The importance of electoral law, regulations and electoral management body policy in determining the parameters and methods of voting operations will, in many respects, be related to the standing and administrative framework of electoral management bodies. If multiple electoral bodies under no central controls are responsible for managing different geographic areas for one election, it would be more appropriate to have a detailed legal framework.
This would be evident in respect to election forms content and design, voting station location and capacities, voter information requirements, to promote consistency and quality of treatment of all voters. This would also be applicable where electoral management bodies are inexperienced or subject to political influences.
Conversely, where electoral management body structure provides for a strong central quality control focus ,encompassing all electoral districts, and it has a history of impartial judgment, it would be more appropriate that the more detailed issues of voting operations management were left to policies developed by the electoral management body. This flexibility, in competent hands, can enable more appropriate and swifter responses to changing environments.
Basic Legal Requirements
What is the basic voting operations framework that should be defined in law for any election environment? Best practice would require that the following are essential elements:
• the method of officially determining the election date;
• the significant points in the election period time frame--the nominations period, campaign period, voting day (or days) and hours, counting period, periods for special voting, official announcement of results, period for objections and appeals to the result;
• eligibility criteria for voters and where they may vote;
• qualifications and disqualifications for candidacy (individual candidates and parties), methods of nominating candidates and announcing accepted candidates and parties for the election;
• ballot types and formats;
• requirements for location and promulgation of voting stations and other voting facilities; routes of mobile voting stations;
• powers and responsibilities of voting station staff and voting operations administrators;
• procedures for handling, maintenance and disposal of accountable materials;
• the voting method, including requirements for a valid vote, and voting secrecy and integrity controls to be applied;
• treatment of voters not found on voting station voters lists;
• methods of and qualifications for any special voting facilities--absentee, early, mail, mobile, provisional/tendered, assisted votes;
• rights and responsibilities of candidates and party and candidate representatives;
• rights and responsibilities of observers and/or monitors;
• settling of disputes and challenges;
• adjournment of voting and treatment of errors and omissions in voting processes;
• methods for replacement of elected representatives, such as recounts, partial elections;
• offenses and penalties.
Additional requirements will vary according to election systems and cultural environments.
Examples
Examples of electoral laws and regulations governing voting operations from more than seventy countries can be accessed through the Internet links contained in the "Comparative Data" and "Electoral Materials" Section which can be accessed from the ACE main page
