In 1998, after two years of discussion across multiple organisations on how to best address pressing issues of the day relating to the cost and the administration of elections, the ACE project officially launched. The idea was to create an online encyclopedia for election practitioners and anyone else interested in electoral procedures. Over the next two years, ACE continued to expand and by 2003, the project included 12 different topic areas relating to different parts of the electoral cycle.;xNLx;;xNLx;The 4th of May 2006 marked the next major step in the History of ACE. This year, the Administration and Cost of Elections project transformed into the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network, making it the world’s largest online election network with over 1000 election professionals from across the globe. By 2007, the regional infrastructure network consisted of 10 centers existing within electoral institutions, ensuring that the project maintained a worldwide, regional vibrancy. The expansion and diversification of ACE continued, with several key events taking place in 2011; such as the launch of the Election Observation Portal by the ACE electoral network at the annual Declaration of Principles (DOP) meeting in Brussels and the establishment of the ACE Secretariat, initially headquartered in Stockholm and subsequently rotated to other partner headquarters.;xNLx;;xNLx;Another turning point came in 2014 when partners confirmed the new model for ACE coordination called the ACE Coordination Unit. By December 2016, the ACE project had established its influence across the world, with mentions in 53 scientific publications relating to elections, democracy, and governance. In 2018 the partners of ACE signed another 2-year Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and in October of that year, the project celebrated its official 20th-anniversary in Mexico. In 2021, the ACE Project formalised a working relationship with the Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections (BRIDGE), a course and curriculum package that serves as the de facto sister project to ACE.
Building a strong partnership for knowledge sharing
“Who can believe today that the idea of referencing an ‘electoral encyclopedia’ — much less a fully electronic one — didn’t get consideration as a required administrative tool until the late 20th Century?”
October 1998, The Administration and Cost of Elections (ACE) project version 0 was launched at the United Nations General Assembly Building by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA), the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) and the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). The ACE encyclopedia (which included 9 topic areas and a section with related texts and country examples) was made available both online and as a CD-ROM. The launch was the culmination of a two-year effort that involved 9 writers, beside the representatives from the three organizations which were responsible, each, for the development, execution and maintenance of 3 subjects of the ACE project, contracting additional consultants and advisers from around the globe. The project included over 3000 pages of text and 2000 pages of scanned materials.
By March 1999, The Ace Project had a fully functional website
The Spanish and French versions of the website was launched with the support of the Mexican Federal Electoral Institute (IFE). A French version was, furthermore, launched with the support of Elections Canada.
In January, the users’ guide for the ACE project electronic resources version 0.1 was released in English, Spanish, and French. This additional resource that accompanied the ACE CD-ROM and Website, presented an easy-to-understand overview of each topic area along with instructions on how to access information on each subject.
The database on the administration and cost of elections (the ACE Project), became recognised by practitioners as the single most important resource for those involved with electoral management. By now, the online tool averaged more than 30,000 visits monthly.
New topic areas on electoral integrity, media and elections, and elections and technology were released.
An interactive five-week course for election administrators was successfully tested in East Timor during the spring of 2001. This later became the Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections (BRIDGE) project which, ever since, has served as a de facto sister project to ACE. The course emphasises project management skills, operational planning and development of election calendars and budgets as learning tools.
Born in 1999, the Elections Processes Information Collection (EPIC) project was designed to be a companion to the Administration and Costs of Elections (ACE) with questions organised into the same key topics as in ACE. The EPIC project is a partnership between UNDP, IFES and IDEA. The purpose of the project was to create a database of comparative information on how countries organise their elections. The country by country information was collected by researchers within partner organizations worldwide (Regional Resource Centers).This information is later absorbed into the ACE project website as Comparative Data with the development of the ACE Electoral Knowledge Network in 2006.
