This question was posted on behalf of an ACE user who wishes to remain anonymous and is a  Member of NGO/Civil Society Organization in South Africa.

The Question

One of the challenges for Election Management Bodies is to ensure that temporary staff employed on Election Day to run the polling stations, especially the presiding officers, perform their duties well. 

Rather than using more time consuming and costly recruitment processes for these temporary polling station staff many EMBs use a database of previous presiding officers and polling station staff as the basis for recruitment for the next election. The logic seems to be that if they worked in that position in previous elections they are qualified to do it again for the next election. 

However reality shows, especially in developing countries that the quality of performance of the polling station staff varies greatly – due to many different factors including: level of education, behavioral competencies, personal integrity and commitment to the task at hand. 

The question I would like to ask the practitioners network is: 

• What methods and systems are used by Election Management Bodies to assess the performance of Presiding Officers (and other temporary electoral staff) at an election in order to ensure that the competent people are used for the next election?
• What cost effective methods of recruitment of Presiding Officers (and other temporary electoral staff) exist – beyond the use of a database of previous electoral workers?

Summary of Responses

It was noted that adding performance evaluations to temporary staff databases, conducting training courses as well as training of trainers among CSOs is existing practice. EMB training of temporary staff is also noted to require context sensitive approaches, and that the goal is to ensure credibility of staff. Word of mouth, posting electoral need requirements at institutions of learning, and getting recommendations from local individuals of influence can help. In addition, knowledge of civic governance is highlighted as a general issue of importance. Examples were raised, pointing to returning officers or supervisors in larger jurisdictions being the evaluators of presiding officers. Moreover, election observers may offer grading of presiding officers visited on polling day, and proceedings in sensitive polling stations may even be video recorded. Overall, training is crucial for good performance as well as stakeholder consultations.

In Spain, a manual is used to introduce presiding officers and ensure good performance. India uses civil and public servants, and members of youth groups have been used in Nigeria in 2011. It was emphasized that political neutrality is crucial for good performance, and that neutrality may change over time. In Tanzania, temporary positions are advertized for and Returning Officers who can then choose staff using relevant criteria. Political parties have the opportunity to scrutinize the names, and previous poor performance can be taken into account. 

One can also institute a number of performance indicators, and examples are made among the responses. In Sri Lanka, the presiding officer will not work at their own constituencies or villages for reasons of security and neutrality. In Spain, a lottery is used to select presiding officers. Given the acceptance of stakeholders, one can use databases, nomination by parties, or independent recruitments to source temporary staff. However, cost effectiveness does not necessarily mean cost efficiency. One way is to focus on certain groups, recruiting teachers as staff, such as in India, university students, or, as in Uganda, village councilors. 

Examples of Related ACE Articles and Resources

Encyclopaedia:

• EMB Staffing and Development of Professional Electoral Management

• Election officials in voter education

• Costa Rica: A Powerful Constitutional Body

• Ghana: Vote Counting using Majoritatrian and First-Past-the-Post

• Elections in Ethiopia

• Elections in Palestine

Electoral Materials:

• Belize: Election Day Guidelines for Polling Agents, Elections and Boundaries Department Belize (2005)

Names of Contributors

1. Josep M. Reniu 

2. Hisham Kuhail 

3. Monte McMurchy 

4. Carl Dundas 

5. Khalid Waheed 

6. Amon Emmanuel Chaligha 

7. Hugh Fulton 

8. Somsri Hananuntasuk 

9. Juma Thomas Otieno 

10. Krishnamurthy T.S 

11. Charles Lasham 

12. Hadija Miiro  

In the case for Spain, as the electoral process is so simple, they receive just a Manual which specifies all the different actions to be taken during the election day. Actually it has been tested the CAE (Colegios Administrados Electrónicamente - Electronic Managed Electoral Polls) that basically simplifies the filling-up of all documents & acts to be created during the electoral day: opening the poll, counting the votes, closing poll, ...

On the second question, here is used a lottery that includes all potential voters except those over 65 and those that can not read or write. The lottery is made for each electoral section, and it's not unsual to have to be there a couple of times...

The database of previous electoral workers is one method used in our recruitment policy. Our database is composed of two categories; the first of those who work in the public sector (mainly education ministry staff), and the second of those who are recruited from the community at large.

In each election operation our distict offices conduct an evaluation process through which we regularly update our database. The evaluation aims at identifying best performances of staff and at the same time identify their skill areas in the various processes. 

