Saturday, January 14, 2006
Mexican voting abroad effort a dud?
For the past few years, the issue of how to make it possible for the millions of Mexican adults who live outside the borders of their country to vote in Mexican elections has been debated. Many ideas were floated for how to facilitate expatriate voting, especially by Mexican adults living in the United States, of which there are now maybe 10 million or more. At some point, Thad and I will take a closer look at this issue and how the Mexican government implemented their expatriate voting program in their current election, as we have been following this for a few years, having examined this question in 2003 and 2004 when the Mexican government first started studying how to implement expatriate voting.
The current program, though, appears to have been a dud. According to recent news media reports, including a story in this morning's Los Angeles Times, Mexican officials report having received only 17,000 applications for expatriate by-mail voting, with only two days left in their registration effort. Apparently about 10,000 of these applications have come from the United States.
At this point, there seem to be two explanations for this dud. One explanation focuses on the enormous hurdles that Mexican officials imposed for participation in the vote-by-mail effort. As Professor Wayne Cornelius of University of California, San Diego was quoted saying in the LA Times piece, "How many Americans would ever vote if they had to go in person to some government office, obtain an application, fill it out, go to a post office and return it by registered mail?" Professor Cornelius is absolutely correct --- as his observations are in line with decades of academic research on the impact of registration requirements on voter participation. So as long as Mexican officials demand that expatriate voters follow such complicated and time-consuming procedures, it is unlikely that many Mexican expatriates will participate in these vote-by-mail efforts.
The other issue here seems to be a lack of publicity, and the inability of those running for office in Mexico to be able to communicate with expatriate voters. Due to a series of decisions made that appear to state that Mexican candidates could not engage in campaign communications with expatriate voters, there has been little systematic effort by those running for office to use the vote-by-mail process. Again, there is much research about the efficacy of get-out-the-vote efforts on voter participation; until the Mexican government does something to allow their candidates to compete for these expatriate votes freely, it is doubtful that the expatriate community will participate widely in Mexican elections.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE:
Here are a few additional media reports that I've come across regarding the Mexican expatriate voting effort and how sparse the participation rate seems to be:
We'll keep following this evolving story, especially when final numbers emerge about how few Mexican voters abroad appear to be participating in this particular election.
The current program, though, appears to have been a dud. According to recent news media reports, including a story in this morning's Los Angeles Times, Mexican officials report having received only 17,000 applications for expatriate by-mail voting, with only two days left in their registration effort. Apparently about 10,000 of these applications have come from the United States.
At this point, there seem to be two explanations for this dud. One explanation focuses on the enormous hurdles that Mexican officials imposed for participation in the vote-by-mail effort. As Professor Wayne Cornelius of University of California, San Diego was quoted saying in the LA Times piece, "How many Americans would ever vote if they had to go in person to some government office, obtain an application, fill it out, go to a post office and return it by registered mail?" Professor Cornelius is absolutely correct --- as his observations are in line with decades of academic research on the impact of registration requirements on voter participation. So as long as Mexican officials demand that expatriate voters follow such complicated and time-consuming procedures, it is unlikely that many Mexican expatriates will participate in these vote-by-mail efforts.
The other issue here seems to be a lack of publicity, and the inability of those running for office in Mexico to be able to communicate with expatriate voters. Due to a series of decisions made that appear to state that Mexican candidates could not engage in campaign communications with expatriate voters, there has been little systematic effort by those running for office to use the vote-by-mail process. Again, there is much research about the efficacy of get-out-the-vote efforts on voter participation; until the Mexican government does something to allow their candidates to compete for these expatriate votes freely, it is doubtful that the expatriate community will participate widely in Mexican elections.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE:
Here are a few additional media reports that I've come across regarding the Mexican expatriate voting effort and how sparse the participation rate seems to be:
- Chicago Tribune, "Mexican expatriate voter drive comes up far short" (January 13).
- Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "Ballot Application deadline here for Mexican voters living abroad" (January 14).
- USA Today, "Deadline nears in Mexican election" (January 11).
- Arizona Republic, "Few Mexicans abroad seek absentee ballots" (January 13).
We'll keep following this evolving story, especially when final numbers emerge about how few Mexican voters abroad appear to be participating in this particular election.
Friday, January 13, 2006
More on lean management principles for election officials
MIT graduate student Tomer Posner has finished his Master's thesis on lean management principles for election administration, something I wrote about a few months back. The completed thesis, "Application of Lean Management Principles to Election Systems", is a careful and interesting analysis of how this particular genre of modern business management practices can be applied to election administration. Here is the abstract for Tomer's thesis:
Many readers will find Chapter 3 of Tomer's thesis of interest, where he provides great detail into the case study of Brazil, and that country's develop of their voting technology. Tomer shows how the Lean model was applied in the Brazil case in Chapter 3, which is a thorough chapter and well worth reading.
Somewhat intriguingly, the thesis discusses some information from a survey conducted in Brazil in 2005, with some tantalizing details quickly discussed on pages 77-79. Some of the survey questions here parallel ones that Thad and I have worked on in samples of American voters, so it will be fascinating when Tomer published the complete results from this survey to compare some of these evaluations of electronic voting to the evaluations of American voters (see, for example, our report from September 2004 on "American Attitudes About Electronic Voting").
