• To fill critical donor gaps in assistance to electoral processes and reform efforts.
• To increase citizen participation and public confidence in electoral process.
• To increase the capacity of local communities to conduct free and fair elections.
• To improve understanding of electoral processes and promote informed decisions.

• Support provision of voter information and civic education programs to inform citizens about the election process.
• Fund "get out the vote" campaigns and local election monitoring efforts.
• Provide outside monitors and specialized equipment as needed, including voting machines, ink, etc.
• Assist in establishing and enforcing the rules by which elections are run.
• Support candidates' fora and public meetings to debate key election issues.
• Train local monitors and observers.
• Support efforts to prevent election-related violence.

For Indonesia's June 1999 parliamentary elections, OTI supported a massive civic and political education effort, featuring public service announcements, politically oriented debates in the local media, and comprehensive grassroots education. Following the elections, OTI shifted programming to targeted projects that supported the new government, such as immediate training for newly-elected parliamentary officials in 10 of Indonesia's 26 provinces.

For Kosovo's first-ever municipal elections in October 2000, OTI sponsored a competition for the best elections-related programming on the radio. Eligibility was extended to local start-up stations, as well as the larger Kosovo-wide outlets. OTI awarded three prizes of radio equipment to the top submissions.

In Macedonia, during the parliamentary election campaign that took place during July through September 2002, OTI provided over 47,500 daily newspapers free to over 200 isolated villages with no previous newspaper distribution, thus helping to ensure that those villages received balanced information on the political parties. The project was a resounding success, with villagers lining up in the streets to receive the papers in the mornings and sharing them widely in even more remote villages. As a result, one private newspaper distributor continued the project as a commercial venture in some areas, thereby ensuring the long-term sustainability of the initiative.

In Afghanistan in June 2002, a traditional council of leaders, known as the Loya Jirga, met to elect a transitional interim leader for the country. To ensure the session would be broadly representative of and accessible to the Afghan population, OTI provided logistical support for participants; a short-wave radio transmitter and other infrastructure that enabled nation-wide broadcast of the meeting; production assistance to the Loya Jirga Commission; and preparatory radio and print journalist training.