Original question

This question was posted by an ACE user working for UNDP Sudan.

I am working with UNDP Sudan. We have been asked by the Sudanese National Elections Commission (NEC) to assist them in designing the ballot papers for the general elections currently planned for April 2010.

The elections will be held for different levels of government, to elect the following:

-          President of Sudan

-          President of the Government of South Sudan (GOSS)

-          National Assembly

-          Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly

-          State governors, and

-          State legislatures throughout Sudan

The Elections Law provides for an electoral system under which the President of the Republic and of the Government of Southern Sudan shall be elected by an absolute majority of fifty percent of the valid votes plus one. If no candidate receives such a majority, a run-off election between the two candidates with the highest number of votes is to take place within 60 days of the polling day. Governors are to be directly elected by the highest number of votes.

A mixed system will be used for the election of members of the National and Southern Sudan Assembly as well as the State legislatures wherein 60% of the seats are to be elected from single-member constituencies; 25% of seats will be reserved for women chosen from state-level party lists (proportional representation); and the remaining 15% of the seats are to be elected from general party lists (proportional representation).

Therefore, voters in the North will cast 8 ballots, while voters in the South will cast 12 ballots.

I would like to know of any similar situations where voters were asked to participate in multiple elections at the same day, and how the ballots were designed. What are the pros and cons of combining several ballots in one sheet (for example to put all executive elections in one sheet)?

Please take into consideration that the illiteracy rates in Sudan are high (reaching over 80 % in some areas in the South).

Introduction

Quote from the ACE Encyclopaedia:

"Ballot papers are one of the highest volume items of material produced for an election - and the most important one. It is essential that the design of the ballot paper is simple so that it can be clearly understood by all voters, and subsequently accurately assessed by counting staff as it is the form that translates voters' preferred party or candidate into their vote."

A key component of the broader area of Voting Operations, the design of the ballot paper impacts mainly on two important aspects of the electoral process:

1. The ability of voters to cast informed votes. The design of the ballot paper affects the voters’ ability to understand the choices of candidates or parties running in the election and select their choice in a valid manner.

2. The accurate counting of votes. Poorly designed ballot papers, with, for example, small and closely aligned preference squares, can lead to voters' marks overlapping more than one square, with consequent dispute at the count over whether the voter is valid, and, if valid, which party or candidate the voter selected. 

While the term “ballot paper” often refers to traditional paper ballots, some of the issues discussed here can also be applied to less common ways of voting such as voting machines, internet voting or even less common methods (such as voting with marbles in the Gambia).

Many elements of ballot paper design relate to the electoral system of the country; some electoral systems, for example preferential systems such as the Single Transferable Vote, tend to require a more sophisticated ballot design compared to simpler systems such as First Past The Post. While the major design features usually are defined in the electoral law, many countries’ laws leave some room for electoral administrators to design a ballot paper that would facilitate informed voting by the electorate. Features that could be changed include the instructions on the paper, the font (type, size, spacing), the potential inclusion of party symbols and/or photos of candidates/party leaders, the colour of ballot(s) etc.

In some countries, a single ballot paper includes all electoral contestants (parties/candidates), and the voter indicates his/her choice on the ballot by, for example, ticking a box. In other countries each contestant has a separate ballot paper and the voter indicates his/her vote by choosing the ballot with his/her preferred party/candidate. These approaches could be combined; where personal voting is allowed voters can first choose the ballot of a specific party and then indicate on this ballot which candidate of that party they would like to vote for. 

In cases (such as Sudan) where multiple elections are held at the same time, the ballots could be designed either to enable several votes for different elections on the same ballot, or to have separate ballots for each election.

Summary of Responses

There are several examples of countries where multiple elections have been held in the same day. To mention a few, in Afghanistan parliamentary and provincial council elections were held simultaneously in 2005 and in 2009 the first round of the presidential elections were held at the same time as provincial council elections. In Ecuador presidential and parliamentary elections are normally held at the same day. In Uganda, president and legislature are elected simultaneously and the legislative elections further allow citizens to cast separate votes for a number of “special interest groups” such as women and youth. Other examples include countries such as New Zealand and Scotland, where the Mixed Member Proportional system allows each voter to cast two votes in one election.

Using a single, combined ballot
Using a single ballot for several elections does not necessarily decrease voters’ ability to cast an informed vote, provided that sufficient voter education efforts are carried out well advance of the elections. Paul Graham mentions the case of Afghanistan, where a booklet-style ballot paper has been used with some success. Tim Meisburger points out that in Indonesia, voters and administrators alike seem to be able to handle rather complex, poster-sized ballots. Meisburger also points out that a single ballot could be easier to administer – having a large number of different ballot papers and boxes is likely to bring practical difficulties – albeit more difficult to count. Ensuring a small number of voters per polling station could diminish the problems of vote counting and give polling officers more time to assist voters. 

