Needs Assessment Role in Planning
In planning for voting operations, the principal starting point for determining relevant work plans will be a needs assessment that compares the structures and resources currently available with those that will need to be in place for effective implementation of voting operations. While establishment of global needs is an important factor, needs assessments should also deal with details such as what systems and what resources are required in each local area. Often, this assessment may be more effectively undertaken at the local level (under central oversight) rather than from a central point.
Timing of needs assessments is also critical for well-managed voting operations. For integrated and effective planning they should be the initial phase of the planning process. Without properly establishing the actual needs, there is a grave danger of either wasting resources or having inadequate resource levels, distribution, or management, all leading to higher voting operations costs and possibly affecting election integrity.
Basic Issues
Needs assessment normally should encompass two related functions:
- a corporate evaluation of systems, procedures, and management organisation to identify areas requiring additional action for effective delivery of voting operations services;
- identification of the overall resource needs for voting operations, and determining what additional resources in locations, materials, equipment, staffing, logistics, and communications will be required for all voting operations tasks.
Corporate Management Issues
The first of these addresses the current corporate structure, skills, and culture of the electoral management body, as well as any augmentation or change required to deliver effective management of voting operations processes. Electoral management bodies will grow from relatively small organisations concentrated in a few locations to an organisation with numerous and widely dispersed branches that will include voting stations and large numbers of employees, i.e., polling officials. Effective augmentation of management frameworks to cope with this change need to be identified.
In this respect the needs assessments will deal with such issues as:
The configuration of voting operations management. Changes to existing management frameworks to provide effective management organisational structures, responsibility assignments, physical locations of managers, and chains of command to deal with the dispersed, localised nature of many voting operations tasks, need to be identified.
Control and supervisory mechanisms. Adequate reporting, monitoring and control structures will need to be in place to cope with the expanded locations, staffing, and other resources, as well as information needs arising from the management of large numbers of voting stations.
Procedural frameworks for voting operations. Assess adequacy to fulfill effectively, in all envisaged circumstances, the requirements or the legal and regulatory framework for voting operations.
Coupling and complexity of systems. In order to ensure the ability to isolate failure in one part of voting operations to ensure that it does not cause widespread collapse in related areas, frameworks for contingency planning and emergency response will be required.
Corporate skills available. Assess appropriateness for the tasks to be undertaken and any additional training required.
Communication channels--both formal and informal. Assess what needs to be established to ensure that information and instructions reach their intended recipients in a clearly expressed and timely fashion.
Appropriate management style. Determine the appropriate delegation of decision-making authority to local or voting station levels, to cope with the expansion of the range of activities and the number of locations managed by the electoral management body.
Culture. Assess the team atmosphere and shared commitment to the principles of voting operations (see Guiding Principles) present amongst election administrators and needing to be instilled in additional temporary staff engaged and external suppliers of services to the process.
Assessing the need for additional action to be taken in regard to the above points is as necessary as assessing resource needs. Without an effective management, procedural, communications, and commitment framework, resources available are not likely to be delivered effectively or, for that matter, at all.
Resource Needs Issues
The second level of needs assessment addresses the actual resources needed to conduct voting operations effectively. The basic determinant of resource needs will be the numbers of voters that need to be serviced, in relation to the regulatory and procedural requirements for voting. Assessments of tentative resource needs should be an early element of election planning, with fine-tuning occurring later as more exact data for such factors as numbers of voters and voting site locations become known.
Elements of the resource needs assessment should include:
- equipment and materials required in electoral management body offices;
- staffing required for voting locations, the ballot count, and for election administration, and the associated needs for their recruitment, training, transport, and provisioning (see Staffing and Training and Training of Voting Operations Staff);
- staff, materials, and other resources needed for voter information programs to inform voters of voting locations and methods (see Voter Information);
- equipment required for voting locations and the ballot count--ballot boxes, voting compartments, furniture, facilities (see Materials and Equipment, Voting Day Equipment);
- materials required for voting locations (see Voting Day Materials);
- any storage required for materials and equipment (see Storage Prior to Voting Day and Storage after Voting Day);
- transport and distribution of voting operations equipment, materials, and personnel (see Transportation);
- communications systems and equipment to enable effective information flow and to maintain security (see Communications Systems);
- on the basis of risk assessments, requirements for security resources (see Security);
- numbers of locations for voting and ballot counting sites, taking into account any special voting facilities to be made available (see Voting Sites).
Standard Resource Allocation Profiles
Having standard resource allocation procedures in place will allow these resource needs assessments to be conducted on a consistent, cost -effective, and less complex basis, especially with regard to such issues as:
Once needs have been determined, action can be taken to:
- identify where needs can be met from existing resources, either from within the electoral management body or from elsewhere;
- identify the additional resources that will need to be acquired and the most cost-effective methods for doing this;
- develop work plans that ensure that all required resources are in place at the correct time.
As part of the needs assessment, an inventory of existing resources - equipment, materials, staff, systems, and procedures, and their locations, should be taken if current records do not already exist.
Use of Historic Data
In conducting needs assessments, it is most useful if there is data available from past elections. This would include not only electoral management body records of resource acquisitions and distribution, and management actions taken, but also:
- evaluations and other reports on past election performance, detailing where changes to management structures, systems, procedures, and resource levels will increase the cost-effectiveness of voting operations (see 'poi' and Evaluation of Recruitment and Training);
- reports from administration staff and voting station managers on performance at the last election (see Close of Voting).
