO mindset means treating AI as a strategic shift that affects workload, risk and trust. The core lesson from the conversation was not “learn to do more” – it was learn to lead differently. AI represents a fundamental change in how work gets done, how staff spend their time and how public trust is maintained.
A few more takeaways from the conversation that can be applied directly to managing how your office is approaching AI:
Protect your people from overload
Communicate clearly and consistently
Build repeatable processes based on consistent documentation instead of relying on heroic effort
Plan for risk, not just efficiency gains
AI should be treated the same way we treat communications crises, legislative changes, or new security requirements.
We’ve been publishing the AI & Elections Substack for almost three months now, and as we welcome many new subscribers, I hope you’ll consider revisiting some of our earlier posts and reflecting on how the guidance connects to your work. Among these posts are:
Learning Curve: Understanding and Informing How Election Officials Are Approaching AI
Learning AI Terminology, Made Simple for Election Administrators
If your office or state association would like to talk through how you’re approaching AI, we’d be glad to join the conversation. We learn as much from election officials as we share, and those insights directly inform our future guidance.
Originally posted on the AI and Elections Substack, November 7, 2025. Read the original ↗