Basic Issues
Voting procedures will be dependent on the legal, regulatory and policy framework. Like electoral systems, they may often be a product of the past, rather than an effective response to current voting needs. The equity, integrity, service levels and accessibility of election processes will be very much determined by the range of voting methods available to voters and the procedural controls instituted.
One of the major challenges in devising voting methods and procedures is to ensure that all persons registered to vote have an equitable opportunity to participate in voting, no matter what their geographic location, their gender or class, their literacy level, their occupation or their physical condition. Guiding Principles should be the starting point for the development of appropriate voting procedures.
Normal Voting
The vast majority of voters will be casting their ballot on the general voting day (or one of the general voting days) at a voting station in the electoral district in which they are registered to vote. Voting procedures for this mass of voters should include:
- electoral system requirements--in the type and format of ballots, and the method of indicating the preferred candidate or candidates;
- integrity requirements--in preventing voter fraud, through measures to combat attempted multiple voting, impersonation and ballot box stuffing;
- service requirements--in promoting an easily understandable, orderly, swift and accurate processing of voters through the voting station;
- cost-effectiveness requirements--in allowing staffing, premises, materials, and equipment models that enable efficiencies in processing of voters to be realised.
(Procedures for normal voting and their implementation are discussed in detail in Voter Service, Crowd and Queue Control, Determination of Eligibility to Vote, Issue and Casting of Ballots, Providing Information to Voters, Assistance to Voters, Voters Not Found on Voters Lists and Normal Voting Stations.)
Special Voting Facilities
Providing special voting facilities for voters who, on voting day, are unable to access a normal voting station in the electoral district in which they are registered to vote makes an important contribution to increasing accessibility and equity of voting processes.
With increasing personal mobility, for both work and social reasons, and particularly in more developed societies, greater proportions of voter populations are unlikely to be at their normal residence on voting day. For voters who live in remote locations or have disabilities, equity considerations would demand that they be provided with reasonable opportunity to vote. With voter turnout proportions recognised as an indicator of legitimacy of elected representatives, there is a community interest in making voting methods appropriate for the needs and lifestyles of the population.
The extent to which special voting facilities are provided will be influenced by:
- philosophical factors, such as whether communities regard voting as a personal right or a civic duty;
- practical factors, stemming from examination of the need for particular types of special voting facilities;
- financial and cost-effectiveness factors.
For cost and integrity reasons, certain special voting facilities may require additional qualifications from voters over and above those required for normal voter registration. (For an example of a registration/application form for voters wanting to use special voting facilities, see Application for a Special Vote - New Zealand, 1996.)
Cost Factors of Special Voting
Providing special voting facilities, while increasing accessibility to the election process, can greatly increase both costs and complexity of an election.
There will generally be additional management requirements and direct costs for providing these facilities. There will generally be a need for additional staff and training, and possibly also additional logistical requirements, special materials and distribution control records and systems, and mailing costs. Also, there will usually be additional integrity controls required on special voting methods, to prevent impersonation and to ensure that voters do not a have some form of special vote and also vote at a normal voting station.
Types of Special Voting Facilities
A number of different types of special voting facilities and procedures for implementing them, are described in the following sections:
- Absentee Voting, dealing with procedures for voters who are out of their electoral district of registration on voting day;
- Voting in a Foreign Country, dealing with the provision of voting facilities for registered voters who are in foreign countries at the time of the election;
- Early Voting, dealing with methods by which voters who are unable to go to their normal voting station on the general voting day can vote at an earlier time;
- Proxy Voting, dealing with procedures whereby voters unable to attend a voting station may appoint another person to vote for them;
- Provisional or Tendered Votes, dealing with a method of assisting voters who claim to be registered but who cannot be found on the voting station's voters list.
Minority Community Groups
Apart from providing special voting facilities for the community at large, there are population segments that require specific attention in providing voting facilities appropriate to their needs to enable them to participate in voting. Devising cost-effective methods of catering to such minority groups is an integral part of providing not only voter service, but equity and integrity in voting operations as well.
For a general discussion of community sectors with special needs or who can only be reached by providing mobile voting stations, see Other Special Voting Arrangements.
Specific community elements for whom additional facilities would be beneficial include:
