Announcing the Election Cycle Tracker
I’m just an elections nerd, standing in front of the internet, asking for an elections calendar that looks more than a year out.
Greetings from St. Petersburg, Florida, where I’m at a side Southern Political Science Association conference as part of a grant that the Bipartisan Policy Center got from the MIT Election Data and Science Lab. Ahead of the midterms, we did a survey to look at who Americans trust the most to get election-related information. We’re presenting our initial findings along with the other grantees.
But let me tell you - it has been a tough week. At the end of last week, I was feeling so good. I was reveling that I had fewer meetings, so I had more time to read and do actual work. I could watch the Speaker fight. I loved my new skincare routine. I. Was. Feeling. Good.
Then the universe was like SMACK. On Monday, reality set in, and my anxiety started going through the roof. Over the week, my girl lizard brain started spiraling about everything from finances, my life goals, career, love life, etc. At times I was convinced that this new career I had built since I left Facebook wasn’t going to work and I should find a cabin in the woods to live the life of a hermit. I mismanaged the amount of time I needed to be at this conference. The weather here was ok, but it was chilly for Florida, and I couldn’t even really enjoy that. I spilled a drink on my laptop. Left my iPad in the hotel room. I got makeup on the shirt I wanted to wear for a TV hit. One friend told me, “This week has been just one claw-back from the jaws of defeat after another.” She is over it, and so am I. This cat hanging out at my resort sums up my feelings well.
All was not lost, though. I got to do a joint interview on CNN with my friend and former colleague Crystal Patterson on Meta’s upcoming decision about whether or not the platform should let former President Trump back on. I’ve written about my thoughts on this before, so I won’t rehash them here, but it’s worth watching the piece. Crystal and I come at this from different perspectives, and I liked the format of having us interact on that just like we did when we were at the company. I also got to talk to CBS about it.
This week I am also releasing an election cycle tracker I’ve wanted to do for a while. For years it has frustrated me that it’s hard to find a calendar of election dates that goes out more than just a year. IFES has a great election guide - but it only has this year’s elections. I wanted something so that I could look even further ahead. We know 2024 will be a big election year, but what do the next 5 or 10 years look like?
Since it didn’t exist, I decided to make it (with help) and share it with the world. If you go to this link, you will find a map that:
Lists out the types of elections each country has
How often the country goes to the polls for national-level elections
Which countries are going to the polls each year from 2023 to 2029
One big caveat on this visualization is that election dates can vary due to different factors (government decisions, snap elections, destabilization, and more). That’s part of why creating a list of election dates is hard. (See my previous post about how complex it can be to build seemingly simple lists. Election dates are another one of those.)
However, I think this can and will be helpful to look a bit longer term. One of the drums I’ll never stop beating is that we need to start much sooner preparing for elections. I’m hoping this map will help me and others to do that sort of planning.
If you have any issues or questions, please do reach out! A HUGE thank you to Ana Khizanishvili for doing all the heavy lifting in putting this map together.
What I’m Reading
WSJ: Google Says Supreme Court Ruling Could Potentially Upend the Internet
WSJ: GOP Bill Would Bar Government From Pushing Internet Platforms to Block Lawful Speech
Semafor: Chinese social media app Kwai played a role in Brazil riot
CNN: Inside Facebook's high-stakes debate to reinstate Trump after a two-year ban
Washington Post: AI advancements to watch in 2023, from chatbots to software in war
Axios: House Republicans target Twitter's handling of Hunter Biden story
WSJ: Republicans and Democrats, Unite Against Big Tech Abuses
Washington Post: Social media can be polarizing. A new type of algorithm aims to change that.
Metaverse Post: VALL-E: Microsoft's new zero-shot text-to-speech model can duplicate everyone's voice in three seconds
Observer: US Congress Members Are Calling on ESPN to End TikTok’s Sponsorship
Rest of World: New year, new feed: Tech media must-follows for 2023
WSJ: Facebook Wanted Out of Politics. It Was Messier Than Anyone Expected.
Rolling Stone: Jan. 6 Committee Experiment Found TikTok Went From Zero To Nazi in 75 Minutes
Verge: Introducing Command Line, a newsletter about the tech industry’s inside conversation by Alex Heath
Nextgov: State Department Creates First Office Devoted to Emerging Technology Diplomacy - Nextgov
Posting Through It: #181: They worked on the Capitol riot investigation (feat. Meghan Conroy & Alex Newhouse)
Tech Policy Press: The Sunday Show - Results of the January 6th Committee's Social Media Investigation
Bloomberg: Elon Musk Cuts More Twitter Staff Overseeing Content Moderation
Reuters: Facebook, YouTube remove content backing Brazil attack
Coda Story: "Undercurrents: Tech, Tyrants and Us," a new podcast series
Think Tanks/Academia/Other
Cybersecurity for Democracy: By the time harmful content posted to Facebook during the Capitol riot period came down, millions had already engaged
Stanford/OpenAI/CSET: Generative Language Models and Automated Influence Operations: Emerging Threats and Potential Mitigations
Political Psychology: Reducing Political Dehumanization By Pairing Facts with Personal Experiences
Open AI: Forecasting Potential Misuses of Language Models for Disinformation Campaigns—and How to Reduce Risk
Reuters Institute: Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2023
AAPC: AAPC Applauds Twitter’s Decision To Allow For Political Speech and the Democratic Process
Oversight Board: Oversight Board overturns Meta's original decision in the “Iran protest slogan” case
Global Cyber Strategies: 117th Congress In Review: 2021-2022 Tech Hearing Data
Atlantic Council: Experts react: Brazil has suffered its own attack against democracy. Here’s what the government and its allies can do next.
