Determining Service Level Objectives
As with any service-oriented activity, before determining the staffing profiles necessary for voting facilities, it is necessary to define the level of service to voters that these facilities are expected to provide. Formalising service objectives is an essential, though often overlooked, factor in the determination of staff functions and rational, cost-effective allocation of staffing resources for voting operations. It is of equal importance in developing appropriate work practices for implementing voting procedures. Instilling service objectives in polling staff during training provides them with a motivational platform. Public availability of the service standards that the electoral management body strives to meet is an important part of maintaining public accountability of the management of voting processes.
Service Criteria
Service objectives for voting facilities would generally address the following criteria:
- Traffic--how many voters per hour each voting station can reasonably be expected to service;
- Accuracy--what level of accuracy in the processing of voters must be achieved;
- Integrity--what level of risk of voting integrity being breached is acceptable;
(For further discussion of accuracy and integrity standards in voting stations, see Determination of Eligibility to Vote and Integrity Controls.)
In an environment with unlimited resources, voting facilities could be staffed so that no voter has to wait to vote, all voters are processed accurately, and there is total control over all aspects of voting integrity. In fact, such resources rarely exist. While service standards will vary in different election environments--particularly for traffic--a balance has to be struck between service and cost-effectiveness in a manner that is acceptable to the public.
Traffic Standards
The most highly visible aspect of voting operations is how long voters have to wait at a voting station to cast their vote. There are a number of significant factors that affect voting station traffic. Important issues relate to staff performance, particularly the time taken to issue voting materials. It is useful to develop and thoroughly test a standard rate for issuing voting materials--expressed in voters per hour--that polling officials are expected to achieve. This can become one of the major determinants of voting station staffing levels (see Voting Station Staffing Levels). Achievable voting material issuing rates will vary widely in different election environments based on the following considerations:
- voter identification and eligibility checks to be undertaken;
- the accuracy and design of the voters lists used;
- the number and style of the ballots being issued;
- the method of voting, particularly the difference between using manually completed paper ballots, voting machines, or computers.
There is no generic voting material issue-rate standard that can be applied to all environments. In some environments, polling officials can comfortably achieve voting material issue rates of around sixty voters per hour. At the other end of the spectrum, mobile voting stations dealing with elderly or infirm voters may only be able to deal with five to ten voters per hour.
There are also other important factors that will influence the rate at which voters can be processed. These include:
- the number of voting compartments provided;
- the number of voters requiring assistance or detailed explanation of voting procedures;
- the complexity of the ballot and, hence, the time taken for each voter to complete the ballot.
Queuing Time
What is an acceptable time for voters to have to queue to vote will vary according to general service expectations within a society. In more advanced societies the public's tolerance of queuing is likely to be less. In Australian federal elections, for example, the service objective is that voters will generally not have to queue for more than ten minutes before being issued ballot materials. Where democratic elections are a new experience, or in environments where people expect a lengthy queue for government-provided services, tolerance of long queuing times to vote may be greater. However, any voter having to wait more than thirty minutes to vote could be generally regarded as unacceptable.
Peak Voting Periods
It would be highly unusual for there to be an even flow of voters throughout the hours of voting. For many reasons--such as availability of transport or encouragement to vote early--large numbers of voters will tend to arrive at the same time. To effectively plan staffing levels to handle such peak periods, research based on accurate records from past elections of voter attendance broken down by time period is necessary. Cost-effectiveness can be served by a staffing model that permits the engagement of additional staff for part of voting day, during the peak voting hours only (which in many systems will tend to be during the first few hours the polls are open) for such functions as providing information to voters and issuing voting materials. Where such models are implemented, additional controls may need to be introduced to ensure full accountability of all polling official actions.
Service Evaluation
Evaluating whether there has been satisfactory achievement of voter service objectives and that the service targets set were appropriate for the environment is important for planning any future, cost-efficient improvements.
Appropriate methodologies for this could include analysis of such issues as complaints received from voters, records of voter queuing delays, and using sample exit polls or other service-oriented surveys of a sample of voters conducted by the electoral management body. For further discussion of voting operations evaluations, see 'poi'.)