Using separate ballots
Many of the members of the Practitioners’ Network are in favour of using separate ballots, mainly for reasons of simplicity and especially so in countries with a high degree of illiteracy and/or a lack of experience or history of previous elections.

Simon Osborn mentions that research done in Uganda, a country holding multiple elections since 2006, suggests a limit of three separate ballot papers per polling day, and provides the option of grouping similar elections and holding those groups of elections on different days in a logical sequence. However, as noted by Meisburger, such an approach is likely to require substantive amounts of additional resources and might not be sustainable or affordable in the long term and without the support of the international community. This concern is shared by Libisi Maphanga, who questions whether such complex electoral processes can be successfully conducted in a post-conflict country with little recent history of elections. 

On a similar note, Graham suggests using some kind of rotational voting, where voters are given one or a couple of connected ballot papers at the same time but then having to move to a new queue within the polling station in order to vote in the next election or set of elections. This view is also supported by Maria Helena Alves who states that although this would mean more work and put higher demands on polling workers it would decrease the number of invalid votes.

In a study by the United Kingdom Election Commission, it is pointed out that naturally the use of combined ballot papers might also provide complications where certain voters are not eligible for all elections, resulting in a need to provide a separate type of ballot for each of these instances. A similar problem could appear in situations where the boundaries of districts of the various offices up for elections differ. In this case ballot papers might have to be separated for counting procedure.

Using several combined ballots
Some practitioners, such as Simon Osborn and Laurie McGrath, suggest grouping some of the elections (for example for the executive positions) into one ballot, thus reducing the number of separate ballot papers. In a similar fashion Dr Noor Mohammed suggests, if allowed by law, to combine the vote for a candidate and a vote for a party in legislative elections would be merged into one vote (ie voting for a candidate of a party also means voting for that party).

Other important aspects
As mentioned above by Graham, voter education is a key issue when launching multiple elections in a context of low literacy and lack of long-standing democratic traditions. Other potential measures suggested to decrease the number of invalid votes and facilitate the voting procedure are to use different colours for different ballot papers. Laurie McGrath points out the importance of using both party symbols and photographs on the ballot papers in order to make it easier for illiterate voters.

In Afghanistan, candidates were given a symbol each since it was believed photos would not make it easy enough given the large number of candidates. In this regard Pedro Lacunza recommends the testing of various options using mock elections or a simple survey among potential voters.

However, as mentioned in a previous consolidated reply, photograph and icons can be useful especially in situations where there is a high illiteracy rate, but their use needs to be accompanied by a significant voter information campaign in order to be meaningful. It is also important to remember that the use of photos and icons adds to the complexity and cost of ballot production and makes it more difficult to re-print ballot papers in case a candidate dies or is withdrawn because the EMB will need to receive and scan a new photograph instead of just adding another name. 

Replies were received, with thanks, from:
 

Pedro Lacunza
Paul Graham
Dr Noor Mohammad
Maria Helena Alves
Tim Meisburger
Simon Osborn
Laurie McGrath
Libisi Maphanga
 

Links to related resources:

ACE Encyclopaedia: Ballot Paper Design
Consolidated reply: Photographs and icons on ballot papers
Electoral Material: United Kingdom: Review of Ballot Paper Design
Electoral Material: Selection of Sample Ballot Papers
Report: Ballot Paper Design for Scottish Parliament Elections 2007
Images: Panama Ballot Paper from 2004 and Indonesian Voter (courtesy of CETRO)

My advise is not to use  the same ballot for several elections. Different colour (ballot or border) for different election is my choice. Why you don't ask or make a survey at local level and real voters to test the different options? Good luck.

The Afghan booklet approach did not seem to cause too many problems for voters - others will comment on issues of ballot security and integrity - but the advice I have from a colleague is that voter education would then be a key issue. An alternative is to separate the ballots and have some form of rotational voting - allowing voters to conclude on or a logical set of votes and then move on to a new queue within the station to obtain a second ballot paper or set of ballot papers.

High illiteracy level limits the options to a great extent. In that case the ballot paper has to be simple.  In my humble opinion, there have to be separate ballot for different positions – the colour of all ballots should be different so that segregation is easy at the time of counting. Separate ballot will also reduce number of invalid votes - If it is a combined ballot a single mark that can reveal identity of a voter will make the ballot invalid in respect of all the elections in the combined ballot.

Election of the President of Sudan, President of the Government of South Sudan (GOSS) and State governors can be simpler and complication can come only if the number of candidates is high in a specific contest.  

