Student interns, faculty members and graduate data fellows will now be able to help analyze the 2024 elections as part of a collaboration between Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and Decision Desk (DDHQ), an election results reporting website and service.

As part of the partnership, announced Feb. 12., DDHQ will establish a hub at the McCourt School’s Capitol Campus location before 15 states hold primaries on Super Tuesday, March 5. DDHQ has also hired almost 100 students to join their 2024 election night monitoring team, collecting results of federal, state and local elections across the United States and analyzing exit polls.

Elizabeth Wilner, a board member at DDHQ, said the organization pursued a partnership with the McCourt School to generate more awareness about election processes and address Americans’ growing concerns over election security.

“We worry about the growing challenges facing those who administer elections — threats against election officials, threats against poll workers, disregard for the vitally important work that they do,” Wilner wrote to The Hoya. “The point of our partnership with McCourt, and Georgetown more broadly, is to demystify the work and draw more people into it.” 

Sanha Tahir (GRD ’24) said she is excited to work with DDHQ to learn more about American elections.

“American politics and elections are somewhat new to me, being an international student,” Tahir wrote to The Hoya. “I hope to work in public policy in the future, and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to rectify this ignorance. What better beginning than being actively involved with the vote counting?” 

Claire McDowell (CAS ’27), who plans to pursue the McCourt School’s new joint undergraduate degree in public policy, said she hopes to learn more about data through the internship.

“As someone who is heavily considering pursuing the new public policy major for undergraduates, I was immediately drawn to DDHQ’s connection with the McCourt School and its emphasis on attention to detail and accuracy through data processing,” McDowell wrote to The Hoya. “I am really looking forward to gaining experience in the field before joining the program my junior year.” 

Brandon Finnigan, DDHQ’s current director of elections, founded DDHQ in 2012 intending to use algorithms, rather than exit polls or voter interviews, to quickly gather election results and accurately project election outcomes. According to Wilner, the company operated fully remotely prior to its partnership with the McCourt School, often gathering in hotel conference rooms on election nights to analyze results.

Wilner said DDHQ’s new location in the McCourt School would create more chances for public engagement and interaction with Georgetown community members.

“We’ve been almost all-remote for the past decade-plus,” Wilner wrote. “We’re excited about being smack in the midst of the McCourt community and having impromptu, energizing chats with students and faculty.” 

Amelia Minkin (GRD ’24), who currently works as a data fellow for DDHQ, said the partnership could lead to more opportunities for Georgetown students who, like her, possess a passion for election data science. 

“During my time as a data fellow with DDHQ, I’ve had the chance to build community with others within this niche that share a similar passion for the intersection between data and elections,” Minkin wrote to The Hoya. “Seeing McCourt and DDHQ establish a partnership is so exciting as it expands such an impactful opportunity to fellow Georgetown students.”

Besides election monitoring, DDHQ experts will collaborate with university faculty, researchers and Georgetown’s Institute of Politics and Public Service (GU Politics) to create election-watching programming and contribute to government and public policy class curricula. 

Maria Cancian, the dean of the McCourt School, said the partnership will bring students new perspectives on exit polls and election results during a presidential election year.

“Working alongside elections and data experts at Decision Desk HQ (DDHQ) as a part of their 2024 Election Night remote monitoring team will give Georgetown students a unique inside look at the 2024 election,” Cancian wrote to The Hoya.

Wilner said DDHQ wants to involve young people to spread information on the election system, especially as it pursues growth as a newer organization.

“We’re housing a lot of expertise about how democratic elections are conducted and how the outcomes are projected,” Wilner wrote. “Being a young organization — several of our team members are students or recent grads — we want to share these learnings, help students learn through our trove of data, and in the process, not just create more transparency around it all, but draw more public service-minded people into the work.”

Brian Holland (GRD ’24), a newly hired intern, said he is hoping to contribute to preserving election accountability and democracy through working with DDHQ.

“Part of the reason I wanted to participate was to actually actively contribute to democracy in, at least what feels like to me, a meaningful way,” Holland wrote to The Hoya. “So this is me, trying to help democracy function, by reporting and analyzing election results reporting.”

This article was updated Feb. 26 to remove abbreviations referring to the McCourt School of Public Policy to avoid confusion with its academic programs.