Voting Procedures

Voting procedures will be dependent on the legal, regulatory and policy framework. Like electoral systems, they may often be a product of the past, rather than an effective response to current voting needs.

The equity, integrity, service levels and accessibility of election processes will be primarily determined by the range of voting methods available to voters and the procedural controls.

A major challenge in devising voting methods and procedures is to ensure that all persons registered to vote have an equitable opportunity to participate in voting, irrespective of their geographic location, gender or class, literacy level, occupation, or physical condition. Guiding principles of Voting Operations should be the starting point for the development of appropriate voting procedures.

Normal Voting

Most voters will be casting their ballot on the general voting day (or one of the general voting days) at a voting station in the electoral district in which they are registered to vote. Voting procedures for this mass of voters should include:

• Electoral system requirements--in the type and format of ballots, and the method of indicating the preferred candidate or candidates;

• Integrity requirements--in preventing voter fraud, through measures to combat intimidation, unduly influence, attempted multiple voting, impersonation and ballot box stuffing;

• Service requirements--in promoting an easily understandable, orderly, swift and accurate processing of voters through the voting station;

• Cost-effectiveness requirements--in allowing staffing, premises, materials, and equipment models that enable efficiencies in processing of voters to be realized.

Special Voting Facilities

Providing special voting facilities for electors who, on voting day, are unable to access a normal voting station in the electoral district in which they are registered to vote makes an important contribution to increasing accessibility and equity of voting processes.

With increasing personal mobility, for both work and social reasons, greater proportions of voter populations are unlikely to be at their normal residence on voting day.

For voters in remote locations, or who have disabilities, equity considerations would demand that they be provided with reasonable opportunity to vote. With voter turnout proportions recognized as an indicator of legitimacy of elected representatives, there is a community interest in making voting methods appropriate for the needs and lifestyles of the population.

The extent to which special voting facilities are provided will be influenced by:

• Philosophical factors, such as whether communities regard voting as a personal right or a civic duty;

• Practical factors, stemming from examination of the need for particular types of special voting facilities;

• Financial and cost-effectiveness factors.

For cost and integrity reasons, certain special voting facilities may require additional qualifications from voters over and above those required for normal voter registration.

Cost Factors of Special Voting

Providing special voting facilities, while increasing accessibility to the election process, can greatly increase both costs and complexity of the election. There will generally be additional management requirements and direct costs for providing these facilities.

Additional staff and training, and possibly also additional logistical requirements, special materials and distribution control records and systems, and mailing costs will be needed. Additional costs will include increased communication challenges to deliver voting operations information about special voting to voters, electoral administrators and voting station staff.

Also, there will usually be additional integrity controls required on special voting methods, to prevent impersonation and to ensure that voters do not have some form of special vote and then also vote at a normal voting station.

Types of Special Voting Facilities

A number of different types of special voting, and procedures for implementing them, are described in the following sections:

• Absentee Voting, dealing with procedures for voters out of their electoral district of registration on voting day;

• Voting in a foreign country, dealing with the provision of voting facilities for registered voters who are in foreign countries at the time of the election;

•  Early Voting , dealing with methods by which voters unable to go to their normal voting station on the general voting day can vote at an earlier time;

• Proxy Voting, dealing with procedures whereby voters unable to attend a voting station may appoint another person to vote for them;

• Provisional or tendered votes, dealing with a method of assisting voters who claim to be registered but who cannot be found on the voting station's voters list.

Minority Community Groups

Apart from providing special voting facilities for the community at large, there are population segments that require specific voting facilities appropriate to their needs to enable them to participate in voting.

Devising cost-effective methods of catering to such minority groups is an integral part of providing not only voter service, but equity and integrity in voting operations as well.

For a general discussion of community sectors with special needs, and those who can only be reached by providing mobile voting stations, see Other Special Voting Arrangements specific community elements for which additional facilities would be beneficial include:

• Voters who are illiterate or semi-literate or are illiterate in the language in which the election is being conducted.

• Voters who have physical disabilities which preclude their voting in the normal fashion.

• Ill and infirm voters confined to their homes.

• Voters who are confined to hospital or other care institutions on voting day.

• Voters living in remote areas, where the voting population is insufficient to justify the establishment of normal voting stations

• Security and other emergency forces who are not able to leave their duty stations on voting day.

• Persons eligible to vote who are serving prison sentences on voting day.

• Refugees and displaced persons, who may not be able to return to their previous area of residence to vote.

• Treatment of voters who, for reasons of personal safety, have had their registration details deleted from published voters lists.

Voting in Person on Voting day

While voting procedures will differ in detail, there are common elements that need to be present in any effective procedures for normal voting, such as:

• Control of entry to the voting stations, so that only authorized persons (voters, officials, security, other accredited persons) can enter;

• A method of verifying each voter's identity and that they are eligible to vote at that voting station (i.e., they have not voted previously in this election and they are registered or are otherwise entitled to vote in respect of the electoral area serviced by the voting station);

• Noting of the names of persons who have been issued ballots to prevent multiple voting and allow materials reconciliations;

• Controlled, accurate issue of accountable ballot material (which may be ballots, envelopes, or access to voting computers issuing) to eligible voters;

• Methods to ensure that each vote is secret;

•The method of indicating the preferred candidate or party amongst those on the ballot(s) for the election;

• Ensuring that only valid voting material is placed in the ballot box.

Area Serviced By Voting Station

It would be more usual that voters were assigned to a specific voting station to vote, on the basis of the division of the electoral district into smaller geographic polling sub-divisions, generally containing approximately equal numbers of voters.

There are considerable advantages to this method. For one, it promotes voting integrity. Voters’ lists for each voting station are unique, thus minimizing the chances of multiple voting. Voters are from the immediate area of the voting station, thus any attempts at impersonation are more likely to be recognized.

Also, it allows standard staffing and materials allocation to each voting station, thus promoting efficiency in resource allocation methods. The accuracy of the division of voters’ lists into a unique list for each voting station is vital.

Specific geographic location information for each voter has to be accurately recorded at the time of registration, and voter registration systems must be able to support the production of voters lists at this small geographic area level. This task will be made more challenging when there are limitations on the national identification or population registration systems of the country.

Lack of, or limited national identification procedures and a population register means that voters’ list information is incomplete or inaccurate. The production of voters’ lists is can often be a complex task in societies where:

• general address designation systems are of poor quality, and there are areas with no defined street number or name addresses;

• voters reside in informal settlements;

• there are significant numbers of itinerant or homeless voters.

These issues need to be carefully considered when devising geographic criteria systems and recording methods within voter registration systems. Considerable precision in micro-management of voters’ lists is required. In some jurisdictions, voters may chose to cast a vote at a choice of voting stations within their electoral district.

While this promotes accessibility to voters, it requires more complex systems for voting integrity control, resource planning, staffing and materials supply as:

• voters’ lists will not be unique in each voting station, additional multiple voting controls will be required;

• the potential numbers of voters attending each voting station is more difficult to estimate;

• standard staffing and materials allocation processes will be more complex to implement.

To encourage integrity other methods than this should be encouraged.

Method of Indicating Preferred Candidate or Party

The method by which voters indicate their preferred candidate or party, as determined by the legislated election system, will have a significant impact on procedures for normal voting. Basic variants include:

The enveloped vote system: where each party or candidate appears on a separate ballot, the voter chooses the desired ballot and is issued an envelope in which the ballot is sealed before it is placed in the ballot box. In these systems it is the ballot envelopes that are the strictly controlled and accountable items; the ballots themselves can be freely available. Voting procedures are oriented to the controlled issue of ballot envelopes to eligible voters.

"Mark choice" vote systems: where alternative candidates or parties appear on the same ballot, and voters have to mark their preferences (either manually or using a voting machine or computer screen) on the ballot. There are variations in the manner in which preference must be marked. In these systems the ballots are highly accountable items, and voting procedures are oriented towards controlled issue of ballots to eligible voters.

Write-in votes: where voters write the name of their preferred candidate or party on a blank ballot. Again it is only the ballot issued to eligible electors that must be tightly controlled. It would not be usual to use such systems for normal voting, though they can be effective for use in special voting facilities such as early or absentee voting, where timetables or complexity of materials supply may prevent the use of ballots printed with party or candidate details.

In some jurisdictions, voters use tokens, rather than ballots: to indicate their choice of party or candidate. Each party or candidate is represented by a different token, often distinguished by color, and the voter chooses the appropriate one.

This method can be effective in countries with lower literacy levels. Voting procedures must control that voters only deposit a single token in the ballot box; materials production controls must ensure that tokens are of the same size and weight so that voting secrecy is preserved.

"Mark choice" votes are the more common. Within this category itself, there are multiple variations of method. Some variations depend on the electoral system.

First-past-the-post and party list proportional representation systems would more usually require that voters place only a single mark on the ballot: against a party or candidate of their choice. Allowable marks would often be defined in legislation and could be restricted to a numeric marks, or include marks such as a check or a cross. Accessibility and equity principles would dictate that the nature of the mark itself was not important and that the only important matter is that the voter has clearly indicated a preference.

Some first-past-the-post or party list proportional representation systems may operate on a negative vote basis: meaning that voters cross out on the ballot, or marks beside their names, the parties or candidates they do not prefer, and do not make any marks next to the party or candidate they prefer. These requirements can be more conducive to voter error, and more difficult to count.

Single transferable vote or alternative vote systems: of various types would require the voter to make markings against all candidates on the ballot, or a minimum defined proportion or number of the candidates, in a preference ranking, from "1" to "n".

The electoral system may require voters to cope with combinations of ballot types: for example, where simultaneous elections are for different chambers of a legislature elected using different voting systems. It is very important that voter education and information programs clearly convey to voters the manner in which they must indicate their preferred party or candidates.

Effects of Voting Method on Voting Station Operations.

The selected voting method will have significant effects on the procedures that must be implemented in voting stations. Some examples include:

• Requiring voters to mark more than one preference mark on a ballot will take longer, affecting issues such as the number of voting compartments, or booths, required, and the voter turnout capacity of voting stations;
• Whether ballots or ballot envelopes are accountable items will affect security considerations (both in the voting station and during production), and the layout of the voting station in terms of where these materials are issued;
• The holding of simultaneous elections, especially where voting methods are different for each election, will raise issues of whether ballots for each election should be issued simultaneously to the voter, or that there should be separate areas in the voting station for each election, through which the voter must pass.

Simultaneous issue of all ballots is the more efficient method, but its effects on voters' understanding of how to complete each ballot must be considered

Voting Day and Hours

The day of the week determined for the general voting day will affect planning and implementation of voting operations. Weekday voting may affect the ability to recruit voting station staff and require special arrangements to allow workers to vote, unless voting day is a declared holiday. A general voting day on a weekend may present the need for additional facilities for voters not at their usual residential locations. Different communities may have competing social and cultural commitments over weekends such as religious obligations and funerals to attend.

Hours of opening need to strike a balance between accessibility to voters, efficient resource use, and staff fatigue. Long opening hours will increase the potential for tired voting station staff to make errors in their work.

Absentee Voting

Absentee voting, that is, systems that allow voters to vote at a voting location other than the voting station (or stations) at which they appear on the normal voters list, is an additional voting facility that can considerably increase accessibility to the voting process.

For many voters, absentee voting facilities may be the most practicable means by which they may participate in voting. This would include voters, for example, who:

• For employment, security or other reasons are, on voting day, away from the area in which they are registered to vote;

• Are confined to institutions through illness or disability.

However, the more extensive absentee voting facilities are in order to increase accessibility, the greater the cost in additional materials and in the complexity and quality of systems that need to be implemented to control its integrity.

This latter requirement needs to be very carefully considered when determining which, if any, methods of absentee voting are to be included in legal frameworks and implemented.

This section should be read in conjunction with Early voting. In many environments absentee voting facilities may also cater to persons voting in advance of the general voting day or days, either in person or by mail.

Potential Frameworks

frameworks for absentee voting could allow absentee voting:

• In advance of voting day, or on voting day, or both;

• Only at voting stations within the voter's electoral district of registration, or at voting locations within a restricted range of electoral districts, or at voting locations in any electoral district in which voting is being conducted, or include locations outside the country in which the election is being conducted (see Voting in a foreign country)

• At special voting stations or locations for absentee votes (often electoral administration offices), or in conjunction with normal voting at regular voting stations, or both;

• By voters attending a voting location in person, or voting by mail, or both;

• Through prior application or registration by voters, or be available to any voter attending a voting location designated for absentee voting.

The greater the number of choices provided to voters in the methods and locations of absentee voting available, the more complex the system will be to administer and the more intensive controls and more experienced staff will be required.

More complex systems of absentee voting--those allowing voters wide freedom of choice in the voting station at which they may vote or combining on-voting day absentee voting with absentee voting in advance of voting day--would generally only be considered for implementation when there is strong and experienced central management oversight of election processes.

