Eligibility to Vote in a Foreign Country
Voting in a foreign country, as a form of absentee voting, may be provided for equity and access reasons. There may be restrictions on eligibility to use this form of voting to registered voters who
- have been outside the home country for not more than a defined period;
- intend to return to the home country within a defined period.
A general question arises as to whether voting from a foreign country should be restricted to voters who were on the voters register before they left their home country, or whether persons can register as a voter from a foreign country. While allowing persons to register as a voter from a foreign country would satisfy equity principles, particularly with regard to migrant workers and their dependants or refugee populations, there may be greater difficulties to be overcome in maintaining integrity regarding
- applying a similar standard for authenticating and validating voter registrations as would be applied in the home country;
- determining in which electoral district these voters should be registered to vote.
More restrictive systems may limit the availability of external voting to particular classes of state employees whose employment has required them to be located in a foreign country. However, this does little to improve general accessibility, and may raise questions of the motives behind and integrity of foreign country voting facilities.
The question of eligibility to vote from outside the country is likely to be contentious, especially where potential voters outside the country are
- a significant proportion of the voting age population;
- from specific national or political groupings (for example, in the case of refugees).
Information on eligibility for and how to vote in a foreign country should be permanently and publicly available, with target locations for its availability at such places as travel agents, foreign missions of the home country, airports and similar points of departures. (For examples of such information material, see Forms for mail-in and write-in ballots - Canada and Overseas at an Election Pamphlet - New Zealand.)
Administrative Issues
There are considerable administrative difficulties that need to be overcome to ensure that voters voting in a foreign country have their ballots authenticated and returned in time to be included in the count and to ensure that these voting facilities offer the same standard of voting integrity as voting stations in the home country. Providing external voting facilities can be a practicable service for elections for larger electoral districts, at national and possibly provincial levels. The provision of foreign country voting facilities for local government elections, where there may be massive numbers of small electoral districts, is generally impractical.
There may be additional issues where potential voters in foreign countries are refugees or illegal immigrants in another country. Methods of registration and voting which do not endanger the voter's current status, yet retain election integrity require careful consideration.
Special Registration
Requiring specific registration for voting in a foreign country, either before leaving the home country or through diplomatic missions in foreign locations, can make the planning and resourcing of foreign country voting easier. From such registrations special voters registers could be compiled for use in the various foreign locations or normal voters registers annotated to indicate voters in foreign countries. (For an example of registration forms for external voting, see Voting abroad registration forms - Spain.)
Electoral Districts
The electoral legislation will determine for what electoral district voters in a foreign country vote. It would be equitable for them to retain or regain their voter registration in their last electoral district of registration in the home country, or if not registered before they left their home country, an electoral district with which some formal connection (such as residence of relatives, place of birth) can be established. Special lists of voters in foreign countries or other methods of identifying voter eligibility will need to be used. Rigorous controls are needed to prevent voters voting in a foreign country and votes being recorded in their names at a voting station in the home country.
In some countries (e.g., Croatia), special 'non-geographic' electoral districts are formed for voters living in foreign countries. Given the general lack of capacity for independent monitoring of foreign country voting stations, such special electoral districts can often be seen as an attempt to manipulate the outcomes of elections, especially if qualifications or opportunities for voter registration for such electoral districts give advantage to particular nationalities, communities or groups.
Voting Methods
There are a number of alternative for implementing foreign country voting. Voting itself may be conducted in several different ways:
- by mail;
- at voting stations in foreign country locations;
- by fax or other electronic means.
It may be practical to use these in combination.
If a mailed ballotis used, this could be sent to the voter from either an overseas location (such as an embassy or consulate of the home country) provided with bulk stocks of voting material for all electoral districts, or it could be mailed directly to the voter from the electoral management body. Return of mailed ballots from the voter could be to a foreign voting location or to specified offices of the electoral management body in the home country.
If conducted by attendance voting, locations used could be voting sites especially chosen for this purpose or existing offices of the state, such as embassies, consulates, trade missions and the like. The attendance voting could be conducted only on the normal voting day for the election, or it could be open for the same or longer period that early voting in the home country is available.
