Basic Issues
Voting operations communications require reliable and often secure information networks that provide access throughout all areas of the elections. In devising voting operations systems, procedures, and reliable administrative structures, available and potential communications facilities are major determinants.
Times of peak load for a national election, on and around voting day, are amongst the most intensive, if not the most intensive, tests to which a country's communication infrastructure can be subjected. The necessity for very careful examination of communications infrastructure capabilities is compounded by the fact that it will usually not be possible to run a full simulation of all voting day communication loads.
Communications Needs
In examining communications infrastructure capabilities, there are two broad needs to be considered:
- internal communications, i.e., between the different components of voting operations administration, such as administration offices and facilities, voting stations, counting centres, mobile field staff, technical advisers, security providers, suppliers (see Communications Systems);
- external communications, i.e., between voting operations administrators and voters.
Internal Communications
For internal communications, the massive peak load on voting day is the major focus in assessing the capacities of current communication infrastructure. Relevant considerations will include:
- existing telecommunications networks--fixed line, mobile phone, and radio--and their coverage;
- reliability of telecommunications networks--load capacities, switching quality, service and maintenance capacities, including any reliance on foreign components or expertise;
- reliability of electricity supply in maintaining telecommunications;
- existence and coverage of radio communications networks;
- availability of telephone and radio equipment for office, voting station and personal use;
- existence, coverage, load capacity, and reliability of data or document communications networks by computer or facsimile transmission;
- levels, reliability, and maintenance support available for data and document transfer equipment;
- security of telecommunications networks, particularly where emergency or security communications and data transfer is involved;
- the skills base available for operation of voice, data, and document telecommunication facilities or radio;
- ability to extend existing communications networks--costs, component availability, and lag times on construction;
- the coverage and reliability of postal and other direct mail services.
Effects of Communications Infrastructure
Available communications infrastructure will not only determine communications strategies but may also influence issues such as:
- the location of voting sites, election administration offices at the local level, and ballot counting centres;
- result deadlines and calculation methods.
For example:
- direct communication links with all voting stations on voting day are highly desirable--it is generally unwise to place voting stations in locations with no fixed line communications or satisfactory radio or mobile phone reception;
- where count systems rely on speedy document or data transfer to central locations for amalgamation of results, the use of special count centres may be required where all voting stations do not have access to or equipment for the required communications systems.
Consistency in Communications Methods
Use of consistent communication facilities within the area of the election is preferable to enable greater consistency of procedures and training. Government sponsored networks will often have the greatest coverage and reliability, and voting operations communications strategies would generally seek to maximise use of these. In many countries, not only less developed ones, military and security force communications networks are the most extensive, reliable, and most capable of quick supplementation to meet voting station needs. However, use of networks aligned with existing power structures has to be undertaken with care, so that no perceptions of lack of integrity arise.
Where there is no national communications network, use of a variety of local existing communications facilities may be feasible, particularly if there is a stable, locally-based administrative structure for voting operations. However, this may provide inefficient--and where security issues are involved, dangerously degraded--information transfer.
Where communications infrastructure in particular areas is poor, additional network facilities--such as additional fixed lines, upgrading existing load capacities, additional telecommunications towers for radio or mobile phones--may need to be considered. Given the lead times generally required for installation and testing of upgraded telecommunications facilities and their costs, this should be implemented only when it is certain that these additional facilities can be installed in time and it provides a cost-effective solution. Cost efficiencies will include situations where substantial public benefit will be derived from continuing use of the additional facilities after the election.
External Communications
Communications infrastructure considerations for external communications will relate to two major issues:
- providing information on voting operations to voters and the general public;
- the ability to offer some special voting facilities that are dependent on reliable and speedy communications.
Infrastructure considerations for voter and public information campaigns will have a different focus than internal communication considerations. In this context, mass media infrastructure and penetration is a major consideration, along with more targeted systems relying on telecommunications and mail infrastructure and personal contact, in developing effective communications strategies. (For detailed discussion of external communication issues in relation to voter information, see Voter Information.)
Special Voting Facilities
Communications infrastructure will determine the viability of using mail or telecommunications for the conduct of voting. Apart from its use as a form of absentee voting, conducting elections using solely mail voting has been recently demonstrated, in some highly developed societies, to be a highly cost effective method of conducting an election.3 There are, however, a number of infrastructure issues that need to be considered in relation to voting by mail, including:
- Without some standardisation of nomenclature of individual addresses, it may not be possible for mail ballots to be delivered to the correct voter.
- Without a reliable mail system with quick pick-up and delivery turnaround times, there may be no certainty of mail ballot delivery into the right hands.
- Even if correctly delivered, the minimum possible elapsed time between despatch of ballots to voters by the electoral management body and return receipt of completed ballots from voters may exceed the deadline for return of mail ballots--an issue that needs to be examined very carefully with regard to more remote areas.
With regard to the use of telecommunications in voting, some jurisdictions now accept ballots received by fax transmission or radio telephone. Where the necessary infrastructure is available, such means may provide the most effective access for voters in small remote communities or for voting from foreign countries. Technological advances are commencing to tap the potential of home-based voting using telecommunications systems for voting by telephone or by using the Internet. However, for such voting methods to be considered for implementation, not only the election system itself, but the communications infrastructure must be secure, reliable, and accessible to voters.
