6053: ICIO Elaboration on Methodology for Determining Voter Turn-Out (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: "Melinda Miles, Haiti Reborn" <mmiles76@yahoo.com>

International Coalition of Independent Observers
Port-au-Prince, Haiti
November 29, 2000

ELABORATION ON METHODOLOGY FOR DETERMINING VOTER
TURN-OUT

Yesterday the ICIO released its preliminary
observations for Haiti's presidential and partial
senatorial elections on November 26, 2000. The ICIO
would like to explain the methodology it used to
arrive at its estimates for voter turn-out.

ICIO observers visited over 152 voting bureaus (BVs)
in four departments. The majority of these BVs were
visited at least two times during the day of polling. 

Upon arriving at a BV, observers would request to view
the list of registered voters, or the registre. This
list gives the official number of voters registered at
the particular BV. Observers then asked BV employees
how many people had voted so far, and checked
handwritten lists of voters when available, or counted
from the voter register.

This first count provided ICIO observers with an
estimation. In addition, observers were able to watch
the counting of ballots and closing of bureaus in
several locations. In these cases, observers were able
to check their preliminary percentages (based on the
methodology above) against the number of ballots which
had been used. This first-hand observation reinforced
our estimates.

The basic estimations the ICIO arrived at generally
mirror the numbers which have been released as
preliminary estimates by the Provisional Electoral
Council (CEP).




For more information on the International Coalition of
Independent Observers contact Melinda Miles at the
Quixote Center or Moira Feeney at Global Exchange.

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