The 12 core courses required for CERA certification are listed below. Each course is 1.5 days, or 10 hours, of instruction. A list of upcoming courses is available on the events calendar.

Course 1: Election Administration and Voter Registration as a System

This course focuses on analyzing and charting the major subsystems that make up the electoral process to identify relationships, clarify responsibilities, and promote control.

Course 2: Management and Leadership Concepts in Election Administration and Voter Registration

This course focuses on identifying and assessing individual management and leadership styles and applying techniques in the public sector.

Course 3: Planning and Budgeting for Election Administration and Voter Registration

This course provides the knowledge and skills required for effective strategic planning and contemporary public sector budget techniques.

Course 4: Contingency and Continuity of Operations Planning

This course focuses on the how to prepare for and adapt to the changing environment of elections, especially emergent and unexpected situations.

Course 5: Ethics in Election Administration and Voter Registration

This course provides a basic investigation of primary ethical theories and argumentative methods applied to election administration.

Course 6: Communications and Public Relations in Election Administration and Voter Registration

This course provides the skills and principles of public relations and communication important to effective representation of election/registration departments and offices.

Course 7: Enhancing Voter Registration and Participation in Election Administration and Voter Registration

This course explains who votes, who doesn’t vote, and why, and provides tools to measure participation in the electoral process.

Course 8: Implementation of New Programs in Election Administration and Voter Registration

The course works with the actions taken to implement policy such as a new one-time project, a new continuous program, or a change to an existing program.

Course 9: History of Elections Part III – 1960 to Modern Era

This course focuses on developments in federal law and regulation of the conduct of elections from the 1965 Voting Rights Act to the present day.

Course 10: Constitutions, Courts, and Cases to 1965 (early America to 1965 with a focus on state and US Constitutions)

This course focuses on the national and state constitutional foundations of election law and on key judicial interpretations which establish the modern foundation of election administration. The time period of the course is early America to 1965 with a focus on state and US Constitutions.

Course 11: History of Elections Part I: Antiquity to 1781

This course traces the history of elections and electoral participation across two millennia from ancient Athens and Rome through the medieval Italian city-states to England, and consequently the American Colonies.

Course 12: History of Elections Part II: 1781 to Civil Rights Era 1960

This course covers the history of elections and voter registration from the American Colonial Period until the Civil Rights Era.