What is the Civil Service?
The civil service is normally regarded as part of the national government. A national electoral
commission would not normally be part of the civil service, nor would local or regional councils
or states.
The role of the civil service in electoral staff appointments may well be very restricted. If the
civil service is involved in the overall electoral staff appointment process, it should comply with
the same standards of personnel selection as apply to an internal personnel office - see Internal Personnel Office.
The Role of the Civil Service
This role is likely to fall into the following categories:
- appointing key persons in the electoral process, such as members of a national electoral
commission or chief electoral officers;
- initiating legislation that sets out the types of electoral staff, such as returning officer, voter
registration officer, poll worker, vote counter, and describing the functions of these staff;
- giving general advice to electoral staff on their functions - there is usually a section of the
civil service concerned with either an overview or directly with the functioning of the electoral
process.
The role of the civil service is more likely to be limited to policy and overview issues and to
initiation and drafting of legislation.
The civil service can often be an important resource because of the information it holds, such as
statistics and other demographical information, which is needed for redistricting.
