Vote Center Wait Time App

About the Program

Category: Information Technology (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

The LA County Registrar-Recorder/ County Clerk (RR/CC) developed a wait time system to provide greater transparency and management of voter wait times at vote centers. This application has the dual purpose of providing timely information to voters as well as key performance metrics and datapoints for County staff and vendors. County officials decided to enhance the existing public Vote Center Lookup Tool to report vote center line lengths and wait times. Internally a pair of dashboards were created to facilitate management of the Vote Centers. The application was rolled out for the November 2020 Presidential Election.Implementing this new functionality posed challenges in how wait time data would be collected, processed, and made public. A collaborative wait time solution was built between RR/CC Geographic Information Systems, Data Analytics, and Software Development teams in collaboration with a multi-department County Technology Alliance. For this solution, Vote Center staff would capture wait time data through a ticketing process and upload wait time data utilizing a mobile browser-based survey application and vote center ePollbook’s (also utilized for checking in voters at vote centers). Wait time data captured through these applications is dynamically merged and published to the public Vote Center Lookup Tool site through a custom-built API/application. Wait times captured though the mobile app were also accompanied by an equipment survey by onsite technicians. These key data points were closely monitored by County officials via browser-based dashboards allowing quick response to vote centers displaying high wait times, long lines, and/or high amounts of malfunctioning equipment.