Logistics
The procurement and distribution of election materials and equipment take on added dimensions when external voting takes place. If external electors are living in several different countries, the problems of delivering items to coincide with the delivery of the same items inside the country grow in proportion.
Special arrangements may have to be made with providers such as printers and manufacturers to deliver to several locations, both inside and outside the country. This raises questions of security and timing, which have to be carefully controlled. Infrastructure problems of transport and communications must always be considered in planning these deliveries. The transport of ballot papers can be complicated by the electoral system used. In an election where proportional representation (PR) is used nationally, the same ballot paper is used everywhere. However, in an electoral system where each electoral district or province or region has a unique ballot paper, distribution becomes more complex. Voters have to be identified by constituency, adding another step to the process, unless a postal ballot is used. This, of course, has its own complexities because each voter then needs a list of candidates or parties for the particular electoral district.
A breakdown in the delivery of materials can create a tense situation, as was experienced in the Central African Republic National Assembly election in 1998:
There was bitterness in neighbouring Gabon and in France, where angry migrant voters surrounded their diplomatic missions insisting on voting. A protestor in Libreville, Gabon, told newsmen that ‘we’ve not been able to vote here in Libreville because the consulate did not receive the necessary materials to enable it to organise the elections. This is why we’re protesting against the flagrant violation of the constitution by blocking Central Africans in Gabon from freely exercising their civic duties. We’re contesting with all our energy’ (Tumanjong 1999: 41–42).
Even countries with excellent infrastructure and communications can experience difficulties. Some Canadian electors working in Kosovo at the time of the Canadian election in 2000 were unable to vote when many ballot papers did not arrive at the Canadian Co-ordination Office in Kosovo on time.
An important aspect of the logistical plans is the appointment and training of staff for the external voting. Whether they are hired directly or appointed by a national or international agency in each country, the election officials will need specific and detailed training. Although registration and voting manuals prepared for in-country training will be useful, there will also be specific matters that need to be addressed for the staff managing the external voting. These may include the context (e.g. peace agreements, country background), the particular challenges (e.g. reaching electors in refugee camps and finding out how to reach those who are scattered), and special instructions for returning registration materials and ballot papers to the EMB.
Voter education and communication with prospective voters are also a part of the logistical preparations. Materials designed for internal voting may need to be modified for use outside the country (including language). Close cooperation with international and national organizations will be needed to reach prospective voters and to conduct education programmes. The use of the mass media needs to be kept to a minimum in order to keep down costs unless there is a large population of external electors in a particular country. The host country’s regulations on the media may also need to be checked. Announcements and information must be targeted carefully to reach eligible electors in different locations. The election officials may also be involved in distributing campaign information if the political parties do not have the means to do this outside the country. Toll-free telephone lines may be needed to answer queries if large numbers of external electors are resident in a particular country.
As with the planning process, the logistical preparations have to be carefully monitored and worked out to ensure that all contingencies are provided for where the timelines for registration and voting are concerned.
The security of election materials
The security and control of registration and voting materials require special attention for external voting. Security is as essential externally as it is internally but there is the added challenge of securing sensitive materials during transport to and from several countries. Once the ballot papers are returned to the EMB, they may also need to be transported further to the provincial or municipal level, depending on the counting and reconciliation arrangements. Each step requires a security plan to prevent fraud.
Observers and political party representatives often want to follow the trail of the ballot papers and other election materials from origin to destination. Secure transport, such as a courier or diplomatic pouch, is required to reassure observers, candidates and voters that the ballot papers cannot be tampered with in any way.
Security will also be an issue during the registration process. In some circumstances, providing the data necessary to register to vote may be dangerous for the individual. Refugees may be concerned about losing their refugee status or being forced to return prematurely to their country of origin. For this reason they may want assurance that the registration data will remain confidential to the EMB. This, however, may conflict with the ideal of an open list to which the political parties have access. Measures can be devised to protect the information on the elector’s location or status by carefully selecting the information that will be printed on the electoral registers. This type of problem requires careful consideration if the needs of the displaced citizen are to be balanced with the needs of the electoral system.