To overcome any expected shortages, we also conduct a number training courses each year in electoral processes targetting the community at large. During the training sessions we also conduct a sort of evaluation by which we identify and classify trainees into categories according to the nature of work i.e (registration staff, supervisors, trainers, ..etc). Those trained are then sorted in a special database for immediate recruitment.

We also conduct TOT programs targetting civil society organization (CSOs) bywhich we qualify trainers in the respective CSOs who intern conduct training in their localities of potential electoral staff.

Such a process saves time both in the recruitment process as well as the extended training (time and Cost) during an election operation. Training of staff during an election operation would be made as minimum and would be more oriented towards refreshing their information.  

Methods and systems used by Election Management Bodies to assess the performance of Presiding Officers (and other temporary electoral staff) at an election in order to ensure that the competent people are used for the next election will vary as each situation will be unique which does not mitigate from objective normative standards of electoral administration as I consider this aspect of import.

EMB's are as sound and are as effective/efficient as those presiding electoral officers who are participating under this EMB aegis in the performance of their electoral administrative duties and other concommitant civic electoral responsibilities.

For me there exists no one definite solution concerning electoral administrative performance capacity other than ensuring and maintaining the professional civic electoral credibility of each individual employed under the aegis of an EMB. Performance will need to be reflected/graded/assessed as in regions of extreme hardship and post conflict strife the element of what constitutes probitive prescriptive civic electoral administrative performance will and can vary according to the multi-varied circumstances which must and ought to be taken into account which for this writer ought/must not diminish/reduce the probity of the electoral administrative conduct performed.

Word of mouth will indeed be considered of crucial value as electoral officers who are deemed as being worthy in terms of integrity and performance when recommonding another must be considered. Posting electoral need requirements at institutions of learning will also ensure a wider applicant pool. Alerting local individuals of influence in recommending candidates is another crucial web in attracting a pool of worthy candidates for consideration as local people operating electoral polling stations is for me a positive marker in enhancing social cohesion which can only add and support the aspect of localized trust in the EMB.

Educative electoral expertise is important but of equal if not greater import is that of integrity coupled with a strong desire to enhance this civic process which if conducted prescriptively can only strengthen in the long run the national element of community.

Ensuring the instruction of civics commencing at the primaray level and up onto the tertiary level is again for me important as greater knowledge of civic governance can only ensure a more credible and criticle pool of electoral administrative aspirants who may wish to share their insights and knowledge at both the local and national level.

Electoral management bodies employ various methods and systems in assessing the performance of presiding officers. In small jurisdictions, it is not unusual for the returning officers to be the direct  evaluator of the performance of presiding officers. In many larger jurisdictions, there are often supervisors for every 10 to 12 presiding officers and these supervisors participate in any evaluation of the performance of those presiding officers under his/her watch. In some cases, independent election observers may offer grades of 0-10 with respect to the presiding officers visited on polling day. Performance levels for presiding officers may be based on competence, efficiency, quality of services offered to voters etc.

The quality of performance may depend on the level of training given to presiding officers. This is an area of great challenge to EMBs to provide good quality training to temporary staff such as presiding officers. BRIDGE Training courses often do not extend to temporary field staff and the same goes for other forms of professional training like BEAT. Even the concept of total training for electoral non-professional staff may not extend to temporary field staff.

A way needs to be developed to train temporary field staff (including presiding officers) so as avoid a notable gap in the proper training of those responsible for conducting polling.

Many cost-effective methods have been tried in training and retaining temporary staff in addition database of immediate past presiding officers. The use of civil and public servants, as in India, goes some way in addressing the issue. In some jurisdictions, magistrates are used as presiding officers, so are teachers, young volunteer professionals from non-partisan social clubs such as Lion's and Kiwanis, are used in some cases, and even members of youth groups, as in Nigeria in the 2011 elections.

It is possible to develop and apply customized training for temporary field staff for EMBs, but as of the present time, this methodology has not caught on in most emerging democracies.  

EMBs generally deploy the Polling station staff which is headed by Presiding officer on temporary basis as after that specific election there seems no need to retain the staff. In most of the countries the polling staff is is taken from other departments just to conduct the polling and necessary training is imparted to do the job .

The credibility depends upon the the impartial and transparent performance of staff, where electorates seem satisfied and no complaint from political parties, individual candidates, polling agents or from general public, at large, should come. Their performance can easily be assessed from the their previous track recored as mentioned above. Further trainings and assessment during trainings add more to know about their level of knowledge, expertise ,fairness, transparency and impartiality which helps in determining the level of their credibility.

