Basic Issues
Voting operations work plans should be derived from the electoral management body's strategic plan (see Strategic Planning). Work plans for voting operations are likely to be highly influenced by the nature of the electoral management body and the predictability of the election cycle.
Temporary Electoral Management Bodies
In systems with no permanent electoral management body, all voting operations activities, including the development of work plans, are likely to be compressed within the election period. This would require notice of the election sufficiently in advance to allow management structures to be implemented and all processes to be ready by voting day.
The length of this time period can become particularly important in transitional elections, where legal and procedural frameworks have changed, may be subject to change again during the election period, and electoral management bodies will often be newly appointed. In such cases, it would be unlikely for an election of acceptable quality to be organised without at least a six month period between finalisation of the election framework and appointment of the electoral management body and the voting date.
Permanent Electoral Management Bodies
Where permanent electoral management bodies are in place, development of voting operations systems and the acquisition of the resources required to manage the election can progress between elections, maintaining a state of improving readiness. Work plans that include the entire cycle from election to election will almost invariably produce more cost-effective and higher quality results.
Where electoral management bodies maintain only a core central presence between elections, election cycle work plans can more easily concentrate on the development of systems and procedures, the planning of supply needs and their acquisition, and voting operations implementation at local levels.
Where electoral management bodies have some permanent presence at a more local level (which can generally be more cost-effectively maintained on an agency basis using other state resources), work plans that include the whole election-to-election cycle can more easily be extended to maintain local readiness, in terms of such issues as:
- identifying potential voting sites and locations;
- preparing preliminary materials and equipment needs schedules;
- identifying potential staffing needs;
- maintaining contact with potential senior polling staff;
- pre-packaging of existing materials for voting stations;
- maintaining local voter information programs.
Integration of Tasks
Voting operations work plans should integrate the activities of all key participants, providing a layered structure of task definitions, time frames and task responsibilities for individual staff and each electoral management body office within an overall systemic view. As voting operations will need to integrate the activities of large numbers of people from a number of different organisational entities--including contractors for supplies, security forces, electoral management body staff--work plans should be based on proven business planning principles that allow the tracking of election readiness.
Essential ingredients of a work plan would include:
- identifying all tasks relevant to the implementation of voting operations;
- prioritising these tasks, to identify those essential for the proper conduct of voting and those that are add-ons that will improve the quality of service, but, in the event of insufficient time for implementation, can be foregone without affecting election integrity;
- establishing the relationships and dependencies between all these tasks--how they fit together, what tasks have to be commenced or completed before work on other tasks can begin;
- developing integrated time frames for the completion of these tasks that will result in all processes being ready for operation at the time required in the election calendar;
- responsibilities and accountabilities for the completion of particular tasks and liaison between the various service providers are clearly identified (see Assignment of Responsibilities);
- reviews of progress--while vital in relation to the critical points in the election calendar, continuous monitoring and reporting also is necessary for timely rectification of any deficiencies.
Use of both self-monitoring and supervised checklists can be used to review progress (see Checklists). Special care also needs to be taken to ensure that voting services that will need to be operational before the general voting day, such as early voting in any form, are adequately covered in the work plan time frames. (For further discussion of calendars and time lines for work plans, see Calendars and Time Lines)
Developing Work Plans
When developing work plans for voting operations, the following considerations need to be taken into account:
The workplans must aim at providing realistically achievable level of services. While there may be many potentially elegant and sophisticated ways of organising and implementing voting, the bottom line is that it must work, and that there is only one chance only for it to work. The emphasis must be on planning for the most practical solutions to provide acceptable levels of election integrity.
The time frames for actions must also be realistic, and sufficient for administrators to accomplish the required tasks cost-effectively; sufficient to allow the participation of voters and political participants; sufficient to allow the effective integration of services provided by external suppliers. such contractors, other government agencies, and/or international organisations.
Some measure of flexibility is required to allow for adaptations to any changes in the environment, whether from failure to achieve intended work objectives or changes to the election framework. Contingency measures are an essential part of voting operations work plans. This becomes particularly important where elections are not at fixed intervals, and the early calling of an election may interrupt medium to longer term development strategies, and where elections are being held under new systems. Voting operations work plans may need to cope with adjustments for delays and extensions in other election processes, such as voter registration. In post-conflict situations, particularly, they will often need to cope with continuing negotiations on the election framework.
'Readiness' encompasses more than procedures and materials being in place on the day they are required. Work plan time frames must allow for assessment that all required facilities are actually functioning, rather than just in place. For some tasks, such as development of new systems and procedures, this may require a training period of some weeks. Care must be taken not to overload or cram tasks into the week before the general voting day. During this period, the pressure on staff from the looming voting day deadline can provoke crisis, rather than considered, management scenarios.
Information Management Plan
An important, and often overlooked, part of voting operations work plans is the development of an internal information management plan for the electoral management body. Voting operations require the transfer of vast amounts of information, not only from central management through regional and/or local offices, and thence to voting stations, regarding procedures and the environment, and then back up the chain, about conditions and occurrences in the field. Methods of disseminating and acknowledging the receipt of information, and a planned information dissemination timetable, are basic issues in ensuring consistency, competency, and flexibility of service. (For information dissemination methods, see Communications Systems.)
