U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence

U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence
Basic facts
Location:	Chicago, Illinois
Year founded:	2022
Website:	Official website

The U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is a program launched in 2022 by the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) to "help local election departments improve operations, develop a set of shared standards and values, and obtain access to best-in-class resources to run successful elections." At the time of its launch, the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence announced that it had received funding from the TED initiative The Audacious Project, and described itself as "an $80 million, five-year program to envision, support, and celebrate excellence in U.S. election administration."

CTCL executive director Tiana Epps-Johnson introduced the program at the TED conference on April 11, 2022.

Mission

As of June 2025, the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence website said:

“

The Alliance is a nonpartisan collaborative that is bringing together election officials, designers, technologists, and other experts to help local election departments improve operations, develop a set of shared standards and values, and obtain access to best-in-class resources to run successful elections.

”

Background

The Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) launched the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence on April 11, 2022. CTCL executive director Tiana Epps-Johnson introduced the program at a 2022 TED conference, saying, "[W]e are inviting every single election department in the United States to join the US Alliance for Election Excellence. The Alliance is a place where election officials and technologists and designers and other experts are working hand in hand to revitalize US democracy. And we're doing it by focusing on the basics, a shared North Star, the tools that it actually takes to get the job done, and a community of support that has each other's back, whatever might come."

In its statement, CTCL announced the program would include the following partners:

“	Center for Tech and Civic Life: The Center for Tech and Civic Life connects Americans with the information they need to become and remain civically engaged, and ensure that elections are more inclusive and secure. Center for Civic Design: The Center for Civic Design works with elections offices and advocates across the country, using research, design, accessibility, and plain language to remove barriers in the voter journey and invite participation in democracy. The Elections Group: The Elections Group partners with state and local election officials looking to implement new programs or improve processes for voters and stakeholders. Their team of election experts works quickly to provide guidance, resources, and direct management support for jurisdictions. U.S. Digital Response: U.S. Digital Response is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps governments and organizations respond quickly and efficiently to support the critical needs of the public. Through USDR’s Elections Program, election officials receive simple, effective digital tools and rapid response assistance to meet voters at the speed of need. Center for Secure and Modern Elections: The Center for Secure and Modern Elections aligns bipartisan, pro-voter campaigns in states across the country that modernizes the voting system, making elections more efficient and secure. Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school) at Stanford University: The Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford was founded in 2005 to prepare a generation of innovators to tackle complex challenges. Referred to as the d.school, the institute brings students and faculty from radically different backgrounds together to develop innovative, human-centered solutions to real world challenges. Prototyping Systems Lab at UC Davis: The Prototyping Systems Lab at UC Davis utilizes elements of design thinking, participatory design, and critical making to create change within complex systems.	”
—CTCL's statement announcing the launch of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence

Work

The U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence program selects local election departments to be recognized as U.S. Centers for Election Excellence.

Pathfinder Cohort (2025)

In March 2025, the Alliance launched its second cohort program, called the Pathfinder Cohort. According to the Alliance's website, "Election offices in the Pathfinder Cohort will focus on researching what it takes to achieve the standards and chart pathways for the field. They’ll help deepen understanding of what resources are required to run excellent elections, how much excellent election administration costs, and how achieving excellence impacts voters."

According to the Alliance's website, the Pathfinder Cohort program lasts for 18 months, includes 75 election offices, and no grant making is available as part of membership in the program.

Initial Centers for Election Excellence Cohort (2023)

The initial cohort program was launched in 2022 and the Alliance selected participating jurisdictions in 2023. According to the program's website, "The Center cohort program is designed for what election departments need, when they need it. We start with identifying the election office’s unique challenges and goals, then, where permitted, we provide them with customized resources, coaching, implementation support, and grant funding to advance their nonpartisan goals related to improving the voting experience. Finally, they have access to a supportive network of other Centers across the country who are equally committed to excellent election administration."

According to its website, the program selected local election departments to be recognized as Centers for Election Excellence based on the following criteria:

“

Excitement and willingness to participate in the program Commitment to improve upon practices and procedures aimed at enhancing the voter, poll worker, and staff experiences Commitment to being part of a learning cohort, sharing materials among cohort members, and providing input into the future of the program

”

The Alliance listed the following jurisdictions as members of the 2023 Centers for Election Excellence cohort:

• Coconino County, Arizona
• Boone County, Missouri
• Scotland County, Missouri
• Contra Costa County, California
• Shasta County, California
• Kane County, Illinois
• Macoupin County, Illinois
• Ottawa County, Michigan
• Clark County, Nevada
• Brunswick County, North Carolina*
• Forsyth County, North Carolina*
• Cache County, Utah*
• Weber County, Utah*
• Madison, Wisconsin
• DeKalb County, Georgia

*Indicates that the county has since withdrawn from the alliance.