As the staff is required in high number and availability of credible staff from other sources can not be ensured nor they are under the command of EMB, so the requisitioning of staff from other state functionaries become essential. This  is usually a trained staff as most of them have undertaken the task time and again. However, at each activity they are required to refresh their minds, knowledge and functions according to the requirements of the time.

It is also not necessary that entire previous trained staff is available .Some of them might have posted elsewhere or retired or otherwise not available for duty so new entries have to be made from fresh graduates and reputed CSOs for which fresh trainings are required. 

Trainings of EMB's permanent as well as temporary staff, always remain  the need of time which updates the knowledge, expertise and working .Even, where staff is hired from other private sources, the training becomes vital to carry out the required functions and achieve desired objectives.

All EMBs are generally having their own training and research wings to carry out and update the trainings which  also collaborate usually  with international organizations and with each other's interactions the training materials and methodologies are modified from time to time.

The continuous practice of trainings and assessment is always helpful to ascertain the availability of impartial and credible staff.

Amon Emmanuel Chaligha

EMBs cannot have permanent staff to manage polling stations on election day. People change and demands from political parties and civil societies change from time to time. Moreover, polling station staff must always be politically neutral (should never side with a certain political party). A person who was politically neutral in the last election may have changed.

What has proved practical and useful in Tanzania is to advertise for such positions close to elections. This enables Returning Officers to choose staff with a certain minimum level of education and proven experience in previous elections. After selecting the required staff, political parties are given an opportunity to scrutinize the names (to identify those whom they consider politically biased because they hold positions in other parties; membership alone does not disqualify a person).

If an applicant handled polling stations which were identified as problematic, such an applicant will not be selected to  preside in the current election. Hence, there is no single solution e.g. a one size fit-all solution. Experience and political expedience should be the guide. Frequent consultation with election stakeholders, in particular, political parties is an imperative which cannot be avoided.

Often appointment of presiding officers is a key target for political parties wishing to gain advantage over other participants, and the real issue is maintaining presiding officer’s (and committee's) independence. Thereafter one may worry about technical issues, continuity, standards in training etc.    

It would be useful to understand the broader motive that drives the question related to presiding officer competency and the conduct of voting (and counting?) in polling stations? One assumes the issue is related to compliance with procedures with regards to establishing polling location; closing of polling location; committee training; conduct of voting; conduct of counting; voter management; party agent and supporter management; prevention of fraud; observer management; etc – a mixture of technical and integrity issues.

What exactly is the scale of the problem? If this is in regard to SA elections, the Ipsos survey noted that 67% of ANC voters trusted the presiding officer. What is the required benchmark needed to maintain public trust in institution and continued acceptance of results? If unchecked is the trend increasing resulting in results which are not accepted? What locally is acceptable?

The key issue are as follows; (1) appointment process and (2) means of deterrence to non-compliance / malfeasance. With regards to recruitment practices; how are the presiding officers appointed? Are they direct political appointees as in the case of some countries, non-affiliated non-permanent staff or civil servants? How susceptible are presiding officers to influence and how may this be controlled. Further, who agrees to their appointment, and how may this process be manipulated? In such a politically charged environment then no matter how much training occurs, presiding officers may act under instruction and thus contrary to procedures. In regards to deterrence, bearing in mind the presence of any political dynamic, what is legal framework exits to combat malfeasance (electoral law, criminal code?); which body will raise any wrong doing (observer, voters?), which body will address any wrong doing (election commission, separate election disputes judicial tribunal, national judiciary?), and importantly what is the level of will to resolve issues.  

One should also not forget cultural specifics such as public tolerance for fraud and fostering attitudes towards ensuring professionalism in the workplace. Do not forget the role of observer groups, civil society and the media to positively support best practices in presiding officer recruitment and project management. Further, what amendments may be made to evolve the electoral framework in support of the issue?

With regards to question specifics; (1) what methods / systems used to assess performance – one could institute a number of performance indicators (opened/closed on time etc), refer to observer reports, refer to specific complaints, even (if practicable) send out EMB staff to spot-check quality, NGO funded project to address this issue; and (2) cost effective methods of recruitment – recruitment is on a non-permanent basis, either nominated from parties (with obvious downside), appointed from database, or independently recruited every year. A key issue here is acceptance from stakeholders especially the political parties of any such appointment.

A good question not isolated to one country, maintaining independence of elections and public faith in outcomes is key in any election no matter in which country they are being held. As always in election management there are very few perfect solutions more often a compromise has to be found.

