MBA Fellow: Election Ops & Volunteer Programs

COVID-19 presents significant risks to the U.S. general election this November. Across the country, states are ramping-up expanded voting options in response to the pandemic: from early voting and vote-by-mail to new polling sites that meet health safety standards. This effort presents enormous operational and management challenges.

In general, vote by mail offers a safe, secure, time-tested way to make voting more accessible while reducing the administrative and staffing burden on election day. It builds upon structures that already exist in every state, absentee ballots, which makes it feasible to scale up in the relatively short span of time before the November elections. However, rapid and large-scale changes to complex election administration carry significant operational, security, and management challenges that threaten to overwhelm existing capacities.

To support the fragmented infrastructure of county, city, and state-level election administrators, Leadership Now is forming a team of current and alumni MBAs to provide essential support.

Alongside election experts and efforts like the National Vote at Home Institute, the Election Support Corps are focused on initial hot spots
- Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Utilizing a business mindset and strategic approach, the team will offer direct operational support to election officials in order to plan for the complexities of this election cycle. The team will also direct volunteers and offers of corporate donations to a broader set of states, focusing on the highest impact use of time and donations.

Work streams include the following:

• Marketing :
  Develop communications toolkit for election officials to distribute to constituents with information regarding how and when to vote
• Operational planning :
  Build election operations model to determine resources needed for in-person and mail-in voting and support select counties at that their request
• Polling station volunteer coordination :
  Source volunteer poll workers, space, and equipment and conduct marketing campaign to drive increase in poll volunteers
• Disinformation tracking
  - Produce weekly disinformation report highlighting false messaging and campaigns that undermine our democracy

We are looking for a current or post MBA fellow to fill this 5 month position. Fellows will have the opportunity to engage in other projects across the Leadership Now Project portfolio as well.