The Quick Count and Election Observation

THE QUICK COUNT AND ELECTION OBSERVATION
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CHAPTER FOUR
Building the
Volunteer Network
Quick counts cannot happen without well-organized and trained volunteer
networks. Most of the hundreds or thousands of people that
form these networks live and work outside the capital city and are not
readily visible to the organization’s leadership, international donors and the
press. Their often heroic efforts go virtually unnoticed. A case in point:
Rhina Medal, 56, is a volunteer quick count observer in Diriamba,
Nicaragua. At a training program sponsored by Ethics and Transparency,
she was assigned the most remote polling station in her municipality.
Her friends tried to convince her to take a different assignment. She
refused, and, on election day, she rode two hours on a bus, one hour
in a pickup truck and two hours up a mountain on horseback to the
polling station. On election night, despite the fact that the counting
process was not completed until 2:00 am, she rode on horseback down
the hill and took the pickup truck to the nearest phone to make her
report. When asked why she insisted on taking this most difficult assignment,
she simply said, “for love of country.”
Effective volunteer networks tap the energy of citizens like Rhina Medal. This
chapter describes how to design quick count forms and training materials,
build a national network and train and support volunteers. The information is
designed to help groups trying to recruit and train large numbers of observers
in a fixed and relatively short timeframe.
Chapter Two described a volunteer coordination team. Within that team, the
volunteer coordinator is responsible for recruiting and maintaining communications
with the volunteer network, and for taking the lead on designing
observer forms. The lead trainer designs and oversees a national volunteer
training program. The lead trainer, in collaboration with other staff, creates
observer forms and instructional manuals, and then designs and oversees a
national volunteer training program. The logistics specialist supports the coordinator
and the trainer.