Upholding the Democracy - My Summer with Elections Ontario. Introduction From April to August, 2024, I had the honour of joining a one of a kind organization whose main business objective is to facilitate elections in Ontario which are, quite literally the backbone of our society. My main reflections from this internship that I will bring into my future ambitions in interdisciplinary technical problem solving are:

1. Understanding cross-functional collaboration and integrated business systems and operations (government).
2. The value of human-centered, data-driven product design.
3. Applying strategies for analyzing future risk preparedness.
4. Full-time office etiquette.
5. Microsoft products such as Excel as database management tools.

In this report, I will reflect on my comprehensive experience, regarding my technical and cerebral professional development. Overall, I can successfully say I supported initiatives for improving Data and Social governance, learned a lot about enhancing electoral processes, as well as professionalism in the workplace.

The Office of the Chief Electoral Officer (Elections Ontario) About the employer Elections Ontario (EO) is an independent, nonpartisan office of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario, responsible for administering provincial elections, by-elections, and referenda in Ontario. We are committed to making voting easy and accessible for all electors, while maintaining the integrity, security, and transparency of the electoral process. Since Ontario’s first election in 1867, to the first official office of the Chief Electoral Officer in 1920, the organization has worked to facilitate Ontario’s democratic process.

Today, EO is an industry leader among Electoral Management Bodies (EMB’s) globally, and is constantly striving to maintain a balance of new ideas & innovations along with maintaining the core principles of democracy.

Everyone is a stakeholder for us, everyone is impacted by what we do! - Greg Essensa (CEO), Summer 2024 Intern Orientation

In the past 10 years, EO has made many advancements in technology including:

2016: The Ontario Register Database of Future Voters (ages 16-17)

2017: eRegistration, an online tool to simplify the registration process for Ontario voters.

2018: Voter Information Service, providing voters easy digital access to their voting information.

2018: 1st major technological advancements in 100 years, ePoll books and vote tabulators implemented across the province.

Present: Centralized intergovernmental databases of managing voter information

My Team: The Provincial Registry of Electors My Role in the company (job description) The goals of the Register Division are to maintain the integrity and accuracy of Ontario’s voter registration lists. This is done through consolidating bulk data from external suppliers and internal sources, then standardizing and transforming databases via data quality control checks to validate and apply corrections while ensuring data integrity, confidentiality, and security.

My role as the Information Management Analyst Intern encompassed a variety of data-oriented tasks and projects enhancing register-related applications and database management systems. The specific computing domains covered are the intersection of Data Science, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and their application to the digital humanities (social sciences). I mainly worked on various data warehouse centralization strategies, creating data pipelines for various address and property records to ensure accuracy within the registry list of electors. The Technologies I was exposed to that are used within the team include:

Excel and VBA

FME

MS Office Suite and other MS software (Visual Studio, SharePoint)

SQL and Oracle

ArcGIS and other GIS tools

Python

JavaScript, HTML

Internal Azure Cloud Applications, etc.

An example of Data Architecture in this team looks like: (see diagram I created above)

The data from my team would also be stored in digital product applications used internally and externally, including developing training materials for returning officers to use on Election day.

My Info. Mgmt. team would produce voter registration lists that would be sent to a team of municipal coordinators to disperse across organizations in Ontario.

The electors list would also have geospatial attributes would be used by a geospatial technicians to align with electoral districts and field IT and facilities could then go set up polling stations.

The coolest part working with Data and GIS specialists was learning about EO’s overall information infrastructure. Being able to see end-to-end, how the information flowed within the databases, and how that connected to other teams and processes enhanced my understanding of data governance as it relates to business objectives. As EO's clients are the voters and residents of Ontario, it is imperitive to create holistic business operations driven by human-centred product design. From back end database management, to accessible digital interfaces, to client relation management, and scalable infrastructure implementation, I can conceptualize the interconnectivity of various divisions.

Notable Mentorship Lessons My future career EO is a midsized company with 1 office and 1 goal. Because of its intimate work structure and my contract requiring showing up 5 days a week, in-person, I was able to network a ton with employees in every division and on every level of authority from the other interns to the CEO. I had used GIS and DBMS tools in coursework which provided a good background for conceptualizing their broader applications to the organization. I specifically gained extensive experience processing Excel and VBA workbooks which is extremely useful as its appeal extends beyond every conceivable industry and position.

Although the prototypical career most Computer Science students seek is software development, I lean more towards the data management, analytics, and insights part of the product design lifecycle. This work term opened my eyes to the world of technology and its integration into specific business and operations.

Code can change, but data is forever - August 2024, Gabriel Romanescu (My Manager)
Reflecting back, I was able to perform a variety of Data Governance concepts:

Structuring consolidation of unstructured data,

Quality validation,

User acceptance testing (UAT),

Trend-based analytics to inform decision making,

Developping domain-specific research and insights.

