Election Investigations Guidebook deposit slips, cancelled checks, or bank statements demonstrating campaign expenses; lists of contributions of goods and services; and other statements documenting the personal expenditures of candidates.147 Efforts to collect and substantiate all the relevant facts in a case can also include the analysis of physical evidence, such as ballot boxes or campaign posters. Bhutan’s Election Dispute Settlement Manual notes that “an investigator may, at times, be able to find more evidence at the place where the act was committed.”148 Some countries—including Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, and Peru—require complainants to attach supporting documentary evidence for their initial claim.149 In these cases, investigators must examine the issue more fully by considering, “whether the recorded information is sufficient, reliable and substantial enough to either prove or refute the allegations of the complaint.”150 Furthermore, they should strive to corroborate the evidence by determining “whether the recorded information cross-matches or corresponds with other related information from documentary records and available sources of information.”151 Threshold of Evidence Required to Trigger a Full Investigation How does an adjudicator know when to proceed with an investigation after receiving a complaint? How can an adjudicator dismiss cases with good cause, not proceed with a full investigation, and maintain notions of fairness by all stakeholders? The first step is establishing a threshold or standard of evidence that a complainant must meet in order to trigger an investigation by appropriate officials. Importantly, to meet due process protections, the contours and practical applications of the standard need to be clear in the law and understood by adjudicators, lawyers, investigators, and other pertinent stakeholders before the standard is applied in the field—an element 147 Id. 148 Bhutan Election Dispute Settlement Manual, supra note 27, ¶ 6.3. 149 Orozco-Henríquez et al., supra note 101, at 166. 150 Comm’r of Canada Elections, Ch. 10 Inspection, Review and Analysis, in Investigators’ Manual 1–5 (2000) [hereinafter Canadian Investigators’ Manual Ch. 10]. 151 64 Id.

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