This topic covers the many
matters related to the standards and challenges of electoral integrity.
Democratic principles, measures and mechanisms are considered for each stage of
the election process, including electoral management, voting procedure,
boundary delimitation, voter education and registration, party/candidate
registration, campaigns, media, political financing, vote counting, as well as
enforcement.
The topic area of Electoral
Integrity was originally written by Ms. Sue Nelson in 1997. Ms. Agnieszka Dobrzynska
updated and expanded the topic for the second version of the ACE Encyclopaedia,
which was published in 2006. Subsequently in 2012, at the request of the United Nations
Electoral Assistance Division (UNEAD), Dr. Daniel Finn drafted extensive
revisions in connection with 3rd version of the Encyclopaedia
authorized by the ACE partner organizations in 2011.
Dr. Finn is an attorney and
consultant on International Law and Public Affairs. Since 1993 he has worked mainly on democracy
and governance projects, including electoral assistance and monitoring. Dr. Finn has authored numerous
election-related documents, including compilations of international electoral
commitments, standards and best practices. Previously he served as an attorney
for US Congressional committees, a Federal agency and a State Supreme Court.
Agnieszka Dobrzynska was a
postdoctoral fellow with the Canada Research Chair in Electoral Studies at the
Université de Montréal. Her Ph.D. thesis (Université de Montréal, 2002) focused
on the role of the media in electoral campaigns. Her research interests include
elections and voting behaviour, public opinion, media coverage of politics,
electoral systems and methodology. Her main postdoctoral project examines the
impact of the media coverage on political engagement and cynicism in Canada.
Sue Nelson had nearly twenty-five
years of experience managing international assistance projects and democracy
and governance programs and is an independent consultant advising on
governance, integrity, electoral assistance and electoral observation matters.
In connection with the
previous revision of the ACE Encyclopedia, IFES Senior Program Specialist
Jeffrey Carlson coordinated a team of practitioners from the New York City
Campaign Finance Board - Executive Director Nicole Gordon, Tara Malloy, and
Tanya Domi - and an independent expert, Bob Dahl. With the support of USAID
funding, this group team provided contributions in the area of political
finance related to electoral integrity.
