Richard L. Klein

Richard L. Klein is NDI's Director of Elections Programs. Previously he served for over a decade as a Senior Advisor for Elections at the Institute. Klein is a global leader in promoting electoral integrity with over 30 years of experience building the capacity of local civic and faith-based organizations to observe elections, and organizing international observation missions. He has provided support for citizen observation efforts and international observer missions for more than 50 elections in over 25 countries around the world with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. He has expertise in a wide array of election observation methodologies, including being among a select group of experts on the PVT (parallel vote tabulations) methodology to enable citizen observers to independently assess the accuracy of election results. Klein is the lead author of “Building Confidence in the Voter Registration Process” - a guide for observing voter registration and assessing voter registries. He supported the formation of the Global Network of Domestic Election Monitors (GNDEM) and related drafting of the Global Principles for Nonpartisan Election Observation and Monitoring; the development of the regional citizen observation network - the Election Support Network of Southern Africa (ESN SA); and capacity building for the Southern African Development Community Parliamentary Forum (SADC PF) to observe elections. He holds a BA in Political Science from Michigan State University and an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science.