One of the pillars of professionalism in electoral administration is proper training and development of core permanent staff (if any), temporary management staff appointed for specific electoral events, and the large numbers of field staff that may be temporarily engaged for large-scale events such as elections, referendums, or census-style voter registration.

The principles of good electoral practice, such as impartiality, transparency, voting secrecy, equality of access, accountability, and efficiency form the basis of all EMB staff training. Staff training and development is a continuing activity. Changes in electoral procedures and technology, and the time that elapses between elections, means even the most experienced staff cannot rely entirely on experience to ‘know’ their current tasks.

Because staff training and development is not immediately tangible like ballot boxes or voter education materials are, there can be difficulties in persuading governments to approve EMB budgets that contain sufficient funds for this task. Staff training and development management also needs to occupy a sufficiently senior position in the EMB’s organisational structure to ensure it has a strong input into organisational priorities, including internal budget determination.