Following determination that a voter is eligible to vote at the voting station (see Determination of Eligibility to Vote), the accountable voting materials should be immediately issued to the voter.
The materials subject to strict accountability of issue will vary according to the basis of the ballot issuing system:
• Where ballots are accountable, and their use restricted, issuing controls will apply to ballots.
• On the other hand, if ballots are freely available, but instead there is strict accountability for the ballot envelope issued to voters in which the voter's ballot must be included (as in the system operating for manual ballots in France), issuing controls will relate to the ballot envelopes.
• For some types of voting, both ballots and envelopes may be accountable and subject to issuing controls.
Such systems relying on accountability of envelopes can be more costly, in additional printed materials required and in additional time taken in preparing materials for ballot counts.
Ballot Issuing Controls
Where the ballots themselves are the accountable voting material, the basic process of issuing the ballot entails:
• taking the ballot from its pile, folder, or tearing it from it's stub;
• where required, validation of the ballot by the voting station official placing an official mark or stamp, or endorsing, the reverse side of the ballot;
• showing the face of the ballot to voters and explaining the correct method of recording a vote (including advice to read any instructions on the ballot);
• showing voters the correct method of folding the ballot so that the vote remains secret and any validation mark required on the reverse of the ballot is visible;
• if the ballot has to be placed in an envelope before being placed in the ballot box, instructing voters on how and where this will be done;
• instructing voters on how and where to place the ballot in the ballot box (and, where more than one ballot is being issued, or there is more than one ballot box in use, the correct ballot box in which to place each ballot);
• directing voters to a vacant voting compartment, and instructing them that they must be alone in the voting compartment while marking the ballot (for discussion of systems where the voting station manager may authorise assisted voters to be accompanied in the voting compartment, see Assistance to Voters).
For reasons of efficiency in staffing and crowd control, (see Crowd and Queue Control), where more than one election is being held simultaneously, ballots for all elections would preferably be issued at the same time to a voter.
Issuing of ballots to voters using special voting facilities, such as early, absentee, or provisional voting, may require a more complex process. Where voting machines, which mechanically or electronically record votes, or computers are used, controls on voters recording a vote require a different methodology.
Validating Ballots
In many election systems where each ballot is accountable, the ballot is validated on issue by the voting station official placing an official mark on or signing or initialling the back of the ballot.
This is a cost-effective manner of controlling that only valid ballots enter the count, and will generally do away with the need for special and expensive paper stocks, bearing watermarks or security print, for ballots.
Official marks used by voting station officials could be made by perforating instruments or stamps. A different, distinctive mark would preferably be provided to each voting station to enable full accountability and integrity checks during counts. These are highly accountable items for which design should be kept secret and that should be held under strict security until the voting station opens for voting, and then be secured immediately following close of voting.
Even more cost-effective, but of slightly less integrity and of less use in less literate societies, is the alternative method of requiring the ballot issuing official to sign or initial the reverse of the ballot.
The official mark or voting station official endorsement should be placed in the same position on every ballot, to allow it to be visible when the ballot is folded by the voter.
The top right hand corner of the reverse of the ballot is probably the most comfortable position for quick application by most (right-handed) officials. The correct position could be marked by a box or other shape on the reverse of the ballot; the additional costs of two-sided printing should be carefully weighed against any likely advantages in doing this.
Overly complex systems for thus validating the ballot should be avoided; a single mark or voting station official's endorsement should be sufficient.
Requiring multiple official marks, more than one voting station official to endorse, or party or candidate representatives to counter-endorse increases the chances of error, slows down the voting process, and implies poor selection of and lack of trust in staff.
Voting station officials validating ballots must validate each ballot only when it is about to be issued to a voter:
• To validate a stack or book of ballots in advance defeats the purpose.
• However, in their haste to issue a voter with a ballot, voting station officials can forget to place any official mark or endorsement required on the ballot and thus jeopardise acceptance of the voter's ballot for counting.
In systems where such validation is required, training must reinforce the importance of validating each ballot issued.
Other Controls on Issuing Ballots
In systems where ballots are accountable voting materials, various additional controls may be applied in issuing a ballot. These could include the ballot issuing official:
• copying the voter's serial number from the voters list onto the issued ballot's counterfoil or stub;
• maintaining a list of voters who have been issued ballots, or making voters sign a register or list on receipt of their ballot paper.
These additional controls slow down the ballot issuing process and add little to its integrity, while raising doubts in voters' minds about voting secrecy.
Where voting station officials accurately mark voters names on voters’ lists when ballots are issued, they are a duplication of effort. Whether they are of more use in disputes over whether particular voters were issued ballots than good quality control on marking of voters lists is open to question.