Normally there is no specific method to assess their performance and neutrality.  Most election commissions (EC) in Asian countries selected Presiding Officers (PO) from the assisting of local body; state or provincial EC. Many of the POs are teachers, school master or village head or district chief.  They will check their background before accepting to work at PS on polling day.   These people would receive one or two trainings.   Presiding Officer (PO) is the most important person for the work at polling station but they have Director or deputy PO to help supervise the work. 

Their work will be reflected by the team members (3 to 10 polling officers) and by the outcome of the work ie. less mistake, accuracy, neutrality, less complaint/no protest, complete their role and able to build trust.     They should be able to answer all questions related to electoral process, assist and solve the problem occurring during polling time and beyond.   If they can not fulfill the task, the EC must replace him by new persons.  Ideally there should have a process to evaluate PO after election time and then invite them to work again for the next election (if they are good enough).  Good PO will normally select good poll officers.  Certificate should be given to good PO by national ECT for appreciation. 

However, we do not recommend EC in developing countries to invite village head or district chief for this work because many of them are canvassers of political parties and not neutral.

• What cost effective methods of recruitment of Presiding Officers (PO) and other temporary electoral staff exist – beyond the use of a database of previous electoral workers?

We used to propose direct recruiting teachers and some government officers to work as Presiding Officers and as temporary polling officers.

Teachers are educated people, more neutral, respected and honest.  Selecting the POs can be done by testing and examination by provincial Election Commission (PEC) or State EC.   Ideally the PEC must provide them 2 trainings, workshop and role play.

In Sri Lanka, the PO will not work at their constituencies or villages.  They will be shifted to work at another PS for security reason and neutrality maintaining.  Shifting them to work at another place is expensive because we must pay them one or two nights to stay over night at school. 

In contributing to this wonderful and more practicable topic; of methods EMBs can use in assessing Presiding Officers performance at Polling Stations, I find it good to embrace experience mixed with new talent. When experience and new talent is mixed then it help warm up the focus groups discussions during training sessions.

The methods on the other hand that can help assess the PO's performance can be classified as personal traits, those derived from EMBs' input on staff like training e.t.c., and those that come out of the place where someone is posted. These three are variables that can alter a PO's performance, even the best one.

Listed below however, can work as a general guide to assessing of performance as they fit in the three categories highlighted above;

1. Academic strength of an individual

2. Personal Organization

3. Understanding of legal framework governing elections, its seriousness, and capability to fill the statutory forms during simulations in training.

4. The general understanding of electoral procedures where in this case we emphasize on voting.

5. Management of voters, electoral staff, and security being the person with the command of the station.

6. Feedback on complaints to the Returning Officer's desk can determine the perfomance of POs.

7. Very critical is existent of spoilt, rejected, and invalid votes. Their number can be concluded to mean the perfomance is either way. Though this must also underscore some likely challenges faced in one location and not others.

About the cost effective method of recruiting staff apart from existing data bank; I wish to state from the onset that cost effectiveness might not mean cost efficiency thus depending on what an EMBs needs matters here. If effectiveness means efficiency then well and good. Both of these are important. As I said earlier, a blend of continuity and freshness is very good for enhancement of effectiveness and efficiency.

Old and previous work is likely to bring reliability, knowhow, or even taking things for granted. To recruit the good required staff; EMBs' should be having civic education, workshop trainings, and other forums of interracting with non officials. It is also imperative to give information in good time not when in pressure and then you expect efficiency.

Response below on behalf of Krishnamurthy T.S, former head of elections from India.

In my opinion the Indian experience is worth consideration:

1)Employ Govt employees esp. teachers with honorarium paid for their electoral duties.Provide for postal ballot (or internet voting ) to poll officials (2 days before as in Palestine)

2)Employ these officials not in the same place where they live.Rotate them in different polling stations by computer random selection method for each polling stations.

In some cases poll officials are taken from adjacent district/province where you anticpate strong local bias among local officials

3)Have independant Observers (Senior officers from far off places not belonging to the province where election takes place by random selection/voluteers/media representatives duly accredited)

  Pay them some allowances

4)Also provide for Video recordings in sensitive polling stations

5)Provide for proper training/briefing to these polling station officials/Observers

Regards

TSK

Response below on behalf of ACE Expert Charles Lasham.

The easiest test of the performance of a poll worker is to see whether there have been complaints from voters, agents, observers, political parties or candidates on or immediately after election day. If not then indications are that things are okay.

