Following the completion of accounting for voting materials or simultaneously, if sufficient staff are on hand, all materials in the voting station need to be sorted and organised for packaging.
A thorough search of the voting station should be undertaken to ensure that no material has been placed or left during the day in obscure or unusual places.
Accountable materials, those required for voting, electoral or financial integrity purposes, should be verified wherever possible against supply or other records to ensure that none are missing. Such materials would include:
• receipts for ballots or ballot envelopes;
• other ballot accounting records;
• official seals or marks for ballots;
• ballot or ballot envelope issue records maintained by voting station officials;
• information on voters including any voting day registrations;
• records of challenges and disputes;
• financial and staff attendance records.
Time of Packaging
Where counts are to be conducted at a different location, all voting station material should be packaged immediately following accounting for and reconciliations of ballot material and their verification, and despatched with the ballot boxes to the counting centre
As a precaution against any apt material being misplaced, it is preferable that all packages of material from the voting station go to the counting centre.
Where counting is to take place at the voting station, all materials should be sorted following the close of voting. Accountable materials not needed during the count--unused ballots or prone envelopes, voters lists, and the like--should be packaged and sealed immediately following the completion of any reconciliations for which they are required.
If access to these packages is required during the count (e.g., in searches for any missing or wrongly packaged material) breaking of the seals of these packages, and resealing, should be formally recorded (including a note of the reasons) and witnessed by party/candidate representatives.
If there is confidence in the professionalism and integrity of count officials, and the security situation is favourable, it may be preferable not to fully package and seal other materials until the count at the voting station has been completed, to make searching for any missing items needed during the count considerably easier.
Rather, after sorting, material not required for the count could be maintained under appropriate security in an area separate from the counting area.
Packaging
Packaging of voting station materials is an activity that is often regarded as an unimportant adjunct to voting. It occurs at the end of the day when major tasks appear to have been completed and staffs are likely to be fatigued. However, incorrect packaging can cause considerable dysfunction and suspicions of improper practices, especially at counting locations or at later challenges where much time can be wasted and emotions aroused looking for missing material that has been mispackaged.
It is important that the packaging of voting station materials be governed by clear guidelines and is undertaken in a professional and efficient manner under strict supervision by senior voting station officials. Care must be taken during packaging that all material is retrieved from within the voting station and packaged.
One common reason why packaging of voting station material is incorrectly implemented is that the packaging systems used are too complex.
Systems requiring a series of envelopes within larger envelopes within other envelopes within boxes within other boxes within bags, all too often distinguished only by strikingly similar identifying labels or numbers, can become bewildering to staff at the end of a very long day, no matter how intensive their training. Simple packaging systems that separate and identify essential accountable material, and, where affordable, are based on a colour-coded system, will assist correct packaging of material after voting or the count.
Packaging System
The packaging system for voting station materials has a number of basic objectives:
• to separate materials relevant to the count and integrity of voting from other materials;
• to separate materials relevant to different elections held at the same voting station, be they elections for different representative structures in the same electoral district, or where a voting station issues ballots for more than one electoral district;
• to logically group materials so that packages contain related material;
• to protect materials during transport to counting centres (if required), for transport to any later check counts, and for storage of ballot material until the period for challenge to the election has elapsed.
Depending on local costs, the amount of material to be packaged, and the security environment, the packaging system may use envelopes, cartons, high density plastic bags, locked containers or a combination of these.
Non-Accountable Materials
The easiest materials to deal with are those with no relevance to the count or integrity of the election. Given that the major priority at the time is the count, these materials could be all packed in the one, clearly labelled container, for later sorting.
Such materials would include:
• manuals and procedural guides used by voting station officials;
• posters, signs, and other voting station official and voter information and reference materials;
• unused non-accountable forms, such as those for voter challenges, voter service monitoring and complaints, voter registration (possibly including ballot envelopes, but only where these are not accountable materials used as a control for ballot issue);
• other minor voting equipment, such as badges, pens, pencils, note paper, unused ballot box and package seals, tape, string, torches, lamps for checking if a voter has been marked with ink and so forth.
Apt Materials
It is very important that appropriate materials are sorted in a consistent, disciplined fashion for packaging. It is possible to logically group such materials to aid retrieval.
