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Appendix C – RecommendationsIndependent audit report on the performance of the duties and functions of election officers – 43rd General Election

Given the results of the audit, the following recommendations are being proposed for consideration by the CEO. It should be noted that some of the recommendations, if implemented, could eliminate the need for others. In some cases, implementation of the following recommendations may require legislative changes. Each recommendation should be fully evaluated, and if management decides to proceed in implementing a recommendation, the remediation should be carefully planned, assessed and tested prior to implementation.

Recommendation 1

  1. We recommend that the CEO continue to explore opportunities to enhance the training program and tools provided by EC to prepare election officers for their duties in order to address the time constraints of the in-person training session.

    1. Continue to explore the current content of the training and tools in order to identify those components that require in-person explanations and practice with oversight in comparison to the background/foundational elements which are primarily delivered through videos.

      There is an opportunity to provide the background/foundational material in advance of the scheduled training, either through mail and/or e-mail, with a short evaluation of participant knowledge of the background/foundational material at the beginning of each in-person training session; with the option of an addition of half-an-hour to the in-class training where this content could be delivered through the use of videos. This would allow the background/foundational content to be delivered uniformly for all election officers and the in-class training to be focused on the more complex content that requires practice for election officers to be ready to perform their assigned duties and functions.

    2. Consider an approach to provide participants introductory information on the special procedures so that they are aware of them prior to facing them in the form of practice scenarios.
    3. Consider the prioritization of special procedures to be covered through practice scenarios during the training sessions, given the limited time available. This could be based on the relative volumes of occurrence of these special procedures.
    4. The importance of serving only one elector at a time and ticking electors as "voted" at the appropriate point in the process should be emphasized in the training as part of the essential elements.

    EC response

    We generally agree with this recommendation and we will continue to a) review and enhance the content and delivery of our training program and tools to optimize the retention of information given existing time constraints; b) examine how election officers can better serve electors requiring special procedures; and c) continue to emphasize the need to follow procedures and be aware of ensuring the integrity of the voting process.

Recommendation 2

  1. We recommend that the CEO consider the opportunity to create tools, such as a Quick Reference Sheet, that is detached/detachable from the guidebook, which outlines the scenarios that could be encountered while serving voters to provide quick reference on how to administer these scenarios and to guide election officers to the appropriate pages in the guidebook should they need more details for each type of scenario encountered.

    While the Table of Contents within the guidebook is currently available with references to pages that guide the election officers through the process required for each scenario in detail, this also outlines other FAQ items that are not directly related to voter interactions. A detachable Quick Reference Sheet (similar to the Important Information Sheet) could reduce the time required to locate the appropriate page within the guidebook and would provide a visual tool that would encompass only the potential scenarios for serving electors, including quick reminders on which certificate or form to use and where to go for more details within the guidebook.

    EC response

    We agree to review our materials and to explore opportunities to enhance our tools and procedures to assist election officers in rapidly selecting the correct response when serving electors requiring special procedures.

Recommendation 3

  1. We recommend that the CEO further enhance the certificates and forms in order to simplify the voting process while ensuring adequate documentation is maintained. Specifically:
    1. EC should explore opportunities to ensure that the Privacy Notice is more accessible and visible to the electors where special procedures are applied. This would ensure that the privacy information is consistently available to the elector before they sign their acknowledgement.
    2. For consistency with the other certificates and forms, the declaration associated with the Correction Form should be changed to a declaration that requires the elector's signature. This would allow election officers to administer declarations consistently across all special procedures.

    EC response

    We agree with this recommendation. We will examine a) how the Privacy Notice can be made more accessible and visible to electors requiring special procedures; and b) how declarations can be standardized throughout our certificates and forms.