Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, along with election advocacy organizations, put together what is called a Tabletop Exercise, or TTX for short, for members of the media to participate in so they could better understand the challenges that elections officials face.

These styles of exercises have been commonly used by law enforcement and the military to simulate real world scenarios in order to help better prepare and to train. Fontes’ office held a similar exercise for county election officials last year, but this TTX is the first time, to anyone’s knowledge, that members of the press would get to participate.

The exercise included members of the press from across the state and nation who, for a few hours, roleplayed as election officials in a high-stakes game where every decision would have consequences.