Basic Issues
To meet staffing crises that may emerge during voting--for example, allocated staff not reporting for duty or voting stations being swamped by higher than expected numbers of voters--election administrators should ensure that reserves of staff are available.
Organisation and deployment of these contingency staff would generally be more effectively implemented at a local or electoral district level. The shorter the chain of command, the swifter the response is likely to be to staffing emergencies. Holding reserves at a central location may result in more complex logistical requirements to get staff into the field.
(For general issues of recruitment of additional polling officials in order to meet voting day contingencies, see Contingency Staff.)
Location of Emergency Staff
Crucial decisions involve not just how many emergency staff are to be recruited (see Contingency Staff), but also where contingency staff should be located during voting hours. A balance between cost-effectiveness, considering both staffing and logistics costs, and the ability to swiftly cover for staffing emergencies and maintain a good level of voter service has to be sought.
Different environments, in terms of transport links, logistics, geographic areas to be covered, and expected needs for contingency staff, will affect the manner in which emergency staff are deployed. Possible solutions include:
Having a small number of contingency staff report for duty to each voting station. (Some environments in which this may be necessary are discussed at Contingency Staff). The disadvantages of this method are that it limits flexibility to a certain extent and is relatively costly. The need for additional staff will not generally occur in an equitable manner, but is more likely to be concentrated in a few voting stations. This method may also be wasteful of resources, in catering to a pessimistic scenario at every voting station.
Locating reserve officials at electoral district managers' offices or other local electoral management body offices or depots. While this will give greater flexibility in despatching staff to required voting stations, its effectiveness will depend on transport availability and the geographic area to be covered from each office. Transport needs to be on hand for such emergencies--not only vehicles but also drivers, to enable return of vehicles to these offices for further use.
Where roving senior polling officials are used as field supervisors (see Other Voting Operations Staff), assigning trained emergency staff who may be re-assigned to voting stations duties in emergencies as assistants to these roving officials. This provides some flexibility of response within the roving officials' relevant areas of responsibility, uses vehicles already in use for travelling between voting stations, and provides the benefit of the roving supervisors' assessment of the situation at voting stations with staffing emergencies. This method will be limited in use to areas suitable for coverage by roving officials.
Arranging for emergency staff to be on call at home. There could be arguments for this in some areas where officials are appointed from the local communities. There may be some cost advantages if these staff can be paid on-call rates (as opposed to the emergency staff automatically reporting and being paid for duty whether used or not). However, it is only likely to work effectively where public communication systems are reliable, and private means of transport is more common (or contingency staff live nearby to the relevant voting locations), and election administrators can be sure these staff members will remain on call throughout voting hours.
Emergency Staff Appointments on Voting Day
Plans for staffing emergencies should also consider the fact that contingency reserves of polling officials may prove to be insufficient. While, hopefully, this will not occur, election administrators and the legal framework for the election should recognise this possibility.
It may be possible to use administrative staff from electoral district managers' or electoral management body offices as voting station officials in emergencies. These staff members will at least have the advantage of being familiar with some voting processes. However, staff available from this source will generally be very limited in number, and the effect their reassignment to voting stations may have on administrative support during voting must be carefully assessed.
Additionally, the legal framework for the election could allow voting station managers to appoint additional voting station officials on voting day, in defined circumstances, such as inability to operate the voting station effectively due to failure of officials to report for duty or absence of staff due to fatigue or illness. Where such appointments are made, the voting station manager would need to ensure that these persons sign a contract of employment, as well as the code of conduct and declaration of secrecy or similar documents required of all voting station officials. It would be preferable if these untrained field-appointed staff were used in less complex tasks, such as exit control or guarding ballot boxes. Election administrators need to ensure that these persons are entered in payment and service records.
Field appointments of this nature need to be firmly monitored by the electoral management body to ensure that they are justified in terms of required resources and that the persons being appointed are suitable, in terms of impartiality of actions, to act as officials. The voting station manager should seek advice from the electoral district manager's office before taking this course. In highly politically charged environments, it may not be possible for all political participants to be satisfied with the impartiality of such field appointments; it may be prudent, therefore, to take the safer, yet more costly, path of a higher level of normal reserve staff recruitment and appointment.
