Elections are increasingly exposed to environmental, societal, technological, and institutional threats. However, limited research examines how election management bodies (EMBs) identify and respond to these challenges. The study investigates how Australian EMBs perceive threats to electoral resilience and how these perceptions inform institutional adaptation. Drawing on organisational learning theory, the study distinguishes between internal challenges related to election organisation and external challenges, including natural hazards, pandemics, disinformation, cyber risks, and declining public trust. Employing a large language model (LLM) on a longitudinal corpus of 325 reports of EMBs and parliamentary oversight committees across Australian jurisdictions from 2000 to 2025, and supplemented by interviews with electoral commissioners, the study traces the documentation of electoral challenges over time. It further examines how institutional learning is reflected in evaluations, reform proposals, and procedural adaptations. By focusing on Australia, a high-capacity and high-integrity electoral context, the study demonstrates that electoral resilience remains a persistent challenge for established democracies, not only for fragile ones.
