The issues discussed in Electoral Legislation are also relevant to administrative regulations. Generally, setting the more detailed voting operations parameters through administrative regulation will provide greater flexibility and opportunity for input and advice from the electoral management body. Administrative regulations can be seen as translating the principles of voting operations into standards that must be consistently achieved, though methods and detailed procedures may differ, throughout the area in which elections for a representative body are held.
Regulations governing such areas as maximum or minimum size of voting stations, materials required at voting stations, locations of ballot paper counts, and qualifications for voting officials will set standards that voting operations administrators must adhere to in planning and resourcing. However, it is important that a balance, appropriate for the environment, is achieved between necessary prescription and allowing sufficient flexibility for the electoral management body to initiate improvements and respond to technological or environmental changes.
For instance, where it is essential that information is collected in exactly the same manner at all voting locations, such as receipt and reconciliation of ballot material, relevant form content could also be prescribed in regulations. To extend this prescription of content to form design or method of data collection may unwarrantedly inhibit improvements.
