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Brett Lambden, Australian Electoral Commission.

The Victorian Division of the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) maintains electoral roll information for the state of Victoria. A key task for AEC staff, located in offices across the state, is to verify the local, state and federal electoral regions for registered addresses of voters on the electoral roll.

AEC’s existing system for checking addresses was a desktop MapInfo based application that required data updates to be sent by mail on CD to the numerous AEC offices across the state for manual installation. The system was time consuming to maintain and coordinate as each office required different CDs based on the local government areas they dealt with. The data on these CDs also dated quickly, meaning AEC offices were heavily reliant on direct liason with local government officials to verify details of new properties.

The AEC approached Spatial Vision to develop a single centralised online application to replace the existing desktop system. The AEC recognised that a single web application would be easier to update with new Vicmap address data and electoral boundary information and would guarantee that all AEC staff are using the same application to check addresses regardless of their office location. Training and user support would also be simplified by having a single point of access for the application.

Spatial Vision’s solution is an easy to use web mapping application that allows users to quickly enter an address to search for, verify its location on a map and query its electoral boundary information.

Spatial Vision provided a complete suite of services to the AEC including supply of Vicmap data, custom application development using open source software, hosting and an ongoing data update plan. The system provides AEC staff around Victoria access to a single, accurate facility for establishing the exact location of an address and the correct electoral entitlements for the people who live there.  By moving to a web based application we no longer need to ensure staff have the most up to date maps installed on their individual PCs. There is no longer any danger that they may be accessing out of date information, which potentially could adversely impact on an elector’s franchise.

The project demonstrated how a relatively simple web mapping application can simplify and improve the efficiency of a key business process for a large organisation like the AEC. The project demonstrates how using the external expertise of an organisation such as Spatial Vision who can provide a spatial information management, application development and hosting infrastructure.