The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) was established by the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). EAC is an independent, bipartisan commission charged with developing guidance to meet HAVA requirements, adopting voluntary voting system guidelines, and serving as a national clearinghouse of information on election administration. EAC also accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, as well as audits the use of HAVA funds.

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On January 23rd, 2020 The U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) announced the six winners of the 2019 Clearinghouse “Clearie” Award for Outstanding Innovations in Election Administration. The awardees harnessed the buy-in of election officials to secure statewide databases and election management systems, utilized geographic information systems to improve operations, developed apps for shortening lines, conducted extensive outreach to tribal lands, engaged the community with roundtable discussions, and requested real-time feedback from voters through a QR code.

One of the six winners of the 2019 Clearie Award is the Ann Arbor City Clerk’s Office Line Tracking Project

The Line Tracking Project is the culmination of several years of extensive research studying voter wait times. The project features a new public website allowing voters to check wait times at their local polling place and access additional tools to facilitate the voting process. The website and tools were introduced in 2018 and improved upon during the 2019 elections. As home to the University of Michigan, many Ann Arbor polling places previously experienced long wait times. In partnership with the University, the project team continues to evaluate how line counts, website data, e-pollbook numbers, and ballots cast can be harnessed to improve the voter experience.

In the summer of 2018, staff in the City’s Information Technology Department introduced the City Clerk to Scott TenBrink, Project Manager for the University of Michigan School of Information Citizen Interaction Design program. A partnership was established and two students were awarded a fellowship opportunity to study the City’s line management questions. Questions from the City Clerk’s Office included how to manage long lines, how the number of people in line equates to the total amount of time in line and how long is too long for a voter to wait in line. The team worked with the City Clerk’s Office to design a solution that would both help better understand voter turnout behavior and use technology to manage the line.

The University students proposed a solution that the City Clerk work with the City’s Information Technology Department to develop a simple mobile application that could be used by City staff or election inspectors to report Election Day line counts in real-time using a calculator-style tool to input counts.

The City ultimately created a web application, eliminating the need to require election inspectors to download a new application and for ease of training.

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The University of Michigan program “Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students” finalized its partnership with Detroit Public Schools Community District last week to expand access to mental health care in schools, after successful implementation in Washtenaw County.

TRAILS launched in 2013 when local Ann Arbor area high school community members expressed an overwhelming need for mental health support for students. The program began its partnership with the Ann Arbor Public School district in 2013, and has since expanded to 40 Washtenaw County schools.

Andrew Nalepa, a school psychologist at Skyline High School, said he has seen the direct benefits from the TRAILS program in Ann Arbor.

“The coaching model and having someone with us to help support us getting the program off the ground was vital to the long-term success,” Nalepa said. “Now we’re completely independent, and we’ve been running groups for six years now. We’re training any new staff that we have come in that wants to participate in delivering the TRAILS program.”

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Rebecca Cunningham, interim vice president for research

The Institute for Research on Innovation and Science, based at the U-M Institute for Social Research, recently released a report that details how university research spending impacts the economy.

“Research led by the University of Michigan not only serves the world through groundbreaking discoveries and technologies, but it also plays a critical role in accelerating the economy,” said Rebecca Cunningham, interim vice president for research.

The report outlines the geographic distribution of vendors that, between fiscal years 2002 and 2019, supplied goods and services to support the U-M research enterprise.

Companies based in Washtenaw County, for example, received more than $976 million in research contracts from U-M over the 17-year span — the most of any Michigan county. Vendors in Marquette County received more than $53 million between FY ’02 and FY ’19 for their work in supporting the U-M research enterprise, while those in Kent County netted $17 million.

The report also shows the university contributed $5.6 billion to the national economy through vendor contracts and subcontracts between FY ’02 and FY ’19 — $1.8 billion of which was spent in Michigan.

Read Full Story at The Record