election-mapping-and-reporting-software

Election mapping and reporting: Background


InstantAtlas dynamic reports are ideal for presenting election results and creating political and social atlases. The key feature of the product is its ability to create reports and maps at any geographic scale or coverage.  This allows local, regional, national or international organisations to deliver high quality, richly interactive outputs.

InstantAtlas is being used in this area for two purposes:-

  • For the online public dissemination of election results through interactive reports. InstantAtlas reports are often pre-prepared, then published within minutes of election results being announced. These outputs are often termed election results maps or election results dashboards. They address the rising expectations of a citizen audience to view and interact with this data and are consistent with many of the interactive maps presented on mainstream news media web sites. Their ability to allow users to explore the data for themselves down to a localised level means they can engage communities and strengthen democratic processes. Our report templates are sufficiently flexible to handle a wide range of different voting systems including the appointment of multiple representatives per electoral district. 
  • For the creation of socio-political reports and atlases that offer more analytical capabilities.  These reports may highlight patterns and trends in voting behaviour often in relation to other socio-economic and political factors.  For example trends in party voting over time for a specific area or the relationship between levels of household income and political party votes.  The reports are less time-sensitive while reporting geography may not be electoral districts – the data may be re-organised to present it at other geographic levels. This type of application is often supported by agencies responsible for publishing electoral and other forms of statistics.

The International Centre for Excellence in Local eDemocracy (ICELE) has recognised InstantAtlas in its category Election Results Publication Systems. 

London Mayoral Elections, Greater London Authority

election-mapping-software

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Scale:  Regional (London, England)

Purpose: The Data Management and Analysis Group (DMAG) provide data management and analysis services to the Greater London Authority (GLA). They are a team of statisticians and researchers with a range of professional and technical skills in the fields of statistics, demography, geographic information and data presentation.

They used InstantAtlas to deliver easy to use, highly-interactive atlases for the high-profile elections of the London Mayor and Assembly. The election results were released 2nd May 2008 and published on the GLA web site the following morning.

InstantAtlas provided a quick and easy, off-the-shelf tool for the DMAG to build interactive presentations of the results without using up valuable resources.

"We had challenging timescales to develop the election results reports. We were able to create, customise and brand them in a few days so they were ready and waiting for the results as they came in,” said Alan Lewis, Senior Analyst within DMAG. “Given the delay in the results beingannounced due to consideration of second preference votes, it was a late night for us but the London Mayor atlas was live the following morning and we are very pleased with results".

Janet Worth, Executive Director Corporate Services, Greater London Authority, said: "I think the presentation of the 2008 Mayoral and Assembly election results using these interactive web pages looks fantastic. They really help to communicate the data in an interesting and exciting manner.”

Keywords of Article and Resource Links | election-map, map-political,presidential-election-map, electoral-map, election-mapping-software, electoral-votes-map, election-council, election-statistics, voter-demographics, voter statistics