Consultant: Senior Elections Specialist (U.S. Elections Team)
The Carter Center is guided by a fundamental commitment to promote human rights, alleviate human suffering, enhance freedom and democracy, and improve health conditions. The Center seeks a highly qualified, collaborative, motivated, and energetic consultant to support the Center’s U.S. Elections Team.
This position requires up to a full-time level of effort, estimated at 21 days per month.
Anticipated Start date: May 12, 2025
Location: Remote, with some domestic travel
Pay: Commensurate with experience
Length of Assignment: Through August 31, 2025
The Carter Center seeks an experienced professional with deep technical knowledge of nonpartisan election observation methodologies and extensive experience supporting civic partners to sustain technical, impartial and systematic work in the democracy and good governance space. The Senior Elections Specialist should have experience operating in the nonprofit space and a proven track record of developing systems, practices, training curricula and resources that will allow a broad range of stakeholders – including partners, staff, consultants and peer organizations – to build skills in nonpartisan election observation, civic engagement and understanding of election administration. They should also have demonstrated a strong ability to forge partnerships and build meaningful professional relationships across class and cultural contexts.
The Democracy Program at The Carter Center works internationally to support and enhance participatory democracy in alignment with human rights standards. Starting in 2020, The Carter Center initiated efforts to assist elections in the United States. The project encompasses several key components: establishing nonpartisan election observation efforts, supporting civic education, enhancing the electoral dispute resolution process, providing assessments of state media / social media ecosystems, contributing to electoral reform, and promoting cross-partisan principles for trusted elections.
The Carter Center aims to advance nonpartisan election observation efforts in New Mexico and Montana, building on pilot programs conducted in 2024, and among other states currently under review, such as Michigan, Tennessee, South Carolina, Nevada, Colorado, and Georgia. The nonpartisan observation efforts introduced and/or supported by The Carter Center will differ from existing partisan poll watchers and election protection groups. The objective is to provide credible and transparent information on the conduct of elections in each state through public reports. To support these initiatives, The Carter Center also offers analysis and resources on various aspects of the electoral process and election administration, including poll worker recruitment and training, as well as tabulation and audit procedures.
Responsibilities:
- Serve as a technical lead supporting the development of appropriate nonpartisan election observation methodologies for 2025 municipal elections
- Provide guidance and support to Carter Center consultants in close coordination with the Associate Director for Democracy
- Offer technical assistance to in-state partners on organizational capacity-building, electoral analysis, relationship-building, data collection, coalition-building, communications and other aspects of The Carter Center’s democracy programming
- Represent The Carter Center on an as-needed basis with external stakeholders, including potential partners, subgrantees, election administrators and peer organizations
- Contribute to or lead the design of program work plans; fundraising proposals; internal strategy documents; external communications products, including technical analyses of election procedures, observation reports, project proposals, donor reports, public opinion pieces, as well as legal framework assessments; and monitoring and evaluation plans
- Support knowledge management and skills transfer among consultants, staff and partners engaged on the U.S. Elections portfolio, including through mentorship, coaching and team building
- Draft training manuals, observer forms, agendas, toolkits, guidance documents, press statements, and other materials to raise awareness of good practices for election observation, election administration and civic engagement
- Organize convenings, trainings, skills-sharing sessions and other events to build the community of practice supporting nonpartisan election observation and democratic governance
- Work closely with the Associate Director of Democracy on an as-needed basis as a thought partner and technical lead to advance U.S. elections program priorities
- Perform other duties as required
Preferred Qualifications:
- 15 or more years of experience advising on, managing and implementing technical election support programs in the Democracy and Governance space
- Specialized knowledge of nonpartisan election observation methodologies, including electoral legal framework analysis, sample-based observation, voter list verifications, electoral violence early warning and systematic observation of pre- and post-election processes
- Knowledge of best practice standards for credible nonpartisan election observation, including international standards for democratic elections
- Technical knowledge of election administration and comparative election law to include knowledge of voting and election technology
- Proven track record of successful support to citizen observer partners to design and execute robust observation methodologies
- Experience with program and proposal design, implementation and evaluation
- Experience with the management and tracking of subgrants, ensuring institutional and funder compliance
- Experience with donor reporting and relationship management
- Knowledge of good practices for organizational risk management including digital hygiene, physical security, and legal analysis
- Proficiency in MS Office Suite, Google Workspace required
- Superior written and oral communication skills
- High computer literacy and tech savviness required
- Organized, trustworthy, dependable, and detail-oriented
- Experience/Willingness to work across various cultural contexts and communicate across cultural differences
- Willingness to travel within the U.S. to provide support to partners
To apply, please fill out the form at the link below and attach a CV and Cover Letter: https://filerequestpro.com/up/uselectionsrecruiting
This position is contracted through The Carter Center. Applicants are accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Only applications submitted to the link above will be considered.
Only those candidates selected for an interview or additional consideration will be notified by The Center. No separate emails, phone calls, or in-person contacts, please.