This section examines the different aspects related to the organization of voting operations, such as ballot content and design, voting stations establishment, staffing and keeping order and the maintenance of secrecy of voting and special voting procedures.

The procedural conduct of an election involves the integration of numerous widespread processes. For instance, the 2009 general election in India (15th Lok Sabha) was an operation in which over 716 million electors were eligible to vote in nearly 835,000 polling stations.  Voters in the 543 constituencies had an opportunity in total to choose from amongst over 8,000 candidates.  Almost 4.7 million polling staff were deployed.  National voter turnout was 58% and the final results were available in a matter of several days.[i]

Although the organization of an election rarely reaches this scale, it is always a complex and delicate operation. The electoral administration should be able to use the necessary means so that for all citizens the vote is safeguarded.  Regardless of the scale of an election, elections organizations must ensure that voting places are well staffed with trained personnel and that all the materials are on site and in sufficient quantity as,”Inadequate voting supplies effectively undermine the right to vote.”[ii]

Voting operations are at the heart of voter interaction with the electoral process and as such can impact participation and confidence: 

Increasing popular participation in the electoral process is an important way of strengthening democracy. This can only be achieved if the public has confidence in the electoral process and if it is accessible to them. Lack of confidence and limited access may lead to voter apathy, as reflected in the generally poor voter turnout evident in some countries.[iii]

The rules governing voting operations and vote counting at polling stations are usually thorough and detailed. They try to cover every possible situation and to set out clear and precise guidelines that facilitate the solution of possible problems.

However, these rules should also be clearly understandable for ordinary citizens because experience shows that complicated legal frameworks regulating voting operations or inadequate design of electoral materials giving form to the legal framework inevitably generate high rates of abstention and invalid votes.

The objective, simply put, is that, “The legal framework should ensure that secrecy of the vote is guaranteed, and that all votes are counted and tabulated equally, fairly, and transparently.”[iv]