Voting Operations

Topic IndexVoting Operations End Notes

1. For example, for the 1994 national elections in South Africa, early voting was held on the day before the first day for normal voting, and was restricted to voters who due to illness, infirmity, disability or pregnancy could not attend their voting station on voting day. For report on this experience, see Independent Electoral Commission Report of the Independent Electoral Commission, The South African Elections of April 1994 (Johannesburg: Independent Electoral Commission, 1994) p56.

Early Voting by Mail

2. Recent electoral events conducted solely by mail voting include the Constitutional Convention Election 1997 in Australia and the Compulsory Retirement Savings Scheme Referendum 1997 in New Zealand. Full details of the Australian Constitutional Convention Election have been published in: Australian Electoral Commission, Constitutional Convention Election 97, The Australian Electoral Commission's Election Report and Statistics (Canberra: Australian Electoral Commission, 1998). The legal framework for this election - Constitutional Convention (Election) Act 1997 can be accessed at http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cca1997395/ (accessed 19 June 1998). Full details of the New Zealand Compulsory Retirement Savings Scheme Referendum have been published in Elections NZ, Review of the Compulsory Retirement Savings Scheme, (Wellington: Elections NZ,1997). A number of jurisdictions in the United States also have provisions for conducting elections solely by mail, though only in the State of Oregon have these been applied to State-wide elections. Useful detailed information on vote-by-mail elections in the United States is contained in

Arizona Secretary of State Vote By Mail Study Committee, Arizona Secretary of State Vote-By-Mail Study Committee Report, [report on-line], (Phoenix: Arizona Secretary of State, 1996, accessed 13 April 1998); available from http://www.sosaz.com/mailinvoting.htm; Internet

Oregon Vote By Mail Citizen Commission Report of the Vote by Mail Citizen Commission, [report on-line], (Salem: Oregon Secretary of State,1996; accessed 8 July 1998); available from http://www.sos.state.or.us/executive/vbmcc.study/toc.htm; Internet

Further information on elections conducted by mail voting in the State of Oregon (including cost comparisons and election rules) can be accessed through the web site of the Elections Division, Oregon Secretary of State Oregon at http://www.sos.state.or.us/elections/other.info/stat&ru.htm (accessed 8 July 1998)

Federal Election Commission,All-Mail-Ballot Elections, Innovation in Election Administration, No 11 (Washington: Federal Election Commission, 1995)

Communications

3. Recent electoral events conducted solely by mail voting include the Constitutional Convention Election 1997 in Australia and the Compulsory Retirement Savings Scheme Referendum 1997 in New Zealand. Full details of the Australian Constitutional Convention Election have been published in Constitutional Convention Election 97, The Australian Electoral Commission's Election Report and Statistics, Australian Electoral Commission, Canberra, Australia, April 1998. Full details of the New Zealand Compulsory Retirement Savings Scheme Referendum have been published in Review of the Compulsory Retirement Savings Scheme, Elections NZ, Wellington, New Zealand, December 1997. A number of jurisdictions in the United States also have provisions for conducting elections solely by mail, though only in the State of Oregon have these been applied to State-wide elections. Useful detailed information on vote-by-mail elections in the United States is contained in both

Lynch, Anne L., Arizona Secretary of State Vote-By-Mail Study Committee Report, (report on-line), Arizona Secretary of State, Phoenix, Arizona, Fall 1996; accessed 13 April 1998; available from http://www.sosaz.com/mailinvoting.htm and

Report of the Vote by Mail Citizen Commission, (report on-line), Oregon Secretary of State, Salem, Oregon, September 1996; accessed 13 April 1998; available from http://www.sos.state.or.us/executive/vbmcc.study/toc.htm

Materials and Equipment

4. As an example, for the South African National Election of 1994, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) reported:

that 3% of its 3291 vehicles were reported stolen, 6% of mobile phones and 11% of radios were not returned by temporary staff, and

'serious irregularities' in the administration of the acquisition of computer hardware, software and related equipment, of which R4.6 million could not be accounted for
The IEC also noted that 'The Commission also wishes to make frank disclosure of the fact that its asset and salary control systems broke down under the pressure of the organisation's convulsive expansion. It is self-evident that the breakdown in such systems exposed the IEC, and hence the tax-paying public, to the risk of loss through folly or fraud.' Source: Independent Electoral Commission, Report of the Independent Electoral Commission, The South African Elections of April 1994 (Johannesburg: Independent Electoral Commission, 1994), pps 78-82. The manner in which these control systems failed is a salutary lesson for all voting operations managers. And an example of the difficulties of control when electoral frameworks (for however necessary a reason) change until the eve of an election.

Voting Station Staffing Levels

5. Figures for staffing schedules are derived from the following sources. South Africa: Donald Craythorne,Polling Arrangements Package Number One for Use By Transitional Councils (Pretoria: Elections Task Group, 1995), Appendix 2, p. 11. Australia: Australian Electoral Commission Divisional Office Procedures Manual - Elections,(Canberra: Australian Electoral Commission, 1996), Part 5 Subpart 1, p. 16.

Demographic Analysis

6. For example in Australia, a philosophy of maximising voter access has resulted in a very open and complex choice of voting locations and methods available to all voters, thus making voting site planning more difficult To assist with this planning problem, at each election the manner and location of voting is electronically recorded for each voter. In planning voting sites for the next election this data is electronically manipulated to adjust for any redistricting, trends in voter turnout patterns over several elections, and changes in numbers of registered voters, to predict likely numbers of voters at each voting station and optimal locations for new voting stations. These predictions are in turn used as the basis for computerised resource allocations to each voting stations as part of an integrated computer-based election management system.

Crowd and Queue Control

7. For example, for the South African local government elections of 1995/96, the legal framework established an outer perimeter of 1000 metres radius, within which all political activity was prohibited, around each voting station; an inner perimeter with a radius of 500 metres was also established - within which only voters to that voting station, officials and accredited persons were allowed.

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Voting Operations