Athenian Project

Athenian Project

Provides United States election websites with enterprise-grade DDoS defense, CDN protection, and performance tools.

The Athenian Project is a Cloudflare program launched in September 2017 that provides US state, county, and municipal governments with free Enterprise-tier cybersecurity and performance services for election-related websites. The program was created in direct response to a 2017 US Department of Homeland Security notification that 21 states had experienced targeting of voter registration files or public election websites, and it is designed to ensure that government election infrastructure can withstand attacks during high-stakes periods without requiring budget that many local governments do not have.

Eligible recipients are US government entities operating websites related to election administration — including information about voting and polling places — voter data such as voter registration and verification systems, or the reporting of election results. Private organizations, nonprofits, universities, and for-profit entities are not eligible. As of 2025, the program protects 441 or more internet properties across 33 US states, with participants including the Colorado Secretary of State, San Francisco, Rhode Island, Alabama, North Carolina, and Hawaii. Admitted participants receive Cloudflare's full Enterprise-tier package — the same level of DDoS protection, performance optimization, and reliability tooling available to large commercial customers — at no cost and with no time limit.

The program is entirely in-kind; no cash or monetary award is made. Government entities apply directly through Cloudflare, and admission is evaluated based on whether the site falls within the three defined election-related categories. There is no competitive scoring, no application deadline, and no funding pool — qualified government election sites are admitted on a rolling basis. The primary path to participation is direct outreach to Cloudflare through the Athenian Project application page.