The Alliance Certification Program was shaped by election officials, for election officials, to recognize excellence in election administration. As election offices across the country seek certification in the voluntary, nonpartisan Standards for Election Excellence, let’s take a look back at their creation. 

In the wake of COVID-19 and the 2020 election, one in three election officials reported feeling unsafe doing their work¹. They had managed to pull off the most secure election in U.S. history during a global pandemic, but remained woefully undersupported. This led to the creation of the nonpartisan U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, a cohort  of election administrators, designers, technologists, and other experts giving local election administrators a place where, in CTCL CEO Tiana Epps-Johnson’s words, “they can come together to keep their skills fresh so they’re ready to tackle whatever challenges might come.”

Shaped by election officials, for election officials

From the start, local election officials of all political affiliations, jurisdiction sizes, and geographies played active roles in creating the Alliance Values and Standards, ensuring that their local needs and perspectives were heard and taken into account. The work was slow and thorough: election officials deliberated the frameworks, sentence structure, and even the individual word choices of the Standards, and got candid about how the Standards could be improved to build voter and community trust.

As a result, first-hand election official expertise was foundational to defining what excellence looked like for the field. Rocío Hernandez, Associate Director of Government Services at CTCL, supported offices through these conversations, and described the process as “rooted in co-development and consensus […] every Center’s experience and commitment to administering elections as nonpartisan civil servants was at the core” of this work.

From 2023-2025, more than a dozen local election departments — with voter populations ranging from 3,000 to 1.5 million — participated in these rigorous conversations as inaugural Centers for Election Excellence, together clarifying a joint vision for what elections in the U.S. should look like long term. Once the five core Alliance values (high integrity, comprehensive preparedness, voter-centricity, proactive transparency, and continuous improvement) had been decided and the Standards had been drafted, CTCL and other Alliance partners utilized conference seminars, webinars, and surveys to solicit detailed feedback from election officials across the country.

All told, nearly 300 election officials representing more than 36 million voters weighed in. The result? A comprehensive set of 26 nonpartisan, voluntary Standards to support local election officials, improve election operations, and build public trust.

A program and process tested by election officials

With the Standards for Election Excellence in place, the second cohort of Centers — 50 election offices dubbed “the Pathfinders” — field-tested 11 of the 26 Standards in to ensure that the Standards were achievable for election offices of any size, uniting behind the long-term goal of helping the Standards become a north star for every election department in the country.

To do so, Pathfinder offices examined their own existing practices and methods against the criteria laid out in their chosen Standards, identifying areas of excellence as well as areas for growth. “I look at the Standards as gap studies,” said Tonya Miller, City Clerk of Tecumseh, Michigan, whose office helped refine the Voter Registration Rolls and Funding and Budgets standards. “Is there a gap somewhere between what I’m doing and what I can do?” The Pathfinder process gave offices crucial visibility into how other jurisdictions tackled universal problems.

The Pathfinder process also laid the foundation for the Alliance Certification Program, which recognizes election offices for achieving excellence in the Standards. Through a combination of real-time input from Pathfinders, research, and rigorous alignment with ISO Standard 17029, the program took shape, eventually launching in April 2026.

Now, election departments across the country can apply to become Election Excellence Certified. Similar to LEED-certified buildings or accredited government agencies, Alliance certification verifies the work that election officials are doing, confirms that they’re meeting benchmarks, and validates a positive expected outcome for voters. Whether an election office serves 500 voters or 5 million, whether they’re a team of one or a team of 100, we invite them to join a community of peers dedicated to running excellent elections, serving voters with integrity, and advancing the field of election administration for generations to come.

¹ Brennan Center for Justice and the Bipartisan Policy Center. Election Officials Under Attack. June 16, 2021. https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/policy-solutions/election-officials-under-attack

A version of this blog post was printed in the Spring 2026 issue of Counted magazine.

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