Basic Issues
Providing facilities for early voting will allow those voters who cannot attend a voting station on the general voting day to vote on a special day, or series of days, prior to voting day. A balance between accessibility and cost-effectiveness is needed. Providing these additional facilities can add significantly to materials, premises and staffing costs. However, elections conducted using one traditional method of early voting, by mail, have been shown to be extremely cost-effective.
This section, and Early Voting in Person and Early Voting by Mail, should be read in conjunction with Absentee Voting. In many environments early voting facilities will also accommodate persons voting, either in person or by mail, at a location outside the electoral district in which they are registered to vote.
Methods of Early Voting
The two basic methods of early voting are:
- in person, at an office of the electoral management body, a normal voting station or other premises opened for early voting (see Early Voting in Person);
- by mail, in which the voter requests, or is automatically sent, the relevant ballots and other voting material, which are then returned by the voter to the electoral management body (see Early Voting by Mail).
A combination of both in-person and mail early voting facilities is in place in some jurisdictions. While promoting maximum accessibility, services may be duplicated in these environments.
Other special voting facilities, such as mobile voting stations (see Other Special Voting Arrangements), and radio or fax voting conducted for remote locations may also operate in some jurisdictions prior to voting day.
Frameworks
Critical issues for early voting would be better defined in legislation. These would include:
- the period for early voting;
- any qualifications required of early voters;
- methods of defining locations at which early voting may take place;
- voting secrecy and count frameworks, especially for mail voting;
- information required from early voters voting outside their electoral district of registration.
Other issues, such as the hours early voting offices are open during the early voting period and the numbers of early voting offices used, would be more practicably left to the electoral management body to determine according to need.
Eligibility to Claim an Early Vote
Some systems make early voting facilities available to any voter who wishes to use them. However, as there are additional costs involved with early voting, legal frameworks may include special qualifications for voters using these facilities. In its most restrictive form, voters who qualify for an early vote would be limited to those whose official duties preclude them from voting on voting day, such as voting operations staff, security forces or others officially engaged in election activity throughout the hours of normal voting.
In less restrictive systems, a broader range of qualifications dealing with voters who may not be able to attend their voting stations during normal voting hours would be available. These qualifications could include, for example:
- being outside the country on voting day;
- on voting day, being more than a specified distance from the normal voting station (or stations) at which they would be eligible to vote--further qualifications as to the reasons for this absence (such as work duties) may be required;
- being employed in specific occupations (such as emergency services) that would not allow taking leave to vote on voting day;
- having religious beliefs that would not allow attending a voting station on the designated voting day;
- being a patient in a hospital or other institution, or being pregnant, or being too ill or infirm to attend a voting station on voting day;
- being engaged in caring for a pregnant, infirm or ill person throughout voting day.
Additional qualifications may also exist, where early voting is in person, on the locations at which a voter may lodge an early vote. This may be restricted to the electoral district in which the voter is registered, or some other electoral administration area. Where voters can lodge an early vote in person outside their district of registration, this in effect becomes an early absentee vote, bringing with it the same control requirements as absentee voting (see Absentee Voting).
Where early voting is by mail, there may be restrictions on the location from which a voter can request an early vote. This may be limited to the electoral management office in the voter's district of registration. Conversely, voters may be issued mail votes from any electoral management office. This latter method, while promoting accessibility, requires sophisticated control systems.
Period for Early Voting
Periods designated for early voting can also vary widely. In restrictive systems, where relatively small numbers of voters will be eligible for an early vote, a single early voting day may be designated.1 Normally early voting periods would be in the range of five to fifteen days before voting day. Some considerations determining an effective period for early voting include:
Ensuring that there is sufficient time for printing and distribution of all materials prior to the commencement of the early voting period. Where ballots fully printed with candidate or party details are used (see Absentee Ballot Formats), it is critical that there is sufficient time between close of nominations and commencement of early voting for ballots to be printed and distributed. Early voting. particularly mail voting, would generally not be suitable for systems where later changes can be made to parties or candidates standing for election.
The early voting period, especially if mail methods are used, is sufficient for voting material to be despatched to and returned from voters in all parts of the area under election.
Where early voting is by mail, the period for receipt of ballots returned by mail could be:
- on or before the closing time for normal voting stations on voting day;
- extended beyond voting day, to allow a period for mail ballots completed up until the close of normal voting to be returned through the mail.
Setting the deadline for return of mail ballots on or before the general voting day will not cause any delay to the finalisation of election results, but may limit accessibility, especially in countries with extensive remote areas with infrequent mail services. In other jurisdictions, the view, on principle, is taken that any mail vote actually cast and handed to the mail services for return by the time of closing of normal voting stations should be given a reasonable chance to be included in counts. Depending on the mail service environment, a period of up to two weeks after normal voting day could be allowed for return of these votes. While this may enhance accessibility, it can result in additional control costs and delays in finalising election results.
Controls on Accountable Voting Materials
Where early voting facilities are available for a number of days, control of accountable ballot materials becomes critical. Major issues that must be considered include:
Security of accountable materials. All completed ballots, whether completed in person or returned by mail, must be maintained in ballot boxes under security until the commencement of counting. Where early ballots are contained in envelopes with voter details, systems that protect the secrecy of voting and maintain the security of ballot material need to be devised for checking these voter details. All accountable materials, such as unused ballots and ballot envelopes, should be stored under security both during and after operating hours.
Maintaining periodic reconciliations of accountable voting materials, at the very least at the end of each day's early voting operations. For mail voting, more frequent checks are advisable. It can be useful to collate applications for mail votes in standard batches of fifty or one hundred, issue mail ballot materials according to these batches, and reconcile ballots and other mail voting materials (e.g., ballot return envelopes) at the conclusion of processing of each batch.
Mobile Voting Stations
Legal frameworks may also allow mobile voting stations to operate during any period for early voting. For mobile voting stations in remote areas particularly, this is generally necessary for cost-effective operations. (For further discussion of mobile voting station operations in relation to early voting, see Other Special Voting Arrangements and Close of Voting for Mobile Voting Stations.)
