Business Model
The core business function of the Electoral Enrolment Centre is to provide an elector registry service. The central asset of the Centre is its database of registered electors. All of the Centre's activities are directed towards maintaining and increasing the accuracy of the database, and hence the value of the information asset. The value of reports that are extracted from the database is contingent upon the accuracy of the database - that is, how well the database, at any point in time, represents the actual eligible voting population. The accuracy of the database will be determined by how rapidly the registrars can detect changes in eligible voter details and capture them in the registry.
Information Capture
As with any registry process, the Electoral Enrolment Centre must add newly eligible (e.g. those who turn 18 or gain New Zealand citizenship) voters to the database, remove voters who become ineligible (e.g. those who die, emigrate, are imprisoned or become legally incapacitated), and update the records of eligible voters' details as these change. Whilst it is ultimately the responsibility of the voter to notify the Centre about changes to eligibility and details, relying upon voluntary compliance alone results in very poor accuracy of the register. Hence, the Centre most often relies upon secondary information to identify circumstances that are likely to result in changes to eligibility or recorded details, and pursue these "leads" in order to maintain as accurate a record as possible. The primary method of individuals communicating information to the Registrar is on the standard enrolment form.
Marketing and maintaining relationships with the people who provide the data is considered a very important part of the registrars' jobs. It is only through promoting the role of the Centre, distributing forms and "keeping an eye on the ground" that registrars can identify information that will increase the accuracy of the system. This is especially true for identifying and enrolling voters. Physical presence of Registrars in electorates is seen as a very important part of the "on the ground" information gathering process, and something that is not easily replicated by (for example) computerised systems. Active marketing through brochures, pamphlets and advertising to encourage citizens to enrol encompasses approximately 20 percent of registrars' time. Reply envelopes sent to citizens contain coupons that request names of people that they know who may need to enrol. This acts as a "lead" generator for the registrars. The website is also actively promoted in advertising material.
Whilst new electors can be identified and encouraged to enrol through targeted face-to-face meetings (e.g. at schools, citizenship ceremonies etc where enrolment forms are distributed), distribution of brochures containing the form, media advertising, the website and other profiling exercises, and deceased voters identified by matching against details supplied by the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, by far the greatest volume of work undertaken by registrars relates to identifying and changing the records of already-registered voters when core details (e.g. name, address) change. Of particular importance in maintaining accuracy is change of address, as this may alter the electorate in which the voter is eligible to vote. The principal sources of change information are change of address notifications supplied by individuals to New Zealand Post, and notifications of marriage from the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages (indicating likely change of name and/or pending change of address).
Maintenance of Information Integrity
Each individual in the EEC database is uniquely identified by a combination of full name, date of birth and residential address. In practice, access to the data is maintained through two primary keys - individual identification (name, date of birth), and residential addresses. Maintaining Register accuracy requires ensuring that each individual is in fact eligible (that is, the individual actually exists and the claim to meet eligibility can be verified) and is registered only once. Each addition must be checked for eligibility against the records of the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, and against EEC records to ensure that no record for that individual already exists (for example, in a different electorate under a different name). Maintaining the address data requires liaison with local authorities and other government departments to ensure information about valid residential addresses stays accurate.
Process Detail
By far the largest number of changes (95 percent) to the database is generated by New Zealand Post change of address notifications. Approximately 4 percent are spontaneously generated (e.g. from forms or the website) and 1 percent from Births, Deaths and Marriages notifications.
When the EEC receives notification of additions from any of its sources, the details must first be checked for accuracy. Whilst electronic checks speed up the time taken to verify details, human judgment is needed in many instances (for example, spelling variations, translations of names between languages, legitimacy of physical addresses) to ensure the integrity of the database. Manual verification of every change is considered an important part of the system. The computerised systems are considered tools to assist staff in making decisions about which data items to change. As Centre manager Murray Wicks states, "It's people who make decisions, not the computers".
Verified details are manually entered onto the database by the registrars onto fields on the computer screen that replicate the physical forms. It also requires manual approval of every change; meaning details cannot be automatically altered without verification. This standardised approach reduces the chances of error during input of data. The forms are then printed off and sent to the individuals for signature. Upon receipt, the forms are physically filed to ensure that in the worst possible cases of system failure, an absolutely accurate register can be constructed even though this would be time consuming. The requirements of the Electoral Act and the (to date) absence of a legally satisfactory electronic signature force the Centre to await confirmation with a physical signature on a form before any registration or change can be made "live".
The EEC web site enables partial enrolment on-line, but changes to the database can be made only when physical copies have been signed and filed at the Electoral Enrolment Centre. Individuals can also check and amend details online, providing they can provide the full name, date of birth and some previous address details. Whilst this does not prevent all access by people other than the individual about whom the details are entered, it does limit the number of people who can amend a record. At present, a web amendment by a citizen will generate a mail-out of a pre-printed post-paid form containing the amended details for the individual to sign, limiting the opportunity for fraudulent data entering the system. Only when the signed form is received can the details be made "live" on the database.
For routine changes identified by New Zealand Post change of address information, details entered onto the system result in the generation of a pre-populated form to be sent to the new address. For voters moving within an electorate, this can be posted immediately. When the change represents a move between electorates, as a citizen has to reside at an address for a month before they can register in that constituency, the system automatically sends the form after a month. It also generates a change alert and a "dear occupier" letter for the previous address. Both these addresses become active as the system waits to fill in details of new occupiers. New change address details are checked against the "change alert" list to identify the arrival of new residents at the "old" address. Where there is a match, the "change alert" record is removed. When a registrar becomes aware of new residential addresses in the area, they are added to the address base and "dear occupier" letters sent.
If there is no response from the new address within a month of the notification being mailed, details of the address are moved into a "walk list". A walk list is a list, generated by the system, of addresses where there is no-one enrolled. These lists are provided to contractors who visit these addresses to obtain enrolments. If no response is received from any new residents at the "old" address, the address can be followed up to ensure that it remains a valid residential address.
System Outputs
The principal outputs of the system provided to clients are lists of eligible voters, produced on request. Electoral Rolls and Habitation Indexes are produced in paper and electronic format as required for electoral purposes. Section 114 of the Electoral Act 1993 and Regulation 13 of the Electoral Regulations 1993 provide that computer compiled lists of Parliamentary electors' details may be supplied to candidates or political parties under certain conditions. Charges are made for supply of these data. 4
The business processes are represented in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Information Flow Process at the Electoral Enrolment Centre
→ Full Size Version of Figure 1 [6KB GIF file]
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