Geospatial approaches for a
faster voter roll count

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We provided expert advisory on geospatial computing to assist the Australian Electoral Commission in tracking electoral areas more efficiently.

Client

Australian Electoral Commission

Project

Geospatial innovation

Sector

Federal Government

Timeframe

2 months

Technology Themes

Geographic Information System (GIS)

About the Client

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is responsible for conducting Australia’s federal elections and referendums, and for managing the country’s electoral roll.

Background

Management of the electoral roll is the specific responsibility of the Roll Management Branch (RMB). The RMB relies heavily upon addressing and boundary information for several core business processes, most important being the management of electoral role boundaries.

Electoral role boundaries are regularly adjusted by the AEC to ensure equal elector representation per Member of Parliament. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) provides population distribution data to inform boundary adjustments. Changes in the ABS approach, shifting from the Census Collection District (CCD) to the Australian Statistical Geography Standard (ASGS), required the AEC to innovate the way they approached the use of ABS population data to electoral areas.

Agile Digital was chosen to advise the AEC on approaches to align its business systems with ABS changes because of their Geographic Information System (GIS) technology knowledge demonstrated on the AllHomes project.

Mission

Agile Digital delivered strategic advisory providing options for aligning geospatial data with the ABS geographical framework.

The advice delivered recommendations for next-generation information systems that automatically determine which geographical unit (at various granularities) each Australian voter falls into, and to efficiently support business queries based upon these geographical areas.

Approach

Agile Digital applied their methodology and frameworks to:

Discover and understand the ABS data and how it enabledĀ  the AEC systems and processes to deliver core business functionality. This information was used to define success criteria to access solution options. Technology options were explored and evaluated for application at AEC.

A decision framework which included

  • Environment considerations.
  • Indicative project estimates (scope, resourcing and time), risk assessment and outcomes for each option.
  • Implementation strategy for each option.

A recommendation on the technology and approach for delivering a project outcome.

Outcome

Agile Digital delivered a comprehensive report structured to support AEC decision making and support implementation teams in the delivery of geospatial computing to assist in adjusting electoral areas.