It would seem more appropriate to concentrate voting station officials' efforts and management supervision on ensuring the voter’s list was marked correctly, and using this as the basis both for determining how many and who voted, rather than adding additional recording tasks that are equally prone to error or challenge.
Enveloped Ballot Systems
As an alternative to being issued an accountable ballot, some systems issue electors instead an accountable envelope. In these systems what happens to the stock of ballots is not relevant; the envelope quantities must be accountable. Such systems may operate under either very high integrity controls or lesser controls.
Simple Enveloped Ballot Systems
Under simple enveloped ballot systems, the voter, after being assessed as eligible to vote at that voting station, being marked as voting on the voters list, and having obtained a ballot, is issued or obtains a ballot envelope.
In these simple variants, ballot envelopes are not separately identifiable by any detachable counterfoil or serial number. Controls can be instituted by:
• having on hand only as many ballot envelopes as voters registered to vote at that voting station;
• officials carefully watching or issuing the ballot envelopes during voting to ensure each voter obtains only one envelope;
• officials guarding the ballot box to ensure that voters insert only one envelope in the ballot box;
• reconciling numbers of voters marked on the voters list as having voted with numbers of envelopes issued;
• validating each ballot envelope on issue with an official voting station stamp.
With a simple system:
• if integrity controls are instituted through matching the number of envelopes available to the number of voters registered, it can be inflexible in treatment of persons who may have valid claims to be on the voters list but have been omitted in error;
• there may be difficulties in ensuring adequate levels of control, and is more suited to environments of high community trust.
Higher Integrity Enveloped Ballot Systems
Higher integrity enveloped ballot methods involve envelopes that are fully accountable through numbered tear-off stubs or counterfoils that are retained by the envelope issuing official or another voting station official.
Alternative methods for such systems would require:
• the voter to return to the ballot/ballot envelope issuing table with the completed ballot(s), where it is sealed in the envelope by the official who issued the envelope and then deposited by that official in the ballot box, located on the table or nearby;
• the voter being issued the envelope and ballot, and having recorded the vote, places the ballot in the envelope and deposits it in a ballot box.
To use such a system for all ballots can be a cumbersome, inefficient procedure to protect integrity; that would be more effectively served by high quality identification checks and voters lists. Where ballots need protection from damage, such as where punch card or optical scan ballots are used, it may be a useful system.
Special Voting Facilities
Where voters may vote in absentia, use early voting facilities, or vote by mail, where systems allow a provisional or tendered vote, and any voting method that requires later verification of the voter's eligibility to vote, a similar system of enveloped ballots may be used. It would be usual to have an attachment to or enclosure with the ballot envelope containing sufficient voter information for assessment of voter eligibility.
In such systems, it would be more usual to ensure voting secrecy by using a double enveloped ballot, with the ballot sealed inside a plain envelope and with this envelope again sealed in an outer envelope containing the voter's information. Using this form of enveloped ballots is a reasonable solution for extending voter accessibility to participation in voting.
Voters Recording a Vote
After being issued a ballot, or obtaining the ballot envelope, depending on the system being used, voters should be directed to a vacant voting compartment to record their vote.
There should be no pressure placed on voters to hasten completion of recording their votes; it is a choice of great significance that voters are making. Additional time may need to be taken by elderly voters, first-time voters, or those having difficulty with ballot instructions, and where more than one ballot or complex preferential ballots have to be completed. This should be taken into account when planning voting station capacities, staff, and numbers of voting compartments required.
After recording the vote, by marking the ballot or choosing which ballot he or she wishes to use, each voter will cast their ballots according to the system being used:
• if ballots are to be deposited directly into the ballot box or returned to a voting station official for enveloping, the ballot should be folded by the voter before leaving the voting compartment, so that the voting preferences are not visible and any official validating mark stamped or written by the ballot issuing official is clearly visible.
• if the ballot has to be enveloped by the voter, the voter should insert the ballot in the envelope and seal it before leaving the voting compartment.
Marking of Ballots
In systems where preferences have to be marked on ballots, the method used to mark a paper ballot has cost implications. Pens are more expensive than pencils, and more likely to be taken as a souvenir by voters.
Pens offer no greater integrity; a voter's mark with a pen can be as easily overwritten as a pencil mark can be erased. However, where there is wide public concern about election integrity, use of pens may enhance the image, if not the reality.
Use of special stamps with which voters mark their ballots and which have to be returned to the ballot issuing table by the voter can cause problems for voter flow.
Voter inconvenience and the additional costs of providing such equipment and of directing staff required are generally not commensurate with any additional integrity achieved.
Monitoring Voting Compartment Area
The area around the voting compartments needs to be constantly monitored by officials to ensure the secrecy and efficiency of voting. Issues to be carefully monitored include:
• Voters are not marking their ballots outside the voting compartments.
