As in the case of procurement, inventory of unused supplies is conducted according to general government regulations and varies substantially among countries. For example, in Spain an inventory of both used and unused supplies is made following an election. Local municipal authorities are in charge of making an inventory and storing electoral materials. They pass on this information to the national government’s provincial and regional delegates who, in turn, consolidate the inventories at the provincial level and report to the Ministry of Interior. No special or unanticipated costs are incurred in this activity other than current operational costs of the different administrations involved. Supplies that can be reused are stored on municipal premises. Unused supplies, mostly paper products, are discarded or recycled at the local level.
Inventory control in Australia requires that arrangements for the storage of unused supplies be included in the contract when ballot paper is purchased. This is treated as Australian Electoral Commission inventory and is carried on the balance sheet at cost. It is all processed electronically.
In Canada, electoral supplies and materials are tracked using the Supply Management System, which is an application developed in-house that uses a weighted monthly average cost to estimate the value of unused supplies. In Sweden, an inventory of unused supplies takes place after each election; unused material without text, such as voting envelopes, can be used in future elections. The central EMB always keeps in stock a certain amount of voting envelopes and paper used for printing ballots. This stock is regarded as a reserve. The local EMBs store materials used in polling stations, such as ballot boxes and polling booths. These are normally made of strong, long-lasting material and do not need to be replaced often, which is why they constitute a very low and rare cost in the budget of the EMB.
In Guatemala, sub-national electoral commissions conduct an inventory of used and unused supplies, focusing particularly on long-lasting materials such as screens and ballot boxes, which are stored for the next election. The national electoral authorities keep a record of all inventories. In Cambodia, all unused supplies are inventoried and stored in a central warehouse. Each year, a committee for inventory is established and performs its task for all departments of the National Election Committee. In addition, the department of operations receives monthly reports on the movement of supplies and materials in and out of the warehouse.
Developments in Afghanistan in 2004 illustrated some of the uncertainties and complications that can arise from the electoral system itself. The electoral formula for the presidency requires a run-off between the two top candidates if no single candidate receives 50 percent plus one vote in the first round. In planning for this possibility (which ultimately was not necessary because Hamid Karzai won more than 50 percent in the first round), the electoral Secretariat had to purchase significant quantities of polling day commodities such as tamper-evident bags, seals and indelible ink. These unused materials are now stored in a borrowed UNICEF warehouse in Kabul. Currently, the Joint Election Management Body (JEMB) and its Secretariat are trying to decide where and how to store ballot boxes and other polling material. The JEMB is fully reliant on the UN’s inventory system and has not yet developed its own policies and procedures.