In the end, for those interested in improving election administration, Tomer's thesis is a worthwhile read. Don't be intimidated by the fact that it is a MIT MA thesis --- it is highly readable, and quite interesting. We've heard folks recently talking about the need for a science of election administration, and for more efforts to understand election administration. Here is a step in that direction!
Congratulations to Tomer on this accomplishment, and on successfully defending his MA thesis. And congratulations to his advisor, Ted Selker, for his encouragement and efforts with Tomer to get this interesting project completed.
Lean was first adopted as a management technique for improving results in manufacturing environments. It is based on the 5 principles of identifying the Value to be created, mapping the Value-Stream (incremental addition of value), ensuring process
Flow, orienting the process towards the Pull of the customer and finally eliminating all Waste through a process of continuous improvement. This framework is highly adaptable, and has been applied in recent years to non-manufacturing efforts, such as product development and the retail and service industries.
We explore the application of Lean to voting. Applications can be found in the phases of technology development, production, deployment, poll management and more. By following a structured approach based on Lean, the efforts to advance voting solutions in the US can gain in efficiency, security, privacy and credibility over their current state. These will be adapted to deal with the voting environment, which imposes a unique set of challenges and follows priorities different from normal corporations. Additional Lean elements, such as eliminating irregularities through standardization, improved training and process transparency will be reviewed.
The development and deployment of Brazilian voting system will be presented as an example of how Lean elements can be used in the voting setting. While not intentionally created by the Lean model, the design, deployment and current use of the Brazilian system is highly complimentary to this model.
Finally, we suggest ways in which such an approach can be applied to the U.S. voting system. With a theoretical structure in place, specific improvement efforts can be devised and applied in the field. This study, therefore, is intended as a preliminary effort of identifying a problem and modeling it. It hopes to induce a commitment to Lean which will put in motion a cycle of implementation, elaboration and continuous improvement.
Many readers will find Chapter 3 of Tomer's thesis of interest, where he provides great detail into the case study of Brazil, and that country's develop of their voting technology. Tomer shows how the Lean model was applied in the Brazil case in Chapter 3, which is a thorough chapter and well worth reading.
Somewhat intriguingly, the thesis discusses some information from a survey conducted in Brazil in 2005, with some tantalizing details quickly discussed on pages 77-79. Some of the survey questions here parallel ones that Thad and I have worked on in samples of American voters, so it will be fascinating when Tomer published the complete results from this survey to compare some of these evaluations of electronic voting to the evaluations of American voters (see, for example, our report from September 2004 on "American Attitudes About Electronic Voting").
In the end, for those interested in improving election administration, Tomer's thesis is a worthwhile read. Don't be intimidated by the fact that it is a MIT MA thesis --- it is highly readable, and quite interesting. We've heard folks recently talking about the need for a science of election administration, and for more efforts to understand election administration. Here is a step in that direction!
Congratulations to Tomer on this accomplishment, and on successfully defending his MA thesis. And congratulations to his advisor, Ted Selker, for his encouragement and efforts with Tomer to get this interesting project completed.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
USPS resources for election officials
Like many people, today I found myself trying to find a two-cent postage stamp, given that somehow the latest postal rate increase slipped by my notice, just after I had purchased a couple dozen stamps last week. So I can't say that I was terribly happy with the United States Postal Service today, but that was mitigated somewhat when a friend emailed me some information I had never seen before: the USPS "Election Officials' Mailing Resources" page.
This page of resources is full of interesting material, ranging from what might be the world's least user-friendly FAQ I've ever encountered to the cute little logo that election officials now use on their mailings. Most interesting is the three-step guide (right on the entry page) for how election officials should plan and send election mail: how to plan their use of the mail service, how to correctly address election mail and to keep mailing lists up-to-date, and how to best design election mail.
There are some useful resources here for election officials, coming at a time when they are increasingly using mail services for contacting voters and providing balloting materials to voters through the mail. Putting my election geek hat on for a minute, a productive research project would involve examining the effectiveness of these guidelines and materials. I am not aware that any such studies have been undertaken; the only effort that might have led to such a study was initiated by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) when they issued a call for proposals to study vote-by-mail efforts. Unfortunately, it seems the EAC did not fund that research effort this past fall, but perhaps they might revisit this research issue this year.
But it's great to see how the USPS is using those extra few cents I'm now spending on every piece of first-class mail!
This page of resources is full of interesting material, ranging from what might be the world's least user-friendly FAQ I've ever encountered to the cute little logo that election officials now use on their mailings. Most interesting is the three-step guide (right on the entry page) for how election officials should plan and send election mail: how to plan their use of the mail service, how to correctly address election mail and to keep mailing lists up-to-date, and how to best design election mail.
There are some useful resources here for election officials, coming at a time when they are increasingly using mail services for contacting voters and providing balloting materials to voters through the mail. Putting my election geek hat on for a minute, a productive research project would involve examining the effectiveness of these guidelines and materials. I am not aware that any such studies have been undertaken; the only effort that might have led to such a study was initiated by the Election Assistance Commission (EAC) when they issued a call for proposals to study vote-by-mail efforts. Unfortunately, it seems the EAC did not fund that research effort this past fall, but perhaps they might revisit this research issue this year.
But it's great to see how the USPS is using those extra few cents I'm now spending on every piece of first-class mail!
