Basic Issues
Contingency plans are an important part of voting operations management plans in all environments and circumstances. The time critical nature of voting operations requires backup plans to enable quick reaction to operational failures or changes in the social or physical environment. Developed contingency and backup plans are vitally essential where processes or systems are being operated for the first time or in environments undergoing social dislocation. Ideally, contingency plans should identify flexible options adaptable to specific situations; it is generally not possible to foresee every possible contingency.
While it is not possible to identify every possible contingency in all environments, some discussion of areas where specific contingency plans for voting operations will be needed is at Materials Contingency Plans, Voting Site Contingency Plans, Staffing Contingency Plans, and Voter Turnout Contingency Plans.
Operational Focus
Contingency planning needs to address several broad areas where system or other failures, or events over which voting operations administrators have no control, may affect the ability to deliver voting operations services effectively according to the standard plan. These can include:
Operational or management difficulties in particular voting stations: These may include staff failing to report for duty, communications links being severed, or particular materials or equipment not arriving on schedule. These could well be handled at the voting station or in conjunction with local representatives of the electoral management body.
Breakdowns in general electoral management or supply systems:. Such contingencies would include general logistics failures, in transport, mail or communication systems, production failures for essential items such as ballots, voters lists and election forms, and inability of computer systems to perform to expectations. As these affect overall capacities and effectiveness of voting operations, implementation of contingency plans would generally best be taken at a more central election management level, by senior election administrators in a position to take a broad overview of the effects of responses on all aspects of the election process.
Physical or social environment disasters: These would include fire, flood, earthquake, social upheaval, or other disturbances. These may affect voting operations as a whole or be limited in their effect to a single or small number of voting stations. As decisions may need to be made about postponement or adjournment of voting in these circumstances, involvement of senior election management in determining the appropriate response to such occurrences would be necessary.
Decision-Making Responsibilities
Not only should contingency plans present a clear framework for emergency decision-making and the contingency options available, but they must also firmly establish the responsibilities for determining the implementation of such plans and the trigger points at which such decisions must be made. They must specifically define for which contingencies determination can be made at a local level, those for which decisions must be made by senior executives of the central electoral management body, and those for which other agencies of state must be consulted or involved in such decisions. Without such a defined framework, there is a risk of local decisions being made on issues of wider significance; such decisions may be inconsistent or fail to address the root causes of the problems.
Contingency Plan Content
Contingency plans should identify core issues of:
- the nature of the contingency;
- the operational impacts of the contingency;
- the feasible responses;
- the financial implications of the responses;
- any effects on other processes.
Feasible responses, financial implications and flow-on effects are likely to vary according to the timing of contingency plan implementation decisions; information on these variations should be included in the contingency plans.
Recognition of Process Interdependence
Given the interdependency of election processes, it is important that contingency planning does not treat each voting operations activity as a discrete task, but follows through the future effects of contingencies in one area, which may not be within voting operations activities, on subsequent activities. For example:
- unavailability of planned voting sites will affect materials distribution, staff deployment, and voter information activities;
- failure of voters lists printing systems may require preparation of lists in a different format, which voting station staff will need to be trained to use;
- late delimitation of electoral districts will affect the timing of candidate nominations and the identification of voting sites.
Realistic Planning
Contingency plans must be realistic and effective. There should be a mechanism for determining which alternative contingency plans are implemented, taking into account their cost-effectiveness. In developing contingency plans, a clear framework of reference to voting operations outcomes is needed. Whatever the particular task that may need backup or contingency facilities, the basic aim is to have sufficient voting sites, adequately resourced to enable all attending voters to vote. In crisis situations, performance against other objectives is subsidiary.
Systems failure may often be due to excessive complexity for the environment. Creating contingency plans of similar complexity, or entailing considerable expenditure to effect only small increments in performance or service would generally not be cost-effective.
