The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) has voted for MapInfo technology to improve electoral efficiencies.

The IEC uses MapInfo Professional for map production, MapInfo MapXtreme Java Edition for locating the nearest voting station and voter registration, MapInfo MapXtreme NT for public information used to find where to vote and MapInfo MapXtend to assist in voting district verification and updating. By using this technology, IEC has created a continuous geographical database of the entire country and established 15 000 voting districts.

Prior to using the MapInfo Solution, IEC faced a map production bottleneck. The demand for maps was overwhelming and required the resources of 60-70 operators, working 24 hours a day. There was also no access to attribute databases, making the process inefficient and time-consuming.

With the help of MapInfo Partner, Spatial Technologies in South Africa, IEC has custom-built map production software for plotting voting boundaries on different scales. With this technology, 200 maps of voting districts can be produced per hour and maps with cartographic enhancements can be created within 10 minutes, reducing the number of operators needed to generate maps and significantly improving operational efficiencies. The IEC can now geographically track all electoral processes including registration patterns, status of voting stations on election day and status of results received from South Africa's 15 000 voting districts.

To meet the delimitation requirement, the IEC uses MapXtreme Java Edition and verifies voting station positions, as well as defined voting boundaries, using its intranet.

Further, by using MapXtreme NT, voters can conduct searches for streets, intersections or other named features to indentify voting districts from search results, locate voting stations and display maps. The application enables 60 concurrent accesses and responds to requests in seven seconds.

"The functionality enabled by MapInfo technology allowed voters to pin down their polling stations on www.elections.org.za," said Alan Ellis, founding partner of Spatial Technologies. "It also served the electoral offices during the voter registration period. All electoral offices were able to position their outlets and polling stations, make modifications to their boundaries, and more."

Spatial Technologies

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