Each separate material classification requires a clear distinguishing and easily recognisable label to be attached to or on the package. Each label should bear the contents of the package (type(s) of material and number of articles of each type). Where more than one package is used for a single classification of material, the labels should bear standard part-consignment notations. The voting station manager must ensure that these package content notations are accurately completed by voting station officials and formally endorse their accuracy.
Each package must be sealed in such a fashion that any tampering with the package will be noticeable, using a method and packaging materials robust enough to prevent accidental breakage of the package during normal transport and handling. Depending on the packaging container used, this may be by using plastic or metal seals (with appropriate recording of their numbers) paper seals or packaging tape.
Where seals or tape are used, the voting station manager should sign over the top of the seals. Political party/candidate representatives and independent observers present should be invited to sign endorsement of the contents and sign over the seals of the packages.
The details of the types of liable material to be packaged will depend on the voting system and procedures used. The following classifications provide a sound basis for categorising particular types of materials within a logical framework
- Ballots deposited by electors in the appropriate ballot boxes. If ballots are to be counted by hand, these will remain in the ballot boxes until they are required for counting.
If machine counted at another location, they may need to be partially processed at the voting station and replaced in the ballot box or another container. These must be sealed, and political party/candidate representatives and observers present invited to formally witness the sealing. Following counts, these ballots should remain bundled or packaged as sorted by candidate preference, for repackaging in either a ballot box (if the security situation warrants) or other sealed containers.
This post-count packaging of ballots should also be formally recorded and witnessed by political party/candidate representatives and observers.
- Other ballot material. For voting systems in which the ballot itself is the prime integrity control, and thus all ballots must be accountable, this could include:
• unused ballot papers or cards;
• stubs of ballots issued (if detached on issue);
• spoilt ballots (those for which a voter has requested and been issued a fresh ballot);
• discarded or rejected ballots (those that voters have been issued but which were not placed by the voter in the ballot box);
• official marks or seals used to authenticate ballots when issued;
• voting machine keys.
In systems where issue of a ballot envelope to a voter is the prime integrity control, rather than the ballot itself, this category would include unused ballot envelopes, discarded ballot envelopes, stubs or counterfoils of ballot envelopes issued (if detached on issue). It may be useful to package each of these sub-categories in separate packages within the one container.
- Records of voters turning out at the voting station. This would include:
• all copies of voters lists issued to the voting station;
• applications for ballots completed by electors (except where these are attached to the ballot itself in the ballot box);
• any records compiled in the voting station of ballots issuedto voters ;
• details of and forms for voting day registrations where electors were issued a ballot or certificates from civil authorities certifying that voters were incorrectly omitted from the voters list;
• voting machine or computer readings and reports on numbers of voters voting;
• completed forms relating to challenged voters.
- Voting station managers reports and voting records. By whatever name, poll books, voting reports, voting records, or in whatever format, as an integrated booklet or series of forms, this category contains all data relevant to management of the voting station's operations. This will include:
• receipts for material;
• ballot accounting records and reconciliations;
• records of issue of any special ballots;
• ballot box sealing records;
• reports on any challenges, incidents, and disputes over voting;
• staffing and attendance, payment, expense, and evaluation records;
• voter service and premises suitability reports.
- Records of any special votes issued.
- Voter and political party/candidate representative and observer information. Depending on the electoral system, relevant contents (if any at all) will vary widely. It could include data such as accreditation documents that political party/candidate representatives or observers are required to hand over or information on or from voters relevant to their registration.
In packaging these materials, voting material relevant to elections for different representative bodies or different electoral districts held in the same voting station should be kept clearly separate, by colour coding package labels or envelopes, for example, according to different colours of ballots used.
When packaged, all material should be securely prepared for transport, and any transport control documentation completed.
If at all possible, all materials packages from a voting station should be secured in a single container (ballot boxes may need to be handled separately). Such containers should enclose material from one voting station only. Each package and outer container from a voting station must be clearly marked with the voting station identity (name and/or number) and the electoral district to which it belongs. Care needs to be taken in this regard when there is more than one voting station occupying a voting location.
Storage of Voting Station Materials
Following finalisation of counts of ballots, arrangements for sorting of election materials and equipment into those to be stored, and those to be destroyed, need to be implemented.
The periods, for which election materials must be in storage, the manner of their storage, and the accountabilities for their maintenance or destruction would usually be specified in the electoral legal framework.
