Electoral law and public pressure are increasingly requiring EMBs to provide services to ensure that all eligible electors have genuine access to the electoral process. For example, the 2002 international Bill of Electoral Rights for People with Disabilities promotes equal rights of access to all electoral processes for people with disabilities. All access-extending services are costly and need to be considered by the EMB (and legislators) in relation to its budgetary constraints.
Voters’ special access needs may include mobile registration and voting facilities for those in hospitals, confined to the home or in prison; external voting; the provision of voter registration and voting facilities for internally displaced persons, and in locations outside the country for significant refugee populations (as in Afghanistan, Iraq and Sierra Leone); providing facilities for voting by post or before election day; ensuring that registration, polling stations and equipment are accessible to voters with disabilities; providing electoral information materials suitable for those with visual or aural disabilities, and providing registration or voting assistance to them where needed; and providing voting equipment such as ballot paper templates for the visually impaired. EMB processes may also adopt preferential treatment for pregnant women, nursing mothers, the elderly and people living with disability, especially during voter registration and polling.
In Albania, the EMB pays for the installation of ramps in any building that it uses as a polling place that needs a ramp to allow wheelchair access, thus providing long-term access to such buildings outside the election period. Bosnia and Herzegovina permit people without identity papers to register, and Liberia allows internally displaced persons to register for their country of origin while residing in a different county.
Partnerships with CSOs or relevant government entities will assist the EMB in identifying the precise needs of marginalized groups, and may even help defray the costs of providing access to them.
The legal framework or EMB policies on electoral access may be informed or constrained by customary rules or traditions. These may relate to issues such as who may nominate candidates for particular offices, or the need to establish separate voting queues or locations for men and women. Other issues on which custom or tradition may impinge on access (and electoral integrity) include photographing women for electoral ID cards, voting methods and the use of visible indelible ink to mark voters. Where customary laws are deeply entrenched, an EMB can enhance its acceptance throughout society if its structures, policies and procedures can demonstrate respect for such customary practices, as long as this will not contradict the electoral laws and EMB policies, hinder its activities or prevent people from participating in elections.
