It is in the interests of voting operations administrators that party officials, candidates, and their representatives are very familiar with the legal, procedural, and practical implementation aspects of voting processes.
Considerable unnecessary disruption can be caused by party or candidate representatives, particularly in voting stations and during the ballot count, if they are not aware of the correct processes and issue challenges or complaints on the basis of an imperfect, or lack of, understanding of the processes to be implemented and their legal basis.
Similarly the integrity of the foundation of voting processes--the nomination of candidates and party groups--may be threatened if political participants are not aware of the correct procedures to follow for their nominations to be accepted.
Training Responsibilities
Political groups have the primary responsibility to ensure that their officials, candidates, and representatives have a correct understanding of voting operations processes.
However, a little time spent by voting operations administrators in pro-active training or briefing sessions, and also in the production of reference materials for political participants, may save considerable administrative energy on additional dispute resolution and action justification at periods when task pressure is already high.
It may also reduce instances of patently ill-founded claims of irregularities being publicised, and thus unjustifiably affecting public perceptions of the integrity of voting operations administration.
Training and Briefing Sessions
Ongoing liaison between voting operations administrators and political participants is necessary, and the scheduling of specific training or briefing sessions for political participants does not derogate in any way from the responsibility of the electoral management body to ensure such liaison occurs regularly in an equitable and transparent manner throughout the election period. Specific training or briefing sessions on voting operations issues will clarify rights, roles, and responsibilities in the minds of political participants.
In developing training and briefing sessions for political participants, consideration needs to be given to content, timing, and most importantly, ensuring equitable opportunity for access, so that there is no perceived bias towards specific political participants. The number of sessions that can be held will depend on other pressures on voting operations administrators.
A minimum of two should be considered, with a third preferable. Where elections cover a large geographic area, holding these sessions on a regional basis should be strongly considered, to enable equality of access to all candidates and their representatives.
Timing and Content
With regard to timing and content, effective scheduling would include:
• a session just prior to, or upon the commencement of the nomination period, covering nomination procedures , codes of conduct, campaign rules, any candidate or party expenditure or finance rules, media access, security, election materials, voting station locations, challenges to administrative decisions;
• a session around a fortnight before voting day, (or prior to the commencement of any period for early voting if this occurs earlier), covering voting and counting procedures, voting station layouts, rights, roles and responsibilities of polling officials and party or candidate representatives, accreditation of party and candidate representatives, voting procedures, counting procedures, challenges to voters, challenges to ballot counts or results.
A third session, basically as an administrative progress briefing and opportunity for public airing of any problems, difficulties, or misunderstandings arising during the voting operations period to date, could be scheduled for around midway through the campaign period.
Session content and presentation should leave political participants in no doubt as to their rights and responsibilities in participating in and observing voting processes, as well as the sanctions that may be applied should they breach their code of ,or similar responsibilities.
At such briefing or training sessions, accreditation forms for party and candidate representatives at election sites should be made available
Attendance at Voting Station Official Training
There is also merit in inviting equitably selected representatives of parties and candidates to voting station and counting official training sessions. If staff training capacities are sufficient to accommodate such additional participants, this may be a cost-effective way of covering such issues as voter eligibility, voting procedures, and observer rights and responsibilities.
Accredited party and candidate representatives should also be invited to be present at any voting day briefing sessions conducted by voting station or counting centre managers for their staff.
Equity Issues
In terms of maintaining transparency and equity in this process, consideration should be given to the following:
• sufficient notice should be given, and accessible locations chosen, for such sessions to enable attendance.
• for pre-nomination briefing or training sessions, there should be wide public announcement of their availability, particularly in systems where candidates not aligned to registered parties may nominate, as well as invitations to registered parties.
• any materials distributed at briefing or training sessions should also be sent to representatives of registered parties or nominated candidates unable to attend.
It is also useful to keep a transcript of proceedings at such briefings, particularly of questions from party or candidate representatives and their answers, to be provided to those registered parties or candidates unable to attend, and as a record of the information given.
General Governance Issues
In societies in transition to democracy, training for potential candidates, and later for successful candidates, on general governance issues and roles and responsibilities of elected representatives will also be important for a successful outcome to any election process.
These issues would generally be seen to be outside the responsibility of electoral management authorities, though such bodies may see it as useful to play a stimulating role in development of such training.
Special Manuals and Handbooks for Political Participants
It is useful to produce a specific manual or handbook for the use of political participants, detailing the correct processes that will be applied by voting operations staff and the actions, responsibilities, and rights of political participants during this phase of the election
For comprehensive coverage, such handbooks should include sections dealing with:
• contact details of electoral management body officials who can provide further clarification and assistance;
• participation of parties in the voting operations process and their rights;
• correct presentation of party and candidate nominations;
• checking processes for nominations and criteria for acceptance or rejection;
• determination of party and candidate order on the ballot (if relevant);
• codes of conduct for political participants and election officials;
• media access rules;
• campaign rules;
• election security measures;
• provision and accessibility of election materials, including any rights of political participants to distribute these to voters;
• voting station siting and layouts;
• eligibility of voters;
• voting procedures, including those for any special voting facilities such as absentee voting, voting by mail, mobile voting stations, voting in a foreign country;
• roles, responsibilities and authority of voting operations administrators and polling officials;
• roles, rights, and responsibilities of party officials, candidates and their representatives in relation to voting procedures, voting locations, and voting operations administration;
• procedures for the ballot count, including criteria for determining validity of ballots (and valid preference marks, where relevant), aggregation of counts, and announcement of results;
• roles, rights, and responsibilities of party officials, candidates, and their representatives in relation to counts, result determination, and announcement;
• rights, methods, and procedures for challenging decisions made by voting operations administrators, polling officials, and counting staff;
Such handbooks should be available to political participants well before the commencement of the period for nominating candidates or party groups for the election.
Multiple copies of political participants' code of conduct and accreditation forms for their representatives should also be made available both through electoral management body offices and to offices of registered parties and candidates.
Provision of Election Staff Manuals
It is also useful to provide to the office of each registered party or political group and independent candidate running in the election, a copy of the general administration manual used for voting operations by the electoral management body.
Manuals and reference materials produced for voting station officials and counting staff should also be distributed.
Not only may this assist political participants in their understanding of the manner in which voting operations will be conducted, but it further emphasises the transparency of the actions of the electoral management body. It is reasonable, for reasons of cost, to restrict the number of such documents that will be made available to each political group, with the responsibility of intra-group dissemination being on the political group itself.
Where cost considerations are such that providing additional copies of these documents for all political participants is not possible, public access to them should be arranged and publicised, at electoral management body offices, and/or at public libraries or similar research locations, where photocopies or other notes of their contents may be made.