Issues for Consideration

In implementing frameworks and procedures for absentee voting, there are a number of significant issues that require consideration, including:

• What conditions, if any, must a voter satisfy to be eligible for an absentee vote (see Qualifications and Eligibility Procedures)

• Where may a voter have an absentee vote--for example, only within the electoral district within which the voter is registered, or in some wider area (see Locations for absentee voting)?

• How is it determined at a voting station if a voter is eligible for an absentee vote (see  Qualifications and Eligibility procedures)?

• Should the ballot format for absentee votes be the same as or different from that used for normal votes (see Absentee ballot forms)?

• What arrangements are appropriate for counting absentee votes

Qualifications and Eligibility Procedures

Absentee voting is a more complex, more costly, and potentially less transparent form of voting. Access to absentee voting facilities is often restricted to those with particular legislatively-defined qualifications.

The qualifications (if any) imposed for absentee voters will depend on the ability to provide and manage absentee voting facilities, and equity considerations for those who are unable to attend the voting station(s) at which they are registered to vote. In part this will come down to a societal ethos of whether voting is seen as a right or a duty.

In its most narrow interpretation, absentee voting may be restricted to those whose official duties prevent them from attending their normal voting station--for example, polling officials, security forces on duty on voting day, officials of the state employed at foreign locations.

If absentee voting facilities are to be provided, restricting them to serving employees of the state can raise questions about the integrity of the election process - especially where state organizations or the military are perceived as closely aligned to or under the influence of political forces.

Where equity considerations are given more weight, qualifications for absentee voting may be extended to categories of voters whose physical condition or employment duties prevent them from attending the voting station(s) at which they are registered to vote. Such categories could include:

• Serving military personnel or security force personnel;

• People with physical disabilities, such as bed-ridden patients serviced by mobile voting facilities or wheelchair patients whose assigned voting station lacks wheelchair access;

• Other institutionalized voters;

• Voters whose employment requires them to be absent from their area of registration on voting day.

Or who have moved residence, since the deadline for voter registration, out of the electoral area in which they registered.

No-Limitation Systems

In systems where voter accessibility and promoting maximum participation are the dominant principles, access to absentee voting facilities provided may be open to any otherwise qualified voter. Implementing such systems requires a high level of professionalism in election administration and will have a significant effect in increasing election costs.

The convenience for voters of being able to vote at multiple voting locations is likely to encourage voters to use this more costly method rather than make some effort to attend the voting station at which they are basically eligible to vote. Less rigorous systems of establishing voter eligibility may not be sustainable with high numbers of absentee voters.

Large numbers of absentee voters will exacerbate administrative pressures on integrity controls, voting materials supply, issue and return, and staffing requirements.

Absentee Vote Eligibility Procedures

 No matter who may be qualified to use absentee voting facilities
or what restrictions are placed on where absentee voters may vote (see Locations for absentee voting), additional measures will need to be implemented to check the eligibility of voters using absentee voting facilities. These measures will need to ensure that:

• Voters are who they claim to be;

• Voters cast their ballots for the electoral district for which they are eligible to vote;

• Voters do not vote more than once in any election, particularly by casting both an absentee ballot and a ballot at any other voting facilities.

Possible Control Methods

Potential control methods for voter eligibility would include requiring:

• absentee voters to apply prior to voting day to the electoral management body and be granted a certificate entitling them to an absentee vote which is surrendered when they vote;

• absentee voters to apply to the electoral management body prior to voting day for registration on special voters lists of absentee voters to be used in absentee voting locations;

• absentee voters to complete a declaration containing their details before being issued voting material at the voting location.

In this last instance, since there has been no prior application made, these details must be checked following the close of voting, at locations with access to full voters register details, to determine the eligibility of the voter and that the voter has voted only once, to determine if these ballots may be included in ballot counts.

Absentee Voting by Certificate

Under such systems, absentee voters obtain, prior to voting day, a certificate from the electoral management body authorising them to vote at a specified voting station, other than the one to which they are assigned. Effective characteristics of such systems would include:

• voters must apply for an absentee vote, prior to voting day, in an official form that enables the electoral management body to determine if the voter meets any restrictive criteria in election rules as to who may cast an absentee vote--and, if eligible, voters are issued certificates specifying which voting station they are entitled to use for an absentee vote (with lists of expected absentee voters provided to the relevant voting station managers);

• to maintain integrity, voters issued with such certificates would preferably be identified by the electoral management body on the voters register to be used at their home voting station;

• at the voting station, voters are subject to identity checking and surrender the certificates to the appropriate official, who arranges for the voters to be issued the correct voting material, and who also maintains a record of all such voters issued with voting material;

• controls on voter identity and multiple voting remain the same as for ordinary voters;

• records of absentee voters are included in reconciliations of voting material at the close of voting.

Such procedures, while well suited to systems only allowing absentee voters to vote at voting stations within the electoral district for which they are registered to vote, can be unwieldy where there are large numbers of absentee voters, or where voters may vote at voting locations outside their electoral district. There may also be problems in administering such systems where an election involves more than one round of voting.

Use of Special Absentee Voters Registers

Alternatively, control of absentee voting can be instituted by constructing special voters registers for absentee voters. This may be an effective means for controlling voter eligibility where absentee voters can vote at a location outside their electoral district of registration, and where special absentee voting locations are provided. Effective characteristics of such systems would include:

• a requirement for registered voters to apply, prior to voting day, to the electoral management body for registration as an absentee voter at a specific absentee voting location--with deadlines for such registration allowing sufficient time to determine if the voter meets any required qualifications for absentee voting and for printing and distribution of relevant voters lists;

• to preserve integrity, voters assigned to absentee voters lists would preferably either be removed from copies of normal voters lists used in voting stations, or their entries on these lists be marked, prior to issue to voting stations, to indicate they have been included on an absentee voters list elsewhere;

• to make location of the voters entry in the list easier, absentee voters lists produced would preferably list all voters alphabetically, with the relevant electoral district of registration indicated against each voter's entry on the list (where relatively small numbers of electoral districts are involved, a separate list could be produced for each district);

• on arrival at the voting location, the voter undergoes normal eligibility checks, for identity, against the absentee voters register, and for multiple voting, and if these are passed, is issued voting material for the appropriate electoral district as indicated in the absentee voters list;

• at close of voting, voting materials issued to absentee voters should be reconciled against names marked as issued with voting material on absentee voters lists.

Such systems can be complex to administer in the hectic period before voting day, when the preparation and integrity checking of yet more voters lists can be a significant load on electoral management bodies. They are more suited to systems where there are limited numbers of separate absentee voting locations in major regional centres (rather than available in all normal voting stations).

Absentee Voting On Application at Voting Station

Rather than imposing eligibility controls on absentee voting by verification checks before voting day, eligibility could be checked after the close of voting. Under such systems qualified voters can request an absentee vote at any voting station at which absentee votes are issued. Effective characteristics of such systems would include:

• normal identity and multiple voting checks applied to each absentee voter;

• before being issued voting material, the voters make signed declarations of their personal details--for maximum effectiveness these would include name, address of registration, date of birth, any other particulars that may assist in determining the eligibility of the voter under the particular electoral system (this statement could be witnessed by a polling official, or another voter registered at that voting station, and where voters are issued voter identification cards, relevant details could be copied by the polling official or voter from the voter identification card);

• on the basis of the information in this statement, the polling official determines the appropriate electoral district for which the voter should be issued voting material (in systems where voters are not issued and required to bring voter identification cards when voting, polling officials will require reference material linking addresses to electoral districts to ensure the correct voting material is issued);

• when voters have completed their ballots, the ballots are sealed in an envelope containing the voter's declaration before being placed in the ballot box;

• after the close of voting, ballot envelopes are reconciled to ballot issue records, sorted by electoral district, and returned to the appropriate location (the home electoral district office or a regional centre) for eligibility checking of the details provided by the voter, and further processing;

• care needs to be taken to ensure that multiple votes are not allowed into ballot counts.

As a basic precaution, absentee ballot envelopes for an electoral district must be checked against voters' lists for the relevant voting stations, and where a voter is marked as having voted at their regular voting station, the absentee ballot invalidated and multiple voting investigations commenced.

All voters from whom absentee ballots are received should also, during this check, be marked as having voted, on the relevant electoral district's voters list to guard against multiple absentee ballots from the one voter being counted.

Measures also need to be taken to ensure voting secrecy. This could be done by using a double enveloping system, where the voter's ballot is placed in an inner envelope which is then placed in an outer envelope containing the voter's identity details.

Once the voter's details have been checked after the close of voting, the inner envelope is separated from the outer envelope and mixed with other absentee vote inner envelopes before the ballot is extracted for the count.

Alternatively, a single stubbed/counterfoiled envelope could be used, with the voter's details being written on the envelope stub/counterfoil which is removed after eligibility checking and the envelope mixed with other absentee ballot envelopes before ballots are extracted for counting.

Such systems are complex to administer. In planning for voting day there is no mechanism, apart from prior election experience, to determine how many absentee voters will attend to vote at individual absentee voting locations.  Thus materials supply and staffing for voting locations catering to absentee voters will be more difficult to plan, and resource allocations may be less efficient. Additional materials and training for voting station officials may be required to ensure effective materials control.

Strict control systems for return of completed ballots are also required. It would generally be simpler for eligibility checking and counting to be conducted at a central location.

As eligibility checks occur after the close of voting, if there are large numbers of absentee voters, results of counts may also be delayed. Implementation of such procedures in environments where there is no history of integrity in election administration would not be advisable.

However, where systems promote maximum voter accessibility by allowing absentee voters to vote at any voting station, or at a large number of locations outside their electoral district of registration, it may be the most practicable method of eligibility control.

Locations For Absentee Voting

Locations Where Absentee Voters may Vote

Legal frameworks for absentee voting should be clear about any restrictions on the voting locations at which particular absentee voters may vote. There are two different factors that need to be defined:

• The relationship between where the voter is registered to cast a normal vote and the electoral areas in which the voter may attend a voting location to lodge an absentee vote;

• Whether normal voting stations may be used for absentee voting or whether special absentee voting locations are too established.

Voting Within Electoral District of Registration

In their simpler forms, absentee voting frameworks would restrict the geographic area in which an absentee voter may attend a voting location to vote. For example, in constituency-based electoral systems, absentee voters could be restricted to voting at voting locations within the constituency for which they are entitled to vote.

Where proportional representation elections for provincial or national bodies treat the whole province or country as a single electoral district, election or voter registration administration areas, or alternatively local government areas, could form the basis of such restrictions.

This simple process has a limited impact on accessibility, as its impact is restricted to voters able to vote within the electoral district for which they are registered, and within what would be, in all but sparsely populated regions, a relatively small geographic area. Particularly in constituency-based systems it will minimize the impact on election administration, as:

• Ballots used by absentee voters are those that would normally be supplied to voting stations in each area;

• There is little added complexity of systems to control ballot distribution and return for absentee voters;

• The impact on normal vote counting and tallying processes is minimized.

Voting Outside Electoral District of Registration

More accessible frameworks would also allow absentee voters to vote at voting locations in other electoral districts. Thus, widening the availability of absentee voting is likely to have significant impact on the operational actions and management capacities required.

Where voters may vote at a voting location outside their electoral district, significant additional systems for distribution and return of ballot-related material will be required.

Where elections are for individual constituencies, voting material for multiple electoral districts may need to be supplied for issue at voting locations, with a consequent need for more intensive controls for distribution, issue and return of ballot materials.

There may be increased usage of this facility, and thus a potential need to appoint officials especially for the purpose of issuing absentee votes, or have separate voting facilities for absentee voters, either within normal voting locations or at special absentee voting locations.

Where procedures require absentee voters to register before voting day, pre-printed absentee voter ballot envelopes, or packs of voting material for each individual absentee voter, may be possible to prepare.

While this may assist in ensuring that the correct material goes to each voter, it is an expensive option, and will require very strict controls on supply of materials to absentee voting locations.

More complex systems will be required for the handling of voters' completed ballots, as to whether at absentee voting locations, for example, there is a separate ballot box for each electoral district into which the appropriate ballots must be deposited. Generally, this may be a confusing exercise for voters and officials alike.

However, in voting locations set up specifically for large numbers of absentee voters, it may be possible to set up separate voting stations or ballot issuing areas and ballot boxes for each electoral district.

In other cases, absentee voters’ ballots may all be deposited into the one ballot box and sorted after the close of voting. Using this system effectively would require that ballots be enveloped distinctively for each electoral district before being placed in the ballot box.

Reconciliation procedures at close of voting will also need to account for the ballots issued for each electoral district.

Sites Used for Absentee Voting

Where absentee voters may vote only at another voting station within their electoral district of registration, providing absentee voting facilities at all normal voting stations can be achieved relatively simply.

In systems where absentee voters may vote at locations outside their electoral district of registration, whether absentee voting is accommodated at all normal voting stations, at a selection of normal voting stations, or only at specially set up absentee voting sites will again depend on careful consideration of the accessibility gains achieved balanced against the additional costs and abilities to maintain effective control of integrity, materials and logistics.

