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Main Authors: Zhang, Tiankuo, Montreuil, Benoit, Barenji, Ali V, Muthukrishnan, Praveen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.04053
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author Zhang, Tiankuo
Montreuil, Benoit
Barenji, Ali V
Muthukrishnan, Praveen
author_facet Zhang, Tiankuo
Montreuil, Benoit
Barenji, Ali V
Muthukrishnan, Praveen
contents Resource allocations in an election system, often with hundreds of polling locations over a territory such as a county, with the aim that voters receive fair and efficient services, is a challenging problem, as election resources are limited and the number of expected voters can be highly volatile through the voting period. This paper develops two propositions to ensure efficiency, fairness, resilience, and security. The first is to leverage Physical Internet (PI) principles, notably setting up a "secure election physical intranet" (SEPI) based on open resource sharing and flow consolidation between election facilities in the territory. The second is to adopt a smart dynamic resource allocation methodology within the SEPI based on queueing networks and lexicographic optimization. A queueing model is developed to provide feasible combinations of resources and individual performances for each polling location by considering layout and utilization constraints. A two-stage lexicographic optimizer receives the queueing model's outputs and finds an optimal solution that is less expensive, fast, and fair. A scenario-based case study validates the proposed methodology based on data from the 2020 US Presidential Election in Fulton County, Georgia, USA.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_04053
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Efficient, Fast, and Fair Voting Through Dynamic Resource Allocation in a Secure Election Physical Intranet
Zhang, Tiankuo
Montreuil, Benoit
Barenji, Ali V
Muthukrishnan, Praveen
Optimization and Control
Resource allocations in an election system, often with hundreds of polling locations over a territory such as a county, with the aim that voters receive fair and efficient services, is a challenging problem, as election resources are limited and the number of expected voters can be highly volatile through the voting period. This paper develops two propositions to ensure efficiency, fairness, resilience, and security. The first is to leverage Physical Internet (PI) principles, notably setting up a "secure election physical intranet" (SEPI) based on open resource sharing and flow consolidation between election facilities in the territory. The second is to adopt a smart dynamic resource allocation methodology within the SEPI based on queueing networks and lexicographic optimization. A queueing model is developed to provide feasible combinations of resources and individual performances for each polling location by considering layout and utilization constraints. A two-stage lexicographic optimizer receives the queueing model's outputs and finds an optimal solution that is less expensive, fast, and fair. A scenario-based case study validates the proposed methodology based on data from the 2020 US Presidential Election in Fulton County, Georgia, USA.
title Efficient, Fast, and Fair Voting Through Dynamic Resource Allocation in a Secure Election Physical Intranet
topic Optimization and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.04053