Checklists are effective as control and reference information providing simple standard formats that are prompts to action, monitoring tools, and more easily referenced than relying solely on accessing descriptive data in bulky manuals.
Checklists are particularly useful in encouraging consistent monitoring of task completion. Checklists are a supplement to, not a total replacement for, procedures manuals.
The design and method of production depends on the subject matter and target audience. Checklists for central administrative actions such as materials supply, may only be used by one or two staff, and can be hand drawn or in the form of simple computer generated control sheets.
Checklists that are used to standardize the action of larger numbers of staff, such as electoral district managers, materials packaging staff, voting station managers, and voting station staff, may better be produced as appendices or integrated sections of their procedural instructions or manuals.
Checklists can be especially useful for a range of tasks some of which include:
Nominations
Processing nominations can be a complex process, particularly where qualification checking involves obtaining data from other authorities.
Processing checklists will aid in accurately tracking the stage of processing for each nomination, and provide a standard format of data from which to accept or reject the nomination.
Voting Site Assessments
Checklists support consistent assessments of potential voting station locations to determine if they meet the standards required.
Materials Management
Maintaining checklists to monitor the design status, ordering, quality control, supply, and distribution of election materials is a necessary management control tool in a complex supply environment.
Constructing inventory, dispatch, and reconciliation records in simple checklist format will aid in correct completion.
Supervisors of Voting Stations
Active performance monitoring of voting stations during voting hours provides voting operations administrators with information on voting progress, operational problems, warning of any possible challenges, and data useful in voting site and staff selection for future elections.
If supervisors on visits to voting stations complete performance checklists, this information can be retained in a standardized format.
Voting Station Staff
Checklists are an immediate reminder to voting station staff of their specific duties and a useful tool for voting station managers in monitoring staff performance and ensuring that required actions have been taken.
Simple checklists that can effectively be used for tasks including:
• checks of material, equipment, and staff prior to opening the voting station;
• required actions in issuing ballots to voters effectively designed as place mats for the desks of voting station staff, or where signage identifying ballot issuing areas is attached to the tables being used, printed on the reverse side of these signs;
• close of voting procedures;
• packaging and reconciliation of materials following close of voting.
Manuals for voting station officials may be more functional if designed as a series of checklists.
Ballot Counts
Ballot count checklists are useful reminders of counting procedures and validity criteria that apply to ballots for staff. . Specific tasks that lend themselves to simple detailing in checklist format include:
• steps for opening ballot boxes and reconciling ballots;
• steps for checking admissibility of enveloped ballots, including absentee or mail votes;
• criteria for determining validity of ballots;
• packaging of materials following completion of the ballot count.
