Official status and authenticity

What it requires

An election office's website must be recognizable as official, and that claim must be verifiable without specialist knowledge. Four criteria make up this standard.

Official domain or verified ownership

The site is served from a .gov domain. Where a jurisdiction cannot yet move to .gov, the site publishes a statement naming the operating office, the statute or charter that gives it authority, and a link from the parent government's own site back to the election site.

Secure connection

Every page, including PDFs and lookup tools, loads over HTTPS with a valid certificate. Plain http:// requests redirect to HTTPS. HSTS is set so browsers refuse to downgrade.

Office identity and contact

The site states the office's legal name, the elected or appointed official responsible, a physical address, and a telephone number answered during business hours. This information appears in the footer of every page or one click from it.

Guidance on look-alike sites

The site tells voters how to recognize the official site (the exact domain, the .gov suffix, where it is linked from) and gives a channel for reporting impostor sites and texts.

Why it matters

Voters increasingly arrive at election information through search, social links, and text messages. A look-alike domain with plausible branding can divert a voter to the wrong deadline, the wrong location, or a fraudulent "registration" form. The .gov suffix is the only domain-level signal that is restricted to U.S. government entities, which is why federal guidance encourages every election office to use it. HTTPS prevents tampering in transit and is a prerequisite for the browser trust indicators voters already recognize. A named official and physical address give the public someone accountable to call.

How to implement

1. Request a .gov domain. Registration is free for eligible U.S. government organizations. Plan a redirect period of at least two election cycles from the old domain.
2. Enforce HTTPS. Obtain a certificate (free through most hosts and certificate authorities), redirect all HTTP traffic, and send an HSTS header with a max-age of at least one year.
3. Publish an identity block. Add the office name, responsible official, address, and phone to the global footer. Mark it up as an Organization so search engines attach it to the site.
4. Add an "Is this site official?" page. State the official domain in bold, list the official social accounts, and describe how the office will and will not contact voters. Give a reporting address for suspected impostors.

Examples

Meets the standard. A county elections site at vote.example-county.gov with HSTS enabled. The footer reads "Example County Clerk and Recorder, Jordan Rivera, Clerk · 200 Court St, Suite 100 · (555) 010-2000" on every page. A page titled "How to know this site is official" lists the domain, the office's three social accounts, and an email for reporting impostors.

Partial. A city site at cityname.org/elections with HTTPS, a complete footer, but no ownership statement and no guidance on look-alike sites.

Incomplete. A site on a third-party domain with mixed HTTP and HTTPS pages, a generic "Contact us" form, and no named official.

Snippets

Identity block for the global footer:

HSTS header (one year, include subdomains):

Ownership statement for sites not yet on .gov: