Tammy Patrick is a federal compliance officer for the Maricopa County Elections Department, serving 1.9 million registered voters in the greater Phoenix Valley. She collaborates with organizations to create a productive working relationship with the goal of voter participation. In May 2013, President Barack Obama selected Tammy to serve on the Presidential Commission on Election Administration.
Her efforts in supporting good stewardship via sound data collection and analysis have afforded her inclusion in The Democracy Index by Yale law professor Heather Gerken, and a position on the Pew Advisory Board for the Elections Performance Index. Tammy was honored to represent Maricopa County by testifying in Congress in 2007 on the role of election audits.
Tammy’s studies on the effects of online voter registration, which was first offered in Arizona, have been presented to the National Conference of State Legislatures and shared with election officials around the country. Her work has been used to support the passage of similar legislation in other states.
She is responsible for many award-winning programs. In 2007, the Election Reporting System, developed in Maricopa County, was awarded a NACo Achievement Award, an Election Center Professional Practice Award, and a Harvard Kennedy School Bright Idea Award. The Kennedy School also recognized the system as one of the Top 50 Innovations in Government. In 2008, Tammy was presented with the ADA Liberty Patriot Award by the AZ Disability Advocacy Coalition.
Arizona
U.S. Elections Face a Crossroads on Rights and Technology
Most Americans believe that voting is their right, like freedom of speech or freedom of religion. But the right to vote doesn’t appear anywhere in the Constitution. Americans have historically faced legal obstacles to voting based on race, property ownership, gender, or age, while others were limited based on procedural confines such as poll taxes and literacy tests. Regardless of when or how certain groups have won enfranchisement, election administrators, voters, and advocates need to consider how technology can be an empowering force to ensure eligible voters have easy access to the process.
disinformation
Towards 2016: The Future of American Elections
Democracy requires participation. Only 55 percent of registered voters vote in major U.S. elections. Voting laws are meanwhile getting even more restrictive and locally unique, thanks in part to recent Supreme Court revisions to the Voting Rights Act. Can technology help fix America's broken voting system? Will we eventually vote by phone or internet? How will 2016 be different from 2012? Jocelyn Benson of Wayne State University, Judd Choate of the Colorado Department of State, Scott Duncombe of ShareProgress, Google's Eric Hysen, Tammy Patrick of Arizona's Maricopa County, Katherine Grainer of Civitas, and civic researcher Kate Krontiris discuss at Techonomy 2013 in Tucson, Ariz. Watch video and read the complete transcript here.
Conferences
Techonomy 13
A new society is coming into being. People around the world are building it using the rapidly-evolving tools of technology.
