Funds Availability Aligned to Critical Time Intervals
To ensure effective preparation for voting operations, not only is it necessary to receive adequate levels of financial resources, but the timing of the availability of funds must be compatible with the critical intervals in the election preparation calendar. There are two basic issues to be addressed:
1. The electoral management body's internal budget estimates for voting operations must be organised on a schedule that allows early identification of the funding requirements (see Internal Development of Estimates). The more complex the administrative structure of the electoral management body and the greater the number of different agencies involved in voting operations service provisions, the longer it is likely to take to prepare voting operations estimates. This must be taken into account in the preparation of the internal budget planning timetables.
2. In environments where elections are not held at regular intervals and where legislatures approve and revise state budgets at infrequent fixed intervals, special provision need to be made for a speedy examination and approval of funds for voting operations purposes (see Submission and Justification of Request to Legislature). The methods will differ according to the state's budget management strategies. However, it is preferable that the approved budget for voting operations is already known by the time a formal announcement of an election date is made.
Approval of Emergency Funding
Similarly, mechanisms for state approval of additional emergency voting operations funding due to changed circumstances (often as a result of changes to election legal frameworks close to voting day), or cost overruns prior to voting day, need to be both in place and capable of functioning to allow a timely release of additional funds. While it is the responsibility of election managers to prepare budgets and then to keep within allocated funding, in changing environments it is often difficult, if not impossible, to prepare accurate estimates of the requirements. Inability to ascertain the provision of any additional emergency funding required to achieve a quality election is more likely to have a negative impact on the legislature rather than the election managers, as this may affect the legitimacy of the election.
Advance Purchases
Many vital components of successful voting operations, such as development of computer systems and acquisition of equipment and supplies, can be undertaken well in advance of the actual period for voting. In particular, there is a need to allocate sufficient time for proper bidding processes and adjudication of bids in order to allow cost-effective purchasing. Where permanent electoral management bodies are in place, the costs of such advance work may be accounted for within their normal operation budgets. When temporary bodies are appointed to manage an election operation, it is essential that immediate funding for election preparations be released, possibly as an advance pending the submission of a detailed budget for approval.
International Bodies
International bodies or foreign governments providing financial assistance for an election also need to take into consideration the appropriate time to release funds. This may become a more complex issue, as international bodies will depend on the approval processes of their own funding, which may not correspond with the election funding time frames in the recipient country.
Late release of funds from international sources has the potential to cause damage rather than assist the election operations, particularly in complex systems that have to be implemented in a highly compressed time frame--for example the provision of funds for a computerised vote counting system a few days before voting day. It is necessary to analyse the purposes for which any international funds are provided late in an election period.
