While the national election authority may have a legal mandate to undertake voter education programmes, they also represent one of the most obvious resources available to unofficial voter education initiatives. There may also be opportunities to pursue joint voter education activities through the formation of a strategic partnership between the election authority and civil society, among others. The role of election officials is described in some detail in Election Officials in Voter Education. Apart from those election authority officials designated for the task, however, there are likely other government agencies that are often overlooked, for example ministries of information and education, bodies responsible for the registration of voters, special executive or legislative committees responsible for civic education, or government support services, to name a few.
Other branches of the state should be considered as additional resources. They may provide skilled educators and communicators; large pools of volunteers, or at least seconded workers; and perhaps access to information and experience that may be essential during the planning and implementation of the voter education programme.
Government directories may provide the background information necessary for the assessment, but obtaining access to the staff and resources of government departments requires personal contact and support from cabinet ministers or ministers of state and, more importantly, from senior state officials or civil servants.
Election planners will want to work with election authorities in ensuring that government departments and their senior staff are kept informed of and feel able to contribute to the programme from the outset. This is especially important if, for some reason, the civil servants previously responsible for elections, voter education, or broader civic education programmes have been excluded in the present programme or dispersed to other departments between one election and the next.
It may be that there is some hesitation about making use of civil servants in transitional situations where there has been too close an association of the civil service with one regime. If this is the case, more care will have to be taken in evaluating the advice given and the staff recruited. Nevertheless, state experience is not easily gained, and in many cases it is not written
down in a form that can be used by the inexperienced.
As with all programme assessments, there will have to be a balancing of the usefulness of the resource in relation to the purpose of the programme, as well as with the impact that the use of the resource will make on cost, efficiency, and public legitimacy.