Where completed ballots are collected at foreign voting locations, actual voting and counting procedures could be the same as for a normal voting station, including:
- voters' eligibility being checked from a list of eligible voters;
- ballots being deposited in a ballot box (or boxes for various electoral districts) and reconciled and counted at the close of voting;
- count totals being immediately transmitted by fax, phone or computer to the electoral management body;
- all materials being later returned to the electoral management body for checking and storage or destruction.
Alternatively, votes could be placed in a sealed envelope designed to identify the voter yet maintain the secrecy of voting (as for enveloped methods of absentee voting or for mail voting--see Absentee Voting) and then in the ballot box. At the close of voting, voting material is reconciled, packaged and immediately despatched securely to the electoral management body where voter eligibility is checked and ballots counted. Ballots could be counted separately or amalgamated with other ballots for the same electoral districts before counting. (For further information on counting procedures in these instances, see Consolidating Voting Results.)
General Administrative Issues
There are a number of problems and additional planning, materials and training costs that are likely to arise with voting in a foreign country. Different voting methods adopted will have different specific problems. However, there are some issues that will need to be considered no matter what the voting method used:
Longer supply lines and increased delivery time for material to foreign countries means that materials for foreign country voting have to be prepared well in advance of the normal voting day, even where foreign country voters cannot vote in advance. It also means that finalisation of ballot counting may be delayed in waiting for return of voting material.
It is more difficult to provide voters in foreign countries with information on electoral processes, parties and candidates so that they may make an informed vote. Advertising of available facilities in foreign countries will increase voter information expenditure. Whether, and how, any political campaigning or official publicity of voting rights can be undertaken in foreign countries will be dependent on the law of each foreign country.
Monitoring of voting in foreign countries by all political participants and independent observers is unlikely to be possible. Particularly where staff of diplomatic missions in foreign countries are not publicly perceived as politically neutral, there may be doubts about the integrity of the process and the validity of votes cast. Rigorous controls on despatch and checking of returned materials can only partly allay such concerns.
There are also basic concerns regarding the checking of voter eligibility and the effect methods adopted may have on voting integrity and the time needed to complete ballot counts. Where ballots are issued from foreign locations using special foreign country voter registers, counting could be undertaken at these locations, and the count results transmitted to the electoral management body soon after the close of voting. This method will ensure that finalisation of results is not delayed.
However, given that these locations are not under tight management control of the electoral management body, nor generally subject to observation by party or candidate representatives, it would be prudent to treat results of such counts as preliminary, unpublicised, and to be confirmed by thorough checking of all relevant material on its return. Additionally, since the number of votes cast at some foreign locations may be small, it would be preferable to amalgamate these with other locations' votes before counting in order to maintain voting secrecy.
Alternatively, integrity may be better served if all foreign ballots are treated in the same way as for mail or absentee ballots. Ballots cast are each placed in a sealed envelope, accompanied by documentation identifying the voter and, on return to the electoral management body, are subject to thorough checking to establish eligibility to vote as well as challenges by representatives of candidates or parties. This will cause some further delay in finalising results.
Both options can be costly. Printing special voter registers will incur additional formatting and printing costs and require checks that voters are not duplicated on domestic and foreign registers. Sealed votes will require special enveloping materials. On balance, the use of sealed ballots is likely to be the preferable option for maintaining integrity. However, control procedures for sealing ballots in individual envelopes, maintaining voting secrecy, accounting for all voting material, and security of completed ballots need to be particularly rigorous.
Mail Voting Material Direct to Voter
This is the simplest and lowest cost method to adopt administratively. Either following an application directly to the electoral management body by the voter, or by direct mail to electors on special voters lists of those living abroad, voting material is mailed to voters at foreign locations. These may be returned to a special clearing or reconciliation centre or to the relevant electoral district's office for validity verification and counting.
Additional costs are limited to despatch (and return, if this is 'reply postage paid' by the election management body) international postage, and staffing for the return clearing centre, if this additional level of control is warranted by validity or transparency concerns. The major disadvantage of using this method is the time that will elapse between despatch and return of material. Either material has to be despatched well before voting day (placing pressures on materials production) or deadlines for return of voting material extended after voting day, to the point where they delay final result calculation, for there to be any significant increase in accessibility for voters in foreign countries.
