The following diagrams give a few examples of how voting stations may be set up under different procedures and voting area configurations.
It is not possible to give examples that would cover every potential situation. However, those provided do illustrate some of the key aspects of effective voting station layout given various procedural requirements. While they show a maximum of two voting streams servicing regular voters, depending on the size of the voter population to be serviced and the voting station area, this may need to be increased.
In this model, the voting station has only a single access point which must be used for both entrance and exit. Barriers are used to ensure that the voters entering and leaving the voting station have separate paths. Other features are:
• at positions 1 and 2, positions for staff to maintain control of the entrance and the queues (in low security-risk situations and where voter flow is not intensive, the same official may be able to undertake both tasks);
• clear view of all proceedings to voting station staff and observers;
• provision for an area for storage of materials (at 4) under the control of the manager (or deputy manager if the voting station is of sufficient size);
• a single table (at 5) for checking voter eligibility and issuing ballot material (whether undertaken by the same or separate officials) positioned to allow monitoring of both the queue waiting to vote (2) and the voting compartment area (6);
• positioning of the ballot box on the route from the voting compartments to the exit (8);
• with a single entrance/exit, one official could maintain both entry control and exit control, depending on voter numbers;
• an area where party/candidate representatives and observers can sit (9), make notes and the like.
Party/candidate representatives and observers should not generally be restricted to any such area but permitted to move around the voting stations, as long as they do not impede voter service.
Where there is a separate entrance and exit, it will be easier to coil the queue, through use of barriers, to make better use of the available space within the voting station. This model uses separate entrance and exit doorways and positioning of staff to promote a one-way flow of voters through the voting station. Barriers are again used to control flow from entrance to eligibility checking/materials issue area and to prevent voters moving back into the voting area from the ballot box.
Care must be taken to ensure that voters needing assistance, for complex queries on voting or assistance with completing a ballot, have free passage to the area where the voting station manager is located.
In other respects, this model is generally similar to the previous model. With a coiled queue, where there are larger numbers of voters, separate entry (1) and queue control (2) officers may be required. Using a separate exit, the ballot box may be placed closer to the exit to allow exit supervision by officials guarding the ballot box (8).
Where voters are marked with ink to indicate that they have voted, an additional polling official and table (5) may be needed next to the voter check/materials issue table (5a) for checking that voters are not already marked with ink, and applying ink to voters established as eligible to vote at that voting station.
In this model, the voter queue is split into queues divided alphabetically on the voters' names--in the example, separate A to M, N to Z queues, each going to a separate eligibility checking/materials issuing table (voters lists will need to split in the same alphabetical fashion). Clear signs and a staff member at or near position 2 are required to direct voters to the correct queue. Other features include:
• at positions 1 and 2, positions for staff to maintain control of the entrance and the queues (in low security-risk situations and where voter flow is not intensive the same official may be able to undertake both tasks);
• use of barriers to ensure that the separate queues do not get mixed;
• placement of the multiple voter eligibility checking/material issuing tables (at 5 and 6) so that officials can monitor both the queue waiting to vote and the voting compartment area.
In systems where regular voting stations may issue voters special types of votes, such as provisional/tendered votes or absentee votes, which require the voter to
• complete a form or declaration and
• after completing the ballot, return to the issuing officials for the ballot and declaration to be enveloped together it is generally better to provide a separate area for issuing such ballots, rather than holding up normal voters while this more lengthy process is completed.
When there are small numbers of such voters expected, these ballots could be issued by the voting station manager or deputy. Where larger numbers are expected, a separate official or officials may need to be engaged (10 in the above diagram). Where these officials are positioned may be difficult to organise effectively depending on the space available: it would be preferable that they are near the voting station manager's location, as these votes may present greater difficulty to the issuing officials.
However, care should be taken not to interfere with other voter flows if this positioning is adopted. Alternatively, this issuing area could be located near the exit to the voting station, by re-arranging the observer positions at (9) in the above diagram.
A separate ballot box for these voters will generally be required. In such cases, voting compartments specifically for the use of these voters should also be provided, separated from the voting compartments for normal voters, to reduce any voter confusion. This ballot box and voting compartment would be effectively positioned beside the table(s) used for issuing these votes.
While having many similarities with sample layout numbers 4 and 5, this particular layout is set up to utilise bank-style queuing (with use of the queuing area maximised by coiling the queue), so that when voters reach the head of a single queue at position 2, they are directed to the first vacant voter eligibility checking/materials issuing table.
Use of this method will require a legal framework that allows a copy of the complete voters list for the whole geographic area serviced by the voting station to be used at each of the tables checking voter eligibility
Where there is more than one voting stream in a voting station and each of these streams is for a different voting subdivision, it would be usual for voters from each stream to be required by law to deposit their ballots in a separate ballot box. Setting up a voting station to maintain an uncluttered logical voter flow can be difficult, particularly if the same access has to be used for entry and exit from the voting area.
Even where there are separate entrance and exit doors, configuring the voting station to minimise the risk of voters placing their ballots in the incorrect ballot box, by use of appropriately placed barriers, can be difficult to achieve without disrupting the ability of officials and observers to move around the voting station. In the above model, the two streams for different voting subdivisions are kept apart with voters from voting subdivision 1 moving through the eligibility/materials issuing area (5) through to their voting screens (7a) to their specific ballot box (8a) and thence to the exit. Similarly voters from voting subdivision 2 move through their relevant areas, (6b), (7b), and (8b).
Voting stations operating these procedures may be more difficult to control without a relatively large floor space to voter ratio, or entry and exit points on opposite sides of the voting area, to allow voters to pass in a straight line through the stages of the voting process.
