The Quick Count and Election Observation

CHAPTER SEVEN: COLLECTING AND ANALYZING QUICK COUNT DATA
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Three key points emerge from this discussion of information flows:
1. There are huge differences both between and within countries when
it comes to communications infrastructure. No two countries are exactly
the same. Observation groups have to carefully design their
communications system, and that design has to be grounded in a
clear understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of the available
communications infrastructure. Planning communications systems
involves exploiting the strengths of the infrastructure and designing
strategies that will compensate for weaknesses.
2. The volume of information flows is uneven. Effective communications
systems are designed around estimations of peak information loads.
3. The sources of information are uneven. Because the timing of the delivery
of final quick count results is geared entirely by the rate at which
the slowest data arrive, special attention has to be given to the question
of how data can be most efficiently transmitted from sample points
that are located in remote areas.
Information Flows within the Data Collection Center
After observers have recorded quick count data at their polling station, they
make their first telephone call directly to the data collection center. Figure 7-
3 illustrates the pathways of information flows at the data collection center.
After the identity of the caller has been verified (by the use of a security code
word or set of numbers), the call from the observer is accepted and the observer
information is recorded by telephone operators at the data collection centers.
Precisely how these data are recorded depends on what kind of technology is
available to the observer group. Where there is little access to technology, a
pen-and-paper approach can be enough. Phone operators simply enter the
phone data by hand onto forms. Where more sophisticated technology is available,
observers calls may be directly routed through to the data entry facility
where operators using headphones can enter the data directly into the database,
while the observer remains on the telephone line. Keeping observers on
the telephone line while the data are entered is more efficient, and it reduces
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These types of direct data entry systems are far more efficient because built-in software safeguards
alert data entry personnel to “illegal” responses to categories in observation forms. Keeping the
observer on the telephone line during data entry reduces inaccuracies and eliminates the time consuming,
and sometimes futile, task of trying to re-contact observers to resolve inconsistent or illegible
responses that often appear in hand copied forms.