• Voters are alone in a voting compartment, except in cases where authorised assistance to the voter is being provided.
• The voting compartment area is kept clean and tidy. Particular care must be taken to remove and deal with any ballots left in the area by voters (see "Ballots Discarded by Voters" below);
• No political campaign material--pamphlets, posters, stickers, or graffiti on surfaces--that may influence voters has been left in any voting compartment by earlier voters.
• Where "mark choice" paper ballots are used, each voting compartment has a functioning pen, pencil, or other required marking implement attached to it;
• Where instructions to voters on how to vote are in the voting compartment, are not removed or defaced.
In some environments there may be a need for allocation of at least one voting station official whose single role is constant monitoring of the voting compartments area to ensure that voting is conducted in secret.
In all voting stations, officials should regularly inspect the area to ensure that voting is conducted in secret, that voter flow is orderly, and that the area is kept clean and free of extraneous material. Officials should not enter voting compartments when occupied by voters, of course, unless the voter is authorised to receive their assistance in voting.
Special attention needs to be paid to hierarchical groups--such as military, state officials, particular families--arriving together to vote, to ensure that there is no intimidation within the group with regard to voting preferences and that all ballots are marked in secret by the correct voter.
A common cause of congestion in the voting compartment area, and of voters attempting to record their vote outside voting compartments, is that ballots or ballot envelopes are being issued to voters when there are no voting compartments free for use.
Staff monitoring the voting compartment area should check continually with officials issuing ballots (or ballot envelopes) to regulate appropriately the rate of issuing ballot papers.
Depositing of Ballots in the Ballot Box
When voters have completed recording their votes, they should be directed to the ballot box. Where the voter goes will depend on whether:
• The ballot is to be deposited directly into a ballot box;
• the ballot is required to be returned to the issuing voting station official for enveloping, either by itself or with details of the voter attached before being deposited in the ballot box.
Where the ballot is to be deposited by the voter directly into the ballot box, ballot boxes should be located, as far as possible, in a direct line between the voting compartments and the voting station exit, and as near the exit as is prudent for security. Ballot boxes should at all times be closely supervised by a voting station official.
When the voter approaches the ballot box, the official should ensure that:
• if the ballot is not required to be enveloped, the ballot is deposited in a manner that the voter's preferences cannot be seen;
• if the ballot has been enveloped by the voter, the voter has only one ballot envelope, and the envelope has any required official mark;
• where separate ballot boxes are being used for different elections being held simultaneously, the voter deposits each ballot or envelope in the correct ballot box;
• no voter leaves the voting station without depositing their ballot or ballot envelope in a ballot box;
• nothing other than ballots or ballot envelopes is deposited in ballot boxes.
Clear instructions and signs, and especially colour-coding of ballot boxes to match ballots or envelopes, will assist in the voting process.
However, there will still be voters who deposit their vote in the incorrect box, and once in, they cannot be removed until the count. For this reason, equitable ballot or envelope validation and vote counting systems would allow ballots or envelopes deposited in the incorrect ballot box, if otherwise valid, to be counted.
When voters have deposited their ballot(s), officials should direct them to the exit. Voters should not be permitted to congregate around ballot boxes.
Inspection of Validation Marks
Where official validating marks are required to be placed on ballots by ballot issuing officials, it is appropriate that the ballot box supervisor be required to check, before the voter deposits the ballot in the ballot box, that the required official mark or voting station official's endorsement is on the ballot.
If the mark is not present, the voter should not be allowed to deposit the ballot in the ballot box; assistance should then be sought from the voting station manager.
If the voting station manager determines that the ballot was validly issued, it could either be validated with the correct mark by the voting station manager or cancelled as "spoilt" and a fresh ballot issued to the voter (at no stage of these actions should the way the voter voted be made visible).
The former course is the more efficient; the latter preserves full accountability measures. Where the voting station manager determines that the ballot was not validly issued, details of the incident should be noted for voting fraud investigation and police may need to be called.
Where an error has been made by the official issuing ballots, these actions can protect the voter's voting rights. Where a voter is attempting to deposit an illegal ballot, it will be stopped. In either case, later ballot disqualifications and disputes during the count will be avoided.
Checking Need for Fresh Ballot Box
Officials should regularly check how full each ballot box being used is (a ruler or similar implement can be used if needed) and warn the voting station manager in good time when any additional ballot boxes need to be sealed for use.
Early warning is needed, as this procedure may take some time (for procedures for sealing of ballot boxes, see Preparations for Commencement of Voting). Also extra ballot boxes may need to be sourced from another voting station that has surplus or local electoral management body office.
