Voting operations staff have a special position of trust. There is an expectation that they will adhere to all relevant rules and regulations, and faithfully and professionally undertake their duties to provide election outcomes of high integrity.
While this is particularly true of officials conducting voting and counting ballots, it also applies to all connected with the election process, from couriers, voter educators, mail sorters, materials despatchers to senior electoral managers. For the bulk of staff involved in voting operations, this is infrequent, short-term employment, which will generally have more intensive impositions regarding ethical behaviour and impartiality than their usual activities.
Need to Develop Conduct Codes
Formal codes of conduct for voting operations staff provide them with the knowledge of the expectations of their behaviour and a basis for sanctions against them if they breach standards set in the code.
In their simplest form, codes deal only with the basic cornerstone of a free election, that is, the maintenance of the secrecy of voting, or refer to legislative requirements for ethical behaviour. However, it is preferable to provide each voting operations employee with a succinct outline of required behaviour standards in undertaking their duties.
Officials codes of conduct could be:
• an integral part of the legislative framework for the election, backed by the sanctions contained in this framework;
• an administrative direction from the electoral management body, backed by reference to sanctions in electoral legislation and/or in legislation governing the conduct of public officials generally.
Provision of Code to Officials
The code, examples of how it is maintained in practice, and information on disciplinary mechanisms and penalties for proven breaches, should be provided to persons seeking employment as voting operations officials.
It should be fully explained to all successful applicants during training sessions. Officials should also be provided with extracts from electoral legislation or regulations that provide the legal framework for their particular duties and that underpin the requirements of the code.
Content of Codes Of Conduct
Codes of conduct for voting operations employees deal with the following major issues:
• impartiality, integrity, and professionalism in dealing with voting operations matters;
• maintaining security of election materials and secrecy of voting;
• standards of service to be provided.
Wording of codes should be such that they are applicable to all voting operations staff.
Content of codes of conduct for voting operations staff would usefully include requirements that staff:
• undertake to maintain the secrecy and integrity of voting at all times by not disclosing any knowledge of a voter's voting intentions or observed voting behaviour;
• maintain impartial and non-partisan conduct at all times--including acting in an impartial and non-partisan manner at all times; not attempting to influence or communicate with any voter on political issues; doing nothing, either in a personal or official capacity that could be seen to indicate by action (including the wearing of any politically associated apparel), attitude, manner, or speech support for any political participant or tendency; not undertaking activities that could be perceived to involve conflict of interests, and reporting any relationships that could be perceived as potential conflicts of interests;
• not commit or attempt any act of corruption--including a ban on accepting inducements to act in a particular way, on accepting any gifts, favours or promise of reward from political participants or their supporters (the code may also require an active stance against corruption--to report, oppose, and combat any act of corruption discovered in the course of their duties);
• accept the authority and direction of the electoral management body over officials' actions;
• perform all duties and functions with care, competence, accuracy, and courtesy;
• maintain secrecy of the voting operations and respect the confidentiality of the voters;
• treat all members of the public with dignity;
• reject and report any form of discrimination, in relation to voting operations administration or political activity for the elections, based on race, gender, ethnicity, language, class, or religion;
• accept the rights of accredited party or candidate
• representatives and observers to observe voting operations processes, and the rights of voters, political participants and accredited observers to object to irregular procedures, and investigate such objections with courtesy, tact, integrity, and timeliness;
• undertake to safeguard all electoral material entrusted to their care;
• undertake, unless good cause can be shown, to attend all training sessions or meetings in connection with their duties, and report for duty as directed.
Post-Conflict Environments
In post-conflict environments, voting operations officials may be dealing with other officials and political participants with whom, only recently, they were in violent conflict. Officials' codes of conduct in such environments may need to extend their range of content to commit officials to specific undertakings, such as to:
• cooperate with all authorities in delivery of election materials and services;
• acknowledge the authority of international supervisors and not impede their work;
• not impede campaign activities of any political participants or interfere with the electoral rights of any person;
• assist monitors, observers, and supervisors in carrying out their duties;
• assist in ensuring, within any boundaries established in the legal framework for the election, the freedom of movement of all participants in the election.
Declarations by Employees
Before being formally appointed to voting operations positions, all staff should be required to make a declaration that they will follow the rules contained in their code of conduct. At the very least, if full codes of conduct have not yet been developed, a declaration that the employee will respect the secrecy of voting and relevant legislative requirements should be obtained before appointment.
There are other participants in the voting operations process to whom elements of the election staff codes of conduct should also formally apply. Official visitors to and observers in voting stations may observe the act of voting. Before accreditation to visit voting sites, they should also confirm that they will undertake to maintain the secrecy of voting. Contractors who supply election materials or are contracted for logistics, should sign brief declarations binding them to maintain election materials security and voting secrecy.
Contractors or community groups providing voting operations services, such as voter information activities, should also be bound by the impartiality, service, secrecy, and security aspects of the election official’s code.
Enforcement
A code of conduct has no effect if there are no clear avenues for its enforcement and no knowledge of penalties that will be imposed for proven breaches. There must be clear mechanisms for swift, effective, and impartial disciplinary action--of an administrative nature for less serious offences and of a criminal nature for serious misconduct.
Serious conduct would include corrupt or violent behaviour, that would be criminal in any context, or breaches of voting secrecy. It is useful for electoral legislation to provide administrative penalties for misconduct, such as immediate dismissal from employment (with appropriate safeguards of justice), that can be swiftly applied by the electoral management body.
It is important that disciplinary mechanisms and penalties are appropriate to the offence. Dealing with even minor offences solely through the court system is likely to delay resolution until after the election period, and thus lose the possibility of effective salutary action.
Courts may also be loathe to impose significant penalties for what may seem as minor breaches of administrative trust, and will generally not be the most effective means of dealing with misconduct, unless it is of a criminal nature. Any disciplinary or court actions taken, and any resulting penalties should be widely publicised.
