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Election Management Guidelines

The Election Management Guidelines and Quick Start Guides were created to assist state and local election officials in effectively managing and administering elections. These guidelines complement the voluntary voting system guidelines' technical standards for voting equipment. For more information about these guides or to request copies, contact EAC at 866-747-1471. NOTE: These resources are available at no cost.

Training Videos

EAC has translated some of its most popular Election Management Guidelines into training videos. Go here to watch training videos about polling place management, polling place accessibility and contingency planning.

Election Management Guidelines
Download the entire Election Management Guidelines report, or specific chapters by clicking on the links below.

Introduction

Chapter 1: Certification

Chapter 2: System Security

Chapter 3: Physical Security

Chapter 4: Acceptance Testing 

Chapter 5: Ballot Building

Chapter 6:Pre-election and Parallel Testing

Chapter 7:Absentee Voting and Vote by Mail

Chapter 8 : Uniformed and Overseas Citizens  

Chapter 9: Polling Place and Vote Center Management

Chapter 10: Developing an Audit Trail 

Chapter 11: Contingency Planning and Change Management  

Chapter 12: Building Community Partnerships

Chapter 13: Canvassing and Certifying and Election

Chapter 14: Communicating with the Public

Chapter 15: Conducting a Recount

Chapter 16: Provisional Ballots 
 

Publications from the former FEC Office of Election Administration

The EMG Program is pleased to make available the following publications from the former FEC Office of Election Administration.  While most of the information contained in these publications precedes the passage of the Help America Vote Act of 2002, readers can still find information that is relevant to the effective administration of elections today.  They also help provide a historical framework to current practices and understanding of how the electoral system has evolved from 1979 to today.

EAC posted these reports and studies as part of its clearinghouse function. EAC did not review the information for quality and does not endorse the reports and studies. 

NOTE: The functions and responsibilities of the former FEC Office of Election Administration were transferred to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC) upon the establishment of EAC according to the provisions of the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Innovations in Election Administration - The purpose of this series was to acquaint State and local election officials with innovative election procedures and technologies that had been successfully implemented by their colleagues around the country at that time.

Election Administration - This four-volume series on election administration was designed as a set of engineering manuals for election officials. They describe the basic elements of the election machinery and offer standard and fairly uniform techniques for planning, managing, and costing out election functions.

 

PDF documents require Acrobat Reader, available for free at Adobe's website [http://www.adobe.com/].