Basic Issues
Basic foundations of voting station staff management on voting day include:
- supervision, to ensure accuracy and service in staff performance;
- a commitment to staff welfare, to motivate staff through this long day.
Professionalism in Management
Voting day is a long and generally arduous day for voting station staff, often under pressure, in which they perform tasks for which they have received some training but may never have had to undertake in a real environment before. Without a commitment to professionalism in management of voting station staff, voter service and procedural accuracy are likely to slip below acceptable levels. Establishment of a good rapport with voting station staff, supporting their efforts in taxing conditions, and offering encouragement are important aspects for voting station managers to remember if they wish to get the most out of their staff.
Electoral District Management
Management responsibilities for voting station activity is not confined to the voting station itself. Electoral district managers must also play their part in supervising voting hours operations. Working through an operations centre structure (see Operations and Security Centres) is an effective means of integrating management responses.
There will be specific requirements to ensure effective management of voting stations by electoral district managers' offices, including:
- establishment of a voice communication reporting schedule with voting stations at set intervals on voting day--staggered so as not to overload administration communication capacities (critical points, such as the commencement and closing of voting, should be covered in this schedule);
- ensuring open and swift communication with voting station managers, particularly in answer to any queries;
- providing reliable support to remedy materials or staff shortages or security problems;
- inspection of voting stations during voting hours to ensure that voting station managers are correctly applying required procedures and management practices.
Visits to Voting Stations
It is important when scheduling supervisory visits to attempt to cover all voting stations within the first two hours of voting. Even a brief visit can identify and remedy voting station set-up shortcomings, misinterpretation of procedures, or materials delivery problems. A visit early in the day will also allow early identification of the weaker voting station managers, who may require more frequent visits and management support. To wait until later in the day to inspect any voting station would run risks of a considerable number of voters whose processing has been flawed, or the formation of long, slow voters queues through inefficient application of procedures. Scheduling of such visits should also attempt to maximise support for less experienced or lower performing voting station managers throughout voting day.
The use of roving senior voting station officials for voting station inspections and emergency materials supply will enhance the management supervision capabilities within electoral districts (see Other Voting Operations Staff). This will be easier to implement in more densely populated areas. In rural areas, the distances between voting stations may make this useful field supervisory capacity impracticable.
Staff Supervision within Voting Stations
One of the major tasks of voting station managers is managing the performance of voting station staff to ensure that service, integrity, and procedural accuracy are maintained at a high standard throughout the voting day. In voting stations with larger numbers of staff, this may require additional supervisory staff, with assistant manager or second-in-command status, for effective monitoring of staff performance (see Voting Operations Staffing Profiles).
Appointing as voting station managers staff without supervisory skills, no matter how good their technical knowledge, will create problems on voting day. In managing and supervising staff effectively, voting station managers need to take a proactive role rather than waiting for problems to arise.
Essential elements of supervising staff within voting stations include:
Understanding of Duties
All voting station staff must have a clear understanding of their assigned duties. This requires that the voting station manager clearly assigns specific duties to all staff before the commencement of voting, and at any times when staff are rotated through different functions in the voting station. Before the commencement of voting, the voting station manager should also brief staff as a group and, where necessary, individually, to refresh staff of voting station procedures and advise them of any service or procedural matters specific to that voting station and available amenities (see Preparations for Commencement of Voting). A similar briefing should be provided to ballot counting staff before commencement of the count.
Settlement of Disputes
Voting station managers should be on the alert for any indications that disputes are arising between voters or observers and voting station officials, and intervene swiftly, calmly, and courteously to resolve such differences.
Management Support for Voting Station Officials
An objective and detached attitude must be taken by voting station managers and electoral administrators towards any complaints about the actions, service, and attitudes of voting station staff. In the sometimes heated emotions of voting, honest errors can be perceived by political participants as bias and the necessary strict application of the integrity requirements of voting procedures appear to voters as bureaucratic lethargy.
Voting station officials are often working long hours under taxing conditions that would try any person's patience. Where voting station officials are following their procedures and endeavouring to serve voters to the best the conditions will allow, they deserve their managers' support in the face of complaints. When their departures from standard procedures may threaten voting integrity, clear powers of discipline must be available to and used by the voting station manager.
