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, motivated, and energetic consultant to the Center’s US Elections Project.
Start date: As soon as possible.
Location: Remote, with some travel to Atlanta and other potential states The Carter Center will be working in
Pay: Commensurate with experience
Length of Assignment: Through August 31, 2023, with possibility of extension or contract renewal
The Democracy Program at The Carter Center works globally to support and strengthen participatory democracy, consistent with human rights. Beginning in 2020, The Carter Center began efforts to support elections in the United States. There are multiple key aspects to this project: establishing nonpartisan observation efforts, bolstering the electoral dispute resolution process, tracking disinformation and dangerous speech, contributing to electoral reform, and promoting a set of candidate principles for trusted elections.
The Carter Center’s proposed electoral dispute resolution program aims to bolster public awareness of existing mechanisms to resolve electoral challenges as a means of building confidence in the process and encouraging peaceful acceptance of results. It also seeks to identify and propose meaningful reforms to strengthen those mechanisms and make them more coherent.
Ahead of the 2024 election cycle, The Carter Center is proposing a four-pronged program of work that to increase the transparency, accessibility, timeliness and accountability of electoral dispute resolution mechanisms and thereby bolster public trust in the electoral process. The program will seek to both raise awareness of existing mechanisms for electoral dispute resolution and provide recommendations for their improvement. This position will also serve as our legal expert and will work closely with other members of the US Electoral expert team to assess the extent to which the US legislation, state legislation, and their implementation complies with international election standards. The legal analyst is expected to understand the legal framework of elections in the United States, generally, brief staff on election-related legal issues, and meet with relevant stakeholders as requested.
At the direction of the Coordinator and The Carter Center staff, the Legal and Electoral Dispute Resolution Expert will:
- Assist in the development of Terms of Reference, recruitment, and onboarding of up to two short-term junior legal analysts
- Supervise, guide and direct junior legal analysts
- Assist in the development of The Carter Center’s Electoral Dispute Resolution programming in the US
- Establish and maintain partnerships with academics and researchers to conduct surveys to assess public perceptions of national electoral dispute resolution mechanisms as well as mechanisms in specific target states.
- Along with the junior legal analysts, identify and map existing procedures for electoral dispute resolution.
- Design and lead a convening of various electoral law and electoral dispute resolution expert in the US.
- Contribute to a range of written outputs by The Carter Center including public reports, public statements, voter education materials and scripts, training program curricula, op-eds, articles, talking points and other internal briefing documents as requested
- As requested by Carter Center staff, represent The Carter Center at public events, webinars and other events and in public speaking engagements; Liase with state election officials and others on key issues to support project goals.
- Advise Carter Center staff and consultants, as needed, on US electoral law and legislation -providing research on these topics as needed.
- Participate in regular coordination meetings with other consultants, Carter Center staff, and project partners on key project aspects to ensure successful implementation of the project.
- Provide regular and timely updates on project status
Preferred Qualifications:
- Established knowledge and background in US electoral law, electoral dispute proceedings, and international election standards.
- Proficiency in oral and written reporting.
- Flexibility and adaptability as The Carter Center pilots new streams of work in a rapidly changing political context.
Please upload a cover letter, at least 3 references, and a CV to https://airtable.com/shrYlJqzyg8qoJlKv
Only applications submitted at the above site will be considered.
Deadline for submissions:
Applications accepted on a rolling basis until the position is filled. Interested parties are encouraged to submit their application as soon as possible.
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.