Use of Normal Voting Stations

Making absentee voting available at all voting locations will:

• maximize accessibility;

• require effective implementation of complex materials handling and integrity control procedures across all voting stations, and thus a generally higher level of election administration polling official skills;

• increase the complexity of operations in all voting stations.

More training for, and often additional, staff will be required; voting stations of larger physical area may also be required to allow a separate area for absentee voting. Limiting the number of voting stations that offer absentee voting facilities will moderate these requirements, at the expense of accessibility.

Use of Special Voting Locations

It can be more efficient to set up special absentee voting locations--for example, one in each electoral district (if elections are constituency-based), or in central and regional locations--rather than allowing absentee voting at normal voting stations. This management efficiency needs to be considered against the resulting reduction in accessibility.

Using this format can provide more effective controls, through concentration of specific absentee voting training and allocation of more experienced staff, and reducing the number of locations that have implement the more complex procedures and be supplied with additional materials for absentee votes. Thus it may be a more appropriate path to take where election management capacities are less abundant.

Absentee Ballot Forms

Two major control issues with absentee voting in systems where voters may vote at a location outside their electoral district of registration are:

• the supply of ballots to voting stations;

• ensuring that voters are issued the correct ballots.

In systems where normal voting is done with an enveloped ballot  where each party list appears on a separate ballot and voters choose which ballot to use to make their vote, ballot supply requirements can make absentee voting outside the electoral district of registration very difficult to implement.

Even where voters have to mark their choice on a single ballot, ballot supply and issue to voters will be complex to control. There are two potential alternatives for the ballot format:

• Ballots showing full details of the candidates, parties or groups contesting the election on which voters mark their choices;

• Write-in or open ballots--blank ballots which are not printed with candidate, party or group details.

Similar considerations apply for ballots for early voting (see Early voting.)

Full Detail Ballots

Using full detail ballots in each electoral district for absentee voting ensures that the correct information is on each ballot, but will generally result in a more complex supply process.

Where voters register in advance for absentee voting, personalized ballot packs with full-detail ballots for each absentee voter could be pre-packaged and supplied to the correct voting station. However, this is an expensive and time consuming pre-voting day activity.

In other circumstances, a full range of electoral districts' ballots will need to be supplied to voting stations catering to absentee voters.

While this will ensure that all ballots issued are correct in detail, it will require very careful materials control in the voting station, particularly if there are large numbers of electoral districts engaged in the election.

Blank or Write-In Ballots

This method makes supply to and control of ballots within the voting station considerably easier, since the same ballot form may be used for absentee voters from any electoral district. How these ballots are completed will depend on the overall legislative requirements for ballot design. Where it is held to be important that the ballot displays all available choices to the voter, the voting station official issuing the ballot would generally be required to write on the ballot the required details for all contestants in the relevant electoral district. This will:

• slow the issue of ballots;

• require that all absentee voting locations be issued with lists of candidate, party or group details as they are to appear on the ballot for each electoral district;

• be subject to transcription errors by voting station officials.

A simpler system would be for officials to endorse the name of the relevant electoral district on an otherwise blank ballot, on which the voters, in the voting compartment, then write in the candidate or party for whom they wishes to vote.

This will maintain ballot issue speed. However, it will also depend on voter access to lists of relevant candidates or parties, and may be subject to a higher number of errors by voters, for voters to mark a preference is less complex than to write in a candidate or party name.

It is not a method very suitable for election systems where voters have to indicate more than a single preferred candidate or list in each election.

Possible Alternatives

Alternative models for counting absentee ballots could see:

• counts take place in the voting station at which absentee ballots were issued;

• absentee ballots from all voting locations returned to a central point for counting;

• absentee ballots from all voting locations dispatched to the voting station where each absentee voter appears on the normal voters list;

• absentee ballots from all voting locations returned to a central point in each electoral district for counting.

Issues to Consider

The method adopted would depend on considerations of:

• the organisational structure and management strengths of the electoral management body--where there is a strong local presence and good control systems, return of ballots to a local level for counting is more feasible;

• logistical abilities to return absentee ballots to a single, a limited number or a large number of locations for counting;

• the method adopted for determining absentee voters' eligibility to vote;

• the ability to maintain transparency if absentee ballots are counted at locations distant from the electoral district for which they were cast, which may prevent party or candidate representatives for the relevant election from attending.

Where special absentee voters’ lists are compiled and used at a limited number of locations, counting at absentee voting locations can be more feasible. Where absentee votes are issued without the requirement for prior special registration or certification of the voter's eligibility, checking voter eligibility and counts would not be feasible at voting stations, and would be better undertaken at regional or central locations.

Voting in a Foreign Country

Voting in a foreign country, as a form of absentee voting, provides for equity and access. This form of voting may have restrictions and only be provided for registered voters who:

• have been outside the home country for not more than a defined period;

• intend to return to the home country within a defined period.

Determination as to whether voting from a foreign country should be restricted to voters who were on the voter’s register before they left their home country, or whether persons can register as a voter from a foreign country, must be made.

While allowing persons to register as a voter from a foreign country would satisfy equity principles, particularly with regard to migrant workers and their dependants or refugee populations, there may be greater difficulties to be overcome in maintaining integrity, regarding:

• applying a similar standard for authenticating and validating voter registrations as would be applied in the home country;

• determining in which electoral district these voters should be registered to vote.

More restrictive systems may limit the availability of external voting to particular classes of state employees whose employment has required them to be located in a foreign country.

However, this does little to improve general accessibility, and may raise questions of the motives behind and integrity of foreign country voting facilities.

The question of eligibility to vote from outside the country is likely to be contentious, especially where potential voters outside the country are:

• asignificant proportion of the voting age population;

• from specific national or political groupings (for example, in the case of refugees or political exiles).

Information on eligibility for and how to vote in a foreign country should be permanently and publicly available, with target locations for its availability.

Target locations would include travel agents, foreign missions of the home country, airports and other points of departures. 

Administrative Issues

There are considerable administrative difficulties that need to be overcome to ensure that voters voting in a foreign country have their ballots authenticated and returned in time to be included in the count, and to ensure that these voting facilities offer the same standard of voting integrity as voting stations in the home country. Providing external voting facilities can be a practicable service for elections for larger electoral districts, at national and possibly provincial levels.

The provision of foreign country voting facilities for local government elections, where there may be massive numbers of small electoral districts, is generally impractical.

There may be additional issues where potential voters in foreign countries are refugees or illegal immigrants in another country. Methods of registration and voting which do not endanger the voter's current status, yet retain election integrity require careful consideration.

Special Registration

Requiring specific registration for voting in a foreign country, either before leaving the home country or through diplomatic missions in foreign locations can make the planning and resourcing of foreign country voting easier.

From such registrations special voters’ registers could be compiled for use in the various foreign locations or normal voters registers annotated to indicate voters in foreign countries.

Electoral Districts

Electoral legislation will determine the electoral district of the voters in a foreign country. It would be equitable for them to retain or regain their voter registration in their last electoral district of registration in the home country, or if not registered before they left their home country, an electoral district with which some formal connection (such as residence of relatives, place of birth) can be established.

Special lists of voters in foreign countries, or other methods of identifying voter eligibility will need to be used. Rigorous controls to prevent voters voting in a foreign country and votes being recorded in their names at a voting station in the home country, are needed.

In some countries special "non-geographic" electoral districts are formed for voters living in foreign countries. Given the general lack of capacity for independent monitoring of foreign country voting stations, special electoral districts could be perceived as an attempt to manipulate the outcomes of elections, especially if qualifications or opportunities for voter registration for such electoral districts give advantage to particular nationalities, communities or groups.

Voting Methods

There are a number of alternative and complementary manners in which foreign country voting could be implemented. Voting itself could be conducted in several different ways:

• mail voting;

• at voting stations in foreign country locations;

• through facsimile or other electronic means.

It may be practical to use a combination of these methods.

If a mailed vote is used, it could be sent to the voter from, either an overseas location (such as an embassy or consulate of the home country) provided with bulk stocks of voting material for all electoral districts; or it could be mailed directly to the voter from the electoral management body.

Return of mailed votes from the voter could be to a foreign voting location or to specified offices of the electoral management body in the home country.

If conducted by attendance voting, locations used could be voting sites selected for this purpose or existing offices of the state, such as embassies, consulates, trade missions and the like. The attendance voting could be conducted only on the normal voting day for the election, or it could be open for the same or longer period that early voting in the home country is available.

Where completed ballots are collected at foreign voting locations, actual voting and counting procedures could be the same as for a normal voting station, including:

• voters' eligibility being checked from a list of eligible voters;

• ballots being deposited in a ballot box (or boxes for various electoral districts) and reconciled and counted at the close of voting;

• count totals being immediately transmitted by fax, phone or computer to the electoral management body;

• all materials being  returned to the electoral management body for checking and storage or destruction.

Alternatively, votes could be placed in a sealed envelope designed to identify the voter yet maintain the secrecy of voting (as for enveloped methods of absentee voting or for mail voting--see Absentee voting) and then put in the ballot box.

At the close of voting, voting material is reconciled, packaged and immediately despatched securely to the electoral management body where voter eligibility is checked and ballots counted. Ballots could be counted separately or amalgamated with other ballots for the same electoral districts before counting.

General Administrative Issues

There are a number of problems and additional planning, materials and training costs that are likely to arise with voting in a foreign country. Different voting methods adopted will have different specific problems. However, there are some issues that will need to be considered no matter what the voting method used.

Longer supply lines and increased delivery time for material to foreign countries means that materials for foreign country voting have to be prepared well in advance of the normal voting day. It also means that finalization of vote counting may be delayed in waiting for return of voting material.

It is more difficult to provide voters in foreign countries with information on electoral processes, parties, and candidates so that they may make an informed vote. Advertising of available facilities in foreign countries will increase voter information expenditure.

Whether, and how, any political campaigning or official publicity of voting rights can be undertaken in foreign countries will be dependent on the law of each foreign country.

Monitoring of voting in foreign countries by all political participants and independent observers is difficult. Where staff of diplomatic missions in foreign countries are not publicly perceived as politically neutral, there may be doubts about the integrity of the process and the validity of votes cast.  Rigorous controls on dispatch and checking of returned materials can only partly allay such concerns.

There are also basic concerns regarding the checking of voter eligibility and the effect methods adopted may have on voting integrity and the time needed to complete vote counts. Where ballots are issued from foreign locations using special foreign country voter registers, counting could be undertaken at these locations, and the count results transmitted to the electoral management body soon after the close of voting. This method will ensure that the finalization of results is not delayed.

However, given that these locations are not under tight management control of the electoral management body, nor generally subject to observation by party or candidate representatives, it would be prudent to treat results of such counts as preliminary, unpublicized, and to be confirmed by thorough checking of all relevant material on its return.

Additionally, votes taken at some foreign locations may be small in number; to assist in maintaining voting secrecy, it would be preferable to amalgamate these with other locations' votes before counting.

Alternatively integrity may be better served if all foreign ballots are treated in the same way as for mail or absentee votes. Votes cast are each placed in a sealed envelope, accompanied by documentation identifying the voter and returned to the electoral management body.

On return to the electoral management body the votes are subject to thorough checking to establish voter eligibility, as well as challenges by representatives of candidates or parties. This will cause some further delay in finalizing results.

Both options can be costly. Printing special voter registers will incur additional formatting and printing costs and require checks that voters are not duplicated on domestic and foreign registers. Sealed votes will require special enveloping materials. On balance, the use of sealed ballots is likely to be the preferable option for maintaining integrity.

However, control procedures for sealing ballots in individual envelopes, maintaining voting secrecy, accounting for all voting material, and security of completed ballots need to be particularly rigorous.

Mail Voting Material Direct to Voter

Administratively, this is the simplest and lowest cost method. Following an application directly to the electoral management body by the voter, or by direct mail to voters on special voters’ lists of those living abroad, voting material is mailed to voters at foreign locations.

These may be returned to a special clearing or reconciliation centre or to the relevant electoral district's office for validity verification and counting.

Additional costs are limited to dispatch (and return, if this is "reply postage paid" by the election management body) international postage, and staffing for the return clearing centre, if this additional level of control is required for validity or transparency.

The major disadvantage of using this method is the time that will elapse between despatch and return of material. Either material has to be despatched well before voting day (placing pressures on materials production) or deadlines for return of voting material need to be extended after voting day.

Mail to Voter from a Foreign Location

As a variation on mailing direct to the voter, bulk voting materials may be despatched by secure courier or diplomatic pouch to central locations, such as embassies in foreign countries.   Historical voting records or, registers of foreign voters will be used as the basis for this.

Use of embassies as mailing centers will ensure that processing staff will have some basic knowledge of the electoral system. For efficiency reasons, such facilities would usually only be provided in countries where significant numbers of voters are likely to be present.

