Each electoral process, be it voter registration, voter education, or voting and counting, is a series of operations carried out against a timetable and in a manner which complies with the electoral law and regulations.

Operational planning is setting out clearly the implementation of the strategic plan against specific objectives. The key issue is to specify each EMB task, its timeframe, and the manager of the unit responsible for completing it.

Operational plans can range from fairly simple timetables identifying key events in the electoral process to complex plans giving a specific time frame to each activity. Like the strategic plan, operational planning is meant to be an aid to the electoral process and not a task in itself. There is no need to have a complex plan if a simple one will ensure that everyone concerned knows the tasks and time scale.

An operational plan could be an action plan for the EMB or a diary of activities for the electoral managers, according to their area of responsibility. Such a diary could indicate what activity has to be undertaken, a time scale for each activity, and a cross-reference from the duty or activity to the appropriate section in the electoral law and to other electoral managers. This type of operational plan, if prepared from the electoral law and regulations, ensures that no activity identified in the law is "missed" by the electoral manager.

Activities to be included in the operational plan may be:

• Electoral Law
• Structure / Personnel
• Operations of National, Regional, and Local Election Commissions
• Communications
• Staff Recruitment and Training
• Security
• Procurement, distribution, and recovery of equipment and materials
• Development of ballots, forms, and procedures
• Information and voter education
• Voter Registration
• Registration of political parties and candidates
• Boundary delimitation
• Polling site selection
• Election Day
• Observers
• Announcement of election results
• Post-election Activities
• Complaints and Contestation of Results
• Audit and evaluation

For management considerations, it is recommended that all election activities be included in any detailed operational planning. This includes those that are not necessarily delegated to the EMB but the responsibility of a Supervisory Commission, a Boundary Commission, or other electoral body.

Operational planning should take into account lessons from previous elections. A complete review of the electoral process at the end of the electoral task will show whether the operational plan worked well. It will establish what went well and what went wrong, why some things went badly, what could have been done differently, are there any cost savings to be made, and are there any processes that can be made simpler and more effective. Learning from these issues can save a lot of time and money when planning the next electoral event.

The operational plan needs also to provide clear guidance as to what happens in an emergency. Major catastrophes are not easy to foresee, but problems such as a fire in a polling site (or worse, in the EMB’s data centre) or during vote counting, or a disruption of the poll by protestors need to be considered so that a clear procedure can be outlined in the instructional material given to the staff.

Any electoral process, if completed successfully, will rely on the competence and commitment of a core of electoral staff. Ensuring that the core managers and staff have confidence in and ownership of the operational plan will help in delivering it. Gathering the key staff together in the run up to the electoral process to brief them on the overall logistics and the planning of the electoral process and allowing them to ask questions and comment will also improve planning. Involving staff at an early stage and setting out their work load and choices will give them a feeling of ownership and responsibility for the election administration.