Considerations For Lower Literacy Communities
Population literacy levels will have a large bearing on the design of voting operations materials, voting station procedures, voter information communication strategies, and staff recruitment and training methods. In areas of lower literacy the emphasis needs to be on simple, practical communication methods, which need not come at a high cost.
Voting material needs to take into account those with an inability to sign documentation and allow alternative methods of attesting information on voter identity cards, candidate nomination forms, challenges to voters, provisional or early voting documents, receipts of materials and similar official documents.
For lower literacy communities ballot design requires communication of the voters' choices through
- uncluttered layout;
- design that visually emphasises where to place any required voting marks;
- use of images rather than words.
Use of distinctive party symbols (reinforced during community voter information campaigning) is generally more cost effective than reproducing candidate photographs on ballots.
The election system itself can assist successful voting operations in lower literacy communities by adopting simple systems requiring only one mark (list or FPTP) on the ballot, or by using differentiated separate voting papers or tokens for different candidates. If simultaneous elections for more than one representative body are being held, use of distinctively coloured or sized ballots will enable voters to comprehend them.
For lower literacy communities, assisted voting procedures and voter training in voting stations through practice runs need careful consideration. In such communities, voting station staff may also need to be increased in relation to the number of voters, though visual aids to voting--illustrated guides to how to obtain a ballot paper, mark it, and deposit it in the ballot box--prominently displayed around the voting station may suffice. The use of a single ballot box, rather than multiple boxes, for any simultaneous elections will also simplify voting for the less literate.
The voter information emphasis in such communities must develop in other directions than written material. This can be accomplished, for example, through
- grass roots community activity, involving community leaders in transmitting voting information through local public meetings; use of street theatre, music and radio;
- conducting voting simulations (perhaps as an adjunct to local polling staff training sessions) where voters can practise for voting day.
Staff Training
While literacy and numeracy would generally be base requirements for recruitment of polling staff, there may be communities where the need to use local polling staff is important, yet literacy levels are not high. In such cases election forms must have clear, simply illustrated instructions for use, and it is imperative that training is based on simulation exercises of the roles that staff are going to play in voting operations, with distinct emphasis on the completion of any necessary forms. Providing all staff with a simple cue card, with clear visual representations of the functions that they have to undertake will be more effective than providing all with bulky manuals.
