The local electoral management body will receive the
interim results directly from the voting station after counting is completed.
They will then compile the results for the electoral district and send it to
the national electoral management body as per a pre-determined means of
communication.
The presiding officer will contact
the local level of the electoral management body directly to communicate the
results of each vote, but in some countries the very same information is also
communicated directly to the national results centre.
Adequate phones, computer terminals and bandwidth to cope with peak
demands should be installed.
Where interim results are called in
by telephone, staff answering the phone at the local level should have a
pre-printed form for recording results with the names of candidates and parties
in the same order as they appear on the ballot paper. A procedure requiring the
receiver of results to read back the results for confirmation by the sender
could reduce the error rate further.
A list
of the identification codes or passwords associated with the various voting
stations should be provided to the staff as well. This means that the phone
operators and those receiving the results need to have signed a confidentiality
contract as they are dealing with sensitive information. Only pre-determined
EMB officers should communicate to the local/regional/district electoral
management body office the results of the voting stations.
At the
point where the results are received, one team should take care of the incoming
results, and should transmit the information to the data entry person or the
person in charge of combining all the results for the electoral district. In
order to avoid mistakes, abuse of misplaced statement of votes forms, this
transfer of results forms from intake to data-entry could be regulated requiring
affected officials to sign for delivery and receiving statement of votes forms
for tabulation. If manual data-entry of the results is performed, extra care
needs to be taken to avoid errors. At larger centres, double-blind data entry
procedures could be utilized, while smaller operations would require a
supervisor verifying the data entered with the statement of results in question
before transmitting results. A spread sheet, board or print-outs listing each
voting station should be prepared and completed as the results are received;
both aggregated and voting station-based results. Representatives of political
parties and candidates, and the media should have access to this information
points, so that they can observe the results as they come in. Increasingly,
EMBs are using their websites to make data available to the widest possible
audience, in the shortest possible time for the lowest possible cost. The use
of intranets and extranets allows these cost-effective technologies to be
harnessed to effectively and securely disseminate data to a limited audience
who may have been given usernames/passwords for access.
Special
measures should be taken so as to make sure that the same results are not given
twice. Numbering the voting stations and corresponding ballot boxes is a simple
way to avoid such confusion. If such a measure is taken, it should be done
before the election process and the EMB staff must be clear on how the
numbering works and how to process the data they will receive on Election Day
from each voting station. The number of each voting station should be used
consistently on all forms used for the election, as well as on the ballot box.
The use of this number will also facilitate the creation of an audit trail.
The
local office of the electoral management body should send its results to the
national electoral management body in several stages to accelerate the process
of releasing interim results. Then, the national electoral management body will
continuously compile, check, and release progressive results for each of the
country’s electoral districts.
In some
countries it is not necessary for the electoral management body to compile
preliminary indications of the voting figures. Instead, the media, exit poll
organizations and non- governmental organizations compile and publicize the
interim results while the electoral management body concentrates on compiling
the official results and communicating them formally, once verified.
National Level
At the
national level, the same type of logistics and procedures for receiving the
interim results should be used, but on a larger scale if a manual system be
utilized. When all the results are coming in at the same time, the staff
responsible for the incoming results should first make a quick quality control
check in order to verify if the results make sense or not, for example, whether
or not the totals are correct, and forms are signed and completed correctly.
Most
national-level results centre are computerized and therefore efforts are made
to pre-load the results system with software containing mathematical formula
checks, logical inconsistencies and triggers for extreme or unusual results
based on historical electoral data.
A more
exhaustive quality control procedure, for each electoral district and voting station,
will be done when the final official results are compiled. Some electoral
districts might need more attention than others, especially those that are the
subject of intense political campaign activities, or those with a higher degree
of administrative difficulties, such as a very high concentration of registered
voters (the core of a large city, for example). On Election Day, these
electoral districts might need to be monitored more closely by the national
electoral management body.
If a
country is divided into several time zones, the results will come in at
different times of the day at the national level (depending on the closing hour
of the election), and the required staff should be carefully scheduled to be
available when needed.
In case
of an emergency, the head office of the electoral management body should always
be able to reach their local offices, especially when results are coming in. In
most cases, both a primary and secondary number (often landline and a mobile
phone number) need to be secured and tested prior to Election Day. The phone
number should not be the same one used to call in interim results.
Votes Cast at Mobile Voting Stations
The
counting of votes from mobile voting stations may take place at the last
station visited by the voting station officers, or at a local office of the
electoral management body. These ballots are often not counted until the
regular closing time of the voting on Election Day.
The
location of the count of mobile voting stations should be known by representatives
of political parties, candidates and observers thereby enabling their presence
for the counting.