These foreign locations operate as mail voting centres, dispatching by local post, voting material to voters, either following their application for a mail vote or on the basis of information in foreign voters’ registers. Completed votes must be received by mail or in person at the foreign centre by a defined deadline. This could be close of voting for in-person returns, with some extension for mailed returns to allow for votes completed and posted, but not received, by close of voting.

At the foreign centre,  materials are reconciled, packaged securely, and returned to the electoral management authority by secure courier or sealed diplomatic pouch for validity verification and counting.

This method has some accessibility advantages. Bulk courier or pouch despatch and return with local post can cut the turn-around time considerably; making it more likely those voters in foreign countries will have the opportunity to vote within voting deadlines.

It is important that voting material is stored under security and that completed voting material is stored in sealed ballot boxes until its return to the electoral management body. Logistical costs may be greater, and there will be significant additional organizational and training concerns.

Special despatch and return facilities may have to be established for foreign country voting material. These are likely to be complex and require skilled management control to ensure that correct amounts of all material for all electoral districts is forwarded to each foreign voting location.

To overcome the limited training of staff at foreign locations it is best practice to make up voter packs, each containing a complete set of voting and information material for the relevant electoral district. This will add further to shipping costs.

Foreign locations will be staffed by persons who will not have undergone any direct or significant training. Additional training manuals , videos and worksheets may need to be produced for staff in other countries. The lower level of training may affect the accuracy of treatment of voters.

Where embassies are used as the foreign location and their staff as voting station officials, there may be concerns about whether voting is being conducted impartially, particularly in the absence of independent or political participant monitoring. Such officials may not be direct, accountable employees of the electoral management body.

The need for urgency in election material dispatch, and,particularly, their return to the electoral management body must be impressed on embassy staff.

Attendance Voting

Whether early voting facilities are available for attendance voting at foreign locations or facilities are available only on voting day, similar issues as discussed under "Mail to Voter from a Foreign Location" above, are relevant.

If there areissues of impartiality and integrity of staff at foreign voting locations, this method may provide greater validity checks at the point of voting. Establishing full voting station facilities at foreign locations will incur additional materials costs.

Method Combinations

Most effective coverage of voters in foreign countries may be obtained by using combinations of the above methods, for example:

• mailing voting material direct to the voter from the home country, but having completed ballots returned by the voter to a foreign location, from which they are returned in bulk to the electoral management authority for processing and counting;

• providing both attendance voting and mail voting facilities from foreign locations (as long as such complexity does not unduly strain electoral management body and foreign location management resources).

Refugee Voting

Special considerations for voting in foreign countries may occur where significant proportions of a country's population are refugees in foreign countries at the time of the election. Political, security or logistical problems may prevent refugees returning to vote. In such situations, the electoral management body, with international assistance, may obtain the foreign government’s agreements for establishing voting stations under international control in refugee populated areas.

How, and against which electoral district, such voters should be registered will be significant and are likely to be politically disputed issues in election planning and management. 

Use of Faxed or Voice Transmitted Ballots

Remote areas within the country which are not reachable by normal voting means, transmission and return of voting material by fax, radio or phone could receive the same considerations as foreign locations, where postal services are unreliable or non-existent.

To ensure that votes are only received from eligible voters, and to reconcile materials, voting by such methods will mean that voting secrecy cannot be wholly maintained, and potential voters must be made fully aware of this. This may be the only way that some persons--for example those located in remote areas of Antarctica or the Arctic--are able to exercise their right to vote.

Early Voting

Providing facilities for early voting will allow those voters who cannot attend a voting station on the general voting day to vote on a special day, or series of days, prior to voting day. A balance between accessibility and cost-effectiveness is needed.

Providing these additional facilities can add significantly to materials, premises and staffing costs. However, elections conducted using one traditional method of early voting, by mail, has been shown to be extremely cost-effective.

This section, and Early Voting Procedures  should be read in conjunction with Absentee Voting In many environments early voting facilities will also accommodate persons voting, either in person or by mail, at a location outside the electoral district in which they are registered to vote.

Methods of Early Voting

The two basic methods of early voting are:

• in person, at an office of the electoral management body, a normal voting station or other premises opened for early voting.

• by mail, in which the voter requests, or is automatically sent, the relevant ballots and other voting material, which are then returned by the voter to the electoral management body.

A combination of both in-person and mail early voting facilities are in place in some jurisdictions. While promoting maximum accessibility, services may be duplicated in these environments.

Other special voting facilities, such as mobile voting stations and radio or fax voting conducted for remote locations may also operate in some jurisdictions prior to voting day.

Frameworks

Critical issues for early voting would be better defined in legislation. These would include:

• the period for early voting;

• any qualifications required of early voters;

• methods of defining locations at which early voting may take place;

• voting secrecy and count frameworks, especially for mail voting;

• information required from early voters voting outside their electoral district of registration.

Other issues, such as the opening hours of early voting offices and the numbers of early voting offices used, should be left to the electoral management body to determine.

Eligibility to Claim an Early Vote

Some systems make early voting facilities available to any voter who wishes to use them. However, as there are additional costs involved with early voting, legal frameworks may include special qualifications for voters using these facilities.

In its most restrictive form, voters who qualify for an early vote would be limited to those whose official duties preclude them from voting on voting day. These would include voting operations staff and security forces and others officially engaged in election activity throughout the hours of normal voting.

In less restrictive systems a broader range of qualifications dealing with voters who may not be able to attend their voting stations during normal voting hours would be available. These qualifications could include, for example:

• being outside the country on voting day;

• on voting day, being more than a specified distance from the normal voting station (or stations) at which they would be eligible to vote--further qualifications as to the reasons for this absence (such as work duties) may be required;

• being employed in specific occupations (such as emergency services) that would not allow taking leave to vote on voting day;

• having religious beliefs that would not allow attending a voting station on the designated voting day;

• being a patient in a hospital or other institution, or being pregnant, or being ill or infirm and unable to attend a voting station on voting day;

• being engaged in caring for a pregnant, infirm or ill person on voting day.

Additional qualifications may also exist, where early voting is in person, on the locations at which a voter may lodge an early vote. This may be restricted to the electoral district in which the voter is registered, or some other electoral administration area.

Where voters can lodge an early vote in person outside their district of registration, this in effect becomes an early absentee vote, bringing with it the same control requirements as absentee voting (see Absentee voting).

Where early voting is by mail, there may be restrictions on the location from which a voter can request an early vote. This may be limited to the electoral management office in the voter’s district of registration.

Conversely, voters may be issued mail votes from any electoral management office. This latter method, while promoting accessibility, requires sophisticated control systems.

Period for Early Voting

Periods designated for early voting can also vary widely. In restrictive systems, where relatively small numbers of voters will be eligible for an early vote, a single early voting day may be designated.

It would be normal for early voting periods to be in the range of five to fifteen days before normal voting day. Some considerations determining an effective period for early voting include:

Ensuring that there is sufficient time for printing and distribution of all materials prior to the commencement of the early voting period: If ballots with candidate or party details are used (see Absentee ballot forms, it is critical that there is sufficient time between close of nominations and commencement of early voting for ballots to be printed and distributed. Early voting, particularly mail voting, would generally not be suitable for systems where later changes can be made to parties or candidates standing for election.

The early voting period, especially if mail methods are used, is sufficient for voting material to be dispatched to and returned from voters: in all parts of the area under election.

Where early voting is by mail, the period for receipt of ballots returned by mail could be:

• on or before the closing time for normal voting stations on voting day;

• extended beyond voting day, to allow a period for mail votes completed up until the close of normal voting to be returned through the mail.

Setting the deadline for return of mail votes on or before the general voting day will not cause any delay to the finalization of election results, but may limit accessibility, especially in countries with extensive remote areas with infrequent mail services.

In other jurisdictions, any mail vote actually cast and handed to the mail services for return by the time of closing of normal voting stations should be given a reasonable chance to be included in counts.

Depending on the mail service environment, a period of up to two weeks after normal voting day could be allowed for return of these votes. While this may enhance accessibility, it can result in additional control costs and delays in finalizing election results.

Controls on Accountable Voting Materials

Where early voting facilities are available for a number of days, control of liable ballot materials becomes critical. Major issues that must be considered include:

Security of accountable materials. All completed votes, whether completed in person or returned by mail, must be maintained in ballot boxes under security until the commencement of counting.Where early votes are contained in envelopes with voter details, systems that protect the secrecy of voting and maintain the security of ballot material need to be devised for checking these voter details. All accountable materials, such as unused ballots and ballot envelopes, should be stored under security both during and after operating hours.

Maintaining periodic reconciliations of accountable voting materials: at least, until the end of each day's early voting operations. For mail voting, more frequent checks are advisable. It can be useful to collate applications for mail votes in standard batches of fifty or one hundred, issue mail ballot materials according to these batches, and reconcile ballots and other mail voting materials (e.g., ballot return envelopes) at the conclusion of processing of each batch.

Mobile Voting Stations

Legal frameworks may also allow mobile voting stations to operate during any period for early voting. Particularly for mobile voting stations in remote areas, this is necessary for cost-effective operations.

Early Voting Procedures

Voting Only in Electoral District of Registration

Some systems for early voting in person require that voters must vote within their electoral district of registration. In such systems, voting procedures would be similar to those used in ordinary voting stations on voting day.  This would particularly be the case if it is a requirement that all voting stations are to be open for in-person early voting.

Voting Outside of Electoral District Of Registration

Where voters can use in-person early voting facilities outside their electoral district of registration, procedural alternatives would closely follow those for absentee voting on voting day described in Qualifications and Eligibility Procedures

Under these systems some early voters will still vote within their electoral district of registration. It would be more effective to process these voters in the normal fashion, without the need for special voters’ lists, enveloping systems and other security mechanisms used for control of integrity of early absentee voters.

Locations
In-person early voting systems should make provision for at least one early voting location in each electoral district. Systems that require early voters to vote at their normal voting station are basically an expensive form of multiple day voting.

However, it does have advantages of familiarity, and requires minimal use of additional procedures, materials or staff training. Integrity can still be maintained by opening a limited number of sites within an electoral district (perhaps only one), depending on expected numbers of early voters.

Distances that voters may have to travel to use early voting facilities, and the availability of suitable premises, will be considerations in determining the number of early voting locations.

Conducting early voting within already established electoral district managers' offices, rather than setting up separate voting sites can be cost-effective. However, unless a separate area for early voting can be provided, the flow of voters can prove a considerable distraction to administrative staff, and space within the office can be at a premium. Where considerable numbers of early voters are expected, it would generally be preferable that separate premises be used for early voting.

Hours of Opening

As many voters using early voting facilities may be doing so because of work or care commitments, best practice would require that early voting locations are open beyond normal business hours.

Voting by Mail

Voting by mail is the most widespread form of early or absentee voting. After a request by the voter, voting material is mailed to the voter's specified address by the electoral management body. The voter then completes their vote and returns it, either by mail or in person, to an electoral management body office.
Integrity checks would require a statement of the voter's identity and eligibility to accompany the returned ballot material. Successful mail voting systems depend on an efficient mail delivery service throughout the area under election.

Integrity Issues

It is easier for integrity to be compromised during mail voting as checks and balances are more difficult to implement. Perceived integrity problems with mail voting include:

• The high level of proof of identity and eligibility standards that can be applied in voting stations cannot be applied to mail voting--particularly where voters themselves provide the address to which mail voting material is dispatched;

• there is no opportunity for party or candidate representatives to observe voting by mail;

• It is not feasible to provide complete security for all voting material as it moves through postal systems;

• There can be no guarantee that the voter who signs any declaration accompanying the vote, in fact completed the vote or was not subject to influence or intimidation when completing the vote

Perceptions of fraud or irregularities can arise where large numbers of mail ballots are received from institutions for the aged and infirm or from security forces on active duty. For this reason mobile voting stations, though more costly, are generally held to be a more effective means of enabling access to voting for voters in care institutions see Hospitals or on active security duty in the country.

In the last decade some jurisdictions have turned to holding elections entirely by mail. Analysis of these has revealed cost advantages and generally a positive effect on voter turnout. Particularly where efficient, high volume automated mail contractors are available, this voting method can produce considerable administrative advantages, although total integrity of mail voting may be compromised.

In developed societies, vote by mail elections can be seen as an advance from traditional in-person voting methods and the future of voting via personal telecommunications links.

Characteristics of Mail Voting Systems

While mail voting systems differ extensively in detail, there are necessary basic characteristics for any mail voting system. These would include:
A signed request from the voter for a mail vote. This may need to be in a prescribed form, and may need to be provided for each election or as a request for permanent registration as a mail voter (see below). There would normally be a cut-off date for receipt of such requests, aligned with the time sufficient for the voter to receive and return voting material before the return deadline.

Dispatch of voting materials to the voter immediately on receipt of the request.

Requirement for the voter to include a signed (and, often, witnessed) statement attesting to his her identity and eligibility to vote with his/her returned ballot.

Use of voting materials that both protect voting integrity and secrecy, even when returned voting material is identified to a specific voter. These may entail double enveloping systems for returned materials, or ballot envelopes with detachable flaps containing voter data 

Systems for reconciling early voting materials requested, issued, unused, and returned.

