Basic Issues
Materials and equipment required in each voting location will be dependent on:
Allocation of materials and equipment to each voting location, to be cost-effective, needs to be based on strict needs assessments taking into account the circumstances at each location. For maximum cost-effectiveness, this needs to be a 'bottom up' process (overall requirements being a total of identified needs at each location), rather than 'top down' (creating an overall 'guesstimate' of requirements and dividing this among all locations). This will be more effectively implemented if voting sites are identified well in advance of the election, sufficiently before deadlines for placing orders for materials and equipment.
Conducting Needs Assessments
In conducting needs assessments there are three phases:
1. Determining, from expected voters and staffing numbers, the materials and equipment that will be required for effective operation of the voting station. (For further discussion of this issue see Production of Ballots, Voting Day Equipment, Voting Day Materials and Voting Station Staffing Levels.) These needs should be formally recorded for each voting location. Integrating these requirements on the same record may become unwieldy under non-automated systems. Separate records for facilities requirements, voting equipment, staffing and voting materials may be easier to control. Voting materials requirements, in particular, are usually better dealt with in a separate record (see Requisition and Inventory Preparation). An example of a combined facilities/staffing record is at Schedule of Polling Arrangements - New Zealand 1996.
2. Determining which of the required facilities and equipment are already available at the voting location, from inspections of the voting location or other investigations (see Voting Site Arrangements), and ensuring in contractual arrangements for use of the location that these will be made available for voting (see Reserving Voting Sites).
3. Determining the shortfalls and making arrangements for supply of the necessary equipment/materials. For each voting location an inventory should be prepared listing quantities of all items to be supplied to the location (for discussion of inventory preparation, see Requisition and Inventory Preparation). Depending on the origin of the supply (some items, such as additional telecommunications links, additional water, and toilet facilities, may not be supplied directly by the electoral management body) such inventories may need to be broken down into separate delivery schedules by supplier and a supply date.
Review of Needs Assessments
Where needs assessments are conducted by local electoral managers, some form of supervisory management review of estimated requirements at a regional or central level will assist in standardising resource use and services provided and maintaining controls over cost-effectiveness. The use of standard schedules, related to voter numbers expected, for estimation of resources needs by field/local managers, for staffing, materials, equipment, and facilities, with any variations from these standards requiring management approval at a regional or central level will minimise the management control workloads.
Arrangements with Other Organisations
Upgrading of facilities at voting sites may require coordination between the electoral management body and other government agencies or service organisations. Given the often rushed time frames of election preparation, it is essential that close liaison be established between senior electoral management body officers and similarly senior executives of external service providers to ensure that the priority for election-related upgrade work is firmly established. In some cases, pressure may need to be applied through executive government; this can be necessary when dealing with state-based monopoly service providers, such as telecommunications providers, in many countries.
