This section will address, in both general and specific terms, the operational arrangements most
important to election administrators as they seek to conduct an election in a free, fair, and cost-effective manner.
To a large extent, the necessary tasks involved in conducting elections and the procedures utilized
to accomplish these tasks have their origins in the strategic plan, which has been discussed in
Strategic Planning. In fact, operational planning, which is discussed in Operational Planning, can be perceived
as primarily detailing the series of activities that must be carried out to accomplish that which is
set forth in the strategic plan. Of course, this fact does not make the operational plan any easier
to construct or less important; it instead indicates that operational arrangements, for both routine
work and emergency situations, must flow from and be consistent with the strategies developed to
administer the election.
Often, the first issues confronted when making operational arrangements concern voter
registration. The importance of voter registration stems from two factors. First, if the voter
registration process does not work and the electoral management body (EMB) is unable to enter
the voting process with a complete and accurate list of voters, public trust in the entire electoral
process may be lost rapidly. Moreover, because voter registration can be one of the most
laborious tasks facing the electoral manager and may consume a significant portion of the funds
available for conducting elections, mismanagement of the voter registration process can leave a
manager with little time and money to complete the electoral process. For these reasons, this
topic has been afforded its own section in ACE at Voter Registration, though Voter Registration Responsibilities addresses some of the
most critical issues for the electoral manager.
Of course, the supply needs associated with the conduct of elections should also be among the
early operational considerations. Procurement of election materials is often an unavoidably
expensive undertaking; yet it is the duty of election officials as public servants to seek the best
value for the taxpayers' money and to continually seek means of lowering the long-run cost of
election administration. Thus, this section examines the following general supply issues:
Furthermore, in terms of specific supplies, Development of ballots, forms and procedures discusses the design, procurement,
distribution, usage, security and transparency, and recovery of ballots and other forms used in the
electoral process. To supplement this discussion, we have included a set of scanned sample
ballots and forms demonstrating some of the approaches taken to their creation in recent
successful elections.
This section also highlights several types of information-sharing activities of concern to electoral
administrators as they make operational plans and attempts to address, with respect to each type,
certain central principles such as complete information , well-timed information,
and appropriately targeted information. Aspects of voter information, both in general and
with respect to targeted audiences, which relate to the management function are the focus of
Voter Information Activities. We also discuss the very important role that political parties, non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), and electoral observers have to play in ensuring the fairness of and
engendering confidence in the electoral process and the need for routine and occasionally
extraordinary consultations. Finally, we discuss the operational considerations surrounding the
reporting of results to all of the above-mentioned recipients and attempt to provide some insight
into the differing needs and desires of each group (see Results Reporting).
We also recognize that there are certain pre-election activities that, though they are not
necessarily delegated to the electoral management body, require consideration during operational
planning and can consume a significant amount of resources. For example, political party and
candidate registration, although often specifically defined in legislative or regulatory
provisions, may require some attention to ensure that they are accomplished in a non-partisan
manner; thus, these activities are discussed in Party/Candidate Registration Responsibilities. Similarly, boundary delimitation, which
has received a thorough treatment at Boundary Delimitation, is discussed briefly. Through this discussion, we
provide two primary sets of considerations for those managers involved, however tangentially, in
the delimitation of election districts or constituencies: those requiring examination to ensure the
fairness of an election and those concerning accessibility and convenience.
A related matter that is also discussed in this section is polling site selection (see Polling Site Selection).
Electoral managers often are given a significant amount of responsibility for this task and
therefore have a greater amount of discretion than that afforded them for party and candidate
registration or boundary delimitation. In making decisions regarding polling sites, the primary
considerations we have discussed are voter-focused, such as the maximum number of voters that
can be handled at each polling station, the maximum distance traveled by voters, and the general
accessibility of each site.
Near the end of this section, there is also discussion of the operational needs of the election
manager during the period immediately following the elections. Among the most important of
these discussions are those that address the reporting requirements for electoral management
bodies, not necessarily in terms of election results but in terms of the EMB's performance in
achieving its goals. These reports, we admit, should include the successes and failures of the
EMB and perhaps suggestions for improving its performance.
