For the second time, Douglas County Clerk’s Office has won a Clearinghouse Award for innovative election administration from an independent, bipartisan federal agency.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission presents Clearinghouse Awards annually. Douglas County won in the “Innovations and New Practices in Election Administration” category for the 2025 election cycle.
A statement from multiple EAC members says that they “received nearly 200 entries from across the country, and these were the most innovative and creative ways state and local election officials supported voters in 2025. The winning programs also stood out because they can be replicated and scaled to meet the needs of other election offices, regardless of size or resources, for future elections.”
Douglas County’s winning project is a workflow initiative using Microsoft 365, led by Deputy County Clerk Ed Healy over multiple years.
“This work has significantly improved our efficiency, accuracy and chain-of-custody tracking, and it reflects the dedication of our entire elections team,” County Clerk Jamie Shew said in a news release.
The county office also won a Clearinghouse Award in the same category in 2023 “for its use of radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to build an asset tracking system, which improves security, chain-of-custody logs and accountability for election supplies and equipment,” according to the release.
Shew was elected as chair of the EAC’s Standards Board executive committee during its annual meeting last month in Washington, D.C. He is the first representative from Kansas to serve as chair of the board.
“This award reflects the forward-thinking leadership of County Clerk Jamie Shew and his staff,” County Commission Chair Shannon Reid said in the release. “Their innovative approach to election administration not only improves local processes but also serves as a model that other counties across the country can learn from.”
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Jacob Rice / Lawrence Times
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