The Question

Posted on behalf of Frank Vassallo.

I am looking for examples of outsourcing functions of EMBs. I am particularly interested in outsourcing Information Communication Technology. If anyone has examples of this, both successes and failures I would very much appreciate any information you might have.

Summary of responses

There is some discussion about what constitutes both outsourcing and functions. Should, for example, technical assistance from various international organisations be deemed as outsourcing? One expert believes that what is often meant by the word ‘outsourcing’ is in fact ‘cooperation’. 

Several examples of outsourcing are given from Canada: electors’ information is provided from a number of federal bodies to the Canadian EMB, which is accordingly used to update the electoral register; and the IT system of another federal agency is used to process applications for voting by mail.

A general point is made that some EMBs are struggling to keep up with developments in social media and are trying to solve this through outsourcing rather than in-house capacity.

Examples of related ACE Articles and Resources

Encyclopaedia:

·         The Powers, Functions and Responsibilities of an EMB

Names of contributors

1.       Ronan McDermott

2.       Alexandre Michaud

3.       Stina Larserud

4.       Frank Vassallo

What do we mean by "outsourcing"? And by "functions"? Paying someone to complete a task or deliver a service might be outsourcing. Functions, on the other hand, may be specified in a constitution, law or regulation and, arguably, may present problems for outsourcing.

An example may illustrate. One important function of an EMB is to decide, during or following voter registration field exercises who is and is not eligible for inclusion on a voters list. Where the EMB outsources biometric identification (known variously as "matching" or "de-duplication") to a third party and simply accepts the third party's determination and excludes voters thus identified as duplicates, the EMB may be said to have outsourced the function as well as the task. For this reason, best practise on the use of biometrics is to ensure that such biometric matching is a tool whose outputs are used by EMB officials

To my knowledge, this (i.e. a country where the law specifies traditional processes by which voters can be removed but the EMB allows bulk removal of voters from lists based solely upon outsourced de-duplication efforts). Given that biometric systems are inherently probabilistic and given the quality issues with enrollment, it is reasonable to say that some eligible voters will be disenfranchised when the bulk approach is adopted.

Looking forward to this discussion!

Hi:

Insofar as your question can also apply to mature electoral democracies, Elections Canada performs some sorts of outsourcing (wide definition) by legislation and by administrative arrangements not prohibited by law.

For instance, the legislation permits electors to let Revenue Canada Agency (income Tax office) pass on electors' information to Elections Canada for the purposes of updating the permanent register of electors.  Elections Canada can also enter into exchange of electors' information agreements with other federal entities, provincial EMBs and municipalities.  Although it is not directly indicated in the legislation, Elections Canada does quality controls to ensure that the info received is accurate to the extent possible.  Because of this sharing system, Elections Canada only conducts targeted registration/revision of lists of electors during an election in areas where people move a lot.

On the administrative side of things, Elections Canada for example uses the IT system of another federal entity to receive voters' applications to vote by mail. 

Any EC outsourcing initiatives in the field of 'Communication Information Technology' (could you define or provide an example? for instance, are you referring to technologies used to inform electors as well?) are legally and contractually built so that sensitive information are protected from any misuse by non-EMB entities.

Hope I'm on target and this is useful.  Could provide more info as requested.

Thanks,

Alexandre

An interesting discussion about EMBs outsourcing in the field of social media was held at the EMB dialogue forum in Stockholm late last year. As in this thread there was some time being spent on clarification of the definition of outsourcing and it was clear that what was meant a lot of times was cooperation (for example with CSOs) rather than complete outsourcing – especially when it came to voter information and education. This is obviously not unique to the field of social media, but I believe that the interesting aspect here is how several EMBs are struggling to develop their capacity to deal with Facebook, Twitter etc. (in terms of speed, accuracy, clarity, language etc.) and that one solution seems to be outsourcing/cooperation rather than building in-house capacity. Please let me know if you need more on this and I’ll be happy to give some details.

Hi all,

Firstly thanks for your input so far. I guess my question was rather broad in the first place. So, to try and narrow it down a little I am particularly interested in outsourcing in the context of external IT service providers providing programming, hardware, communications support to EMBs. When this subject is discussed voter registration systems seem to always pop up first and is focused on leaving other aspects of  ICT in limbo. I personally have witnessed high tech VR systems being procured and implemented with very little in-house expertise and where many EMB staff members not having access to computers, email etc.

I should perhaps explain a little further that I am currently preparing to work on a dissertation and my subject is "Ascertaining the value of an EMB in an African developing democracy outsourcing its ICT technology services". My intention is not to focus only on voter registration systems.

I hope this helps to clarify my original question.

Thanks,

Frank

Hi again,

I would like to perhaps get this discussion going again by clarifying further what I mean by outsourcing. I am looking for any examples of EMBs contracting ICT services including equipment i.e. hardware and software out to a company or organisation, rather than procuring equipment etc and employing their own IT staff.

Thanks,

Frank