{"id":1131,"date":"2015-10-12T10:23:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T08:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/?p=1131"},"modified":"2015-10-09T14:37:19","modified_gmt":"2015-10-09T12:37:19","slug":"practical-tips-for-planning-elections-8-expect-the-unexpected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/practical-tips-for-planning-elections-8-expect-the-unexpected","title":{"rendered":"Practical Tips for Planning Elections: #8 Expect the unexpected"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Murphy\u2019s Law states: \u201cWhatever can go wrong will go wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Of course, this is not the most positive way to pass through life, but at least you are always prepared for anything.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Even during an election, many things may not go as planned. In this event there are two options: You can resign to fate and weather what comes, or you can set up an emergency plan in advance.<\/p>\n<p>Should anything go awry, each member of the electoral committee can simply look at the situation and everybody knows what needs to be done. Planning is half the battle. This does not just apply to\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/practice-tips-for-planning-elections-5-creating-an-election-calendar\">the election calender<\/a>\u00a0<\/u>or\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/practice-tips-for-planning-elections-4-planning-out-expenses\"><u>expense planning<\/u>.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Thought-out election preparation: Having a plan B up your sleeve<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You have an association or board election coming up, the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/practice-tips-for-planning-elections-3-collecting-candidate-information\">\u00a0<u>candidates<\/u>\u00a0<\/a>are at the starting line, the planning is operating at full steam, the election regulations and bylaws (or\u00a0<u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/digital-democracy\/changing-the-associations-charter\">association charter<\/a><\/u>) are up to date and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/tips-when-planning-elections-6-deciding-on-voting-procedures\">\u00a0<u>the voting process<\/u> <\/a>has been hashed out? Then now is the time to prepare an &#8220;emergency plan for unforeseeable problems&#8221;!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Worst-case scenario: What all can go wrong when organising an election?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Play through the entire election in your mind &#8211; ideally with a group, i.e. the electoral committee and board &#8211; from the planning, preparation and organisation up to execution and counting. Consider what types of problems can arise at each point.<\/p>\n<p>A few examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A candidate withdraws.<\/li>\n<li>The organiser of the election falls ill.<\/li>\n<li><u><a href=\"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/increasing-voter-turnout\/10-tips-to-increase-voter-participation-10-election-reminders\">Vote reminders<\/a><\/u>\u00a0to voters are forgotten.<\/li>\n<li>There are misprints or faulty communication.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Feel free to exaggerate here a little. This lightens the mood and helps think of ideas that may otherwise be overlooked.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Take notes and define escape plans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Write down all of the weak points in the organisation process on a piece of paper. Discuss what can be done in the event of one of these occurrences. For each point, write down<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>who the respective contact is,<\/li>\n<li>what exactly has to be done<\/li>\n<li>and whether this all will have an effect on the rest of the election.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Everybody involved in the electoral management can get involved. It is also good to define contact partners for emergencies in advance. You thus avoid any unnecessary chaos of nobody feeling responsible, and one little error triggering a chain of more issues.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Make the emergency plan accessible to everyone<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If anything unexpected happens, you often have to act quickly. It is thus important to make the Plan B accessible to everyone. You can send the emergency plan to everyone in an e-mail, print it out and hang it up on the wall, and make it available online.<\/p>\n<p>Cheat Murphy&#8217;s Law, such as during the next association elections. Because a law of nature is generally reliable &#8211; and this makes planning the entire election very possible once again.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Murphy\u2019s Law states: \u201cWhatever can go wrong will go wrong.\u201d Of course, this is not the most positive way to pass through life, but at least you are always prepared for anything.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":1128,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","ub_ctt_via":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[240],"tags":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/polyas_wahltipps8.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Marlene L\u00f6sken","author_link":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/author\/m-loesken"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with 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Our fourth practice tip is about that wonderful thing called money. Because an election costs money, be it a comprehensive board election or\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election Management&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/polyas_wahltipps4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":940,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/tips-when-planning-elections-7-get-stakeholders-on-board","url_meta":{"origin":1131,"position":1},"title":"Tips when planning elections: #7 Get \u201cstakeholders\u201d on board","date":"05\/10\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"If you are on the electoral management committee, there is no shortage of things to do. You will normally have to\u00a0plan meticulously, juggle a number of functions and keep a cool head. Sometimes it can be a problem if a lot of people are involved in the planning process. After\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election Management&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/wahl-kommittee-im-boot.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5623,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/tips-election-management-associations","url_meta":{"origin":1131,"position":2},"title":"Tips for Election Management in Associations","date":"07\/09\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Election management can be a demanding task. It is both important and time-consuming to organize a board of directors and\/or a delegate election. It possible that mistakes happen which diminish confidence in your systems, damaging your reputation as well as future turnout. We have some helpful tips to support the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election Management&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"learn more about efficient election management","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Election-Management.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":807,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/practice-tips-for-planning-elections-5-creating-an-election-calendar","url_meta":{"origin":1131,"position":3},"title":"Practice Tips for Planning Elections: #5 Creating an election calendar","date":"15\/09\/2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The family calendar with multiple columns hung up on the refrigerator, the digital calendar on your office computer, the appointment planner in your briefcase - we use calendars both in our private and professional lives. You cannot simply keep everything in your head - and that especially applies to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Election Management&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/polyas-election-tips.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5327,"url":"https:\/\/www.polyas.de\/blog\/en\/election-management\/election-organization-cooperatives","url_meta":{"origin":1131,"position":4},"title":"Tips for Successful Election Organization in Cooperatives","date":"13\/07\/2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Election organization can be a daunting task. It is both an important and time-consuming task to organize a\u00a0board of directors and\/or a delegate election. Mistakes can easily be made and diminish confidence in your cooperative's ability to conduct elections, damaging your reputation as well as your future turnout. 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