Companies
Job Openings
Citris Policy Lab: Tech Policy Fellowship
Medely: Trust and Safety Specialist
Open_Future: Fellowship 2023
Freedom House: Jobs
Grammarly: Openings | Grammarly Careers
Graphika: Staff Engineer
Graphika: Editor & Insights Manager
Medtronic: Jobs in November, 2022 (Hiring Now!)
Ballotpedia: Director of External Relations (Remote)
European Commission: Job opportunity: European Commission is hiring experts to enforce the Digital Services Act
Global Cyber Alliance: Careers at GCA. Join Our Team.
Institute for Rebooting Social Media: Call for 2023-2024 RSM Visiting Scholars
Koch Industries: Communications Manager
European Commission: Job opportunity: European Commission is hiring experts to enforce the Digital Services Act
No Labels: Sr. Fundraiser
National Alliance of Forest Owners: Director for Communications
Woodberry Associates: Senior Associate, Advocacy Management
Center for Humane Technology: Chief of Staff
Center for Humane Technology: Development Director
Omidyar: Senior Manager, Strategic Communications (Responsible Technology)
Calendar
Topics to keep an eye on:
Facebook 2020 election research (Still happening! Watch the panel with the academics involved at the Knight Informed Conference)
Senate & House hearings, markups, and potential votes
TV shows about Facebook - Doomsday Machine and second season of Super Pumped
January 2023 - Czech Republic Election
January 7: Meta/Trump Decision
January 16-20: Davos - World Economic Forum
February 5, 2023 - Cyprus Election
Week of February 6, 2023 – House hearing on Twitter/Biden Laptop
February 16, 2023 - Platforms have to announce EU numbers to comply with DSA
February 21, 2023 - SCOTUS hears Gonzalez v Google
February 22, 2023 - SCOTUS hears Twitter v. Taamneh
February 23, 2023 - Nigeria Election
Feb 23, 2023 - Meta response to cross check due
February 23 - 24: Designing Technology for Social Cohesion
February 2023 - Djibouti Election
February 2023 - Monaco Election
March 1, 2023 - All Tech is Human: Tech & Democracy: A Better Tech Future Summit
March 5, 2023 - Estonia Election
March 10 - 19: SXSW
March 20 - 24, 2023: Mozilla Fest
March 29 - 30, 2023: Summit for Democracy
March 2023 - Antigua and Barbuda Election
March 2023 - Federated States of Micronesia Election
March 2023 - Guinea Bissau Election
March 2023 - Sierra Leone Election
April 30, 2023 - Benin Election
April 30, 2023 - Paraguay Election
April 2023 - Andorra Election
April 2023 - Finland Election
April 2023 - Montenegro Election
May 7, 2023 - Thailand Election
May 15-16: Copenhagen Democracy Summit
June 5-9: RightsCon
June 24 - June 30: Aspen Ideas Festival
June 25, 2023 - Guatemala Election
June 25, 2023 -Turkey Election
TBD June: DFR Lab 360/OS
July 2023 - Cambodia Election
July 2023 - Timor-Leste Election
July 2023 - Zimbabwe Election
August 6, 2023 - Greece Election
August 2023 - Eswatini Election
September 27-29, 2023: Athens Democracy Forum
TBD September: Atlantic Festival
TBD September: Unfinished Live
TBD September: Trust Con and Trust/Safety Conference (If they do them again)
September 2023 - Mauritania Election
October 8 - 12: Internet Governance Forum - Japan
October 10, 2023 - Liberia Election
October 12, 2023 - Pakistan Election
October 22, 2023 - Switzerland Election
October 2023 - Argentina Election
October 2023 - Luxembourg Election
October 2023 - Oman Election
November 12, 2023 - Poland Election
November 20, 2023 - Marshall Islands Election
November 29, 2023 - Ukraine Election
November 2023 - Bhutan Election
November 2023 - Gabon Election
November 2023 - Rwanda Election
December 10, 2023 - Spain Election
December 2023 - Bangladesh Election
December 2023 - Democratic Republic of the Congo Election
December 2023 - Togo Election
TBD - Belarus Election
TBD - Cuba Election
TBD - Equatorial Guinea Election
TBD - Guinea Election
TBD - Madagascar Election
TBD - Maldives Election
TBD - Myanmar Election
TBD - Singapore Election
TBD - South Sudan Election - (Unlikely to happen)
TBD - Turkmenistan Election
TBD - Tuvalu
TBD - Haiti
July 15-18, 2024 - Republican National Convention