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VIII. A Little Fly In The Ointment
If your Subject is like most, there will be several elections going on at the same time. Potentially, there could be the gubernatorial election, election of deputies to the Subject Council, mayor elections in several municipalities, and elections to local councils all going on at the same time. This has the potential to cause some real headaches on several grounds.
There may be jurisdictional problems.
 Even though you are responsible for subject-wide elections, there may be some questions as to your authority over municipal election commissions even though you may both be using the same polling station election commissions on election day.
Will you share responsibility for training the polling station election commissions and providing them with the materials they need?
Who will have the final say-so in making the appointments to the polling station election commissions since they will be serving the voters for all elections at the same time?
How many deliberative voting members will be on each commission since the simultaneous conduct of so many elections will increase the number of candidates involved?
If there are complaints regarding misconduct or violations atthe polling site will you be ultimately responsible for adjudication, mediation and remedy? Even if a local candidate makes the complaint?
Local authorities and commissions may not yet have resources or directives on which to rely for guidance in evaluating their own election procedures to determine where there may be in conflict with yours. Technical problems could result in administrative confusion and contribute to potential disruption of efficiency and accountability at the polling sites on election day in spite of all the hard work you put into your training program.
What follows are examples of the kinds of questions regarding procedural details that could arise from conduct of the separate but simultaneous elections under slightly different rules.
Will one voter list be used for both elections, or will separate lists be necessary?
Will there be circumstances when a voter will be eligible to vote in one type of election but not another being held on the same day? If so, how will the audit trail for ballot accountability be maintained for the various elections if only one voter list is used?
Are there any critical deadlines that are different for the separate types of elections?
Are the same special voter services available for all the various types of elections, such as accommodating voters voting at home or voting in advance? If not, will voters needing these services be issued some ballots while being denied others?
Does the local law make provisions for the presence of the same types of observers at the polling sites? During counting? During summarization of results? If there are differences in the types of observers who may be present at various phases will some be made to leave?
In order to overcome some of these problems, you may have to take the lead in coordinating joint Subject and local commission activities with regard to developing the necessary training programs and strategies. (Is there an aspirin left in that packet?)
 You could even develop a work plan specifically to deal with these issues. Your work plan should probably include details related to:
how you will be apprised of a local jurisdiction's intent to conduct an election at the same time as a Subject election;
developing»an ongoing calendar identifying the election dates in those municipalities that will be conducting local elections;
preparation of a checklist that local commissions could use to help them in their comparison of their rules and procedures with yours;
development of a reporting mechanism whereby local commissions could notify you of substantive difficulties that they may be encountering based on their comparison;
defining and formalizing the extent of your capacity to provide technical advise or support in determining how potential problems may be overcome.
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