A method of return. Some jurisdictions include postage paid return envelopes with voting material sent to the voter. In other jurisdictions the voter is responsible for the return postage. This can make a considerable difference in mail voting costs. Generally requiring the voter to pay for return postage is a negligible imposition. Additionally, some jurisdictions have successfully used secure drop-in deposit boxes where voters can return mailed votes by hand without postage.

Methods for determining the eligibility to be included in the count of returned voting material. To assist in maintaining integrity, these would require measures such as comparing signatures on applications for mail votes, and returned declarations of eligibility, with voter registration records, as well as checking dates of recording or return of the vote against cut-off dates.

Checking returned mail voting material against voters lists to ensure that voters do not vote both by mail and in person on voting day. The two approaches are:

• when mail vote return deadlines are before voting day, the names of voters who have voted by mail can be marked on voters’ lists before these are provided to voting stations, so that a further normal vote will not be issued.
• when deadlines for return of mail voting material are before or after voting day, voters’ lists returned from voting stations are checked against voters who have returned mail votes. If a voter is marked as having voted at a voting station and has also returned a mail vote, the mail vote is disqualified (and appropriate voting investigations commenced).

Vote count systems that ensure that mail votes are not counted until after the close of normal voting. Returned mail voting material could, however, be checked for eligibility, ballot envelopes opened and ballots placed in ballot boxes prior to the close of voting in normal voting stations. In some jurisdictions where mail voting closes before voting day, returned mail votes are dispatched to the voting station for which the voter is registered, to be included in the count for that voting station. It would be regarded as more effective to count them at a central location.

Permanent Registration of Mail Voters

In some jurisdictions with continuous registration systems, facilities are available for voters to be placed, on application, on permanent registers of mail voters, thus ensuring that they will be automatically sent voting material for elections for their electoral district. Maintaining this facility can considerably reduce workloads for voting operations staff during the election period and provide a beneficial service to voters.

In some jurisdictions, more restrictive criteria are applied for inclusion on such registers than are applied for eligibility for mail voting in general, such as:

• permanent disability

• residing a considerable, specified distance from the nearest voting station

• incarceration (in systems where prisoners may vote)

There is no compelling reason for introducing stricter controls for other early voters (see Early voting). However, given the lesser controls that can be exercised over the integrity of mail voting, it is important that these permanent registers are regularly reviewed to ensure continuing eligibility of the voters listed.

Proxy Voting

In a very few systems, voters who fulfill certain legislative qualifications may be able to appoint a proxy voter to vote for them. A proxy vote may be given where a voter is unable to attend a voting station through infirmity, employment requirements, or being absent from the area on voting day--often similar qualifications to those for voting by mail (see Early voting).

Such arrangements may be implemented to provide accessibility where other forms of absentee voting are relatively restricted or unavailable.

Proxy voting is a method that may detrimentally affect the integrity of voting practice. It allows registered voters to appoint another person to vote in their name. Unlike assisted voting in voting stations, there can be no controls to ensure that the registered voter's instructions on how to vote are followed by the appointed proxy, and, therefore, it may very easily be subject to abuse.

It can be of particular concern where systems allow a proxy to cast a vote for more than one registered voter, and especially where a single person may cast proxy votes for any number of relatives.

Elements of Proxy Voting

Where proxy voting is allowed, its elements would normally include:

• an application from the voter stating the reasons for wanting to appoint a proxy, naming the person as the proxy, and signed by both the registered voter and the proxy, to be received by the electoral management body in sufficient time before voting day to determine and advise voting stations of proxies;

• determination by the electoral management body if the reasons are sufficient and the proxy named is qualified to act as proxy (it would be normal for the proxy to be at least qualified to vote, if not a registered voter; there may also be restrictions on the number of registered voters a proxy may represent);

• advice, including copies of the approved proxy applications, to be provided to the voting station managers in voting stations where voters on their voters lists have appointed proxies;

• when a proxy appears at the voting station to vote, verification by the voting station manager that the purported proxy is actually the person appointed by the voter, before voting material is issued;

• voting station managers should also maintain lists of proxy voters who have voted, as well as the voters for whom they have been issued voting materials.

Election integrity is much better served by implementation of other measures to assist voters who may not be able to attend the voting station at which they are registered to vote. These would include absentee voting facilities (see Absentee voting), early voting services (see Early voting) and mobile voting station facilities for the infirm (see Other special voting arrangements).

Use of Appointed Agent to Collect Voting Material

While not truly proxy voting, a very few election systems allow voters who cannot attend a voting station on voting day--for specific, legislatively-defined reasons such as illness, pregnancy, infirmity--to appoint someone else as their agent to pick up voting material and documentation to authenticate the vote from a voting station or electoral management body office and bring this to the voter.

The voting material and authenticating documentation can be returned either in person by the agent or mailed to the electoral management body by the voter.

While cost-effective, this would generally only be a useful addition to voting services where comprehensive systems for mailed ballots and/or mobile voting facilities for the infirm are not made available. Such facilities may be available only on voting day or, additionally, for a period of early voting prior to voting day. This method shares the same concerns about who has actually completed the ballot as mail-in voting, particularly where a pattern of its use by institutions for the elderly or frail is found.

Provisional or Tendered Votes

The use of provisional or tendered votes is a mechanism to:

• defuse potential dispute and maintain voter service during voting station operations;

• provide an opportunity to vote for persons who allege that they have been subject to administrative error in the compilation of voters lists, or in the marking on these lists of persons who have already voted.

It is a better service to issue a voter who claims, but cannot prove, eligibility to vote at that voting station, a vote in a form that can be subject to later eligibility verification, than to risk disrupting voting for other voters, and possibly denying the opportunity to vote to a voter who has been the victim of an official error in compiling or marking voters registers for that voting station, or who has been challenged as to the right to vote on unsustainable grounds.

While this minimizes disputes in the voting station, prevents disruption to voter service, and maximizes equity and accessibility for voters, this method has some major disadvantages, including:

• additional costs of special materials and staffing (both to issue and investigate eligibility of such ballots);

• the necessity for strict management control of the process;

• the potential to delay count results while the eligibility of voters voting in this fashion is being investigated.

The need for provisional or tendered vote facilities is likely to be greatest in those environments that can least afford them, in terms of costs and management capacity, with inexperienced election administrations, hasty or cost-cutting voters register compilation and production, and less well-trained voting station staff.

Whether provisional or tendered vote facilities are provided, and the classes of voters who may be eligible for such ballots, will depend on analysis of the consequent risks to general acceptance of election outcomes if errors in voters registers used for voting cannot be remedied in this or some other manner such as by provisions for voting day registration.

Qualifications for a Provisional or Tendered Vote

Circumstances under which voters may be issued with provisional or tendered votes must be clearly defined in legislation. Relevant circumstances could include:

Where a voter claims not to have already voted yet their name has been marked as having voted on the voter’s list . Voting station staff may and do make errors in marking voters’ lists, particularly where there are a number of similar names on the list.

Where a voter claims to have registered to vote at that voting station yet their name cannot be found on the voters list: (This should not be confused with systems for absentee voting in voting stations on voting day - where a voter is applying to vote at a voting station other than the one(s) at which their name appears on the normal voters list)  Even in highly experienced electoral administrations errors can occur, in the compilation and production of voters’ registers and voting station voters' lists that are not discovered during in-house checking or periods for public review.

In environments where there have been significant changes to voting rights or electoral boundaries, where there is inexperienced management or new systems for voters register compilation and production, and particularly for first-time elections, there are likely to be some significant errors in voters’ lists.

Implementation of provisional or tendered vote facilities (or facilities for voting day registration) can be a major influence on maintaining harmonious voting station operations in such situations.

Where a voter’ eligibility to vote has been officially challenged by voting station staff or (where allowed) by party or candidate representatives, with no conclusive resolution. In these situations it may not be possible for the voting station manager, without further information at hand, to make an informed decision on whether to allow the voter to vote. Use of a provisional/tendered vote can allow later, fuller investigation and adjudication .

Voting Methods

It is important that the provisional or tendered vote process is not perceived as being a way for the electoral management body to provide for their administrative inaccuracies or omissions. These votes must be seriously investigated to determine if they are eligible for inclusion in the count.

In some jurisdictions, tendered votes are issued of a different colour to normal votes or are kept separately in an envelope for provisional or tendered ballots. They are then placed in the same ballot box in the same fashion as normal votes, and are not further dealt with, apart from being excluded from vote counts. While this may appease potentially aggravated voters during voting hours, it does little for election integrity.

More effective and equitable systems for provisional or tendered votes would ensure that these votes were subject to investigation and included in the count where the vote was found to be eligible. While the provisional voting method would be established in legislation, the following steps are one method of implementing a sound provisional or tendered voting system.

Establish Eligibility

After establishing the voter is in a category entitled to a provisional or tendered vote, offer this to the voter. Some verification may be required, such as :

• for voters who cannot be found on the voter’s list, firmly establish that the address for which they believe is registered to vote is within the geographic area covered by the voters list in that voting station;

• for voters marked on the list who claim they have not already voted, a check of any multiple voting controls instituted--for instance, where a system of marking persons who have voted with ink has been effectively implemented, such a mark would be firm evidence that a voter had already voted and not be entitled to a provisional vote.

Record Voter Details and Issue Ballot

Voters' identity information should be recorded for inclusion with their ballot to enable later eligibility checking. Such details would include name and claimed registered address, as well as information that would assist in eligibility checking, such as:

• date of birth;

• any former names or aliases used by the voter;

• details of any receipts for registration or voter identification cards shown by the voter.

Voters should sign a declaration, preferably witnessed by the electoral manager of the voting station or another registered voter, that these details are correct. Once this declaration has been signed, the voter is given the relevant ballot(s).

Enveloping of Ballot

When voters have completed their vote, the ballot is sealed in an envelope containing their declaration before being placed in the ballot box. Measures need to be taken to ensure voting secrecy. This could include:

• using a double enveloping system, whereby the voter's ballot is placed in an inner envelope, which is then placed in an outer envelope containing the voters' identification information; once this information has been checked, the inner envelope is separated from the outer envelope and mixed with other ballots before being opened for the ballot count.

• alternatively, a single stubbed or counter foiled envelope could be used, with the voter's details being written on the envelope stub or counterfoil which is removed after eligibility checking and the envelope mixed with other ballots before being extracted for counting.

Eligibility Checking

Following the completion of counts for regular votes (where provisional or tendered vote envelopes may be required for checking of voting material reconciliations), provisional or tendered vote envelopes are forwarded to the electoral management body.

Depending on the standing of the electoral management body, eligibility checking could be conducted by it or be part of the duties of any election tribunal constituted to resolve election disputes. The eligibility checking process should be open to party and candidate representatives and independent observers.

Clear criteria for this checking must be specified in the legislative framework, particularly in terms of what may constitute "administrative errors" that have resulted in a voter being omitted from a voter’s list. For example, can eligibility be established.

• Only if an administrative failure or error in correctly processing information proven to have been received from a voter can be shown?

• Are there wider criteria, involving removal from a register due to the voter failing to respond to objection or other voter registration revision proceedings?

• In continuous list update systems, can votes be accepted if the voters have not updated their registration when moving to a new address?

Counts of Provisional or Tendered Votes

Those provisional or tendered votes from voters deemed eligible to have voted are then opened and admitted to the count of ballots for the relevant electoral district.

Update of Voter Registration

In continuous voter registration systems, other provisions may be appropriate as well, including:

• Provisional or tendered ballot voters to complete a voter registration form in the voting station;

• To reinstate or add to the voter’s list those who were wrongfully omitted ;

• To follow up with people whose votes were ruled ineligible to encourage them to update their registration.

Service from Voting Station Staff

Voting station managers should ensure that voting station staff are not reluctant to issue voters provisional or tendered votes in circumstances where voters are eligible to such votes. Voting station staff’s resistance may be due to any of the following reasons:

• Additional work involved;

• A reluctance to accept that there may be errors in voter’s lists;

• A lack of emphasis in their training that legislative provisions for provisional or tendered votes create a right for voters, rather than a privilege of which the voter may or may not be advised;

Voting station staff training should make clear any rights of voters to a provisional or tendered vote .

Other Special Voting Arrangements

Arrangements to provide voting services that cater to the needs of particular minority or disadvantaged segments of the community are an important part of maintaining accessibility and equity in voting operations. The types of special voting arrangements that may be offered will largely be determined by the flexibility and opportunities contained in the legislative framework.

Providing these opportunities cost-effectively is the responsibility of voting operations administrators.

Assistance for Voters

Voters may have special needs in relation to their understanding of the voting process or completion of voting material.

Integrating these needs into voting materials design, information campaigns, recruitment qualifications for voting station staff and provisions for assistance in voting prevents voters with special needs from being marginalized from the election process.

