Question

Recently I observed characteristic Southern civility and efficiency in the execution of early voting here in Whitfield County. Based on my interpretation of the situation, we can assume that voters arrive according to an unknown distribution with mean time between arrivals of 30 seconds and standard deviation of 72 seconds. Although this is clearly a two stage process (voters are required to submit an application and identification before they are issued a Voter Access Card), the line to receive the key is small compared to the queue for waiting for a voting machine. This will allow us to view the problem as a single stage process.

Once the Access Card is obtained, the voter queues to wait for one of six voting machines. There appeared to be a wide variability in the time to vote and the sample I was able to obtain indicates that voting time is N ~ [212, 4900] (or an average time of more than 3 minutes per voter). Although a rewarding and congenial experience, I did have about an hour to think about how the process might be improved. Among the options that might be considered:,

More voting machines in the voting area. With a little rearranging, it looks like another three machines could be added to the current area. Since the room is fairly small, it would be practical for the existing staff to monitor the area.

Another area which could hold up to another 6 machines. However opening another room will require additional staff of three people as soon as the room is activated.

For each of the three systems (current, 3 additional voting machines in the current area, and opening another room), please compare the systems (utilization of servers, length of lines, number of people in the system, as well as the associated waiting times). In addition, although we all see voting as a civic responsibility, assuming that a voter’s time costs $5/hr and the cost of staff is $20/hr., what are your total cost estimates for each of the proposed systems? A brief paragraph outlining your conclusions would help.

Answer 1

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