Alliance Certification Program

Certification from the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence recognizes your office’s commitment to excellence in election administration. It demonstrates that your office meets national, nonpartisan benchmarks for performance and transparency. 

Alliance-certified election offices can:

• Join an elite cohort of nationwide election offices working together to advance excellent election administration
• Strengthen operations by improving security, accessibility, and efficiency
• Build public trust through validated and transparent practices
• Earn well-deserved recognition for your team’s commitment to safeguarding our democracy

Unlike other programs that certify individual election administrators, the Alliance certification program recognizes excellence at the office level — because we recognize that democracy is a team sport.

Instead of requiring classes or coursework, certification focuses on the great practices your office is already implementing. You’ll answer questions about how your office meets each Standard and demonstrate your work in action. You will never be asked to share confidential materials, live ballots, or protected personal information about your voters. 

Certification also emphasizes continuous improvement — celebrating your team’s achievements while helping identify opportunities to strengthen and grow. 

And, because we know how busy election offices are, the Alliance Certification Program offers flexibility. Your office can choose which Standards to pursue for certification, allowing you to chart your own path toward excellence based on your unique goals and needs.

Yes! The Alliance Certification Program — along with all 26 of our Standards for Election Excellence — were designed to be scalable and flexible. Certification recognizes excellent election administration at every level, no matter the size or location of your jurisdiction.

The voluntary, nonpartisan Standards for Election Excellence define high performance for local election departments across key areas of U.S. election administration. The Standards were developed through a 36-month collaborative process that brought together 241 election officials representing jurisdictions of all sizes that collectively serve millions of voters nationwide, along with technologists, designers, and other experts. This process was grounded in consensus-building and shared learning, ensuring the Standards reflect both the real-world experience of local election offices and the latest insights from the field.

The development of the Standards also created space for peer exchange — helping election officials share best practices, challenges, and innovations with one another. That spirit of collaboration continued through our Pathfinder Cohort, where 50 election offices came together to test the certification application process, apply the Standards to their offices, and strengthen election administration across the country.