As with delivery of materials, equipment and, where necessary, staff to voting stations, intensive planning of retrieval of voting site resources is required. This will involve:
• planning of pick-up routes and times;
• arrangements for checking that all accountable and reusable material has been returned.
Where ballot counts are conducted at separate count centres, transportation arrangements will need to include delivery of materials from the voting station to the counting centre, and after the count, from the counting centre to checking and storage.
Pick-Up of Material
These arrangements can be more complex than delivery of materials to the voting station and less likely to follow a pre-arranged timetable. Actual pick-up times from voting stations will be affected by how quickly close of voting activities are completed (there may be long delays if large numbers of voters are in the voting station at the time of close of voting), accounting and other records completed, and materials packaged. At the end of a long day, this may not be accomplished quickly.
Clear pick-up instructions must be conveyed to voting station staff and the importance of the roll back of election resources must be stressed to.
Pick-up schedules should allow for this. Most important is that there is liaison between the electoral district manager's office and each voting station so that progress can be monitored and any adjustments to pick-up scheduling relayed to drivers.
In more remote rural areas, it may not be practicable to return all material to the electoral district manager's office immediately after the election. It may be feasible to arrange for these materials to be held at any secure emergency resupply depots established, for next day or later pick-up and delivery to the electoral district manager's office.
There are jurisdictions where, in urban areas, the voting station or counting centre manager is responsible for returning all election materials to the electoral district manager's offices. In low security-risk environments, this can be cost-effective.
Checking Return of Material
The most important issue to check immediately on return of material is that all accountable voting materials and equipment have been returned. The delivery and receipt audit trail maintained for materials delivery should be used to control returns. Particular care needs to be taken that all ballots have been returned, that all ballot accounting records have been correctly completed, and that portable equipment (mobile phones and personal radios especially) are returned.
Wherever possible, it is preferable that voting station managers be present when their material is returned and checked into storage. Any missing accountable materials or equipment may be more readily traced with the assistance of the voting station manager at this stage, rather than later.
Following check-in and verification, the materials should be prepared for secure storage, reuse, or disposal.
Staff Arrangements
A retrieval schedule will also be required for staff who were transported to the voting station. For staff in remote areas, retrieval the next day may be more appropriate, in which case arrangements for an overnight stay will be required.
