The use of systems that are too complex may lower confidence in the voting process. All those involved in the election process, including political parties and candidates, must have a clear understanding of how the equipment works, in order to feel confident in the results produced. Training and informing all participants in the election process of what equipment is used, how it works and the security checks is important. Overall quantities are estimated on the basis of the number of potential voters. A contingency should be applied to reflect an appropriate degree of confidence in census data or registration lists and other demographic data.
Allowance needs to be made in the case of ballots or other key forms for spoilage.
General supplies are those non-sensitive materials required both at the central level and at voter registration or polling stations. These may include notebooks, pens and pencils, pencil sharpeners, paper clips, staplers, scissors, laminates, banners, voting screens and tape. The quantity of general supplies required will be based on an estimate of needs at the central level, and the size and number of registration or polling stations. Sensitive materials include ballots, ballot boxes, security inks, registration cards, security seals, tamper-proof envelopes, and the forms used to track material distribution and recovery. The addition of these materials to supply kits must be tightly controlled and will normally be facilitated by pre-packaging and sequential numbering of these materials.