Likely Problems
Potential problems that may occur with voting sites, for which contingency arrangements should be developed, may concern:
- unavailability of a planned location for voting;
- inability to gain access to the voting location at the arranged time;
- failure of staff or materials to arrive in time to allow opening of the voting location at the scheduled time;
- natural or other disasters preventing commencement or continuation of voting at a voting location (see Crisis Management).
Unavailability of Location
There is always the possibility that planned locations will not be available on voting day, either through natural disaster, civil disturbance, or, where the state has no right to commandeer voting sites, termination of contractual arrangements by the location's owner. When identifying suitable voting locations, election administrators should consider the need to book reserve sites to use as emergency locations. Any requirements for such contingency plans will be governed by previous experience, as well as the current security situation and weather prospects. The possibility of occurrences during voting preventing use of a voting location should also be considered (see Crisis Management). Required actions in such circumstances should be instilled in voting station managers during training.
Inability to Gain Access
It would be preferable if the voting station manager obtained copies of any keys or security codes required for entry to the voting site at least a day prior to the date on which they require entry to the voting station site, to ensure entry for voting station set-up and voting day operations. More than one contact person from whom voting site keys are available would preferably be specified in arrangements for use of the location for voting; provision and recording of this information should be rigorously pursued by election administration offices. Contingency arrangements could also be made with local police to provide a supervised 'break-in' to voting locations for the purposes of commencing voting on time, if no other method of entry is available.
Supply Failures
Where voting stations open late due to non-arrival of materials or staff, consideration may need to be given to alternative methods for servicing voters, depending on how long the delay is before the voting station commences operations. Delays of only a short period may inconvenience voters who arrive early, but may have no effect on the ability to process all voters prior to the normal time for close of the poll. At voting stations where lengthy delays are experienced, consideration may need to be given to extending the hours of voting or extending voting to another day.
(For further discussion of these issues, see Voter Turnout Contingency Plans and Crisis Management. For contingency arrangements for voting station materials, see Materials Contingency Plans, and for staffing, see Staffing Contingency Plans.)
Adjourned or Postponed Voting
There is generally no way of predicting at which voting stations there may be a need to adjourn voting and possibly use alternative voting sites or postpone voting to another date (see Crisis Management). However, contingency plans should address, in general fashion, potential alternative sites for voting or rescheduling of voting day in case of natural disasters, mass civil disturbances, or similar reasons. In identifying suitable sites for voting stations, it can be useful, particularly in areas of high security risk, to identify potential backup voting locations.