Standards for Excellence

The U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence released a set of recommendations for local election officials related to aspects of the roles and responsibilities of election administrators. According to its website, the standards "are designed by local election officials, designers, technologists, and other experts to support local election officials, improve election operations, and build public trust."

The standards are organized into six categories, click on the links below for more information about each set of standards:

Election Office Operations

• Culture
• Funding and budgets
• Hiring
• Training and professional development
• Management

Emergencies and Security

• Emergency planning
• Physical security
• Cybersecurity

Voting Operations

• Voter registration rolls
• In-person voting
• Mail ballots
• Results reporting

Ballots and Audits

• Ballot creation
• Voting resources allocation
• Secure ballot management
• Tabulation audits

Communications

• Plain language
• Information design
• Language access
• Voter communications
• Community relationships
• Media relationships

Poll Workers

• Poll worker recruitment
• Poll worker training
• Poll worker management
• Poll worker retention

Funding

The U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence is an $80 million, five-year program funded by the TED initiative The Audacious Project. The Audacious Project describes itself as "a collaborative funding initiative catalyzing social impact on a grand scale." The Audacious Project website says, "Housed at TED, the nonprofit with a long track record of surfacing ideas worth spreading, and with support from leading social impact advisor The Bridgespan Group, the funding collective is comprised of several respected organizations and individuals in philanthropy."

To view a list of The Audacious Project's partners and collaborators, click here.

Click here to view financial information from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, including the organization's annual 990 filings.

Media

Launch

In the video below, Center for Tech and Civic Life executive director Tiana Epps-Johnson introduces the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence at the TED conference on April 11, 2022. Click here to view a transcript.

April 11, 2022

Work with election administrators

In the video below, election officials from Macoupin County, Illinois, discuss investments made with funding made available through their participation in the 2023 Centers for Election Excellence cohort.

April 12, 2024

Commentary

Support

Supporters of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence said that the organization served as a resource for identifying and promoting best practices in election administration, provided financial support for the independent development and implementation of election administration priorities in Centers for Election Excellence, facilitated professional development opportunities for election officials, and more.

• After the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence named Greenwich, Connecticut, as a Center for Election Excellence, the town's registrars, Fred DeCaro III (R) and Mary Hegarty (D), spoke about the prospect of working with the Alliance and other members of the Centers for Election Excellence cohort. DeCaro said, "We are always looking at how to improve service to our town. Likewise, we believe we have ideas and best practices to share with our new friends from across the country.” Hegarty said, "Fred and I serve as an example of bi-partisan cooperation in election administration. We have an excellent working relationship and although we have different personal views on policy issues, we are united in our dedication to administer fair and open elections. We hope to take advantage of some of the grants available from the Alliance to pilot new programs for recruiting and training poll workers."

• Upon DeKalb County, Georgia's inclusion as a Center for Election Excellence, executive director of the DeKalb Board of Registration and Elections Keisha Smith said, "We’re excited about the opportunity to engage with the best and the brightest working on elections across the country." Board of Elections Chair Dele Lowman Smith said, "This assists us in our plan moving forward to modernize and create a really voter-centric election process. There is a great deal of work yet to be done."

Responses to criticism

• In response to criticism, CTCL told USA Today, "Local election offices that are part of the Alliance for Election Excellence make their own program and budget decisions and run their own election operations."

• Alan Abramowitz, professor emeritus of political science at Emory University, said, "The grants that ... counties received were for improvements to training and election operations. .... There was nothing in them that would have necessarily favored one party or the other except that the counties that took the grants were mainly strongly Democratic counties. But these grants would have been available to any counties that applied for them."

• AP News' Josh Kelety wrote in 2022, "[E]lection officials have said there is no indication of favoritism in how the money was distributed. ... The board of the Center for Tech and Civic Life also includes Pam Anderson, a Republican and former elected clerk of a suburban Denver-area county. Republican election officials have also vouched for the program’s impartiality, including Brian Mead, a Republican election director in Licking County, Ohio."

Opposition

Opponents of the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence objected to the use of private money to fund the cost of election administration and alleged that the grant program disproportionately benefited Democratic areas, promoted progressive policies, and improperly supplanted the roles and responsibilities of state election officials.

• After Ottawa County, Michigan, was included in the inaugural cohort of Centers for Election Excellence, county clerk Justin Roebuck decided to withdraw the county from the program upon learning of the $1.5 million grant the county would receive. Roebuck said, "Some of the stuff we were talking about was really exciting and I applaud them for doing it. But $1.5 million just seemed excessive. ... While I value the overall stated goals of the Alliance, I firmly believe that funding for election administration must come from federal, state and local governments. Election administration is critical government infrastructure and when private individuals seek to fund election operations, it casts a shadow over public trust in the process, particularly when the resources can be tied to individuals or groups who may have also contributed to political parties or candidates."