Voter registration
Legislation defines who is eligible to vote and an EMB establishes the procedures for registering eligible electors and preventing fraud. The electoral registers are generally a matter of public record, which means that the data to be published in the lists must be agreed upon and other data collected must remain confidential.
External electors may be registered on the electoral register of the electoral district of their previous place of residence, or on another national list (for example, if the country concerned has a single consolidated electoral register), or there may be a special electoral register of external electors. In the latter case, the list can be by country, by type of residence (permanent or temporary), by category (refugee, guest worker etc.) or by any combination of these. There may be a permanent register of electors that has to be updated regularly, or registration may be regular and automatic, or electors may need to register in advance of each election.
External electors who are working or travelling in another country will need to confirm that their names are on the electoral register. The onus is on the elector to check this by post or by the Internet. For large displaced populations, it is usually necessary to hold a new registration because any electoral registers that exist are generally out of date. This process can be very costly to organize and manage. In these cases, the onus is on the EMB to ensure the process occurs. The registration process must be designed so that the register of external electors will meet the requirements set out in the law as well as meeting any specific problems in host countries. Registration can be carried out by trained local officials, by embassy staff or by post. Whatever process is used, controls are needed to prevent fraud. Registration cards and the data need to be secure in order to avoid duplication or loss. Controls over the distribution of cards and other materials and their return must be in place so that those handling them account for every item.
Prior to registration, the locations of potential electors have to be targeted as closely as possible. The communication plan devised to reach the eligible electors with information about the process will need to be reasonably specific. The information can be channelled through international organizations, local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and community groups, as well as Internet websites.
External electors, especially refugees, often do not have official identification documents. Procedures need to be adopted to allow eligible electors to register using some other means of identification (e.g. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) records) or on oath. At the same time, the procedures have to ensure that non-eligible persons are not registering fraudulently. The procedures also have to give equal access to all eligible external electors, regardless of ethnicity or religion. Members of minority groups often find it more difficult among other things to establish their identification and citizenship, and may need more attention in the registration process.
Any special procedures must remain within the spirit of the existing legislation and may require amendments to the law. If the election officials in each host country make their own decisions about who is eligible or about what forms of identification will be accepted, this can have great ramifications for the acceptance of the results of an election.
The accurate registration of external electors can become a political issue, as happened in Guyana after the franchise was extended to non-resident electors after 1968:
There were persistent allegations that the lists of overseas voters were often inaccurate and made without the prior knowledge or participation of the Elections Commission. The lists were said to be heavily padded with fictitious and ineligible voters, having an inaccuracy rate of about 75 percent of the entries. Voters were found to be living at nonexistent addresses, in vacant lots, in open pastures and in abandoned premises. Another criticism levelled at overseas voting was that up to 95 percent of those votes went to the ruling party . . . [An amendment in 1985 attempted] to change the regime of overseas voting, but the basic scheme was left intact and remained flawed since it was susceptible to serious election manipulation (Dundas 1993: 145–6).
Legal methods for objecting to the registration of a name or correcting an entry on the register of external electors also need to be in place if the list is not integrated into the internal electoral register. Minimum standards must be met, similar to those that apply for internal registration, to ensure the integrity of the electoral registers.
External voting and the secret ballot
All the measures that are used to protect the secrecy of the vote internally must be duplicated in the external setting. The training of election workers, including any diplomats or members of the military who are involved in establishing polling stations, is an essential step in ensuring the integrity of the vote. In most cases it will be possible to duplicate the polling station procedures and voting procedures in the external polls. In other cases it may not be practical—for instance, if there are only a few electors. When a postal return system is used, extra steps are needed to ensure secrecy. This can prove difficult when a voter receives the ballot paper by post and marks it at home. It may be necessary to require voters to go to an embassy or a public institution to mark the ballot paper in secrecy. An instruction must be included with the ballot paper to inform the voter that he or she must mark the ballot paper in private and that any interference is a breach of the law.
