Forum: Running simulations could have helped on Polling Day

Voters queueing at the void deck of Block 35 Toa Payoh Lorong 5 on July 10, 2020. ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG

The Covid-19 situation provided fresh challenges on Polling Day, and the Elections Department (ELD) apologised for the lapses. Still, this unfortunate incident could have been mitigated or even prevented altogether.

GE2020 polling will be remembered for, among other things, its uniqueness - the temperature screening, use of gloves and additional safety measures.

However, what was unknown was how these additional processes would affect the flow of voters during the actual polling.

ELD should have taken pre-emptive and preventive measures to incorporate the industrial engineering (IE) approach as part of polling process preparation.

IE is the study of the optimisation of complex processes or systems, by considering all the variable inputs and how they impact the entire flow system.

Prior to Polling Day, ELD could have simulated the process flow through trial runs, and reviewed the data collected to address bottlenecks and make improvements to the process.

I would urge the ELD to incorporate IE principles during simulation runs in future elections to pre-empt any hiccup.

Lee Kek Chin

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on July 16, 2020, with the headline Forum: Running simulations could have helped on Polling Day. Subscribe