Along with registration of electors, supervision and conduct of elections, the maintenance of the database system is another task undertaken in electoral administration. The database or filing systems consist of both electronic and manual information on electors. The database is important as it forms the lifeblood of our democracy. Each of the ten District Offices, houses original elector's record cards for each electoral division that the Office serves. The Central Office houses all duplicate record cards and the electronic data.

The situational analysis presented to the Ministry and Commission in July 1999 suggested that:

• Data integrity was lacking about 37% accuracy and reliability
• Security both physical and electronic were so weak as to be non-existent
• Data entry for Re-registration period 1997/1998 was incomplete

With regards to data integrity, the most prevalent errors and omissions were:

• Missing record cards
• Missing information on electors
• Incomplete registrations
• Mis-spelling
• Mis-filing of Record Cards

Some 62% of all errors and omissions resulted at the point of registration at District Offices, while 38% were errors in data entry. As a result the uploading of data to the Central Office from each District Office has been halted. Approximately 80% of the errors and omissions date back to the Re-registration period, July 1997 to August 1998.

Errors and omissions originating at the point of registration are caused by ignorance of the law (ROPA) that governs the electoral process, and human error such as placing electors in the wrong polling areas, and poor filing strategies in the manual system. In the case of the filing strategies, the practice was that each District Office maintained its own method of filing. When information was changed, as in a change of name or address, this was often not reported to the Records Section of the Central Office and vice versa. Also the informal organization allowed for entry of names into the electronic system via telephone from District Offices to the Data Entry Unit without providing proof.

A humungous undertaking in the efforts at "cleaning" the manual and electronic systems commenced in September 1999. This exercise in ensuring data integrity has been conducted simultaneously with the current workload of Electoral Administration and Voter Education, including the organization and supervision of seven elections, namely: Referendum 1999, Municipal Elections 2000, Hopkins Village Council Elections 2000, General Village/Community Council Elections 2001, Village Council By-elections 2001 and 2002, Toledo Development Corporation Board of Directors Elections 2001 and Benque Viejo del Carmen Town Council By-election 2002.

A new manual filing system recommended by Registering Officer, Ms. Maria Vellos was implemented countrywide in 2001. Ms. Vellos travelled to all District Offices to train staff and to supervise the implementation. Also a Data Management Procedures Manual was completed and disseminated to all staff members.

At December 2001, the integrity of the EBC electronic and manual database systems was approximately 93% accuracy and reliability. Although a great improvement over 37% of 1999 and 85% of 2000, the 95% targets for 2001 was not achieved. The reason is that in mid-year the male/female (sex) statistics did not tally with individual offices. Caused mainly by human errors going back to 1997, whereby a female is coded male and vice versa, these were still being corrected for about eleven out of 124 polling areas at December. The situation was similar for the age cohorts.

Presently, reliability is 95%, and the goal for maintaining this still remains. The 5%+/- error tolerance is assessed as follows-2% for current human error and 3% for omissions and errors dating back to 1997. There are record cards dating back to 1997/98 without the elector's photographs and/or signatures and these electors cannot be located. Since 2001 the Elections and Boundaries Commission (EBC) has conducted the complete procedure for Annual Revision as per the practice and the Law. Each Political Party represented in the House of Assembly were given hard copies and an electronic copy. Although the Law provides for six hard copies only, accommodations were made between the EBC and these Political Parties to provide the abovementioned. Quarterly statistics continue to be shared with Political Parties, Government Departments, Public Libraries and Tertiary Level Institutions.

Proper data management remains a priority to avoid the expense and anxieties caused by mass errors. A batch system of data entry has been implemented and includes quality control measures. However, data security will continue to be a challenge. The following activities have been completed to date:

Electronic

1. Completion of Data Entry from Re-registration of 1997/98
   • Pages 2 and 3 of all 98,000 record cards have been computerized
2. Standardization in the following fields to 97%
   • Address
   • Profession
   • Remarks
3. Reconciliation of total number of electors to December 2002 with all District Offices countrywide
4. Correction of spelling errors to 96%--assisted by Municipal Bodies for names of streets
5. Removal of deceased, disqualified-on a "discovery" basis
6. Removal of double registration from 1997/98 to 95%--by last names and parent's names
7. Insertion of wrongly deleted electors-on a "discovery" basis
8. Placing electors in proper polling areas-on a "discovery" basis
9. Matching mismatched data to 94%
10. Reconciliation of male/female and age cohort to 95%
11. Reconciling for double registration

Manual

1. All illegible record cards from 1997 to current made legible or 100%
2. Incomplete record cards to 90%
3. 1809 missing record cards photocopied and replaced-on a "discovery" basis
4. Re-filing of records at Central Office in alphabetical order to 100%
5. Wrongly recorded data-on a "discovery" basis
6. Setting up of manual filing systems countrywide-files in alphabetical order by electoral division
7. Networking with various municipal bodies for street names in new areas in older areas
8. Reconciling for double registration

EBC Software
1. Automation and Customization
Automating routines under 3 Menus namely: Registration, Reports, and System Administration as follows:

To accomplish the above some 26 files were added consisting of:

• 14 Programs Files
• 5 Report Files
• 3 Batch Files
• 4 .dbf and Screen Files

This has resulted in more efficient, automated secure customized EBC Software.

2. Changing/Upgrading Operating System

a) Replacing Windows NT 4.0 with Windows 2000
b) Installing new backup systems

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