Basic Issues
Logistics planning is the essential support function for ensuring that equipment, staff, and communications methods are in place in time for the successful conduct of voting.
Logistics planning has to be flexible and thorough in its consideration of possible contingency arrangements. Logistics is the meat in the sandwich between an immovable voting day, on one side, and delivery from suppliers, on the other.
Distribution
Effective distribution of materials and equipment requires:
- detailed planning of delivery and retrieval schedules, methods of transport to be used, and shipping routes (see Transportation);
- efficient means of splitting bulk deliveries of supplies into discrete shipments for each voting location, avoiding wastage, yet ensuring that all voting stations have sufficient supplies to service the voters;
- adequate security for the specific environment;
- storage appropriate for maintaining stocks of election materials and equipment in good condition;
- comprehensive tracking of the movements of all election materials and equipment as they go through the distribution and return chain.
Both accountability and probity considerations, as well as operational needs to be informed initially about the state of readiness for voting, and later of the successful retrieval of supplies, are served by carefully tracking all shipping and distribution of supplies.
(For issues related to distribution and storage of materials, see Distribution and Receipt of Voting Materials, Supplies - Distribution, Packaging Materials and Equipment for Delivery, Storage Prior to Voting Day and Storage after Voting Day.)
Staff Support
Transportation may be required for polling officials to attend and return from their voting stations. These may be officials who need to be mobile due to the nature of their duties, such as officials assigned to mobile voting stations or as roving voting station supervisors. They may be staff from normal voting stations who, due to unavailability of other reliable transportation services, considerations of personal safety, or remoteness of their assigned station, would not otherwise be able to attend to their duties. (For further discussion of these issues, see Transportation of Voting Station Officials.)
Communications
The extent and intensity of communications during the election period requires that a thorough assessment be made of communications needs. Apart from the heightened flow of information within the electoral management body's offices and the need to provide facilities for communicating with voters, political parties, security forces, and other government agencies, there will be large number of dispersed voting sites that will need to be in communication with electoral district managers' offices. (For further discussion of communications requirements, see Communications Systems.)
Effective communications methods for these voting stations will need to take account of voting stations' communications requirements--for security, procedural advice, progress reporting and (where relevant) count results--in relation to the available communications infrastructure (see Communications).
Observers
Independent observers, particularly if they are participating in international observer missions in a country with which they are not familiar, will require carefully planned logistical support. (For issues relating to observer logistics, see Observer Logistics.)