Elections of members of National Assembly, Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly and State legislatures throughout Sudan has another dimension, there being a mixed system. There will be 3 ballots for each category of members and this will be very inconvenient for an illiterate voter to remember all candidates, parties, gender in different categories and exercise an informed choice.  I don’t know if the law permits - If it does, for election of members of the National Assembly, there may be just one ballot and his/her party symbol may be printed on the ballot along with the photo and the name of the candidate.  One vote in this case will be vote to the candidate as well as the party s/he belongs to. The seats of the propotional system can be allocated to women and general party in proportion to the votes polled by the party candidates in the single member constituencies.  This will reduce the number of ballots to one. Similar procedure may be adopted in case of Southern Sudan Legislative Assembly and State legislatures also.

However, if the law does not permit such a flexibility, one has to go through the painful process of 8 or 12 ballots as stated in the question.

From my experience with elections in the RDC and Ecuador where the voters had to vote, at the same time, for several elections, with some of them using a majority system and others a mixed proportional system, I would advise:

1. If possible to schedule separate election dates for president, national assembly and local assemblies.

2. To not use the same ballot for the same election.

3. To avoid giving the ballots for the multiple elections all at once.

Although this means somewhat more and carefully organized work for the polling officers, I do believe that this will result in a much lower number of invalid votes and therefore it will prove worth the effort. It goes without saying that a well designed program of voter education is key for a smooth and successfully run election.

Interesting question. I think their are pros and cons to most of the alternatives mentioned. Separate ballots for each election are certainly the easiest to count, but twelve different colors and twelve ballot boxes seems impractical. Having elections at different times is a bad idea for a country like Sudan, as each individual electoral event will cost about the same as combining all the elections in one event, and while that might be affordable while the UN is there, it will be unsustainable after their departure.

One big ballot for all elections in a particular locality is easiest to administer, except for counting. In Indonesia they have ballots the size of posters, but voters do get through them, and administrators are able to count them. I think the key there is the small size of polling stations (I think an average of about 300 voters per station).

Good luck!  Tim

This is the first more genuine election Sudanese have held since the late '80s. Literacy, particularly in the South is a significant issue. Previously elections have been held over many days (for the same post) and one ballot at a time. Given these problems I would suggest you keep it as simple as possible. Design separate ballot papers for each "election" event for the PR sections for legislative polls.

Uganda now holds combined polls - started in 2006 - and the reserach done by the EC here suggests that no more than three ballot papers should be used on each polling day. Thus the question may be which polls to hold on which day and the sequence of them. My suggestion for what its worth would be to culminate with the nationla presidential polls (or executive positions i.e. National President, Goss President & State Governors) and hold legislative ones first.

I would also suggest that you have separate ballot for the constituency seats, women's PR seats and mixed PR seats). But you may find the cost of holding elections on so many days to be exhorbitant!

I wish you luck.

It is not an easy task. If you are forced to hold all the elections on the same day because of:

• Timetable;
• Money; and
• Logistic capacity.

Then perhaps consider the possibilty of using distinctive colours for each of the elections and grouping these onto no more than three papers (see previous comment from Simon Osborn on Eu research). It is relatively easy to do in printing terms and can define individual ballots. 

As literacy is a key consideration I assume that there will be both party symbols and photographs on the ballot papers.    

I agree with all those who proposed the following;

• Separate ballot for each election type;
• Different distinctively coloured ballot (both front and back);
• Different coloured ballots including the use of stipes will make it easier to separate and sort the ballot paper according; and
• Also ensuring that on the ballot contenders are at least represented by their party name, party symbol and picture of the candidate or party leader in the case of the propotional elections) for pictorial differentiation for that cannot read.

With respect to the voting process and taking into account the concerns about low literacy levels in some areas - an ideal option if facilities permit will be to streamline the voting like production line, such that a voter deals with one ballot at a time and flows through different workstation for each ballot type. That implies having an 8 (in the north) or 12 (in the south) stage voting stages. This will limit the number spoilt votes. However I concede that it will require lots of support staff and facilities which might be costly.

But, why was the electoral process so complicated, are we building democracy or playing around with idealistic experiments, thoungh painfully so;

• May be the fundamental question that needed to be asked is why such a complecated system requiring so many elections especially as the first post-conflict elections. I think the time has come that a serious discussion amongst all concerned and especially in the UN and its sister organisations to be simple and practical in our approach to post-conflict electoral processes.
• I am concerned that this idealistic approaches that take us to the very best of electoral processes complicates the process and is not helpful. My biggest concern is that these processes are so complicated making the electoral experience difficult if not impossible for the country to repeat on its own, the DRC (Democratic Republic Of the Congo) is a case in point and I am worried that Sudan may face a similar fate. I believe in the saying that Rome was not built in one day. Starting with a simpler process with between 1 - 3 ballots then scalling later could make the experience easy to repeat and build up the ideal democracy we all yearn for within a short period.