Debrief the election with this new toolkit

Congratulations on completing another successful election cycle. This brief window after an election is the ideal opportunity to plan for future success. Debrief and capture wins, challenges, and big thoughts now while they are top of mind. We’ve created a new toolkit to help you do just that.

It is a part of a larger series we are building through 2025 to support offices with planning projects that require sufficient time, energy, and creativity for successful implementation. 

What is the post-election reflection toolkit? 

We know from election offices that long-term planning can be a challenge and we wanted to find a way to make it easier. We found that election offices are overwhelmed and exhausted by putting out fires. Not having a long-term plan makes it hard to improve each year since offices are more likely to reinvent the wheel each cycle instead of building on past work.

We want to help offices plan, track progress, and achieve new ideas so that you can continue to build on your success and so every election cycle gets better. We spent this year researching election administration planning in 5 different offices across the country, identifying the main problems, and then figuring out how they can be addressed. 

The result is a toolkit with 3 different tools to help facilitate end-of-election reflections with your staff members. 

What is in the toolkit?

To help you through the workshop planning process, we have 3 tools:

  • The Planning and Facilitation Guide. The theory of how we at CCD use design research skills for facilitating debrief workshops. It includes recommendations and considerations for setting goals, planning activities and logistics, running the workshop, and planning the next steps.
  • Planning Worksheet. A companion to the planning and facilitation guide. It helps you organize your thoughts as you are planning your workshop. Think of it as your working draft. 
  • Workshop Moderator Guide Template. The final agenda that you will use to run your workshop.

If you use this in your office, we would love to hear how it went! Email us at hello@civicdesign.org with any questions or thoughts. 

About this work

This toolkit is a part of our work with the US Alliance for Election Excellence.