There are a number of situations in which elections are conducted in the absence of existing voter education organisations. As a result, it may be necessary to establish, either within the electoral authority or in parallel to it, an organisation that has the specific purpose of conducting educational programmes for the election. Such an organisation may have a short life span, and like many election specific organisations, may be established for one election only. Certainly many election authorities do operate on a ‘balloon’ system, maintaining a small headquarters and expanding only as appropriate. There is also the possibility that the election authority itself is a temporary body comprised of seconded and short term personnel that will be disbanded once election results have been announced and the winners certified.
At the same time, there are many on-going educational programmes in existence and some election authorities and NGOs may have a mandate, either legal or pronounced through incorporation documents and mission statements, to conduct both voter education and broader civic education activities between elections. In those contexts elections have become institutionalised and where civil society organisations have become as much mediating institutions in the political realm as political parties, it may be possible to conduct a continuous voter education programme in support of registration and elections. At the same time, there will likely be situations where some sort of new organizational arrangement needs to be created for a specific election and the effort required to create it should not be underestimated.
Forms of Organisation
This effort will vary in magnitude and type depending on the organisational form that is adopted. And this form will inevitably be chosen in part because of objective conditions (the context, available resources, the programme purpose) and subjective experience (the background of the individuals concerned, their organisational experience, the advice they are able to get, and so forth).
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