Infirm and aged persons too ill or frail to leave their homes may be unable to visit a voting station to vote. Equitable voting systems would contain provisions to allow such people the opportunity to vote without having to leave their homes.
Reasonable questions will arise as to how strict any criteria should be for allowing voting from home, particularly where such methods involve additional costs or may be seen as of lesser integrity than attendance at a normal voting station.
For this reason it can be appropriate to require prior registration or applications to vote according to legislatively defined criteria, either as part of the voter registration process or as separate exercise, for those wishing to vote from home. Particularly if homebound voters are to be serviced by a visit from polling officials--either as part of a special mobile voting station or by officials visiting from a normal voting station--it is imperative for planning purposes that the number and location of such voters be known prior to the commencement of voting to allow effective resource planning and scheduling.
Facilities Provided
Voting facilities provided could take the form of:
- voting by mail (see Early Voting);
- being visited by a special mobile voting station (see Other Special Voting Arrangements), either during any period allowed for early voting (see Early Voting), or on the general voting day;
- being visited on voting day by polling officials from the voting station at which they are registered to vote;
- appointing an agent to collect and return their voting material, either from the voting station at which they are registered to vote or, if general absentee voting facilities are available, from an electoral management body office or other voting station;
- appointing a proxy to vote in person at the voting station at which they are registered to vote (see Proxy Voting).
In more technologically advanced environments, developments in the fields of voting by phone and direct computer links may also make such home-based methods of voting generally feasible.
Each of these methods has particular cost or integrity factors which will need to be carefully considered in determining the appropriate method, or combination of methods, in the specific election environment. Allowable methods should be clearly legislatively defined. Whatever methods are implemented should be consistently applied. To make services such as mobile voting available only in some areas, for example, only in urban households, without some complementary arrangement being made available in other areas, will arouse suspicions that access is being manipulated to favour particular voters.
Mail Voting
Where vote by mail systems are generally in use (see Early Voting), confinement to the home through infirmity or age may be included in the general eligibility criteria for a voter to claim a mail vote. This method caters to the homebound within the usual voting systems. Where permanent voters registers are maintained, enabling the aged or chronically ill to register permanently as a mail voter, can also allow access to voting material at their home address. However, this must be accompanied by stringent regular review of such registration. As with mail voting in general, there may be doubts as to whether this voting method allows influence over voting behaviour by other residents at that address, particularly for the aged. Where such concerns are likely to lead to questioning of election outcomes, methods other than mail voting should be considered. However, mail voting may be the only practicable solution in less densely settled rural areas.
Mobile Voting Stations
Use of special mobile voting stations for house-to-house visits to the homebound in urban areas will enhance integrity, but can be an expensive exercise. It will generally not be an efficient method in terms of cost per voter, primarily due to:
- the small number of votes likely to be taken at each location visited;
- increased workloads in managing voting materials;
- the large component of polling official's time spent on travelling.
It is a method that warrants consideration only where resources are plentiful and there is high concern about the integrity or reliability of mail voting or other alternative methods. Depending on the numbers of voters involved, it would generally be more practicable and less costly to implement during any period allowed for early voting, thus allowing a smaller number of mobile voting stations to operate on successive days, rather than attempting to cover all the homebound on the general voting day. Using the latter timing could require the engagement, training and equipping of excessive numbers of officials.
Costs of mobile voting visits to homes can be lessened by using staff from normal voting stations during lulls in voting activity to visit homebound voters. This however, raises issues of:
- maintaining the standard of service to voters in the normal voting station (and possible need for compensatory general staffing increases);
- appropriate scheduling of visits;
- the ability of party or candidate representatives or other observers to monitor the work of such teams.
Where there are very few home-based voters to visit, and these are concentrated in small geographic areas, this method may be cost-effective, even when the integrity concerns remain. If it is decided to implement such a system, prior registration for home voting by these voters should be mandatory and locations and timing of visits made public. Some systems allow such visits merely by request on voting day. This is not a good practice since it can disrupt voting station service and make it near impossible for party or candidate representatives or observers to monitor such voting. (For a general description of mobile voting, see Other Special Voting Arrangements.)
Proxy Voting
Proxy voting is both the cheapest and simplest method to administer. However, there are questions as to whether proxy votes cast in the names of the infirm, and particularly the aged, truly reflect their wishes, and of the advisability of allowing proxy voting in any form. (For discussion of integrity issues surrounding proxy voting in general, see Proxy Voting.)
Voter Agents
Legislative provisions could allow homebound voters to appoint someone as their agent to pick up voting material and documentation to authenticate the vote from a voting station or electoral management body office, bring this to the voter, with this voting and authentication material either returned in person by the agent or mailed to the electoral management body. Where early voting in person is available (see Early Voting), such a service could be integrated with early voting facilities, as well as in normal voting stations. This method can have some advantages over using a normal mail vote system, particularly in areas where mail services are not reliable. Also, if restricted to voting day availability of personal pick up and return by agents, it is a cost-effective means of servicing homebound voters. It suffers from the same integrity problems as mail voting, in that it is not possible to ensure that there is no influence brought to bear on these voters when they vote.
