On Sunday, November 3, 2024, the 1882 Foundation hosted a conversation on Zoom with Jackie Wu to discuss her book, On the Frontlines of Democracy: An Election Official’s Story of Protecting the Vote in 2020. In her book, Jackie reflected on her work as a Community Outreach Manager for the Orange County Registrar of Voters during the 2020 presidential election. Through her book, Jackie sought to illuminate the role of election officials and their commitment to protecting voters’ rights.
During this event, Jackie discussed personal experience growing up as a daughter of Chinese Vietnamese refugees, which contributed to her passion for public service. She described her work to increase accessibility to elections by overseeing the translation of election materials into 9 different languages and organizing language assistance services to voters. Jackie also shared experiences she featured in her book, highlighting the numerous challenges her team faced during the 2020 presidential election. Some of these challenges included pivoting to high volumes of mail-in ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuring voting access despite wildfires, active shooter threats, and bomb threats.
Special thanks to OCA for connecting the 1882 Foundation with this opportunity; to Jackie Wu for her vulnerability, encouragement, and insights during a tense presidential election year; and to Talk Story director Stan Lou and programs manager Mia Owens for leading this conversation!
