Presentation
Explorating Process Performance of Envelope Opening and Ballot Extraction Options in Vote-by-Mail: A Utah Case Study
DescriptionVote-by-Mail (VBM) has become increasingly popular over the last decade, but the process is executed differently even in jurisdictions in the same state.
Mostly, current VBM literature focuses on topics from the perspective of political science, and little-to-no work features operational aspects or human-machine interactions. Depending on the jurisdiction size, some of these VBM process steps are executed by humans, machines, or a combination of machines supporting humans. The opening-extraction process step of envelope opening and ballot extraction is always necessary. Therefore, there needs to be more literature that considers process execution of VBM ballots, possible support of machines, and human-machine interactions in VBM processes. This study aims to compare two opening-extraction options to open envelopes and extract ballots in the VBM tabulation. The analysis includes a comparison of the process in general and the processing rate and confidence intervals, which will assist election administrators in making data-informed process decisions.
Mostly, current VBM literature focuses on topics from the perspective of political science, and little-to-no work features operational aspects or human-machine interactions. Depending on the jurisdiction size, some of these VBM process steps are executed by humans, machines, or a combination of machines supporting humans. The opening-extraction process step of envelope opening and ballot extraction is always necessary. Therefore, there needs to be more literature that considers process execution of VBM ballots, possible support of machines, and human-machine interactions in VBM processes. This study aims to compare two opening-extraction options to open envelopes and extract ballots in the VBM tabulation. The analysis includes a comparison of the process in general and the processing rate and confidence intervals, which will assist election administrators in making data-informed process decisions.
Contributors
Ph.D. Student
Associate Professor
Event Type
Lecture
TimeThursday, September 12th9:10am - 9:30am MST
LocationFLW Salon H
Occupational Ergonomics