Community relationships
Communications is about educating voters and building public trust in elections. While the ways to reach voters have grown, communication remains central to helping voters navigate the election process. From special media requests to everyday interactions that answer voters’ questions, all election offices play an important role in this work. This is one of six standards that define excellence in communications. This draft standard will be updated based on feedback from the election community.
Standard
Your election office builds and maintains strong relationships in your community that foster trust in the election process. To achieve this standard:
- You build relationships in your local government and with community partners that represent a range of voter demographics.
- You maintain community contacts and ensure that relationships continue through staffing changes.
- You solicit, document, and act on relevant feedback from voters and partners in your local community.
- You leverage your community relationships to identify misconceptions about elections and craft an accurate, timely response.
Why this standard matters
It is important that we are explicit about the underlying why for each standard. While not attached to measurements, the intended impact of an election department achieving this standard is that:
- Election offices will have a network of trusted partners that extend their reach into communities, with less legwork for their offices.
- Election offices will maintain relationships that withstand staff turnover.
- Voters will receive education that is relevant to their needs in areas such as language, literacy level, and disability.
- The public will have more confidence and trust in election offices because they are receiving consistent updates about elections from a range of credible voices.
