The election results simulator is a tool that simulates election results for rehearsing results scenarios. It allows running simulations that exercise all possible outcomes for an election.
Database Setup
When you launch the simulator you will be first prompted to set the options for connecting to the election database you are using.
It is important to
- select the correct election database
- enter the correct election date
Defining Scenarios
Before running a simulation, scenarios must be defined. This is done from the Edit Scenarios tab on the main form.
For each scenario, choose the parties for the ridings and then save the scenario. Not all ridings need to be define.
Leaving their party blank gives you a riding with 0 polls reported/0 votes which is reasonable for elections that may have different time zones or remote ridings.
Running the Simulator
To define a simulation, choose the number of steps and the minutes for each step. For each step, the grid allows defined the scenario for each step. The first step always needs a scenario but it's fine to leave some blank. When blank, it continues the previous scenario.
The simulation runs for steps * minutes/step. So for a 3 step, 2 minutes/step simulation, the simulation runs for 6 minutes. When the simulation begins, it resets the results (polls reported and votes) and then it moves to the first scenario after the first n minutes. After that, it changes or remains on the same scenario every n minutes. The final step of the simulation runs the final scenario and then stops the simulation. At that point, polls reported = total polls for all ridings that have a party leading defined in the final scenario used.
While a simulation is running, the progress of the simulation is displayed in Flow's agent status:
Displaying Existing Scenarios
At any time, a scenario can be browsed from the Display Scenario tab. It's a handy way to look at scenarios especially while a simulation is running.
