Basic Issues
Training for staff recruited for voting operations is a valuable investment in the integrity of the election process. It is a necessary and integral part of each election, and ensures that all staff have the competency to apply election procedures accurately, impartially, and consistently throughout every administration office, voting station, and count centre. It is these officials in local workplaces who make or break the election.
Training for voting operations forms part of the overall training program of the electoral management body. (For additional information on the overall training needs for electoral management body staff, see Training Programme and Personnel Appointment and Training.)
Competency Development
In training for voting operations, the key word is 'competency', which means the development of the ability of staff to implement procedures in the required manner, not just know about them. This basic objective governs the manner in which training for polling staff is undertaken. It requires more than just a familiarity with relevant legislation. Polling staff are engaged in a one-time event, working under intense pressure and with little latitude for error. Without an opportunity to first practice what they have to do, the risks of failure are high.
Thus, regardless of their past training or experience, voting operations staff need the opportunity close to the election date to be trained in the actual voting-related tasks for which they will be responsible. It is immaterial whether or not staff have worked on elections previously, or that procedures should be common knowledge. Procedures and performance expectations change from election to election, and without the opportunity for constant application, learnt skills will have deteriorated.
Compulsory Training
Undertaking training should be a prerequisite for confirmation of employment as a voting operations official. This training would preferably be face-to-face. In circumstances where this is not possible, a program of home learning through assessable workbooks will need to be substituted. Even where face-to-face session attendance is required, initiation or reinforcement of this learning through required completion of home reading and exercises will result in more effective training sessions. The negative inducement to complete training properly is to make this a condition of confirmation of employment. A major positive inducement is the provision of a reasonable remuneration for attendance at training sessions, for any associated travel, and for time spent on reading and completion of home training exercises.
Continuous Training Systems
Specific election training will be less daunting if voting operations staff have a more developed knowledge base. Systems of continuous training and briefings for voting operations staff can assist with this. This will require the maintenance of records of voting operations staff employed and continuing contact with them. (For further discussion of this issue, see Timing of Training.)
Stability of Legal and Procedural Framework
It is important for effective training and subsequent staff performance that laws, regulations, and procedures for voting operations are settled early and remain stable during the election period. Development of reference materials and training programs takes time. Changes to frameworks after reference materials have been finalised, and particularly after training sessions have been conducted, can only confuse staff in their actions. Conducting emergency retraining, involving staff 'unlearning' their previous training and learning the new methods, poses considerable information retention difficulties.
Planning Training Programs
Training of polling staff is one of the largest and most concentrated training programs undertaken by any institution, and places heavy demands on organisational planning and service capacities. Proper strategic planning of training objectives, target groups, material development, and intended learning outcomes, and detailed operational planning for all training activities and their integration with other election tasks are essential. Without such planning, training focus, effectiveness, and accountabilities are lost, and training implementation becomes haphazard. (For issues affecting the planning of polling staff training, see Defining Training Objectives and Training Plan.)
The timing of training delivery is important to ensure that competencies are retained and that training scheduling melds with other election priorities. (For timing issues, see Timing of Training.)
Methodologies of Voting Operations Training
There are varying methodologies that could be applied for training such large numbers of staff. The use of centralised or decentralised models will depend on the training resources and time available. Possible models are discussed at Training Methodology. Within these models, the way in which training is presented will greatly influence the effectiveness of the learning experience.
Factors to be considered include:
With such large numbers of staff to be trained in a short period, electoral management bodies may not be able to undertake training delivery from within their normal staff resources. The identification and recruitment of suitable persons for conducting voting operations staff training, (see Training Delivery Responsibilities) and providing these trainers with the skill and knowledge to undertake voting operations staff training successfully (see Training of Trainers), can be a major task, especially where decentralised training models are used.
It is important that those employed to train staff, whether they be professional trainers, general educators, or voting operations staff themselves, are equipped both with:
- an intensive practical knowledge of voting procedures;
- the skills to transfer this knowledge and guide competency development in voting operations staff.
Monitoring and Review
The fact that voting, in most instances, occurs for a short time only, with little opportunity to recover errors, means it is essential to ensure there is confidence in the competencies of voting operations staff. This needs to be instituted at the time of training. Such measures are two-fold:
- implementing programs for assessing the knowledge of potential voting operations staff before they are actively engaged in their duties (see Knowledge Assessment), so that ineffective staff can be identified and their employment terminated;
- monitoring and evaluating training programs and delivery (see Evaluation of Recruitment and Training).
Other Organisations
Electoral management bodies can also play a role in the training of other organisations participating in voting operations. It is in their interest that representatives of parties and candidates, independent electoral observers, and security forces, in particular, are well informed on their rights, responsibilities, and the voting procedures to be implemented. (For further discussion of potential training responsibilities in these regards, see Training for Parties and Candidates, Training for Observers and Security Force Training.)