Occupational or Situational Disadvantages

Some sectors of the eligible voting population may not be able to access normally assigned voting facilities due to their occupation (see Voting in Remote Areas and Security/emergency forces) or a disadvantaged situation  (See Refugees and Displaced persons and Suppressed Voter Addresses).

Providing voting facilities for these sectors of the population may cost more per voter.

Whether the expenditure is effective will depend on the risks to election validity if these voters not given an opportunity to vote, the importance of the principle of equity within the electoral system, and the efficiency of methods chosen to provide voting access for these voters.

Mobile Voting Stations and Ballot Boxes

The use of mobile voting stations can significantly improve access to voting facilities for those voters living in remote areas (see Voting in Remote Areas), in hospitals or other institutional care and for other persons too infirm or aged to attend a voting station.

The organization of any mobile voting facilities requires special care, as they can be particularly susceptible to allegations of lack of security, integrity and transparency. Unless carefully controlled and subject to monitoring by political participants and independent observers, they can be open to abuse.

In some environments mobile voting stations have been introduced partially as they have been seen as less open to abuse and if properly monitored, an alternative means of providing access to the above categories of voters, such as mail voting.

While they increase accessibility, for them to be effective requires an environment with high levels of trust and transparency in the operations of the electoral system.

Operations of Mobile Voting Stations

Different methods of operation for mobile voting can be adopted, including:

• In its simplest format, it could be an allowed provision on voting day for staff to bring voting material to persons outside the voting station but too infirm to enter ("kerbside voting");

• Alternatively, staff members from a voting station could make pre-arranged visits to dwellings and hospitals in the area to allow infirm residents to vote;

• In a more extensive mode, specially trained voting station staff can make planned visits to homes of the aged and infirm, institutions such as hospitals (visiting each ward to allow voting), or on a planned route of remote locations where the population is too mobile or too scattered or the distances are too vast to effectively locate normal voting stations.

Such mobile voting stations might operate only on voting day, or during any period allowed for advance voting. Particularly in hospital environments, they will only be effective where the election system allows absentee voting.

Planning Mobile Voting Operations

In planning mobile voting station operations the following guidelines should be considered:

Careful consideration needs to be given to whether special registration procedures should exist for voters wishing to be serviced by mobile voting stations, and then special voters’ lists must be compiled for this purpose.

Planning of mobile voting station routes requires careful liaison between voting operations administrators and managers of institutions, community organizations in remote localities, and other potential clients to establish the numbers of potential voters at mobile voting stations.

For maximum integrity, the identity of persons wanting to use mobile voting facilities should be determined. To maintain equity and protect against allegations of bias, all relevant institutions and remote communities should be approached to determine if the service is desired.

Planning should envisage a sufficient number of mobile voting stations and attempt to schedule routes that provide convenient times of service to these voters, who may be in restricted institutional routines.

Mobile voting schedules should be planned in advance of the election, and locations officially announced by the electoral management body. Allowing mobile voting requests received on voting day to be satisfied can create distrust about the activities of mobile voting and disrupt voting station operations.  A cut-off date, after which requests for mobile voting services cannot be considered, should be required. This is of particular importance to voting integrity in systems that require a minimum percentage of voter turnouts for an election to be declared valid.

Touting for "home" votes on Election Day can be seen as a partisan attempt to reach such a minimum percentage.

Political participants must be advised of schedules in sufficient time to allow them to send representatives with the mobile voting station. Where mobile voting stations visit remote locations by air, boat or road, opportunity could be provided for party or candidate representatives and independent observers to travel with the officials.

There should be a minimum of two experienced voting station staff assigned to each mobile voting station, one of which would preferably be at a skill or training level of a voting station manager.

Where mobile voting stations require voting station staff to leave their duties in a voting station to conduct mobile voting, service to voters at the normal voting station must be maintained at an acceptable level with the remaining resources.

Materials carried by the mobile voting station must at least be comprised of the voting materials that are standard in a voting station. Equipment provided, such as ballot boxes, seals, voting compartments, needs to be lightweight yet very sturdy. For example, corrugated plastic, rather than cardboard or metal ballot boxes and voting compartments may be more suitable.

For security reasons ballot boxes used for mobile voting should feature a lockable slide or other closure over the slot. This closure must be locked (in the presence of any observers) at close of voting at any location, and unlocked (again in the presence of any observers) only when voting commences at the next location.

The planning and implementation of mobile voting--particularly for remote areas involving extensive transport, accommodation and provisioning requirements--can be a major undertaking for which additional resources need to be allocated. Mobile voting station voter processing capacities will be considerably less than that of normal voting stations. For instance in hospital environments there may be only five to ten voters processed per hour.

Implementation will generally be at a cost per voter serviced much higher than that of a normal voting station, or a mail vote. However, on public service, accessibility, equity and even on transparency grounds, when strictly controlled and monitored, it can make an important contribution to inclusiveness in voting operations.

Accountability for Mobile Voting Materials

There are a number of issues which require particular attention to ensure accountability for voting materials used by mobile voting stations. These would include:

Ballots and other accountable voting materials should be kept in locked containers when not in use, and, with the ballot box, should never be left unattended, whether during transport or voting.

Accounting and reconciliation of ballots requires very strict controls. This is especially vital where ballots are removed from a voting station to conduct mobile voting, or where mobile voting stations are in operation over several days.

Records must be kept of ballots issued at each location visited by the mobile voting station. Where a mobile voting station operates over more than one day, voting material should be reconciled accurately at least at the end of each day's voting, and discrepancies immediately reported to voting operations management.

Where a mobile voting station operates over more than one day, strict security measures for voting materials must also be implemented outside the hours of voting.  In urban areas, this may be return of materials to secure storage in the local or regional election administration office, or to other secure storage (police or bank storage may or may not be appropriate, depending on the political environment). In remote areas, one or more security officers may need to accompany the mobile voting station.

Other Special Locations

Often accommodating particular sectors of the community may come at no or little additional costs. In systems where early or absentee voting is permissible, careful analysis of voting history will indicate optimum locations at which additional service points may be provided--e.g., colleges, airports, bus and rail terminals, and student hostels.

In systems where there are reserved seats for particular minorities, care in designing voting station layouts, to enhance access to special voting materials (perhaps through separate ballot issuing areas) and language assistance where necessary, will enable this voting to be conducted within normal voting stations.

Assisted Voters at Voting Stations

Voting is an exercise in communication. It is important that persons of lower literacy, or members of communities using different languages, are provided with the information and facilities to allow them to communicate their voting preference effectively and in secret.

Voting Facilities

Additional voting station staff may need to be assigned to voting stations in areas where there are a large number of illiterate or semi-literate people, to act as information officers and to maintain an acceptable voter traffic flow in an environment where assistance to voters may slow the time taken to complete each vote. For such areas instructions to voters within the voting station--posters, signage, voting instruction pamphlets--should as far as possible be available in a visual format.

Even with such assistance, illiterate or semi-literate voters may require further assistance to complete their vote. Provisions for assisted voting will ensure that they may participate in the voting process. 

Similarly, where there are voters whose language is not the major language of the country and the language in which the electoral operations are conducted, additional voting station facilities may need to be provided to allow their informed participation in voting. These may include:

• Interpreting services: can be most cost-effectively achieved by employing voting station staff proficient in languages used in the local area. Where persons with the combination of language and technical skills are not available, additional staff to serve as interpreters should be employed;

• Instructions for voting on ballot papers and for other voting forms should be in all languages of significant use within the electoral district. The same holds for multi-lingual signs and voter information posters within the voting station.

Voter Information

Areas of lower literacy and diverse languages provide special challenges for voter information campaigns.

In the case of lower literacy areas, use of print media needs to have strong visual representation and be heavily supplemented with direct oral communication: through meetings, street theatre and displays, simulations and personal contact.

It may be more difficult to cater to different language groups, particularly in diverse societies with a recent history of intensive immigration to scattered locations within the country.

Where language groups are relatively concentrated, provision of bulk voter information materials specifically catering to the language group can be more easily achieved. These could be translation of the major language voter information material. However, consultation with the communities should always occur to ensure that:

• such basic translations do not offend any cultural sensitivities;

• word or visual images and examples used are culturally relevant to the specific language group.

Where language groups are more scattered, this may not be cost-effective targeting of the intended audience. Provision of information through cultural and community groups may be more effective. Similarly production of materials that provide information, in all the languages of the area, on contact points for complete voter information in the relevant languages may be more effective than bulk distribution of material in all languages.

Voters living with Physical Disabilities

Providing Equitable Service: It may seem that providing assistance to people with physical or visual challenges is a luxury service that could be considered in developed countries if there is excess administrative time and additional finances available. However, to deny voting access to a significant proportion of the population through reason of disability is no less egregious in terms of equity than to refuse access to voting facilities to persons in a particular geographic area.

Providing assistance to such voters need not be costly. In general it requires only some careful thought about the methods and locations for imparting voter information and for the act of voting, and in some cases the relaxation of strict vote secrecy provisions. Best practice dictates that requirements for this special category of voters are legislated.

Other standards of service to these voters would also be better codified (though not necessarily minutely detailed as to methods) rather than totally left to administrative discretion.

In drafting such legislation, rules or procedures, community groups catering to physically and visually impaired persons should be consulted to determine equitable and cost-effective ways of meeting their voting facilities needs.

Methods of Voting

Special voting arrangements can assist people living with disabilities in voting. These may be through special services at the voting station, or by providing facilities such as mobile voting stations (see Other special Voting arrangements) or voting by mail. Whatever method is used it is important that in providing services to voters with physical disabilities, this is undertaken in a sensitive manner that does not further distinguish them from other members of the population.

While use of special materials and perhaps even special areas of voting stations may allow them more comfort in voting, the assignment of special voting days or special voting stations for persons with disabilities is not generally to be encouraged, unless specifically requested by the communities themselves.

Services at Normal Voting Stations

At normal voting stations, physically impaired voters can be assisted by:

• Allowing another person to mark their ballot according to their instructions (see discussion below);

• Providing kerb-side voting facilities, whereby voters who cannot access the voting station (for example wheelchair-bound voters at voting stations with no wheelchair access) vote outside the voting station, having been brought ballot papers and control forms to complete by a voting station staff member, who then returns these to the voting station;

• Provision for disabled voters to apply to vote at a voting station other than the one to which they have been assigned on the voters list, if their assigned voting station is not suitable for disabled access.

Voting by Mail

Provision for voting by mail (see Early voting) may also assist participation by people living with physical disabilities. In addition to normal voting by mail facilities, administration of mail voting can be made simpler by maintaining a register of special categories of voters who wish to have permanent facilities for voting by mail. Where such registers are kept, they should be reviewed before each election (and may be more difficult to provide where there is a new voter registration process for each election).

Provision could also be made for mail voting by persons who, due to disability, cannot mark their vote or sign their name and thus attest to the validity of their mail vote. This is a facility that could be open to abuse, and should be provided only on receipt of verified medical evidence.

If used, registers of such persons must be kept and there be careful checking and control of votes cast by these persons. Where such persons are domiciled in institutions, integrity (but not necessarily costs) can better be served by a mobile voting station visit.

Assistance in Voting

Allowing certain categories of voters to be assisted in voting is always a contentious issue, as it raises questions both about voting secrecy and the possibility of undue influence on the voter to vote in a particular way.

However, for some visually physically challenged voters, as for some illiterate voters, allowing them to be assisted in marking the ballot paper is the only way they will be able to vote. Rules for such assistance need to be very carefully considered, to minimize the possibilities of manipulation.

Different solutions, influenced by the level of trust in societal institutions, are used in determining who may be allowed to assist a physically or visually challenged voter to vote. The appropriate method will be environment specific. However, there are some general guidelines that should be considered:

A person known to and accompanying the voter or designated by the voter would be the first preference for assisting the voter to vote. Such persons would generally be required to be of voting age themselves.

Where such a person votes according to the voters instructions, there should be no need for other persons to monitor the vote. However, there may need to be certain categories of people excluded from accompanying voters to mark their ballots. These would involve categories of persons on whom the voter may be dependent or who may have some societal influence over the voter; for example, for members of the military or other disciplined forces, the exclusion of superior officers would be justified.

If no such person is available, an independently appointed voting station staff member should complete the voter's ballot according to the voter's instructions. In such cases party and candidate representatives present would normally witness the vote, to ensure that the voter's instructions are followed. They should not be allowed to attempt to influence the voter in the vote. Preferably more than one party representative, from different parties, will be present as a witness.

Where voting station staff are political nominees and not independent appointments, a minimum of two representatives from different political parties should be present if a voter requires their assistance in voting.

When ballots are marked or chosen for voters requiring assistance, it should be done within a voting compartment, or booth.

There is the additional question of whether such voters should specifically register as "assisted voters" prior to voting day. This would seem generally to be a bureaucratic imposition that, given implementation of policies in line with the guidelines above, does not enhance the integrity of assisted votes.

