Identifying requirements
Before settling on the programme the electoral manager needs to identify what training is
required. This involves both looking at the processes to be carried out and the people who will be
undertaking them.
Training can be expensive and for example in the 1994 Mozambique Elections training costs
amounted to $6,215,000 or 9.6 per cent of the total election and voter registration costs. Many
electoral tasks are carried out by temporary staff - poll workers and vote counters are two major
categories. Some of these staff may be very experienced having carried out the task many times -
others may be working for the first time. In dealing with large numbers it is often difficult to
arrange programs to differentiate between the experienced and new staff. The training
programme needs to be focussed, relevant and interesting. Keep to the point - keep it simple. For
experienced staff training needs to be a reminder of what needs to be done and for new staff an
introduction and explanation.
For permanent staff a higher and continuing level of training is required which should be
implemented progressively as they become more involved in the overall electoral process and in
the complex activity areas. Here the focus should be equally on the needs of the individual and
the requirement to train the individual in a particular process. No staff manager at a senior level
will ever get to the point where they know everything there is to know about the process -
learning is a life long activity. The electoral manager should ensure that each staff member has
the training and support they need to perform the tasks allocated. A key action each year should
be undertaking in depth appraisal and performance interviews with permanent staff. This is the
opportunity to establish in an open and non confrontational manner how the employee is
performing. What are the employees strengths and weaknesses? What do they do well (and
badly)? What particular strengths do they have - automation / logistics / personnel skills /
procurement skills and what ones would they like to develop? Training should look at permanent
employees overall needs, not just electoral skills - but for example time management, dealing
with staff, personnel selection and presentation and negotiation are all skills which apply to
electoral processes and to many other aspects of business and life. The performance appraisal
process should identify the overall training needs including the specialist electoral areas and the
non specialist ones and then prioritise these and establish a programme to meet the identified
skill shortages.
Testing the effect of training through simulation is always useful in assessing how well it has
been absorbed.
Written material for Training Programmes
Keep it short - keep it simple - keep it interesting - use visual material - emphasise key points!
Summarise the key points - long documents take longer to read and attention will wander - use
plenty of examples - prepare good quality visual material - get people present to participate in
mock exercises!
Poll Workers
For electoral managers one of the key training programmes will relate to poll workers. The
polling sites are where the voting takes place and where there is face to face contact between the
electoral manager's staff and the electors. Clear instruction and training is essential to ensure that
the voting process goes off smoothly.
Use diagrams and sketches to set out how to open the polling site, how to close it and show what
type of situations occur. Good sketches of the voting process always help with plenty of 'What
if' Questions and answers to deal with the difficult situations.
Training Manuals for Poll Workers
There are many examples of poll workers manual and increasingly these are of higher and
higher quality with plenty of excellent visual material to illustrate the polling process. Some
samples are attached as follows
Key topic handouts
Comprehensive manuals are not always needed and one page statements complete with graphics
are one way of getting key messages across to staff. Most electoral managers will have
experienced piles of material being returned from polling sites incorrectly packed up and the
subsequent sorting out taking up time and delaying the count. The Canadian Electoral
Commission's Manual (Page 46) shows what materials go in the ballot box and what accompany
it is a clear example of what can be prepared - this can be extracted from the overall manual and
used as a single page handout see Elections Canada Extract from Poll Workers Manual
What if Manuals
These concentrate on providing the answers to a variety of problems and questions. The
International Foundation for Electoral Systems prepared one for Precinct Election Committee
Members for the 1995 Russian Federation Elections see IFES Precinct Election Handbook - Russia and this is a way of training
poll workers in how to deal with a variety of common problems
Problem solving manuals
These are similar to 'What if' manuals and again list a series of potential problems which poll
workers may encounter. The one prepared by the Supervisor of Elections for Montgomery
County, Maryland, United States of America (US) see Extract from Election Judges Manual - USA lists likely problem areas and
the poll worker then simply opens it to the page concerned. Most problems occur when polling
stations are busy and it is important in the training programme to supply material which is well
referenced so that it enables poll workers to deal quickly with difficult questions - there is
unlikely to be time to undertake detailed research and checking of a lengthy poorly indexed
manual.
Changes from the last elections
Another important aspect of training programmes is to highlight what is new since the last
election and what has changed. Many experienced staff tend to skim over instructions assuming
that as they know the system they will be able to carry out the required tasks. Highlight new
requirements and changed requirements in the training programme - it is often the experienced
staff who make mistakes.
Training Exercises
The New Zealand Elections Commission run extensive training programmes and give their staff
practical exercises to carry out and prepare workbooks for this purpose see Election Commission Training Workbook - New Zealand This is a
way of ensuring that staff have not only attended the training sessions but have listened to what
has been said and are able to put it into practice!
Briefings and role play
Where there are very large numbers of people to be trained a programme of standard briefing /
training should be arranged. If this is combined with the distribution of the poll workers manuals
or similar documentation for vote counters or registration workers (or better still if the manuals
can be distributed in advance) a relatively short session (around two hours) can be used to run
through the processes outlined in the manual and to answer questions. Combining this with role
play where for example a polling station is set up and a number of people present are used to
simulate the process shows in a practical way how the process works. Those present can then
take away the manual and will have had the opportunity to watch, listen and ask questions. Good
quality graphic material helps with training - the posters which are frequently prepared for voter
education purposes are equally useful for training particularly those which show the process in
the polling site - the ones for the Republic of South Africa Elections in 1994 are good examples -
see Voting Process - South Africa and Polling Station - South Africa
The Programme
The training programme should be set out in the Strategic and Operational Planing processes. It
should include
- the training needs and requirements for permanent staff identified both through the staff
appraisal process and by looking at the match between current staff skills and proposed
processes
- the training needs of temporary staff divided between the various categories such as Poll
Workers, Vote Counting Staff and Registration Workers
- the timing of the various training activities which needs to be related to the timing of the
electoral processes
- the methods by which the training will be delivered and the personnel and cost implications
Training large numbers of people does not necessarily mean having large numbers of people
present at each session - more smaller sessions which allow better opportunities for questions and
for targeting any specific local problems are often more interesting for the participants and the
more interesting the session the more likely it is to be effective.
Training is not just for staff - many Countries provide training for candidates and prepare
manuals for them. It is in everyone's interests for candidates to know what is and is not permitted
and what responsibilities fall on candidates.
Training can be expensive but not training can be even more costly - it is possible to undertake
training of large number of people using the cascade method - this is normally coupled with the
preparation of a good quality training manual. A small group of people are trained initially and
then each passes on the training to another group which does the same. In this way it is possible to
start with 20 or so people at national level and rapidly spread the training to a vast number of poll
workers.
For further information see Training of Voting Operations Staff.