Use of Multiple Ballot Boxes
Whether separate ballot boxes or the same ballot box are used for simultaneous elections held in a voting station is a matter of practicality for the particular environment rather than of principle. There is a cost factor to be considered: the costs of acquiring, maintaining, transporting, and securing separate ballot boxes as against the costs of accurately sorting different elections' ballots taken from the same ballot box at the count.
There is also a perception of integrity factor: when different ballots are deposited in the one box, it may be harder for ballot box supervisors to ensure that only validated ballots are deposited.
Spoilt Ballots
In systems that depend on ballot accountability, spoilt ballots, that is, ballots that are returned to the ballot issuing table because a voter has made an error in marking the ballot or cannot be used due to print defects, need to be carefully controlled so that they do not find their way into the ballot box. Prudent control mechanisms would ensure that:
• no replacement for a spoilt ballot is issued until the original ballot has been surrendered to the voting station official who issued it;
• voting station officials do not look at the manner in which the ballot has been marked;
• where more than one ballot issuing table is in use, the voter returns the spoilt ballot to the table from which it was issued;
• spoilt ballots are fully accounted for in ballot reconciliations following close of voting .
When spoilt ballots are surrendered by voters, they should immediately, in the presence of the voter, be:
• cancelled by the official, by writing "spoilt" on the reverse of the ballot or using any stamp provided for this purpose;
• sealed individually in special envelopes--one ballot per envelope--and maintained under the security of either the ballot issuing official or the voting station manager until the close of voting.
Misprinted or damaged ballots found amongst those to be issued should be similarly enveloped and sealed immediately on discovery, to prevent their issue.
Leaving enveloping or sealing of spoilt ballots until some fixed time, or leaving a single envelope to contain spoilt ballots open throughout voting hours, runs too great a risk that these ballots may find their way into a ballot box, or may be inadvertently lost creating problems in the verification process later.
The voting station official should record on the outside of the spoilt ballot envelope some basic information to aid accountability and reconciliation, such as:
• the signature of the voting station official issuing the replacement ballot;
• identification of the voting station;
• if multiple elections are being held simultaneously within the voting station, the election for which the ballot was issued;
• if multiple voting material issuing tables are in operations, identification of the table from which the replacement for the spoilt ballot was issued.
It is useful to have specially printed envelopes available for this purpose.
Damaged Optical Scan or Punch Card Ballots
In some systems where ballots are later counted automatically, such as ballots designed for optical scanning or punch card machines, methods of dealing with damaged ballots will need to be implemented either at the voting station or at the counting centre.
Spoilt ballots that have been torn or otherwise damaged after completion by the voter will not be read accurately by machines.
For integrity purposes, these ballots be set aside from machine counting and counted manually. Attempting to remake these ballots so they can be machine counted, even under intense observer supervision, political or otherwise, can raise doubts as to the motives.
Ballots or Sealed Envelopes Discarded by Voters
While it is the duty of officials supervising ballot boxes to ensure that all voters, before leaving the voting station, deposit their ballots or envelopes in the ballot box, this supervision may not always be fully effective, and voters may leave ballots or sealed envelopes containing ballots in voting compartments, drop them on the floor, or otherwise misplace them.
It is prudent to have procedures in place to cover such control failures. Ballots or sealed ballot envelopes left in this fashion in the voting station by voters should never be placed in the ballot box by any other person, especially voting station officials.
In maintaining supervision over the voting compartment and ballot box area of the voting station, voting station officials should always be watching for ballots (or where relevant, sealed ballot envelopes) left by voters. These should be marked as "cancelled" and each placed into a separate special "cancelled" or "discarded" ballot envelope as soon as found, and kept under security by the voting station manager for inclusion in ballot or envelope reconciliations following the close of voting.
These envelopes containing cancelled or discarded ballots or ballot envelopes should have recorded on them similar information as for spoilt ballots, except that where e multiple voting materials are issued the table of issue will not be known. Special envelopes used for this purpose could be designed to function for both spoilt and discarded or cancelled ballots
Declined Ballots
Under some election systems, voters, after being issued a ballot, may indicate their refusal to vote in the election by declining the ballot, and handing it back unmarked to the voting official who issued it.
To ensure that reconciliations of ballots in ballot boxes to voters marked as having voted can be accurately conducted, these ballots should:
• Immediately, in the presence of the voter, be cancelled by the official by writing "declined" on the ballot or using any stamp provided for this purpose;
• be sealed individually in special envelopes, one ballot per envelope, and maintained under the security of either the ballot issuing official or the voting station manager until the close of voting.
Declined and discarded ballots (or ballot envelopes) must be fully accounted for in ballot reconciliations following close of the voting
