Jamies Story

Improving the Relationship Between Citizens and Government

I, Jamie Weinhauer Martin, started this journey because I had questions about what happened after the 2020 election.

Because the election was conducted under unprecedented pandemic conditions, I expected to find documented Lessons Learned and Corrective Actions showing what had been identified, what had been learned, what had been corrected, and how the effectiveness of those corrections had been measured.

My professional background is in third-party contract compliance and corrective action. Because of that experience, I knew the types of contract provisions to look for, including oversight provisions, termination rights, corrective action requirements, Lessons Learned, and disaster-recovery responsibilities.

As I reviewed county election contracts and requested public records, I could not identify a clear documented trail showing what problems had been identified after the pandemic election, what corrective actions resulted, whether Lessons Learned had been formally documented, and whether those corrective actions had been verified.

That was where my questions began.

I was not trying to prove that an election was right or wrong. I was not trying to blame anyone.

I came across things involving election contracts, procedures, public records and government processes that did not make sense to me, so I did what I believed any citizen should be able to do:

I kept asking questions.

Some questions were answered. Others were not.

Eventually, I realized the larger issue was no longer one election, one contract or one procedure.

The bigger issue was this:

What happens when a citizen brings government a documented concern and asks someone qualified to determine whether something is actually wrong?

That question ultimately became the reason for this work.

The Bigger Issue

Through my experience, I could not identify a clear, required county process that takes a significant citizen-reported compliance concern from beginning to end.

What I was looking for was something like this: