State Elections Division

State Elections Division: Organizational and Operating-Model Assessment

Evidence-based organizational assessment connecting mission, workload, value stream, and structural alternatives

Election administration combines statewide policy and technology with intensely local delivery. Workload changes sharply around election cycles, specialized roles carry institutional knowledge, and decisions can affect security, compliance, service, and public trust. Organizational charts alone do not reveal whether responsibilities, capacity, processes, information, and technology are aligned.

Leadership needed to understand how the division actually operated, where handoffs and constraints created risk, and which structural choices could better support its future mission.

Transform was engaged on behalf of senior leadership to conduct a cross-functional organizational and operating-model assessment. The work needed to be objective, practical, and choice-oriented. Rather than presenting one predetermined structure, Transform would develop alternatives, explain tradeoffs, identify near-term improvements, and give leaders a prioritized path from current conditions to a stronger model.

The assessment also needed to connect organization design with the value stream, workload, technology, people, and risk.

Interviewed stakeholders across election operations, the technology center, legal, finance, human resources, and executive management. The cross-functional fact base helped distinguish organization-wide patterns from local concerns.

Mapped the election value stream and examined how work, information, decisions, and accountability moved across functions and external stakeholders. This showed where formal roles and actual operating practices diverged.

Analyzed historical workload, organizational structure, employee engagement, technology dependencies, management practices, capacity, and risk. The assessment connected demand and mission requirements to the capabilities and roles needed to deliver them.

Developed alternative structures, tradeoffs, prioritized recommendations, and an implementation path. Leaders could evaluate choices against mission, risk, service, feasibility, and capability rather than adopting a structural change in isolation.

Strategy

Translated mission priorities and future demands into operating-model choices and a sequenced agenda.

Operations

Mapped the election value stream, workload, handoffs, controls, capacity, and accountability.

Technology

Integrated the technology center, platform dependencies, information flow, and support requirements.

People

Assessed structure, roles, workforce capacity, employee engagement, leadership, and capability needs.

Senior leaders gained an integrated view of the division's operating capability and the relationship among organization, workload, process, technology, people, and risk. Alternative structures and prioritized recommendations created a decision-ready basis for strengthening the future model without treating reorganization as the only answer.

Operating-model design begins with the work and outcomes, not the organization chart. Leaders should understand demand, value streams, decision rights, interfaces, capacity, technology dependencies, and risk before moving boxes or titles. Alternatives are especially useful in public organizations because they expose tradeoffs among mission, control, service, workforce, and feasibility. A good assessment also identifies improvements that can begin before formal restructuring, allowing the organization to reduce risk and learn while larger decisions are made.

The value of the work was not limited to a future organization design. Mapping current work and decisions also created a basis for immediate improvements in governance, interfaces, and ownership. This allowed leadership to begin reducing friction while evaluating larger structural choices and their implications. It also gave leaders a traceable rationale for why each recommendation mattered and which risks or mission requirements it addressed.

Transform connected executive choices with the reality of how election work moved through the organization. The team combined quantitative workload analysis with stakeholder insight and cross-functional process evidence, then translated the findings into clear alternatives rather than a generic target model. That approach gave leaders both strategic perspective and practical next steps.

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

Government & Public Sector

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