Quality Control
Electoral management bodies should always ensure that implementation of an acceptable production quality control plan is a necessary condition in contracts for supply of equipment. Evaluation and approval by the electoral management body of suppliers' quality control plans is necessary for ensuring that equipment supplied meets requirements. In some cases the electoral management body may want to implement its own additional quality control measures on production of essential equipment.
In general, more effective controls can be maintained over equipment quality under the following conditions:
- clear and accurate specifications for equipment requirements have been provided by the electoral management body to suppliers;
- equipment is ordered only from reputable suppliers, preferably accredited under the International Standards Organisation (ISO) series of quality benchmarks;
- equipment is produced locally, enabling on-site production inspections by electoral management body staff, and shorter time delays in identifying quality deficiencies;
- a rigorous pre-delivery testing regime is instituted for all equipment to ensure that it meets specifications.
Supply from other countries can make it difficult for the electoral management body to have any oversight of quality issues until the equipment is delivered, which may be too late to remedy deficiencies properly.
Maintenance
As a general rule, if the resources and storage facilities are not available for proper maintenance of durable equipment, it would be a waste of money to acquire it.
Regular maintenance checks (at the least at six-monthly intervals) of all durable equipment in storage will help prevent equipment failure during voting operations. Particular attention should be paid to regular testing of electronic and communications equipment. Where special equipment is used to maintain voter eligibility controls--such as ultra-violet or other special lamps or fingerprint readers--particular care also needs to be taken with their maintenance.
It is highly preferable to develop formal maintenance and testing schedules for all durable equipment and ensure that reports on results are brought to the attention of senior electoral management body officials.
Sensible precautions for maintaining equipment in good condition need to be remembered, such as removing batteries from battery-operated equipment before it is placed in storage.
Testing of all equipment prior to it being shipped to voting stations will guard against the provision of useless items. It is also prudent to require that voting station managers thoroughly test all equipment in the voting station following installation, both to ensure that the equipment is in good working condition and that they know how to operate it.
