Election legislation may, or may not, empower election authorities, or other entities of the state, to develop regulations govering the election process. Regulations serve to explain or clarify provisions of election law and instruct or guide election administrators and participants in the electoral process. Regulations can cover such issues as campaign or election related deadlines, nomination or campaign finance reporting procedures, allocation of free airtime, polling place arrangements, the processing of voters on Election Day, criteria for determining whether or not a ballot is invalid, and counting procedures. At times, these regulations may resemble forests in which voters and educators can become lost or, in some cases, even entangled in by legislative underbrush.
Timing
Regulations often follow legislation. Yet these regulations may contain details that educators need to refine significant parts of their programmes. If educators plan to familiarize voters about what to expect on Election Day, for example, then they will need detailed knowledge of polling place procedures. These details may be addressed through regulation rather then through law. If regulations are adopted relatively late in the election campaign, or are subject to continuous revision, the amount of time available for educators to formulate complete programmes becomes limited. In many transitional settings, where the election law itself may be in a state of flux proximate to, or even in the midst of, an election campaign, the odds that regulations can be adopted in time to provide necessary clarification may be low.
The country of Georgia during the 2000 election campaign provides a case in point. In the final weeks of the election campaign, the Parliament was still debating substantive changes to a number of laws governing elections. As a result, it was ultimately unclear which version of the relevant laws would apply. Under such circumstances, it was virtually impossible to issue regulations for the purpose of clarification. On what would such regulations be based? Among the details to be decided were: what forms of voter identification would be accepted on Election Day and what was the proper method for marking a ballot. These are the types of details that must be addressed by educators in a timely way.
Even if an election law is firmly in place, such factors as a short election campaign, limited resources to devote to an election, and the absence of a permanent election authority can combine to result in a situation where the election calendar overtakes the issuance of necessary regulations. Under these types of circumstances, there is a very real jeorpardy for educators. If regulations are adopted or changed after a voter education programme has been launched, the result can be confusion on Election Day -- the very opposite of what was intended by the programme.
Detail
Often, regulations are not so much designed for voters as they are for those administering and contesting the election. Yet, certain details may well impact voter participation in the process. As a result of inadequate legal provisions or limited training of poll workers, regulations may by quite detailed. Sometimes, detailed regulations can encumber educators who may have difficulty addressing these in their programmes. A high level of detail can be difficult to accomodate in a straightforward and brief messages designed for television, radio, or posters. Decisions will need to be made about which media and formats can best accomodate more detailed information. There will also be concerns about loss or clarity or theme in the face of too much technical information. For some voters, who are unfamiliar with or unsure of the voting process, however, there may be a desire for more rather than less information. Identification and targetting of these groups of voters will help in directing more detailed information to those who need it.
Authority
While the adoption of '11th hour' or detailed regulations may make the job of educators more difficult, the absence of regulations can also be problematic. In some transitional settings, the election authority or other responsible state bodies may not be conferred with the legal authority to adopt regulations. This situation can also be troublesome. If there are gaps in legislation or confusing, or even contradictory, legal provisions, the election authority may be powerless to bring clarity or uniformity to the election process. Ultimately, both administrators and educators may have some of the same questions as voters about how the process is supposed to work. If these questions cannot be answered in a timely fashion, the voter education programme will be incomplete and voter confusion is likely to persist.
The Role of the Educator
Educators will want to scrutinise all existing regulations carefully and make sure that they receive the regulations in both draft and final forms (without mistaking one for the other). In draft, educators may want to comment on how the regulations may affect their educational task. With the final version, educators will have to use educational programmes to convey the details of the regulations correctly, and, if necessary, amend educational materials and presentations to ensure ongoing accuracy. If changes warrant, they may even consider ways to re-educate those who have already gone through their initial programme. Perhaps most important, educators may urge the publication of full and final regulations as early as possible and to stick to them despite any temptations to the contrary.
