Procedure Factors
Actions at close of voting will depend on whether early voting locations:
• Can issue ballots only for the electoral district within which the early voting station is located, or whether ballots for other locations can be issued.
Are open for a single day, or several days; this will affect the format of the records to be completed during voting and at close of early voting.
The following discussion deals with early voting in person. (For close of voting procedures for mail voting, see Close of Voting for Mail Voting.)
Ballots Issued for Same Electoral District Only
Procedures at close of the early voting, whenever that is legally determined, can follow those for a normal voting station:
• where an early voting station can only issue ballots for the electoral district within which it is located, and
• Issues these votes by reference to a voters list for the electoral district.
If applications for an early vote are required, these should also be reconciled to ballot issues. Material can be returned to the voting operations administration office following closure of early voting, and ballots may be stored in the ballot box until counted after the close of voting on voting day. They should not be counted earlier than this.
With this method of issue, it would be more efficient to count these ballots at a single location in the electoral district, rather than distribute to relevant normal voting stations for the count.
If early ballots are issued for the home electoral district only, but as special enveloped ballots with accompanying elector details, rather than by reference to voters lists, the same ballot and/or envelope accounting methods can be used at close of voting, and voter eligibility and counting undertaken at a single counting location. While eligibility checking of the voters' identity information can usefully occur before voting day, the ballots should not be counted before close of voting.
Ballots Issued for Multiple Electoral Districts
Ballot accounting at close of voting becomes more complex when early voting stations can issue ballots for multiple electoral districts.
Separate ballot accounting records will need to be completed for each electoral district for which ballots may be issued.—District reconciliations should be done for:
• ballots issued;
• unused ballots;
• applications for early ballots received (if required);
• ballot issue records;
• envelopes (where used);
• voters marked on lists as having voted.
Where early voting stations issue ballots for multiple electoral districts from lists of early voters for each electoral district, it can be effective to count all early ballots issued at the early voting stations or at a location in that electoral district (particularly if these counts can be combined with counts of similarly-issued absentee ballots on voting day).
In such cases, early ballots can be stored under security in their ballot boxes until the count. Advice of counts should be transmitted to relevant electoral districts as soon as counts are completed, with supporting ballots and documentation despatched by secure transport to the relevant electoral districts following the packaging of all count material.
However, it can also be efficient to package and return these ballots immediately following the close of voting to a central location for sorting to electoral district and counting.
Where early voting stations issue ballots for multiple electoral districts as special enveloped ballots with accompanying voter identification information, rather than by reference to voters lists, it can be more cost-effective, and easier to maintain integrity controls, to despatch all early ballots, in their ballot boxes, and accompanied by ballot issue records, for voter eligibility checking and counting at a single central location for all electoral districts.
This will require high quality, centralised voter registration data, a fairly complex count centre set-up, and, if electoral districts are dealt with consecutively, may cause delays in some count results.
If early voting is conducted using special enveloped ballots, but they are not all to be counted at one central location, at the close of early voting:
• Envelopes containing all early ballots issued in an electoral district will need to be removed from the ballot box(es), sorted according to electoral districts, counted by electoral districts, and reconciled with ballot issue records. This should be done in the presence of and witnessed by party/candidate representatives.
• Secure packages of ballots for each electoral district (sealed lightweight ballot boxes could be used for this) should be prepared for secure transport to the relevant electoral districts for voter eligibility checking and counting. If a long period is allowed for early voting, more than one such despatch may be required.
• Notices of the early ballots to be sent to each electoral district should be prepared and sent under separate immediate cover to the relevant electoral districts.
• On arrival, reconciliations of ballot envelopes received to despatch notices should be instituted by the receiving electoral districts, and when reconciled, officials could proceed to check the ballot envelopes for voter eligibility and counting of ballots.
Unless relatively costly, very well-controlled, and accurate recording and despatch systems are implemented, it is all too easy for this cross swapping of ballots to break down. Manual systems are generally not up to the task. Centralised counting and transmission of results to the relevant electoral district requires considerably less complex logistical controls and can concentrate resources.
Multiple Day Early Voting
If early voting locations are open for more than one day,
• a count of ballots issued and remaining unused, reconciled to total ballots received at the voting station, and
• a count of applications processed during the day (where applications are required) and records of ballot issues, reconciled to actual ballot stocks remaining,
Should be progressively undertaken at the end of each day to retain control over ballot accounting and make reconciliations at close of voting easier.
Where early voting stations can issue ballots for multiple electoral districts, this progressive ballot accounting will need to be a more complex document containing separate ballot accounting records for each electoral district.
