The material required for conducting elections varies from basic stationery such as pens, papers and rulers, to voters’ lists, validation marks and ballot papers. The election management body has the responsibility to manage the wide range of material and equipment in a way that ensures the confidence of the electorate and the contesting parties in their ability to conduct the election in an efficient and impartial way.
The material can be categorized into sensitive and non sensitive material.
Sensitive Material
Sensitive material refers to items such as:
• validation seals that are placed on ballot papers to verify their authenticity. This is especially necessary during the counting process;
• ballot papers;
• voters lists;
• computers - this is particularly relevant in systems where the voters list is computerized or electronic voting is used;
• ballot paper stamps;
• indelible ink where this is used as means of verification to prevent duplicate voting;
• voters identity cards;
• ballot box seals.
Non sensitive material
Items such as:
• voting equipment, that is, voting compartments, ballot boxes, tables, chairs;
• stationery – pens, paper, rulers, erasers;
• tape for cordoning off the voting area or indicating where voters may or may not queue,
Security
While all equipment needs to be adequately stored, storage of sensitive material in particular is extremely important. To ensure maximum security most electoral management bodies allocate this responsibility to senior election staff such as District Electoral Officers who in turn may designate this responsibility to the Electoral Manager.
These election officials work closely with the relevant security forces (where the security forces have the trust of the public) or make alternative arrangements for additional security. In some countries election staff to agree to abide by a Code of Conduct that binds them to confidentiality regarding sensitive material
