Can you play ELITE with a party?

[Mestitia]

I want to play Elite with a friend is there anyway to do this? Other then manually finding a server and hoping to be on the same team?

[Alexey85]

You can switch team after joining a server. Its in main menu when you press Esc.
Edit: In warmup, F3 is hotkey to join blue, F4 to join red.

[magnetik]

You can join an elite lobby (via the matchmaking menu in Elite title) and set your buddy as ally.
You can do this in the live chat (press F7 in the lobby to get help)

Then you will be sent in a match with your ally and someone else in your team.