Basic Issues
The best emergency response plans, security management structures, and security personnel resource availability will be tested to the limit if there are not clear security standards implemented within voting stations, and if locations used for voting are not conducive to maintaining security.
Security Standards
Security standards to be applied in voting stations embrace the physical facilities available, crowd control, and materials security measures. Security standards are only one of a number of standards that have to be applied in assessing the suitability of a particular site for voting purposes. Compromises will often need to be made. (Arrangements for implementation of these standards are further discussed at Voting Site Security Arrangements.)
Physical Facilities at the Voting Station
From a security standpoint, the physical facilities and environment of a voting station should offer:
- a location that is not used for any other purpose during the time the voting station site is in operation;
- communications capabilities, either reliable fixed telephone line(s) or good mobile phone/radio network reception (see Use of Communications Networks);
- clear lines of sight throughout the voting station area--buildings used would preferably be of open plan rather than multi-room design;
- exit and entrance facilities that can be effectively monitored with a minimal staff allocation and are placed to allow a logical flow of votors through the voting area (wherever possible buildings with a common entrance/exit would preferably be avoided);
- proximity to security forces' permanent or temporary election operational bases;
- emergency exit facilities that allow quick clearance of the voting station area.
Crowd Control Measures
In relation to crowd control, a basic essential measure is to be able to identify easily those persons authorised to be in the voting station area. This is most simply done by ensuring that:
- all authorised persons who are not attending to vote (polling officials, party/candidate representatives, independent observers, official visitors) are issued an official identification badge by the electoral management body, or, failing that, an officially recognised letter of accreditation;
- in environments of potential disruption, only voters eligible to vote at that voting station are allowed to enter, by screening voters' identification documents or checking their details against a copy of the voters list, at the voting station entrance.
Methods of removal of unauthorised visitors, possibly with the aid of security forces, need to be clearly understood by voting station officials and security force personnel.
Within the area used for voting, crowd control measures should aim towards:
- moving voters as quickly as possible through the voting station along defined paths (if possible by the use of portable barriers);
- ensuring that voters do not linger in the voting area after casting their vote.
Delays in voting and consequent slow-moving queues or confused patterns of movement through the voting station (see Voting Station Layout Standards) may well provoke totally avoidable security problems and disturbances.
Conduct in Voting Stations
Enforcement of some basic personal and political behavioural standards within voting stations will also help in maintaining security. On a personal level, the banning of weapons and alcohol or other drugs within the voting station reduces the potential for disturbance. Similarly, any intoxicated or obviously biased voting station officials require immediate replacement, and intoxicated voters need to be removed swiftly.
A legally enforceable ban on campaigning within the voting station area helps in preventing exacerbation of existing tensions. Depending on the environment the extent of this ban may vary; at a minimum it should include a ban on political speeches and distribution of political literature within the voting station. This may usefully be extended to cover an area surrounding the voting station itself, or to the wearing within such an area of any clothing or badges that may be associated with any political candidate or issue.
With regard to parties, candidates, and voting station officials, clear guidelines on behavioural issues are necessary in their respective codes of conduct. Such codes of conduct may be voluntary agreements, or included in electoral legislation (for further information on conduct codes, see Party and Candidate Codes of Conduct, Voting Operations Staff Codes of Conduct, Codes of Conduct for Political Parties and Codes of Conduct).
Materials Security
Locations for voting stations should also, if possible, offer facilities that help in maintaining voting material security. It would be preferable that secure storage be available for voting material not currently in use. No matter what safe storage facilities may be available, materials security will be underpinned by implementation of strict standards for materials handling. These standards require thorough reinforcement during voting station officials' training, as the quality of their implementation affects both voting security and integrity.
Basic standards include:
- guarding of all official voting material from the moment it reaches the voting station until it leaves--simple issues often overlooked by staff, like leaving material unattended to take a restroom break or leaving unused voting material in the custody of senior officials who may be called from their posts may breach security;
- apart from the voter (or if an assisted voter, their designated assistant), no other person apart form authorised voting station officials should be permitted to handle election material;
- thorough reconciliations of voting material on delivery and at the close of voting.
Site Assessments
In determining voting station locations, potential sites need to be assessed against security standards in conjunction with other suitability criteria (see Voting Site Needs Assessments). These assessments should, wherever possible, be done by personal inspection of the site by an employee of the electoral management body. In high security risk areas, it can be useful to gain expert security advice from police or military staff accompanying such inspections.
Where voting station officials have been appointed prior to determining locations for voting stations, the voting station manager could undertake this inspection or accompany the electoral management body staff. Security and general operations planning will be aided if a checklist style report on this inspection is completed.
Where personal inspection is not possible, a checklist of the security and other suitability criteria should still be completed by the owner (or in the case of state authorities, occupier) of the premises and returned to the electoral management body.
