MONITORING ELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGIES IN ELECTORAL PROCESSES ------authorities' voter registration plan should be verified against the producer's available inventory and production schedule (including obligations to deliver equipment and technologies to other countries). All of these issues have had serious negative effects on voter registration processes and must be taken into account. It must be expected that something will go wrong during registration of voters. Tests should help to identify and minimize weak points and reduce malfunctions, but officials must expect and plan for problems. A bigger problem than failure of some components is not having an effective response plan. Response plans must be clear and documented. They must define response steps, response times and roles. If the response involves the equipment producer or another contracted company, this should be clearly defined in valid contracts. Such response plans should be made available to observer groups and political contestants, with opportunity for their comment. This is an important point for genuine transparency and confidence building. Training. Election officials who perform voter registration should be trained in verification of the voter's eligibility, in how to properly record the data and in how to otherwise operate the equipment. They must understand the functioning of equipment (technologies) on at least a basic technical level in order to identify problems, to be prepared to correct them on the spot, if possible, and to request appropriate assistance and service. The training should be in line with standard training requirements trainings should be thorough, mandatory, standardized and include simulations of normal procedures and responses to malfunctions. Monitors from observer groups and political contestants should as a best practice be allowed to review training plans and materials before they are employed and to provide comments. Monitors should in any case be allowed to attend and observe training sessions to build confidence in how officials will be prepared to use technologies during the voter registration process. 41