Basic Issues
Ensuring that there are sufficient staff, who have been trained to be competent in their required duties in voting stations and at the ballot count, is the backbone of voting operations. For a national election, staffing and training will be one of the biggest staff mobilisation exercises undertaken in a country. Similarly, at provincial and local election levels, staffing and training requirements for voting operations will be the largest personnel exercise these administrations are likely to implement. The sheer scale of the exercise requires precise planning.
As staffing for voting will generally be the largest cost component in election operations, small savings in unit costs can have a large impact on overall cost-effectiveness. But voting officials and the effectiveness with which they serve the public are also the most visible service aspect of the election. The basis of staffing plans must be cost-effective service delivery, rather than merely low cost.
(For further information on frameworks for staffing and training for elections, see Prepared / well trained and equipped staff and Personnel Appointment and Training.)
Staffing Profiles
In order to effectively determine staff functions and categories for voting operations, staffing profiles (see Voting Operations Staffing Profiles) should be developed for voting stations and the count. Development of these profiles will require:
- determination of the service standards that voting operations staff must deliver to the public (see Voter Service Standards);
- definition of staff duties and any staff categories required to ensure comprehensive, service-oriented implementation of voting procedures (see Staff Categories and Duties);
- determination of the required staffing levels in voting stations to deal with the number of potential voters in each voting station;
- consideration of any temporary administrative assistance required in the planning and organisation of voting operations (see Other Voting Operations Staff).
Effective staffing numbers will vary widely in different election environments, according to factors such as the procedural framework and the experience of both officials and voters have had of current voting procedures. Even so, adopting standard staffing models for voting stations and count centres will assist in delivering cost-effective services (see Voting Station Staffing Levels). From the number of voting locations and estimates of the staffing needs at each, a master summary of required staff to be recruited should be drawn up for each electoral district or voting administration area (see Polling Day Staff Summary - Trinidad and Tobago).
Recruitment of Staff
In accordance with staffing profiles for voting stations and other voting operations activities, a recruitment strategy (see Recruitment) that aims to finalise engagement of sufficient staff in time for them to be trained to the required competency levels prior to their taking up their duties needs to be implemented.
Essential elements of an effective recruitment strategy include:
- Determination of the responsibilities for recruitment action, and the appropriate timing of recruitment of staff. In many environments, decentralisation of recruitment to the local level will provide a more effective method of obtaining suitable staff (see Recruitment Standards).
- Determination of the skill levels and personal qualities required for employment, against which applicants for employment are to be assessed. In defining recruitment standards, it is important to ensure that voting operations staff are not only capable of undertaking their duties, but also that they are representative of the local communities which they are serving (see Recruitment Standards).
- Development of cost-effective recruitment methods. These may include general advertising for staff, seeking staff from other state agencies, or approaching professional associations or other organisations whose members are likely to possess the requisite skills for voting operations. An important factor in maintaining cost-effective recruitment is to endeavour to retain the services, from election to election, of experienced polling officials who have given satisfactory service. The method of selection of successful applicants needs not only to be transparent (see Transparency in Recruitment), but also ensure that applicants are properly assessed so that the most appropriate staff are selected. (For further discussion of recruitment and selection methods, see Recruitment Methodology.)
- Engagement of temporary staff for voting operations on a cost-effective, fair, contract basis. (For further discussion of this issue, see Nature of Appointments.)
- Allowance for contingencies, such as unavailability of staff on voting day and replacement of staff who do not satisfactorily complete training. (For a discussion of contingency staff requirements, see Contingency Staff.)
Training of Staff
Training of staff for voting operations has to instill competencies and the election integrity ethos in a large number of trainees in a relatively short time. Organisation of training will need careful planning as to:
The extent of these considerations will be determined by whether training is conducted in a centralised or distributed fashion and whether professional trainers or supervisory voting operations staff are used for training polling officials. (For issues of training methodology and delivery responsibilities, see Training Methodology and Training Delivery Responsibilities.)
Equally important to the effective delivery of training is that it is conducted in suitable venues and utilises appropriate training aids (see Training Materials, Equipment, and Sites, Training Environment and Timing of Training).
Evaluation
To ensure that training has been effective, the training plans and methodologies need to incorporate methods of assessing polling staff competencies during and immediately after completion of training (see Knowledge Assessment). In addition, there should be a program for evaluating the overall success of staff recruitment and training processes (see Evaluation of Recruitment and Training).
Briefing Other Election Participants
The electoral management body's involvement in training may include providing at least materials, and preferably briefing sessions, for other participants in the election process, including:
Codes of Conduct
To ensure a high level of service and integrity, and to ensure that staff are aware of the behavioural norms to which they are expected to adhere, it is useful to develop codes of conduct that all voting operations staff must undertake to uphold (see Voting Operations Staff Codes of Conduct). Similarly codes of conduct for political participants in voting operations will provide them with an integrity framework and a guide for voting operations staff in their dealings with party and candidate representatives. (For a brief discussion of such codes, see Party and Candidate Codes of Conduct.)