Mail to Voter from a Foreign Location
As a variation on mailing direct to the voter, bulk voting materials may be despatched by secure courier or diplomatic pouch to central locations, such as embassies, in foreign countries, on the basis of historical voting records or, where used, registers of foreign voters. Use of embassies as mailing centres will ensure that processing staff will have some basic knowledge of the electoral system. For efficiency reasons, such facilities would usually only be provided in countries where significant numbers of voters are likely to be present.
These foreign locations operate as mail voting centres, despatching, by local post, voting material to voters either following their application for a mail vote or on the basis of information in foreign voters registers. Completed ballots must be received by mail or in person at the foreign centre by a defined deadline. This could be close of voting for in-person returns, with some extension for mailed returns to allow for votes completed and posted, but not received, by close of voting. There materials are reconciled, packaged securely, and returned to the electoral management authority by secure courier or sealed diplomatic pouch for validity verification and counting.
This method has some accessibility advantages. Bulk courier or pouch despatch and return with local post can cut the turn-around time considerably, making it more likely that voters in foreign countries will have the opportunity to vote within voting deadlines. It is important that voting material is stored under security and that completed voting material is stored in sealed ballot boxes until its return to the electoral management body. Logistical costs may be greater, and there will be significant additional organisational and training issues to be confronted.
Special despatch and return facilities may have to be set up for dealing with foreign country voting material. These are likely to be complex and require skilled management control to ensure that correct amounts of all material for all electoral districts is forwarded to each foreign voting location. To overcome the limited training of staff at foreign locations it may be useful to make up voter packs, each containing a complete set of voting and information material for the relevant electoral district. This will add further to shipping costs.
Foreign locations will be staffed by persons who will not have undergone any face-to-face let alone any significant training. Additional training manuals (for an example, see Instructions to Overseas Issuing Officers, New Zealand), videos (for an example, see Overseas Voting Procedures Training Video - Australia), and worksheets may need to be produced for staff in other countries. The lower level of training may affect the accuracy of treatment of voters.
Where embassies are used as the foreign location, and their staff as polling officials, there may be concerns about whether voting is being conducted impartially, particularly in the absence of independent or political participant monitoring. Such officials may not be direct, accountable employees of the electoral management body. The need for urgency in election material despatch and, particularly, the return to the electoral management body of completed voting material, must be impressed on embassy staff
Attendance Voting
Whether early voting facilities are available for attendance voting at foreign locations or facilities are available only on voting day, similar issues as discussed under 'Mail to Voter from a Foreign Location' above, are relevant. Depending on perceptions of impartiality and integrity of staff at foreign voting locations, this method may provide greater validity checks at the point of voting. Setting up full voting station facilities at foreign locations will incur additional materials costs.
Method Combinations
Most effective coverage of voters in foreign countries may be obtained by using combinations of the above methods, for example:
- mailing voting material direct to the voter from the home country, but having completed ballots returned by the voter to a foreign location, from which they are returned in bulk to the electoral management authority for processing and counting;
- providing both attendance voting and mail voting facilities from foreign locations (as long as such complexity does not unduly strain electoral management body and foreign location management resources).
Refugee Voting
Special considerations for voting in foreign countries may occur where significant proportions of a country's population are refugees in neighbouring countries at the time of the election. Political, security or logistical problems may prevent their returning to vote. In such situations, there is a significant case for the electoral management body, with international assistance, obtaining neighbouring government's agreements for setting up of voting stations under international control in refugee populated areas. How, and for what electoral district, to register such voters will be significant and likely politically disputed issues in election planning and management. (For further discussion of this issue, see Refugees and Displaced Persons.)
Use of Faxed or Voice Transmitted Ballots
As for remote areas within the country which are not reachable by normal voting means, transmission and return of voting material by fax, radio or phone could be considered for foreign locations where postal services are unreliable or non-existent. To ensure that such ballots are only received from eligible voters, and to reconcile materials, voting by such methods will mean that voting secrecy cannot be wholly maintained, and potential voters must be made fully aware of this. However, it is only by such means that some persons--for example those located in remote areas of Antarctica or the Arctic--may be able to exercise their right to vote.