The choice of polling station locations for personal voting is based on the registration information. However, contingency plans must be in place for changes in the status of electors. A large-scale return of refugees prior to polling day can affect the number and location of polling stations. There may also be numbers of externally registered electors who choose to return for voting day, wanting to vote in-country.
The ballot papers marked by external voters generally require the use of a series of envelopes to keep the ballot and the voter’s identity secret at each step—at the poll, during return to the EMB, and finally at the count (see figure 5.1). The voter’s identification is indicated on an outer envelope so it can be double-checked against the electoral register for eligibility and to prevent voting more than once. If it is a postal ballot, this envelope will also be pre-printed with the address of the EMB (or the organization that is administering the vote). An inner envelope, marked with the address of the body to which the ballot paper will be sent for the count, allows the ballot papers to be distributed to the proper national, provincial or municipal level. Finally, an unmarked inner envelope containing the actual ballot paper is placed in the appropriate ballot box for the count. Some combination of two or three envelopes will allow the voter’s eligibility to be confirmed, the ballot paper to be delivered correctly and the ballot paper to be counted without it being traced back to the voter. This process in the vote is important and careful instructions will be needed so that the voters and the election officials understand the system and are fully confident in it.
Envelopes used for external voting
Decisions about how the ballot papers are counted are also an important part of the secrecy of the vote. If there are only a few external ballot papers, they may need to be mixed with internal ballot papers to prevent disclosure. For instance, in Lesotho in 1998 some provinces had only one external ballot paper, which was mixed with other ballot papers at a specified poll. If there are very large numbers of external ballots, the decision is often made to count them centrally either at the polling stations (as in Croatia in 1997) or after return to the EMB (as in South Africa in 1994 and Kosovo in 2000). The numbers are then added to the totals. Unfortunately, in post-conflict situations, the reconciliation process can break down, and sometimes political party representatives object to all external ballot papers at the count. This happened in Lesotho in 1998.
Security at the external registration and polling stations is often subsumed by the embassy or consulate where the station is located. Local police, if necessary, can enhance the security. If there is a specific threat or a perceived security risk such as during the 2005 Iraqi election, special arrangements are made for extra security procedures. This needs to be factored into the budget process. Observers and political party representatives are another integral part of the secrecy of the vote. These participants ensure that procedures are followed and that the secrecy of the vote is maintained at each step of the electoral process. It is often difficult for political parties to send representatives, so international observers have to be relied upon to carry out the duties of oversight of external voting.
International observers have been deployed to observe the external vote in some elections. However, the costs for international organizations to send observers to several countries for an external vote has led to other solutions. Diplomatic staff and other international staff (e.g. NGOs) in each country are often recruited to do the observation on behalf of an international organization. These observers are trained and report back to the organization, which prepares an overall report. The EMB also sends its own staff to each location to ensure procedures are followed.
Contracting out external voting
The electoral management body can run the election itself or contract it out. The latter option is unusual where an established EMB is in control of the electoral process, but is used more frequently in transitional elections with substantial direct input from the international community. The EMB in conjunction with the subcontractor will also need to interact with various government departments (e.g. the department for foreign affairs).
Prior to 1996, where it existed, external voting was a part of the overall election planning process. For instance, the refugee registration and voting operation in Cambodia in 1993 was an integral part of the functions of the Electoral Component of the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC). However, for the 1996 election in Bosnia and Herzegovina, because of the scale of external voting, other approaches were considered. Refugees from Bosnia and Herzegovina were living in over 50 countries, but the largest numbers were in the neighbouring countries. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) established a Steering Group to coordinate this task. The group worked with the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and the IOM. Processes were established for registration and voting both by post (in most countries) and in person (in neighbouring countries). Subsequently, the IOM was contracted to manage the participation of refugees in the municipal elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina and later for the external voting in Kosovo (in 2000) and several other countries (see also chapter 7 and the case studies on Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Iraq).
The contractor coordinates and liaises with the EMB and is responsible for infrastructure arrangements, information, registration, database preparation (in some cases), polling, and challenges to the inclusion of names on the electoral registers. The contractor can also be responsible for archiving and documentation.
