Version 2: We Need Your Help!
15 August 2006
For this reason we are seeking your help – in providing us with at least one example that is relevant to any electoral process – and this should only take a minute or two of your time, but will greatly improve BRIDGE V2 if every recipient of this email responds. As stated in various BRIDGE descriptions: “The BRIDGE project concentrates on the principles underlying all properly run elections, while drawing examples of different practical approaches from many different countries. It does not seek to prescribe any one model for implementing those principles, but rather encourages participants to learn from the diverse examples presented.”. To achieve this aim, we need to include more examples from around the world. Examples or anecdotes need only be short – a sentence or two. The topics are wide-reaching – covering every aspect of elections.
Examples of contributions we are seeking:
- “In country X, in year X, the X (electoral process) was X (eg flawed, etc) because of XYZ..”. Examples can be positive, negative, or just interesting
- electoral photo’s positive, negative, interesting, or humorous (without copyright restrictions)
- humor
- news articles
- memorable/innovative voter education messages/slogans
You probably have numerous examples: in your head, on your computer (eg in Observation Reports, other mission reports, as emails, etc) Authors of the anecdotes can remain anonymous, or be acknowledged (please indicate your preference). The deadline for contributions is 31st August 2006. Please email your example(s) to me: yvonne.goudie@aec.gov.au and copy it to projectoffice@bridge-project.org.
Examples of the type of topics that are needed are provided below (but don’t be restricted by these examples!).
Thanks!
| ELECTORAL ARCHITECTURE | ELECTORAL STAKEHOLDERS | ELECTORAL OPERATIONS |
| Legal (LE) | Access (AC) | Registration (RE) |
| Name an electoral procedure that was unclear that had serious consequences Name an electoral procedure that was ambiguous that had serious consequences Provide an example of an electoral dispute that developed as a consequence of an EMB not doing their job properly | Provide an example of an electoral enrolment legislation that is discriminatory in that it disenfranchises sections of society Provide an example of an electoral process which makes it inaccessible for one group in society | Provide an example of a seriously flawed registration process or system Provide an example of an inaccurate electoral roll and the reasons for it |
| Delimitation (DE) | Education (ED) | Pre-election (PR) |
| Provide an example of a blatantly political partisan re-drawing of boundaries | Provide an example of a well or badly designed product of public voter education | Provide an example of a well or badly designed ballot paper Provide an example of a well or badly designed ballot box Provide an example of a well or badly designed piece of ballot equipment Provide an example of an EMB choosing an inappropriate election day (with benefit hindsight) Provide an example of an EMB choosing an inappropriate polling site |
| Systems (SY) | Contestants (CO) | Training (TR) |
| Provide an example of the introduction of a new electoral system which caused confusion amongst the voting population Provide an example of an electoral officer who acted with impropriety Provide an example of an electoral officer who acted unprofessionally Provide an example of an electoral officer who acted unethically | Provide an example of an EMB’s training session going terribly wrong – being badly organised Provide an example of a well or badly designed voting instruction Provide an example of a poorly worded counting procedure Provide an example of leaked results with disastrous consequences Provide an example of a productive post electoral event meeting between EMB and stakeholders | |
| Structure (ST) | Observation (OB) | Polling (PC) |
| Provide an example of an EMB structure that has an unusual structure | Provide an example of an electoral process concerning the Electoral Observation Provide an example of an observer who acted unprofessionally, illegally or broke the Observers Code of Conduct | |
| Technology (TE) | Media (ME) | Post Election (PO) |
| Provide an example of the media publishing or broadcasting misinformation that had serious consequences | ||
| Assistance (AS) | External (EX) | |
| Provide an example of donor or EMB relationship that soured | ||
| Gender (GE) | Security (SE) | |
| Dispute (DI) | ||