There were many qualities exemplified by those surrounding me which I will take as a lesson for how to succeed in my career:

My direct supervisor, Julia consistently demonstrated hard work, diligence, and patience within her responsibilities relating to the necessary attention to detail in data-oriented work.

My internal team mentor, Rachel did the same summer student program in 2019 and now works full time for the company. She gave tons of good advice from the perspective of a young person navigating the transition from school to the workforce.

My direct manager, Gabe taught me to be flexible and open to what life brings. Learning about his career path and the agility of transferring skills between diverse backgrounds and experiences echoed a common theme of being open-minded to new opportunities I heard this summer.

re-evaluating my goals In one of my weekly mentor meetings with Rachel, who interviewed me for this position, I went over the performance objectives, and how I believed I exceeded the expectations.
1. Knowledge of Elections Ontario as a government agency
2. Experiences with GIS and data visualization tools, relational databases and SQL, and other big data processing methodologies.
3. Working well with others, cross-functionally, and managing multiple projects.

You really demonstrated a lot of initiative, always asking questions, engaging with the work, while also bringing a positive attitude to the workplace - August 2024, Rachel (Info Mgmt. Team Mentor)

The 9-5 Office Life my impact and accomplishments in the organization Expanding on the impact of office etiquette and professionalism... I participated in various office initiative to bring a strong energy to the organization
Winning the Intern Project on Risk Analysis of the Future of Elections My team won this year’s intern project proposal presentation for risk management strategies to enhance disaster resiliency for EO and other EMB’s. We presented these findings and suggestions to management and executives who were looking for young and fresh ideas from youth in the province EO represents.

Collaborating in a cross-functional team of interns from other divisions was a great learning experience for us to combine our unique skills and perspectives together. I knew about cybersecurity and technology trends, while my team members knew about law and environmental justice.

While I cannot speak on specific insights within the internal strategy of the organization, the foresight and planning methods, tools, and frameworks my team developped can be expanded to create solutions in any industry!
My involvement in the office Social Committee - connecting with other employees across the company. Bringing my event planning skills from the RA job to life in a corporate setting was a great way to enhance my creativity, project management, and professional networking. It was in these initiative where I was praised for my attitude and work ethic by other employees I had not directly worked with. As an intern or co-op student, I believe it is important to bring a positive energy to the office as many older employees notice trends of enthusiatic work attitudes being less common among youth in my generation.

These 2 posters are examples of social events I helped facilitate. I helped strategize ideas and logistics, designed promotional posters, and specifically brought back physcial media in the form of polaroid photos (seen in next section below). Seeing people enjoy their time in the office, meeting each other, and hanging up the polaroid photos I took of them on their desk was incredibly fufilling. On my last day, while I was handing out ice cream, I had many employees tell me how much they would miss me and hoped to see me back soon.
preparing for a real election - the 2024 Bay of quinte by-election When I started in April, the Milton and Lambton-Kent-Middlesex by-elections were taking place. I wasn't able to contribute as I had just onboarded and I had hoped to see one during my term in the summer.

Fast-forward to the very last week, a snap by-election was called and seeing the development made everything I had learned about, real. At one point, I was on printer duty and seeing the physical list of electors for the riding was a transformative feeling. It was the feeling of knowing my impact of analyzing the quality of the elector registry list actually had real-world implications, knowing the work I did for the product, actually meant something.

The Future of Elections Conclusions & acknowledgements In a recent article, TIME reporter Koh Ewe named 2024—The Ultimate Election Year! The largest number of voters in history will expectedly head to the polls in more than 60 countries for national and local elections. Local trends also indicate high levels of political activity within Ontario and Canada as a whole.

It has therefore been an honor for me to collaborate with like-minded industry leaders to drive real world social change during this exceptional period in time!

I want to specifically thank the Legislative Assembly of Ontario and Elections Ontario for the opportunity. From onboarding with HR, to getting to learn from professionals with career experience I hope to gain, everyone was super welcoming which inspired me to bring my full, authentic self, and take ownership in the work I do.

Additionally, the University of Guelph Co-op team have consistently been a source of support throughout my coop experience; I want to thank the coop coordinators, school of computing advisors, and UofG as a whole for empowering me to seek new adventures and opportunities beyond my wildest imaginations.

My main reflections from this internship that I will bring into my future ambitions in interdisciplinary technical problem solving can be found in my LinkedIn post
With my summer internship ending, and the upcoming provincial election, I was invited to explore various options to return back to the company in various forms. Although I am currently looking to explore new experiences, I am not against the opportunity to working for EO again some day!