Another test is to look at the paperwork produced by the poll workers to see if they have presented accurate returns. Some EMBs send out “inspectors” during election day and each inspector has a number of polling stations to visit. The inspectors call at all polling stations in use on the day to make sure that everything is okay and that the staff are performing well. Those staff who have performed badly should not be used for future elections and computerized election management systems can assist with the marking of staff who are not up to standard to ensure they are never used again.

All staff, no matter how experienced, should receive training prior to election day. Competence can also be assessed at the training. What cost effective methods of recruitment of Presiding Officers (and other temporary electoral staff) exist – beyond the use of a database of previous electoral workers? Advertisements placed on EMB or municipality website; advertise on NGO websites; bulk emails to staff in large organizations such as local councils.

In Nigeria, where they were having problems with the performance and honesty of poll workers, they recruited people from the National Youth Corps to work on election day. These young people, fresh from university, have to successfully complete one year’s placement in government or other offices. They are then able to be “certified” for work. If they perform badly or somehow do not complete their year as a “Corper” then they will not obtain the necessary piece of paper which enables them to take their place in the ordinary workforce.

The National Youth Corps are seen as honest and not corruptible. They have to perform well as poll workers to successfully complete their one year NYC.

Charles Lasham

ASSESSMENT AND RECRUITMENT OF TEMPORARY ELECTORAL STAFF

Methods and Systems Used By EMBs to Assess the Performance of Presiding Officers and Other Temporary Staff.

Each staff is assigned a unique identification number and his passport photograph is captured at the time of recruitment. An ID is also issued to him with his details and photograph specifying the duration of his employment. The photograph is used to print a temporary ID and can serve as a biometric identifier where applicable.

Using this information a database is created that includes all temporary staffs that have ever worked for the EMB. The following fields are contained in the database:

1.       Individual particulars indicating the name, age, academic level, physical address, telephone number and email address where applicable, reference contact

2.       Position held

3.       Electoral Area where an individual is assigned

4.       Type and level of elections

5.       Type of training and dates (Each trained is codes and details provided in a master list)

6.       Results based Assessment ( Based on Predetermined Criteria)

7.       Criminal Record (that violate the electoral act and or code of conduct)

8.       Biometric Data (Facial, Finger Print, Iris etc) as required and afforded

9.       Any other useful information

After each electoral event, a supervisor makes an assessment of the performance of each individual staff using a semi structured form.  Payment is subject to submission of assessment forms for all staff under one’s supervision. Details are entered in the database and updated after each election.

Advantages:

The EMB will be able to

1.       Identify and trace staff who worked in an aspect(s) of the electoral process at a particular point in time.

2.       Determine the required level of training or refresher courses

3.       Avoid impersonation; since each individual will have a unique identifier (Number an and photograph )

4.       Use the same photograph to produce a temporary staff ID for each election

5.       Reduce on training and deployment costs

6.       Decide on deployment strategy (To deploy people in their localities or otherwise.

7.       Identify those who were involved in electoral offences or who performed poorly

8.       Trace those who are involved in electoral multi practices

Cost Effective Methods of Recruitment Of Presiding Officers and Other Temporary Staff

1. Using existing pool of civil services especially in local governments

In Uganda, the Head of Government District is the Electoral Presiding Officer. County, Sub County, parish and village Chiefs are the Electoral County, Sub country, Parish and Village Supervisors respectively. Most of the Election Day staffs are village councilors.

2. Use of Teachers

 In many countries, schools are closed on national election days and the premises used as polling centers/stations. Teachers are trainable, stay in a locality for quite long, respected by the community and will benefit from the allowances given to election staff

3. Use of students

 Students from University and higher institutions of learning are easier to coordinate, relatively cheaper, readily available, simpler to trace and reprimand and less susceptible to electoral multi practices as most of them advocate for transparency and often adhere to democratic principles.  In any case, integrity of academic institutions is traditionally higher than that of handpicked electoral officers

4. Recruit from the locality

Due to disjointed systems of recruitment, nepotism, vested interests, influence peddling, out right corruption often influence the recruitment of temporary electoral staff. Workers are recruited from far beyond, with no basic literacy or requisite skills if they have the right friends or relatives. Such employees have no allegiance to the communities they serve and are more difficult to trace or reprimand when they engage in electoral malpractices. Recruiting from distances does not itself guarantee impartiality. Yet a locally recruited person is more closely watched if the population knows his/her interest.