When it comes to logistics, for many election departments assigning assets is the cornerstone to an election cycle. Almost all remaining processes rely on the asset assignment for validation. In short, asset assignment tells our system which election and precinct, that asset is destined for.

Let’s start by defining some terms:

Election cycle – the process of preparing, distributing, retrieving, and reconciling all assets and items needed for an election.

Asset – Any individually tracked item in your inventory. These are serialized, so each of them has a separate chain of custody. Common assets are tabulators, tablets, laptops, but they could also be less valuable items that you simply want to track (tables and chairs, for example).

System Administration Module (SAM) – This is the administration part of our system. It’s used for election set up, as well as viewing inventory levels, and checking chain of custody, just to name a few functions.

Handheld Module: This is the part of our system used to scan and execute various processes in the warehouse.

How does it work?

Assigning assets starts in our System Administration Module (SAM), by creating an election and defining which polling sites and precincts are part of this election (manually or via import). Depending on your model, you may have one precinct per polling site, multiple precincts per polling site, or ALL precincts per polling site (vote anywhere). These can all be defined during the event creation.

Once the election is defined you can begin assigning assets. Our handheld module serves one prompt at a time to validate and catch as many errors as possible. In the handheld you would select the election and precinct and then scan assets to associate them (See Fig. 1).

Why is asset assignment important?

Asset assignment sets the validation process in motion. From here on, the other steps in the election cycle use this assignment to make sure the right assets are being used. This occurs in many places; we ensure all items assigned to the precinct are delivered and picked up from the precinct. We also ensure all items are brought back into the warehouse.

It supplies a realistic scope for chain of custody searches. If you are looking for all items used in an election, we use this assignment to allow you to search the items quickly and see what was done to them throughout the election cycle.

What are some variations on asset assignment?

Asset assignment typically follows a process like what was defined above. However, sometimes different operations have reasons for doing things differently. Let’s look at some of those:

• Assets keep their precinct assignment – After an election, some operations keep the precinct assignment of some or all their assets. When the next election comes the same assets go to the same precinct but receive a new event assignment.
• Assets assigned on delivery – Note: This requires an allocation for our system to find how many of each asset goes to each precinct. In this version assets are loaded onto trucks with no assignment. On delivery, they input which election and precinct they are delivering to, and we assign them at that moment. We check against the allocation to figure out the quantity of assets we are expecting, so they do not miss any.
• QA Assignment – Some operations only assign the asset after it passes validation in our QA process. If it does not pass, it is rejected (not assigned) and they QA/Assign another asset. If they have multiple QA steps and it fails in a secondary step, the asset is unassigned.