“We are at a critical juncture in history where the credibility of our democratic instruments is being challenged and endangered, often divorced from the actual evidence basis,” says Henri-Leon Solomon, who is sought for his executive leadership on governance and electoral reforms. “We must not only be ready right now. We must innovate and evolve for the future of secure, accurate, and accessible elections.”
Mr. Solomon’s work through his Transformational Leadership Advisory (TLA) is changing the field of electoral management in the United States and other countries, with a long-term and wide-ranging vision. His work serves to rebuild election bodies, rooted in basic principles, such as integrity, responsiveness, efficiency, accountability, and accessibility.
Today, the very preservation of electoral integrity is confronted with sizable obstacles. The Carter Center and the Election Reformers Network have reported instances of election officials facing undue pressure to manipulate vote tallies or reject certification, often without any data-based evidence, even as recently as the 2022 midterm elections. These occurrences highlight the immediate necessity for nimble electoral changes.
A Data-Driven Approach
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Election Data and Science Lab states that political leaders set the tone in determining voter confidence. The partisan divide in recent election cycles relates to one party becoming more confident and the other less confident in elections. In restructuring elections bodies, Solomon’s objective is to narrow that gap, through data-driven reforms that improve the ease, compliance and security of elections.
“Electoral reform must be based on scientific and human principles,” Solomon says. “To regain voter trust and safeguard the authenticity of our democratic procedures, we must implement evidence-based modifications to our existing structures, with an eye toward an inherently unclear or imprecise human and technological future.”
Overhauling Governance Systems
Solomon undertook an initiative to reorganize the elections body in Ontario, Canada. Solomon envisioned a more robust governance and management structure, together with a comprehensive, new strategic planning and budgeting procedure, fit for the virtual age. The result was a substantial improvement in the province’s election professionalism, integrity, and legal compliance.
Solomon also collaborated with the United Nations abroad to create an extensive electoral information and communications technology system. This involved redesigning voter registration procedures, candidate nomination standards, and systems for managing election results.
Solomon has provided leadership on global performance frameworks across the United Nations System for over 20 years. From humanitarian action to disaster risk reduction and women’s empowerment, Solomon has restructured governing bodies, so they are most effective and accountable to those they serve, whereby every dollar and advance counts.
Addressing Contemporary Challenges
Since 2000, the risks to U.S. elections have been consistently increasing, intensified by the division between political parties, the susceptibility of electronic data to unauthorized access, and the lack of regulation in campaign financing and expenditure. According to Pippa Norris, a scholar at the Harvard Kennedy School, the U.S. elections currently have the lowest level of electoral integrity compared to twenty-four other Western democracies.
Solomon’s Transformational Leadership Advisory is engineered to address these challenges head-on. His objective is to refashion electoral bodies and systems so they are secure, transparent, and resilient to future scenarios. His successful overhauls are designed to withstand any and all potential future disruptions in a routine and mechanized manner.
Future Projections
Substantial changes will occur in electoral management over the next many years. Technological shifts, new cybersecurity threats, AI, enhanced data analytics, and ever-changing accessibility demands will influence the future of voting systems. Solomon is undaunted. According to him, “We do not control the weather. We do control our own forethought, oversight, and direction to lead and evolve, grounded in fact. We control how we analyze information and transform, to be ready right now and tomorrow.”
He says, “My leadership advisory efforts are never solely focused on the forthcoming election, even though it is everything. We are laying the groundwork for the future of functional democracies worldwide. We must consistently engage in reinvention to ensure a just and dependable stewardship of our elections systems.”
Henri-Leon Solomon’s leadership on electoral reform serves to protect foundational democratic instruments in the fast-paced virtual age. The work conducted by his TLA is a model for innovation in governance and electoral redesign.