Voting Sites

As part of the assessment of the suitability of locations of premises for voting, ease of access for the people with physical disabilities needs to be considered. It is useful for voting location standards in relation to these special categories of voters to be defined in election rules, with alternative voting facilities to be provided where no location with access suitable for voting is available in a given area. Standards should relate to the following considerations:

Entrance and exit access: Buildings used as voting stations should be fully accessible. Ground floor locations with an unobstructed access route are preferable. Slip-resistant access ramps of acceptable gradient (either a permanent building fixture or temporary provided by the electoral management body as part of voting station equipment) are necessary where primary access to the voting station area is by steps.

The voting area surface should be level, stable and non-slip, with sufficient space around voting equipment to allow disabled voters free movement. Split-level voting areas should be avoided.

Lighting: should be sufficient for the visually challenged.

Additional seating: should be provided for physically challenges voters while they wait to vote.

Reserved parking for physically challenged areas should be available close to the voting station entrance in localities where private vehicular transport is heavily used.

Voting Station Equipment

Normal full-height voting compartments will not be suitable for those people unable to stand while voting. Table top voting compartments for completing ballots by hand or positioning of at least one voting machine at a lower level are necessary to vote in secrecy. Table top voting compartments could be of cardboard durable materials, or as simple as an ad hoc arrangement by voting station staff to place a table in a curtained off area. Ballot boxes should also be positioned at a height and in a location which can be easily reached.

Materials for the Visually Impaired

Consideration should also be given to designing materials that meet the needs of visually impaired voters. These would include:

• Use of large, bold type faces on ballots, forms, posters and information leaflets;

• Provision of ballot templates in Braille

• The printing of a small proportion of ballots and/or information leaflets for use in voting stations in Braille.

Voter Information

The rights of visually or physically challenged voters to obtain assistance in voting at voting stations, the method by which they can exercise this right, and any other special voting arrangements available for their use, should be a basic and prominent feature of voter information campaigns.

Issues that should be considered during information delivery planning include:

Ensuring that essential information about times, location and methods of voting is available in both visual and aural form.  This may be as simple as ensuring that print media information (via posters, pamphlets, advertising or information feature placements) is also available through radio and public meeting formats.

Conversely, where there is reliance on public meetings or radio for information dissemination, simple print information documents (which also will need to take into account general literacy levels) should also be readily available.

If there is heavy reliance on television advertising for voter information, care in design is required to ensure that each advertisement imparts the same information both visually and aurally.

Use of community groups and medical facilities for the physically, visually and hearing challenged to relay voter information with environment-appropriate controls that such information is being relayed in a politically neutral manner.

Use of large typefaces, or where possible Braille print in printed voter information materials, both before voting day and for display in voting stations, ballot papers and election forms.

Provision of special information materials if funding is available and where facilities for their use are available. For the visually challenged these could be voter information cassette tapes, or materials in Braille. For the hearing challenged these could encompass use of standard sign language communications at public meetings or in television advertising.

Assisted Voters at Other Locations

Infirm and aged persons too ill or frail to leave their homes may be unable to visit a voting station to vote. Equitable voting systems would contain provisions to allow such people the opportunity to vote without having to leave their homes. Reasonable questions will arise as to how strict any criteria should be for allowing voting from home, particularly where such methods involve additional costs or may be seen as more likely to be vulnerable to abuse than attendance at a normal voting station.

For this reason prior registration may be required or applications to vote according to legislatively-defined criteria, either as part of the voter registration process or as separate exercise, for those wishing to vote from home.

Particularly if homebound voters are to be serviced by a visit from voting station staff--either as part of a special mobile voting station or by staff visiting from a normal voting station--it is imperative for planning purposes that the number and location of such voters be known prior to the commencement of voting to allow effective resource planning and scheduling.

Facilities Provided

Voting facilities provided could take the form of:

• voting by mail (see Early voting);

• being visited by a special mobile voting station (see Other special voting arrangements), either during any period allowed for early voting (see Early voting), or on the general voting day;

• being visited on voting day by voting station staff from the voting station at which they are registered to vote;

• appointing an agent to collect and return their voting material, either from the voting station at which they are registered to vote, or, if general absentee voting facilities are available, from an electoral management body office or other voting station;

• appointing a proxy to vote, in person, at the voting station at which they are registered to vote (see Proxy voting).

In environments with advanced technology developments in the fields of voting by phone and direct computer links may also make such home-based methods of voting generally feasible.

Each of these methods has particular cost or integrity factors which will need to be carefully considered in determining the appropriate method, or combination of methods, in the specific election environment.

Allowable methods should be legislatively defined. Whatever methods are implemented should be consistently applied. To make services available only in some areas, such as mobile voting for urban households, without some complementary method being made available in rural or peri-urban areas, will arouse suspicions that access is being manipulated to favour particular voters.

Mail Voting

Where vote by mail systems are generally in use (see Early voting), including confinement to the home through infirmity or age as eligibility criteria, this method caters to the homebound within the usual voting systems. Where permanent voters’ registers are maintained, enabling the aged or ill to register permanently as a mail voter, this too can allow access to voting material, at their home address. However, this must be accompanied by regular review.

As with mail voting in general, there may be doubts as to whether this voting method allows influence over voting behaviour by other residents at that address, particularly for the aged. Where such concerns are likely to lead to questioning of election outcomes, methods other than mail voting should be considered.

For this reason, in some jurisdictions attempts are made to provide voting facilities in care institutions through the more costly method of mobile voting stations, which can provide more direct control over voting integrity. However, mail voting may be the practicable, cost-effective solution in less densely settled rural areas.

Mobile Voting Stations

Use of special mobile voting stations in care institutions can provide both integrity and effectiveness in servicing hospital patients and residents of care institutions (for a general discussion of mobile voting station frameworks, see Other special voting arrangements). There are some issues that need to be particularly considered in relation to mobile voting in care institutions:

• Mobile voting stations in care institutions would be preferably under the administration of a local office of the electoral management body office, i.e., the electoral district manager or local electoral commission for the electoral district;

• The locations to be serviced by mobile voting stations and the hours during which they will operate should be formally determined and publicised by the electoral management body, in a similar manner to normal voting station locations;

• Liaison with management of institutions is necessary, to arrange suitable times for mobile voting station visits that will not disrupt institutional routine or disturb patients and to determine resource needs.

Some categories of patients may require more time to complete their voting than others, depending on age and physical condition. Where complicated full preferential marking voting systems are in place, in some cases these voters could take up to fifteen minutes to complete their vote. Equitable systems would allow for this and not impose any limitation on the time taken by voters to complete their vote. When mobile voting stations are moving from bed to bed, ward to ward, it would be normal to only service between five to ten voters per hour. Both the mix of patients and the layout of institutions (how many levels, access methods, overall area of the institution) will affect the rate at which mobile voting teams can service voters in institutions, and thus the staffing resources required;

• Examine the workloads in care institutions when determining how many mobile voting stations are required and their staffing make-up. For smaller institutions, it may not be necessary to assign a separate mobile voting station to cover each institution. For larger institutions, more than one mobile voting station may be necessary (or several separate mobile voting station staff teams operating from a single mobile voting station) to service all voters. Depending on the numbers of voters involved, it may be more practicable and less costly to operate the mobile voting stations during any period allowed for early voting, thus allowing a smaller number of mobile voting stations to operate at different locations on successive days rather than attempting to cover all care institutions on the general voting day. Using the latter timing may require the engagement, training and equipping of an excessive number of officials.

Multiple Voting Controls

Where both mails voting and voting at a mobile voting station is available to patients in institutions, systems for control of issue and particularly processing of ballots for the count need to be sufficiently rigorous to prevent multiple voting.

While production of special voter’ lists for mobile voting stations may seem an effective method, it may negate the accessibility advantages provided by a mobile voting station: many patients in hospitals may not know that they will be there on voting day. Using systems incorporating enveloped ballots, with the voter's identity information being included with the ballot for later eligibility checking (see Absentee voting), may be the most effective method of maximising both accessibility and control.

Voting Stations Located at Care Institutions

In systems that provide for absentee voting, there may be advantages in establishing a normal voting station with absentee voting facilities within larger hospitals, to service staff and patients able to walk, with additional mobile voting station staff attached to provide service to wards or areas of patients who are confined to their beds.

Consistent size criteria should be applied when determining whether such facilities are warranted based on the number of potential patients and staff voters at the institution (determined either through use of special registration for such voters or close liaison with institution management).

Proxy Voting

Proxy voting is both the cheapest and simplest method to administer. However, integrity may be affected as there may be a perception that proxy votes cast in the names of patients in institutions, and particularly aged patients, do not accurately reflect their wishes, (For a discussion of integrity issues surrounding proxy voting in general, see Proxy voting)

Appointment of Agent for Voter

Provisions could allow staff on duty or patients at care institutions to appoint someone as their agent to pick up voting material and documentation to authenticate the vote from a voting station or electoral management body office, bring this to the voter, and return it, in person by the agent, or mailed to the electoral management body.

Where early voting in person is available, such a service could be integrated with early voting facilities, as well as in normal voting stations. This method can have some advantages over using a normal mail vote, particularly in areas where mail services are not reliable. It suffers from the same integrity problems as mail voting, however, in that it is not possible to ensure that there is no influence brought to bear on voters when they cast their vote.

Prisons

Eligibility to Vote

In countries where the right to vote is maintained for all or certain classes of prisoners during the period of incarceration , facilities must be provided for eligible prisoners to vote. The following issues arise:

• at which address do they register to vote--at the address of the prison, which if large, may affect voting patterns, or at their last or some other address that have are associated with?

• how are prisoners provided with the opportunity to register to vote and do they appear on special or normal voters’ lists?

• where there are complicated legislative provisions for the classes of prisoners and convicted persons who remain qualified to vote, how can accurate data on these prisoners be obtained?

Planning Issues

The most effective way to provide voting opportunities for prisoners will depend on whether there are special voting facilities available within the election system, such as early voting, mail voting, absentee voting, or use of mobile voting stations. Where voting facilities can be made available to prisoners, there are some planning considerations that will require specific responses, including:

• assessing the number of prisoners in prison locations who are eligible and may wish to vote, through consultation with justice system officials and prison management;

• using prisoners aid and welfare groups and prison authorities to inform prisoners of voting procedures and facilities that will be available--relying solely on prison authorities is not recommended as they may have some resistance to disseminating information on prisoner’s rights to vote.

Best practice would require the electoral management body to develop a working relationship with a combination of government officials responsible for the management and administration of justice and prisons, to ensure that the most effective procedures for providing voting opportunities to eligible voters is undertaken.

In-Person Voting

For larger prisons, it may be effective to establish a special voting station at the prison on voting day, or have a mobile voting station visit the prison either during any early voting period or on voting day (see Other special voting arrangements for general discussion of mobile voting stations).

Voting station staff needs to be carefully chosen to ensure that they are suitable to work in a prison environment. Clear arrangements will need to be made with prison authorities for such methods:

• to ensure access for all prisoners wishing to vote;

• to ensure that adequate security for voting station officials can be provided by prison authorities;

• to organise voting times in line with established prison routines.

Where in-person voting takes place in prisons it may be difficult to arrange for observation by party or candidate representatives. Using an absentee voting style enveloped ballot for all votes (see Absentee voting), with the ballot sealed in an envelope and accompanied by voter's identity verification so that eligibility to vote can later be established in the presence of observers, may be the preferable method.

Mail Voting

Alternatively, prisoners could apply to be provided with ballots by mail, which they would complete and return to the relevant electoral management body office. There may be significant problems with this method, such as:

• prisoners may be easily subject to intimidation in the manner in which they vote, and voting by mail, with no independent voting station staff, party or candidate representatives or observers present might allow such intimidation to occur unnoticed;

• mail entering and leaving prisons is often inspected by prison authorities, and unless arrangements can be made to ensure that ballot envelopes are not opened during this process, there is no guarantee that prisoners' mail votes will remain secret.

Voting by mail may be the only way of dealing cost-effectively with small eligible voter populations in prisons. Liaison with prison authorities in providing prisoners with whatever application forms may be needed for mail ballots, and ensuring that voting material is swiftly processed through prison postal systems, will also be necessary.

Voting in Remote Areas

Providing equitable, cost-effective access to voting facilities for voters in remote communities is a challenge for electoral management bodies. To establish normal voting stations in remote areas can create problems with regard to:

• recruitment and training of staff;

• transport of materials and equipment;

• management of large numbers of small voting stations;

• cost-effectiveness of full day voting facilities in areas that may contain very few voters.

Alternatively, providing only normal voting stations at a very few locations in remote areas will require some voters to travel very long distances to vote in areas where transport means and infrastructure may be inadequate.

Other Potential Voting Facilities

Methods that could be adopted to ensure that these voters have equitable access to voting facilities include:

• voting by mail (see Early voting);

• provision of special mobile voting stations.

In societies with advanced technology and good infrastructure, voting by phone, facsimile and direct computer link may also make home-based methods of voting feasible for voters living in remote areas.

