Information Required before Voting Day
Voters turning out at a voting station at which they are not permitted to vote is a common problem and a major source of disruption. It takes time for polling officials to redirect voters and may even lead to altercations. It may also lead to voters being denied an opportunity to vote, if they are unable to travel to the correct voting station by the time of closing of the poll. Pro-active information to voters on their correct voting station will enhance accessibility and service levels to voters.
The information about voting locations that is useful to convey to voters includes:
The voting location or locations at which the voter is eligible to vote. If more than one location could be used, identification of the closest location, in order to aid voting station resource planning, is useful.
The address of the relevant location or locations, and the geographic area which it services.
The hours during which the voting location will be open for voting. In relation to normal voting stations, it is important to emphasise the time of closing. For early voting facilities, dates and voting hours are required. For mail voting, the closing hour and date for receipt of returned ballots requires heavy emphasis, with wide publicity also being given to locations for personal return of mail ballots. For voters serviced by mobile voting stations, it is important that they are aware of the scheduled time and date the mobile voting station will be at their location. The date needs particular emphasis if mobile voting stations are conducting voting in advance of voting day.
If transport to and from voting stations is being provided by election authorities, the departure time and locations as well as return times of this transport will need to be announced. If this is occurring in a high security risk environment, assurances of security need also to be provided.
Information Before Voting Day
Information on voting locations can be issued in general fashion, targeted specifically at each individual voter, or a combination of methods used. The appropriate information method will be partially dependent on the flexibility voters have in determining where they will vote. Possible methods include:
Publish a list of voting locations and hours of operation, accompanied by a map of the relevant electoral districts, in print media. This could be preceded by a series of teaser advertisements in a variety of media announcing when and where this list will be available. Local media could be targeted for local electoral district information, with consolidated information published in national media.
Distribute information to each household on the location and voting hours of the appropriate voting station for that address. Support for this by media advertising, advising voters that they should have received this information and giving a contact number or address for arrangement of supply if a voter has not received this printed information, is useful both to raise awareness and to correct delivery errors. This information could be combined with other information on voting procedures, in a general voting guide. This can be cost-effective, but care needs to be taken that the delivery of this information is undertaken accurately, particularly at the borders of electoral districts, and that all recipients are encouraged to check their eligibility to vote.
Include voting location information on a personal voter identification card for all registered voters. This can be an effective means where voters are assigned to a single voting station, though depending on the style of the voter identification card, it may entail significant additional costs. In addition to the voter's personal details the reverse of the card can contain the address, location map, and hours of operation of the assigned voting station. The card could be provided as part of the voter registration process, by mail where mail services are reliable, required to be collected from government offices, or they distributed at community meetings.
Hold community meetings, particularly where media and delivery resources lack penetration, or in areas where awareness of voting is low.
Provide inquiry offices and/or telephone services as a resource for voters' questions on the location of their appropriate voting station.
Use and publicise the actual voting station premises as information centres for voters.
Mobile Voting Station Information
Where mobile voting stations are used, additional methods of information before voting day may be required, such as posters announcing time of team visits in prominent locations in institutions or the voter if home visits are to be made. For mobile voting stations servicing remote areas, direct communication with the community, or its individual members, by radio or other means, to announce voting hours and dates may be necessary.
Information on Voting Day
General publicity on voting day through the media can emphasise the hours of operation of voting stations and contact details for information offices where more detailed information can be provided. It may also be useful to publish, in generally circulated print media on voting day, a listing of the addresses of voting stations and the localities which they serve.
Use of centralised telephone inquiry systems on voting day for redirection of voters has not always proved successful and, therefore, should be subject to very careful load capacity and effectiveness analysis before implementation.
In voting stations themselves, prominent maps at the entrance showing the geographic area in which voters must be registered to be eligible to vote at that voting station will assist in early warning to voters that they may be at the wrong voting station. Systems should also be provided to allow staff to redirect voters to their correct voting station, if they have turned out at one where they are unable to vote. The complexity of these systems will depend on the flexibility of rules regarding where a voter may vote. Where voters are allowed no choice in voting station or method, an information officer should at the very least be able to provide voters with a contact number or address at which they may check their correct voting station.
If certified voters lists for use in voting stations are produced in sufficient time, it may be useful to provide information officers in voting stations with voters lists for surrounding voting station areas. Where voters lists are based on civil registers, local registry offices should also be open on voting day to help redirect voters.
Where systems are more flexible, and account for the fact that voter registration processes are often incomplete, and rarely fully accurate, use of tendered or provisional ballots may assist voters who attend the wrong voting station. (For further discussion of this issue, see Provisional or Tendered Votes.)
Specific Information for Absentee Voting on Voting Day
In countries spanning more than one time zone where absentee voting is allowed on voting day, information to absentee voters should make clear any specific rules as to the closing time for voters voting in a different time zone from the area in which they are registered. This will be particularly necessary in jurisdictions where absentee voting must close no later than the equivalent closing time in the voter's own electoral district.
