About Jackie

Jackie Wu is a practitioner-scholar, author, and consultant whose work sits at the intersection of election administration, democratic governance, and structural reform. She is a former election official, published author, IRG Fellow, and researcher whose practice bridges the operational machinery of government and the movements working to transform it — bringing the credibility of someone who has worked inside both.

The Work

Jackie's background spans election administration, municipal government, legislative offices, and movement organizing. As Community Outreach Manager at the Orange County Registrar of Voters from 2017 to 2021, she helped administer elections in the fifth largest voting jurisdiction in the United States — overseeing outreach to approximately 1.8 million voters in nine languages, managing crisis communications during wildfires and bomb threats, and leading the civic investment that produced 87.3% voter turnout in the 2020 General Election, the highest since the 1950s.

Before and alongside that role, Jackie built relationships and infrastructure across the movement ecosystem: serving as campaign manager for the California Grassroots Democracy Coalition, a coalition of 140+ grassroots organizations working to pass automatic voter registration legislation; supporting district elections and city council seat expansion; and convening movement-elected officials through the California Working Families Party Co-Governance Convening for three consecutive years. She is a Councilmember of the Activate CA Movement Leaders Circle, a Board Member of Asian Americans in Action, and an IRG Fellow.

Her consulting practice — J Wu Consulting — specializes in governance, civic engagement, multilingual outreach, strategic communications, and operational support for organizations navigating complex political environments. Past projects include the Guide to Progressive Governance in OC, statewide voter registration campaigns, and event and program development for advocacy organizations across California.

The Writing

Jackie is the author of On the Front Lines of Democracy: An Election Official's Story of Protecting the Vote in 2020, a firsthand account of administering the most consequential and contested election in recent memory. The book has been endorsed by the California Secretary of State, national election administration leaders, and civic advocates across the country.

Jackie writes at Power, Politics, and Potential on Substack, where she publishes essays on governance, democratic reform, and the structural forces shaping who has access to power and who does not.

My Approach

Every project I take on starts with the same question: does the law, policy, or system actually serve the people it is meant to serve — and if not, what would it take to change that?

I work at the intersection of operational knowledge and structural analysis. I know how bureaucracy functions from the inside, what breaks down and why, and how that feedback does or does not make its way back to the people with the power to change it. I bring that same lens to my research and writing, which examines how systems that appear neutral produce predictable harm — and what it would take to design them differently.

I believe impact is built through relationships, not through research products alone. Progress moves at the speed of trust. The frameworks, reports, and strategies I develop are tools that deepen and sustain relationships of trust between the people doing the work and the communities they serve.

Background

Jackie is a daughter of Chinese Vietnamese refugees. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from UC Irvine, a Certificate in Advanced Public Engagement for Local Government from Pepperdine University, and a Certificate in Applied Compassion from Stanford University.

She has been featured on NPR, in the Los Angeles Times, and in CalMatters, and has presented on voting, election administration, and democratic governance to organizations across California and the country.