• In 2023, the Honest Elections Project and the John Locke Foundation released a report on the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence that said, "The Alliance claims to be nonpartisan and intended only to 'bring together' elections officials 'around a set of common values and standards.' However, documents ... show that the Alliance is actually designed to systematically influence every aspect of election administration in target offices and push progressive voting policies."

• In 2022, Foundation for Government Accountability President Tarren Bragdon wrote in The Hill that private groups should not provide money to government election administration offices. Bragdon referenced the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence and said, "[T]raining public officials to run elections is not the role of a private organization. It is the role of state chief election officers — normally the secretary of state or an election commission — or their designees, who are accountable to voters. ... Private organizations should never train election administrators outside of the accountable control of state governments."

• In state legislative sessions beginning in 2021 and concluding in 2023, more than 20 states considered or enacted legislation aimed at prohibiting private funding of election administration. These actions occurred following the series of CTCL and other nonprofit grants given to local election offices in the run-up to the 2020 election. As of June 2025, 29 states had enacted bans or restrictions on the use of private funding to conduct elections. Ken Cuccinelli, national chairman of the Election Transparency Initiative, said in support of such a law passed in Georgia, "Schemes to privatize our elections have no place in Georgia or anywhere else and undermine the confidence of voters who have doubts about the legitimacy and accuracy of our elections and whether they were conducted with fairness and honesty." For more on bills introduced related to private funding of election administration, click here.

Noteworthy events

RNC lawsuit stemming from DeKalb County, Georgia's participation in Centers for Election Excellence program (2024)

On May 16, 2024, the Republican National Committee (RNC) sued the DeKalb County Voter Registration and Elections Office and a number of DeKalb County officials. DeKalb County includes portions of Atlanta and its eastern suburbs.

The lawsuit alleged that county officials violated the Georgia Open Records Act and other provisions of state law in connection to DeKalb County's membership in the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence's Centers For Election Excellence program.

Beginning in November 2023, the RNC sent a series of records requests to DeKalb County seeking copies of communications between county officials and the Alliance for Election Excellence. The lawsuit alleged that plaintiffs failed to adequately respond to these requests and violated state law in doing so. It also alleged that the county's acceptance of a $2,000,000 grant from the Alliance violated provisions of state law prohibiting the private funding of election administration.

In a statement announcing the lawsuit, RNC chairman Michael Whatley said, "This lawsuit is necessary to obtain the full record regarding DeKalb County’s receipt of election-related funds and hold the county accountable." In response to the lawsuit, DeKalb County Executive Michael Thurmond said, "This frivolous lawsuit is another thinly-veiled attempt by the MAGA-backed RNC to undermine confidence in our democracy."

The lawsuit asked the court to declare that "the records requested by the RNC are public records under the Open Records Act and are not exempt from public disclosure." It also asked the court to issue an injunction requiring the defendants "to provide the RNC with all records that are responsive to its request within 10 calendar days after the entry of the order," and to state "whether any responsive documents are being withheld either under a claim of privilege or for any other reason."

Resignations from Centers for Election Excellence cohort (2023-2024)

By April 2024, four of the original 15 counties included in the inaugural Centers for Election Excellence cohort no longer participated in the program.

On November 9, 2023, Forsyth County, North Carolina became the first member to withdraw from the Centers for Election Excellence. In a letter explaining the county board of election's decision to withdraw, Director of Elections Tim Tsujii said: "The Forsyth County Board of Elections office will not be able to fully participate in all upcoming Alliance activities due to the immense amount of work and preparation needed to effectively administer the 2024 election cycle. We want to be respectful to the Alliance and to the other Centers who are wholly committed to this initiative and not take away from another elections office that could benefit from this incredible opportunity."

On December 8, 2023, the Brunswick County, North Carolina board of elections withdrew. In a letter of resignation, Brunswick County Elections Director Sara LaVere said that resources and other commitments contributed to the county's decision to stop participating in the program: "With the upcoming busy election cycle, I find myself unable to dedicate the time and attention required to contribute fully to the invaluable work that the organization is doing. The Brunswick County Board of Commissioners previously asked the board of elections to withdraw from the program in, but the board of elections voted 3-2 to remain in the program in April 2023.

On February 12, 2024, Cache County, Utah Clerk, David Benson contacted the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence to indicate that Cache County no longer intended to participate in the Centers for Election Excellence program. Benson indicated that the county's membership agreement expired in December 2023, and that continued membership in the program was not authorized. Benson said: "Our previous membership was initiated sometime in 2022 or early 2023, and expired in December 2023. We did not, nor do we intend at this point, to renew that membership."

