Arrangements to provide voting services that cater to the needs of particular minority or disadvantaged segments of the community are an important part of maintaining accessibility and equity in voting operations. The types of special voting arrangements that may be offered will in a large part be determined by the flexibility and opportunities provided by the voting alternatives contained in the legislative framework (see Voting). Providing these opportunities cost-effectively is the province of voting operations administrators. (For further discussion of management of accessibility issues, see Equal Access to the Electoral Process.)
Assistance for Voters
Voters may have special needs in relation to their understanding of the voting process or completion of voting material (see Language and Literacy Assistance, Physically Handicapped Voters and Voter Information). Integrating these needs into voting materials design, information campaigns, recruitment qualifications for polling staff and provisions for assistance in voting prevents such voters from being marginalised from the election process.
Occupational or Situational Disadvantages
Some sectors of the eligible voting population may not be able to access normally assigned voting facilities due to their occupation (see Remote Areas and Security and Emergency Forces) or a disadvantaged situation (see Homebound, Infirm and Aged, Hospitals and Other Care Institutions, Prisons, Refugees and Displaced Persons and Suppressed Voter Addresses). Providing voting facilities for these sectors of the population may come at an increased cost per voter. Whether it is an effective expenditure will depend on the risks to election validity of such voters not being provided with an opportunity to vote, the importance with which the principle of equity is held within the electoral system, and the efficiency of methods chosen to provide voting access for these voters.
Mobile Voting Stations and Ballot Boxes
The use of mobile voting stations can significantly improve access to voting facilities for those voters living in remote areas (see Remote Areas), in hospitals or other institutional care (see Hospitals and Other Care Institutions and Prisons), and for other persons too infirm or aged to attend a voting station (see Homebound, Infirm and Aged).
The organisation of any mobile voting facilities requires special care, as they can be particularly susceptible to allegations of lack of security, integrity and transparency. Unless carefully controlled and subject to monitoring by political participants and independent observers, they can be open to abuse. On the other hand, in some environments mobile voting stations have been introduced partially as they have been seen as less open to abuse, if properly monitored, than alternative means of providing access to the above categories of voters, such as mail voting. While they increase accessibility, for them to be effective requires an environment with high levels of trust and transparency in the operations of the electoral system.
Operations of Mobile Voting Stations
Different methods of operation for mobile voting can be adopted, including:
- in its simplest format, it could be a provision allowing staff to bring voting material on voting day to persons outside the voting station but too infirm to enter (so-called 'kerbside voting');
- alternatively, staff members from a voting station could make pre-arranged visits to dwellings and hospitals in the area to allow infirm residents to vote;
- In a more extensive mode, specially trained polling officials can make planned visits to homes of the aged and infirm, institutions such as hospitals (visiting each ward to allow voting), or on a planned route of remote locations where the population is too mobile or too scattered to effectively locate normal voting stations.
Such mobile voting stations might operate only on voting day, or during any period allowed for advance voting. Particularly in hospital environments, they will only be effective where the election system allows absentee voting. (For video footage of a mobile voting station operating in remote areas of Australia see Remote Mobile Team Operations - Australia 1996.)
Planning Mobile Voting Operations
In planning mobile voting station operations, the following guidelines should be considered:
Careful consideration needs to be given to whether special registration procedures should exist for voters wishing to be serviced by mobile voting stations, and then special voters lists be compiled for this purpose.
At the very least, planning of mobile voting station routes requires careful liaison between voting operations administrators and managers of institutions, community organisations in remote localities, and other potential clients to establish the numbers and, for maximum integrity, identity, of persons wanting to use mobile voting facilities. To maintain equity and protect against allegations of bias, all relevant institutions, remote communities and the like should be approached to determine if the service is desired. Planning should envisage a sufficient number of mobile voting stations and attempt to schedule routes that provide convenient times of service to these voters, who may be in restricted institutional routines.
Mobile voting schedules should be planned in advance of the election, and locations officially announced by the electoral management body. Allowing mobile voting requests received, say, on voting day to be satisfied can create distrust about the activities of mobile voting and disrupt voting station operations. A cut-off date, after which requests for mobile voting services cannot be considered, should be required. This is of particular importance to voting integrity in systems that require a minimum percentage of voter turnout for an election to be declared valid. Touting for 'home' votes on election day can be seen as a partisan attempt to reach such a minimum percentage,
Political participants must be advised of schedules in sufficient time to allow them to send representatives with the mobile voting station. Where mobile voting stations visit remote locations by air, boat or road, opportunity could be provided for party or candidate representatives and independent observers to travel with the officials.
There should be a minimum of two experienced polling officials assigned to each mobile voting station, one of which would preferably be at a skill or training level of a voting station manager.
Where mobile voting stations require polling staff to leave their duties in a voting station to conduct mobile voting, service to voters at the normal voting station, in terms of materials available and staffing levels, must be maintained at an acceptable level with the remaining resources.
Materials carried by the mobile voting station must at least be comprised of the voting materials that are standard in a voting station. Equipment provided, such as ballot boxes, seals, voting compartments, needs to be lightweight yet very sturdy. For example, corrugated plastic, rather than cardboard or metal ballot boxes and voting compartments, may be more suitable.
For security reasons, ballot boxes used for mobile voting should feature a lockable slide or other closure over the slot. This closure must be locked (in the presence of any observers) at close of voting at any location, and unlocked (again in the presence of any observers) only when voting commences at the next location.
The planning and implementation of mobile voting--particularly for remote areas involving extensive transport, accommodation and provisioning requirements--can be a major undertaking for which additional resources need to be allocated. Mobile voting station voter processing capacities will be considerably less than that of normal voting stations--in hospital environments, for example, often only in the range of five to ten voters per hour.
Implementation will generally be at a cost per voter serviced many times that of a normal voting station, or a mail vote. However, on public service, accessibility, equity and even on transparency grounds, when strictly controlled and monitored, it can make an important contribution to inclusiveness in voting operations.
Accountability for Mobile Voting Materials
There are a number of issues which require particular attention to ensure accountability for voting materials used by mobile voting stations. These would include:
Ballots and other accountable voting materials should be kept in locked containers when not in use, and, with the ballot box, should never be left unattended, whether during transport or voting.
Accounting and reconciliation of ballots requires very strict controls. This is especially vital where ballots are removed from a voting station to conduct mobile voting, or where mobile voting stations are in operation over several days.
Records must be kept of ballots issued at each location visited by the mobile voting station. Where a mobile voting station operates over more than one day, voting material should be reconciled accurately at least at the end of each day's voting, and discrepancies immediately reported to voting operations management.
Where a mobile voting station operates over more than one day, strict security measures for voting materials must also be implemented outside the hours of voting. In urban areas, this may be return of materials to secure storage in the local or regional election administration office, or to other secure storage (police or bank storage may or may not be appropriate, depending on the political environment). In remote areas, one or more security officers may need to accompany the mobile voting station.
Other Special Locations
Often accommodating particular sectors of the community may come at no or little additional costs. In systems where early or absentee voting is permissible, careful analysis of voting history will indicate optimum locations at which additional service points may be provided--e.g., colleges, airports, bus and rail terminals, and student hostels.
In systems where there are reserved seats for particular minorities, care in designing voting station layouts to enhance access to special voting materials (perhaps through separate ballot issuing areas) and language assistance where necessary, will enable this voting to be conducted within normal voting stations. Such arrangements should minimise differences between reserved seat and other voters.
