Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court Reduces Voting Lines and Operational Costs by Nearly US$1 Million in São Paulo by Using Business Intelligence
 
 

Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court Reduces Voting Lines and Operational Costs by Nearly US$1 Million in São Paulo by Using Business Intelligence

Printer View Printer View


The Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court (SEC) is the highest legal body in the country’s electoral system. With national jurisdiction, the SEC controls 27 regional electoral courts, 3,000 electoral registry offices, and more than 400,000 polling stations throughout Brazil, serving approximately 136 million voters.

The Brazilian SEC has one of the most advanced technology infrastructures in the world, with an outstanding system of electronic voting machines that accelerates voting and enables calculating results within hours after polls close across the country. The electoral system’s management is complex and must handle a significant amount of data. In addition, the SEC is always looking to improve its electoral processes and undertakes extensive data analysis to accomplish that goal.

With a need for better statistical information, the SEC adopted Oracle Business Intelligence Suite, Enterprise Edition to analyze parameters for each vote, such as each voter’s voting time and profile—including age, sex and education—as well as to calculate paper usage and forecast materials needed in the next election. This information helps the SEC enhance electoral system efficiency and reduce costs. For instance, the SEC used analyses generated from Oracle Business Intelligence Suite, Enterprise Edition to save US$1 million (2 million Brazilian reals) in São Paulo alone, by using the appropriate size of paper rolls in electronic polls. In addition, the agency used its new solution to balance the distribution of polling stations, reducing voting lines.

 
 

 
 

Challenges

A word from Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court (Tribunal Superior Eleitoral)

  • “We’re committed to build upon the Superior Electoral Court’s base technology for continual improvement to the electoral process. To that end, we need indicators that help us identify areas for improvement, such as the time voters require to use the voting machines, peak hours of use, and cultural trends that affect voting behavior. With Oracle Business Intelligence Suite, Enterprise Edition Plus, we have been able to reduce election-day lines and improve polling station distribution, raising voter satisfaction rates with the Brazilian electoral process.” – Giuseppe Dutra Janino, Information Technology Secretary, Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court

  • Identify areas for improvement in the Brazilian electoral system, which has been completely computerized since 2000
  • Manage extensive information generated during the electoral process regarding voter profiles and voting process stages
  • Improve the electoral process, based on information gathered through voter data and trend analyses, such as calculating supplies needed for future elections

Solutions

Oracle Product and Services

  • Implemented Oracle Business Intelligence Suite, Enterprise Edition with support from Oracle partner Formato to identify improvement areas in the Brazilian electoral process, based on data from 27 regional electoral courts, 3,000 electoral registry offices, and more than 400,000 polling stations
  • Analyzed the behavior of 136 Brazilian voters—such as amount of interaction time with each voting machine—during elections and created voter profiles to tailor the new system to each voter group
  • Obtained a profile of voters who spend more time interacting with voting machines and mapped their difficulties with the electoral process to better prepare the infrastructure, computerized systems, and staff, enhancing service to citizens
  • Identified data regarding voting process stages, including times with greater voter accumulation or a greater concentration of people who spend more time voting—such as illiterate, visually-challenged, and elderly people—to balance the staffing and configuration of polling stations, which reduces lines, expedites station opening and closing, and enables station mergers when possible
  • Used information generated in the Brazilian electoral system to analyze political trends and voter behavior
  • Reduced operational costs by better distributing services to the electorate—including merging polling stations when appropriate
  • Prepared estimates for supplies used during the electoral process, such as adequate paper rolls to list the candidates and voters in each municipality, saving US$1 million (2 million Brazilian reals) in the state of São Paulo

Partner

The Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court worked with Oracle Partner Formato to implement Oracle Business Intelligence Suite, Enterprise Edition. “It was a quite representative contribution. The consultants conducted a detailed study of our business and used that information for supporting us to optimize our gains with this tool,” said Giuseppe Dutra Janino, information technology secretary, Brazilian Supreme Electoral Court. 

Resources