As of April 2024, Weber County, Utah was no longer listed as a participating member of the Centers for Election Excellence Cohort. No announcement was made indicating that the county would no longer participate, and neither the county's election director nor the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) responded to requests for comment.

Reactions to U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence grants

Connecticut

At a March 2023 meeting in Greenwich, Connecticut, town committee members rejected a $9,600 CTCL grant for a two-year membership in the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence. The vote was 101-101 (with four abstentions). The tie meant the motion failed. The committee members voted 118-98 to reaffirm a January 17, 2023, vote accepting a separate $500,000 CTCL grant.

Georgia

On February 2, 2023, DeKalb County, Georgia, announced the U.S. Center for Election Excellence had selected it to receive a $2 million grant.

On February 8, 2023, former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R), chair of Greater Georgia, an organization that registers voters, called on the state Attorney General's office and the State Ethics Commission to investigate the DeKalb County Board of Elections for accepting the grant. Loeffler said the board's decision violated the Georgia Election Integrity Act, which Gov. Brian Kemp (R) signed on March 25, 2021. The law said: "No superintendent shall take or accept any funding, grants, or gifts from any source other than from the governing authority of the county or municipality, the State of George, or the federal government."

DeKalb Elections Board Chair Dele Lowman Smith said, "The DeKalb County Finance Department applied for the grant in accordance with state law, and our county attorneys conducted a diligent review to ensure the grant award met the letter of the law." Lowman Smith said the county applied for the money since the law prohibits election offices from accepting private money.

On February 16, Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections, an organization launched in 2021 by Karl Rove, Steve Wynn, Bobby Burchfield, and former U.S. Attorney General William Barr, filed a complaint against DeKalb County with the State Election Board calling for an investigation into whether DeKalb County violated the Georgia Election Integrity Act when it accepted the U.S. Center for Election Excellence grant.

On February 23, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) said the State Elections Board had directed his office to open an investigation into DeKalb County.

On February 21, state Sen. Max Burns (R) introduced Senate Bill 222. The bill would amend the Georgia Election Integrity Act to prohibit local election offices from receiving private money and require DeKalb County to return the $2 million grant. The bill was subsequently amended to allow DeKalb County to keep the awarded grant but prohibits any county from accepting such a grant going forward. On March 15, the House Governmental Affairs Committee voted 8-6 to approve the bill, and the full House approved the bill 100-70 on March 27. The Senate approved the final version of the bill on March 29, and Gov. Kemp signed the bill into law on May 3.

North Carolina

The Brunswick County Board of Elections withdrew from the alliance in January 2024. The Forsyth County Board of Elections withdrew in November 2023. In a resignation letter, Tim Tsujii, the Forsyth County Director of Elections, worte, "The Forsyth County Board of Elections office will not be able to fully participate in all upcoming Alliance activities due to the immense amount of work and preparation needed to effectively administer the 2024 election cycle. We want to be respectful to the Alliance and to the other Centers who are wholly committed to this initiative and not take away from another elections office that could benefit from this incredible opportunity."

Previously, on April 22, 2023, the Brunswick Country Board of Elections voted 3-2 along party lines to reject a request from county commissioners to leave the alliance. The board's three Democrats voted to reject the request, and the two Republicans voted to accept the request. This means the county will remain a member through January 2024, the end of the original agreement. The county commission passed a resolution in March 2023 requesting the board terminate the county's membership in the alliance. The resolution the board rejected was:

“

Therefore be it resolved that the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners strongly encourages the Brunswick County Board of Elections to terminate its membership in the Alliance; and . . . Further be it resolved that the Brunswick County Board of Commissioners supports legislation to prohibit private money from influencing North Carolina elections, such as Senate Bill 89 that has been introduced in the 2023-24 session

”

Republican board member Randy Pelton, who voted to leave the alliance, said, “I think what we have is that Republicans are very concerned about outside influence and Democrats either aren’t concerned or hope that the Republicans are correct. I think if we do not eliminate this agreement, we’re going to continue to have concerns in Brunswick County about our election and our credibility.”

Following the vote, the Brunswick County Democratic Party released the following statement: "We expect all those seated on this board, regardless of political affiliation, to present the facts vs. political tropes, to dispel false perceptions, and to support Director LaVere and her staff. The BOE staff would not participate in the Alliance if it threatened election integrity. They have an unimpeachable track record, and shame on those who would question their integrity."

See also

• Laws governing the private funding of elections
• Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL)
• Center for Tech and Civic Life's (CTCL) grants to election agencies, 2020

External links

• U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence website