An agent
at every
station.
On polling day a party is only as strong as its thinnest county. Its field desk has to recruit, train and roster agents, confirm each one is standing at their station by 06:00, and hear from them all day: incidents with photos, turnout pulses and, at close, a photograph of the form posted at the station.
This is the day PollGuard is being built to carry. Every section below says plainly which parts run today and which are still being built.
Eleven parts of the day,
sorted honestly
Two run in PollGuard today. Three are built but not switched on, because sending is not live yet. Six are being built. Until each one ships, your field desk does that part its own way, and we say so on every section below.
Recruit, train,
roster, confirm
Agents come from the party’s own register, so the field desk knows who they are before they are trusted with a station. Each step should leave a row in the record: who recruited them, which training they passed, which station they hold and when they last said yes. The register and its consent records are in PollGuard today; the agent steps are being built.
- 1RecruitPartly today
Ward coordinators pick agents from the party’s own supporter register.
From the supporter register in Campaign HQConsent recorded with its date and how it was givenInvitations from a named coordinator: being built - 2TrainBeing built
Short lessons, then a Saturday drill where agents report from their real stations. Your field desk runs the drill.
What an agent may and may not do inside a stationReporting an incident; photographing a formDrill attendance and a short check, recorded - 3RosterBeing built
One primary and one reserve per station, grouped by ward under a coordinator.
Stations from the published list, by codeGaps listed by county, worst firstEvery swap carries the coordinator’s name - 4ConfirmBeing built
An agent covers a station only when they have said yes recently, and on the day, when they check in from it.
Confirm at 72 hours and again at 24 hoursAgents check in from the station from 05:00No check-in by 05:45: the coordinator calls the reserve
Baraka Sample · primary72H ✓ · 24H ✓ · IN 05:12On site
Chebet Sample · reserve72H ✓ · 24H ✓Standby
Ward coordinator Achieng Sample knows bothEvery county,
one board
Each tile is a county, shaded by the share of its stations with an agent checked in. The thinnest counties sit at the top of the list on the right, because that is where the next hour matters most.
31% checked in · 9 reserves not yet called412
36% · two wards with no coordinator online298
39% · roads cut near Eldas, agents walking in271
44% · reserves called 05:50226
That is not zero. Last good read 05:52.
From a photo
to the legal desk
An agent sees something wrong. Within minutes the war room should know what, where and when, a lawyer should have read it, and the evidence should be kept the way it arrived, nothing reworded on the way up. This is the incident desk we are building; until it ships, your desk keeps its own log.
- 01 · AgentPicks a category, takes up to four photos and adds a line. Station, time and agent attach themselves.
Report - 02 · War roomThe incident desk sets the severity and an owner. Anything touching safety or the ballot goes to the top; the oldest open item is always visible.
Triage - 03 · Legal deskA lawyer reads the report and photos and chooses: raise it with the presiding officer, prepare a formal complaint, or note it. The reason is written.
Decide - 04 · The recordReported, triaged, decided, closed: each a row with who and why. Photos kept as they arrived, ready for a petition bundle.
Keep
Photographed once,
entered twice
After the count, the agent photographs the declaration form posted at the station. Two people in the war room type the figures in, each without seeing the other’s entry. Where they disagree, a third reads the photo. The result is the party’s own tally, with the photo behind every number.
| Line on the form | Entry A · clerk 1 | Entry B · clerk 2 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate 1 | 212 | 212 | Match |
| Candidate 2 | 148 | 148 | Match |
| Candidate 3 | 97 | 79 | Differs |
| Candidate 4 | 31 | 31 | Match |
| Rejected ballots | 12 | 12 | Match |
The day runs
on a clock.
Polls open at 06:00 and close at 17:00. Your field desk sets a fixed reporting rhythm so the war room can tell silence from trouble: a station that misses its hourly pulse is silent, never fine. This is the rhythm we recommend; tracking it in PollGuard is being built.
Quiet when
the law says quiet
Campaigning stops 48 hours before polling day. Your agents still need their rosters and check-in reminders, so the two have to be told apart: campaign messages held, operational messages to your own agents sent, and both written down.
SILENCE BEGINS10 AUG 06:00
POLLS OPEN17:00 CLOSE
Operational · own agents · approved by the field deskSent
Operational · every rostered agent · scheduledScheduled
Campaign · held until the polls closeHeld · silence
Campaign · held · approver notifiedHeld · silence
How it will work: you set the silence window; campaign messages wait for it to end or are withdrawn by their approver, and nobody releases one early without the override, and its reason, landing in the record. Until it ships, your approvers hold campaign messages themselves.
From 47 counties
to 92,458 agents
A national field desk is a tree: counties, constituencies, wards, stations, and two people at every station. Each level needs someone who knows the level below it by name.
Averages are 46,229 divided by each count. Station figure from the IEBC’s 2022 register; PollGuard is independent of the IEBC.
297 days.
46,229 stations.
Start with a Saturday drill in one county. By August, every station should have a name against it, a reserve behind it and a coordinator who knows both.
- 05:00Agents check in from their real stations
- 05:45Coordinators call the reserves for every gap
- HourlyPulses until noon; silent stations followed up
- NoonOne practice incident and one practice form photo