To provide coverage of voters in remote areas a combination of methods may enhance accessibility in the most cost-effective manner.

Mail Voting

Where vote by mail systems are generally in use voters in remote areas may be catered for as they meet the general criteria of (see Early voting) excessive distance of the voter's address of registration from a voting station. What may be regarded as an excessive distance could vary according to the geography, transport infrastructure and accessibility of transport in the particular environment.

In some societies where access to private vehicles or transport services is lacking, travel of even five kilometers to vote may be difficult. In more developed societies with better infrastructure a greater distance threshold may be reasonable. Where permanent voter’s registers are maintained, enabling those voters meeting this criterion to register permanently as a mail voter can assist their continued access to voting material. However, this must be accompanied by stringent regular review.

Reliance on mail voting facilities alone may not be sufficient to provide accessibility for voters in remote areas. In many instances, voters in remote areas may be members of more traditional societies where there are higher levels of illiteracy making mail voting challenging. Mail services in general may also be less reliable to remote areas, or are unable to effect the turnaround of mailing out voting materials and its return to the electoral management body within the time period provided in legal frameworks for the election.

Each remote locality should be individually examined in discussions with postal authorities when determining voting facilities to be provided for remote areas.

Mobile Voting Stations

Mobile voting stations can be more cost-effective in remote areas than providing sufficient normal voting stations to provide reasonable accessibility to all voters and can have reliability and integrity advantages over reliance on voting by mail. Mobile voting stations should offer the same range of services available in normal voting stations. Given the distances often involved in servicing remote areas, they would be more effective if they can operate during any legislatively defined period for early voting, rather than being restricted to operation on the normal voting day.

Unlike mobile voting for institutions or other facilities in urban locations, in remote areas mobile voting stations are usually dealing with voters in a specific geographic area. Thus voting procedures can mirror those used in normal voting stations, with voters’ lists being produced for the defined geographic locality being serviced by the mobile voting station.

(General considerations to be taken into account for mobile voting stations are discussed in Other special voting arrangements) However, in determining the implementation of mobile voting stations in remote areas, there are some further specific considerations.

Access Standards for Mobile Voting Stations

To ensure equity and efficiency in provision of services to remote communities, it can be useful to define access standards in the election's legislative or regulatory framework. Issues that could be considered include:

• whether the areas or electoral districts within which remote area mobile voting should or may be implemented should be legislatively defined;

• through legislation or administrative rules, determining a threshold number of voters in a locality which would require the provision of a normal voting station;

• for efficiency, determining through legislation or administrative rules a minimum number of voters in a locality for provision of a mobile voting location.

Mobile Voting Station Itineraries

Plans for mobile voting station activity in remote areas need to address a cost effective itinerary for servicing all points to be visited by mobile voting stations. Consideration needs to include:

• the numbers of voters at each potential service point and thus the time that the mobile voting station may need to be open at each location;

• the overall distances involved;

• the transport methods available to service potential mobile voting station routes;

• associated costs both in transport and staffing;

• associated costs in publicizing the routes of the mobile voting stations.

The advantage of mobile voting stations is their efficiency through flexibility in servicing a number of locations. However, itineraries and schedules for locations to be visited must follow a definite and publicized plan. The locations to be serviced by mobile voting stations should be formally determined and publicized by the electoral management body, in a similar manner to normal voting station locations. Additional publicity in the form of contact with individual voters in the remote areas to be covered by the mobile voting station may be warranted.

Exigencies in the field may lead to variations in the planned schedule, due to longer than expected traveling time or slower than expected processing of voters. Mechanisms for announcement to the affected communities of any changes in schedules need to be in place. In no circumstances should the mobile voting station leave a location before the scheduled closing time at that location.

Facilities Available At Voting Locations

At some or all voting locations in remote areas there may be no building suitable for conducting voting, and mobile voting stations may need to be equipped with tables, chairs, shade material, material (ropes/poles) for defining the voting area as well as voting materials.

Mobile voting stations need to be able to set up and move quickly, or they lose some of their advantage. There is a delicate balance to be achieved in ensuring that they have sufficient material and equipment, and yet are not overloaded and can be transported efficiently. An example of a mobile voting station that can be ready to service voters in a short period of time is a utility van vehicle.

Transport, Equipment and Provisions

The equipping of the mobile voting station with provisions and safety equipment for voting station staff will become particularly important if the mobile voting station is to be in the field for multiple days. In remote areas, the officials may need to carry with them sleeping or camping equipment, food, water, and first aid equipment sufficient for their needs.

Vehicles provided must be suitable for the terrain. Where rough terrain is to be traversed, emergency recovery equipment should be supplied. Air or water transport may be required to reach some voting locations, which will require careful consideration of the associated costs. The mobile voting station must have a portable radio or phone to maintain contact with the electoral management body, with a planned schedule of reporting.

Additional Staffing Requirements

Greater efficiency in staffing can be accomplished by appointing drivers or pilots for the mobile voting station as voting station staff. It may also be useful when voting in remote communities, particularly in traditional societies, to arrange for members of the community at each location to be appointed as voting station assistants to assist the core Staff.

Security

In higher risk security areas, the ability to secure the safety of a small group of traveling voting station staff in remote locations needs to be very carefully assessed as part of security risk analyses. It may be necessary to arrange for armed security force escorts.

Security and Emergency Forces

Voting facilities for security forces-armed forces and police--may be included in the planning of voting operations.

Voting Facilities for Armed Forces Bases

Placing voting sites within armed forces bases should preferably be avoided. Such locations may be intimidating to voting station staff, and there may be difficulties with all political participants being free to monitor voting processes, or provide party and candidate information near the voting site. This can be of particular concern where there has been any perceived history of political partisanship by armed forces.

If voting locations are within armed forces bases it may also be easier for junior armed forces members to feel pressured into voting in a particular way, through the presence of commanding or senior staff in the vicinity. For similar reasons, where there is organized transport for troop units to voting stations, officers and other senior ranks should not be in the voting station supervising troops while they are voting. Such potential intimidation may be a particular concern in countries with conscripted forces.

In voting stations near large military bases, the arrival of troops to vote may need to be organized to prevent undue pressure on voting station facilities. Troops are more likely to arrive in organized transport to vote than individually. Pre-voting day liaison between local voting operations administrators, senior polling officials and armed forces commanders will assist in smoothing the flow of troops to voting stations.

When armed forces members are in voting stations for the purpose of voting, they should be prevented from carrying their weapons with them. Some force members may remain outside the station with their arms, while other force members go into the voting station unarmed to cast their vote.

Security and Emergency Forces on Duty on Voting Day

Equity is not served if registered voters are denied the opportunity to vote because of their occupation. Where there are full scale armed forces, police and emergency forces mobilization on voting day, it would be prudent for the legislative framework to provide them with the opportunity to vote.

This would require provision of special voting facilities, since it is unlikely that many security force members will be stationed at the voting station in the electoral district where they may vote normally. Facilities for these voters could be provided by either of the following measures:

• early voting (by mail, or preferably for armed forces, in person, as armed forces mail voting could be subject to influence by officers or senior ranks);

• to allow security force members on duty to use absentee voting facilities at a voting station at or near where they are stationed on voting day.

Liaison between local voting operations administrators and security and emergency forces commanders on the requirements for any such special voting facilities is necessary for comprehensive voting operations planning.

Refugees and Displaced Persons

Elections in post-conflict environments often have to deal with substantial numbers of refugees and displaced persons, in situations where different antagonistic communities within a country have become politically or geographically polarized. The location where refugees and displaced persons should be registered to vote, and in the case of refugees from another country, whether they can vote in elections in their current host country, is a matter for the voter registration and the legal framework.

This issue is likely to generate considerable political debate which may affect voting operations planning timetables. Organising actual voting facilities for refugees can be a major voting operations planning issue and have a substantial impact on voting site locations and staffing requirements, materials production, security needs, and overall voting operations costs.

Location Where Registered to Vote

If displaced persons within a country must re-register to vote where they are currently living, the effects on voting operations are relatively manageable. There will be changes in voter numbers and locations of voting stations; special assistance with language and voter transport may need to be provided; and the siting and securing of adequate voting stations in displaced persons’ camps may require additional planning and resourcing efforts.

Where major organizational issues occur usually is when such voters must remain registered at their former (and perhaps future) residence.  A determination will have to be made whether these people should have to return to the area in which they are registered to vote or whether special voting facilities will be provided at their current locations.

There are a number of considerations to be taken into account, including:

•  The number and proportion of the total voting population represented by refugees and displaced persons and whether these potential voters are a significant proportion of any particular national, ethnic or religious community in the country: This may require a judgment to be made of the effect on perceptions of election validity, and the country's future stability, of not providing every possible facility for them to vote. Normal cost-effectiveness considerations may not apply;

• Logistical requirements of the alternatives. Forcing refugees or displaced persons to return to their area of registration to vote may necessitate providing them with transport to voting stations. This will not only involve an intensive planning effort and organization of the voters by the electoral management body in coordination with other agencies, but must be assessed against the adequacy, security and costs of transport capacities (available vehicles and infrastructure) within the country.

• Security requirements. Transporting refugees or displaced persons back to their area of registration to vote is likely to be returning them to locations from which they were forcibly ejected by currently resident hostile forces. Intense security will be required at all voting stations at which they are voting. Their transport to and from the voting stations is also likely to require heavily-secured convoys, complex in organization, as they will be delivering voters to multiple voting points. Both the joint capabilities of local and any available international security forces to provide such levels of security, and the reliability of local security forces in such situations, must be carefully assessed;
• The experience and capacity of election administrators and voting station staff.  If there is no prior experience in managing elections that allow absentee voting, the challenge of providing these facilities satisfactorily at first attempt in a tense post-conflict environment may be difficult.
• The additional organisational costs of providing voting sites and developing materials for absentee voting by refugee and displaced persons can be daunting.
  

There is rarely an ideal solution in such situations. Returning to the former place of residence to vote is the less complex solution, administratively, but can only occur if security and logistical capacities are adequate to enable participation and for the voting to be considered free and fair.

Use of Absentee Voting

If absentee voting stations are set up for refugees or displaced persons in their current area of residence, there will be a number of administrative requirements, including:

Providing special voters registers for these persons, preferably organized geographically by their current location, and identifying the electoral district for which they may vote. To guard against possible impersonation, there would preferably be verification checks to ensure that persons on these registers do not also appear on voters lists being used in the area of their former residence.

Sufficient special voting stations should be established for refugee or displaced person voting, staffed with experienced personnel who are, if at all possible, from their own community.

These voting stations will need to be supplied with sufficient voting material from each of the electoral districts in which the refugees or displaced persons are registered to vote. It may be easier to organize these as pre-packaged absentee voting material kits for each voter. In some jurisdictions, these kits are made up and individually labeled for each potential voter. While more expensive in production, this can considerably reduce errors in issuing ballots in the voting station. Spare, unlabelled packs to be used to replace incorrectly issued materials or allow re-issue in case of voter error should also be provided for all electoral districts.

Special security and logistical arrangements may need to be made so that all party or candidate representatives and independent observers are free to monitor these voting stations.

Reliable and secure communications for transmitting counting results from these stations are also required.

The count and count result transmission processes will require intensive integrity checks. Counts from these voting stations will need to be amalgamated with counts from voting stations within the displaced persons' former areas of residence. All political participants and independent observers must be free to monitor these functions.

Refugees

For refugees all of the above issues need to be considered particularly carefully. Arranging for them to lodge absentee votes in their current country of residence may require agreements with relevant governments. Bringing them back from another country to vote will involve international transportation and security issues.

Internationally-supervised voting stations in the areas in which they now live in other countries may be required for overall election outcomes to be regarded as valid.

Suppressed Voter Addresses

Some legal frameworks for voter registration allow the suppression of a voter's address from the voter’s register (and from the voters’ lists used in voting stations) in cases where the voter can show that inclusion of the address on such a publicly available document could lead to genuine threats to their safety.

These facilities could be made available to persons such as police officers, prison warders, judicial figures or ordinary members of the public who have been subject to threats of death or violence, and persons in witness protection programs.

Voting Method

Where such provisions exist, special voting methods will be required to allow the checking of the eligibility of votes cast in the names of such people.

These may be similar to those in some systems of absentee voting, with the ballot being sealed in an envelope to which the voter's identification verification are attached (excluding address) for subsequent checking by administration staff (using signature or other comparisons) before determining whether the ballot should be counted.

A special marking on the voter’s list to indicate that this person has been issued ballot material may be required. Such cases would generally be best handled personally by the voting station manager at the voting station.

Planning

In preparing for voting station operations, electoral district managers should contact the voters in question, to advise them of the special voting provisions in place and determine whether they will be using any other special voting facility such as absentee voting, and if so, where.

The voting station manager at voting stations where such electors will vote should also be contacted, to inform them that such voters whose address and identity cannot be verified from the voters list will be attending. Inventory preparation and materials for such voting stations must ensure that any special forms required for voting or packaging such votes are provided to the relevant voting stations.