Elections
Executive View
Top Level Objectives
Elections continue to make the headlines world-over as the challenges in effective management of elections are numerous. Election authorities have several major challenges - managing electors (people) and managing geography (places and boundaries). People move in and out of jurisdictions. Electoral geography is largely a changing and evolving matter. Voting locations shift based on availability and population. Elections staff need to assess eligibility of voters. Eligible voters need to find voting locations during elections, as they exercise their democratic right. Political parties may have constant inquiries regarding vote composition and demographics. Security of voter information and of the electoral process, is absolutely paramount.
As a local, regional or central agency responsible for elections, how can you manage all this in an effective, transparent and secure manner? Rolta's services and unique solutions for elections enable you to utilize the benefit of a geo-centric model to meet this goal.
Solution - Innovation
Rolta's Election Management Solution, coupled with Rolta services, provide an intuitive approach to elections management. It is a solution where geography is no longer a peripheral element. It is central. Rolta's insights, based on significant project experience, complement the impressive collection of adaptable and configurable components developed to meet specific customer needs.
The broad areas of focus for Rolta's Election Management Solution are as follows:
- Electoral Event Administration - real time elections result tracking and "Where do I vote?" tools
- Elections Finance Administration - tracking expenditures against KPI's and performance efficiencies
- Voter management - tying each elector to a location and managing data update and correction processes
- Legislative Services
- Education, Training and information - training internal and external stakeholders on how to effectively utilize the solution
Advantage - Insight
While voters may move from one location to another within a jurisdiction, or even between jurisdictions, the one constant is the address. By changing focus to managing "geography", tremendous efficiencies and insights can be gained. Effective management of elections requires encouraging active engagement in the civic process and making the voting process as easy and accessible as possible. By using Rolta's Election Management Solution, valuable insight can be gained by analyzing current voting locations, electoral geography, voter location and adjusting resources accordingly to optimize quality service to voters in a fiscally responsible manner.
Benefit - Impact
Identifying all locations in your jurisdiction and then tying voters to those locations provides the foundation for an effective management system for all your elections processes. By using Rolta services and solutions, you effectively create a system where you can track performance based on clear measures and run an effective, efficient election.
Management View
Business Objectives
There are many aspects to managing the business processes involved in an election, such as:
- How do I manage the boundaries of electoral geography based on criteria I set?
- How do I effectively direct voters to their appropriate voting locations?
- How do I communicate live election results to various stakeholders in the media, political parties and the public?
- How can I prove the value of additional budget requirements based on existing gaps in service from the perspective of a voter?
- How do I provide my staff with up to date data on voters in their areas and ensure complete security of confidential data?
Rolta has a unique services and solution set that allows you to run an effective elections process and to leverage geography to make your business more efficient.
Solution
There are multiple stakeholders involved in the elections process, including executives, staff, political parties and importantly voters. Each will have different requirements for a solution. Political parties will want to understand vote distributions and figures. A voter may want to go to your website to find out where to vote and how to get there. Executives will want to know the ROI and performance against KPI's from an overarching perspective. Staff will want tools to redraw electoral boundaries and analyze the impact of different scenarios. All stakeholders will want to see the results on elections day.
Rolta's Elections Management Solution combines industry leading software, key partners and domain knowledge in the elections process. Rolta's Election Management Solution provides value to all stakeholder groups by utilizing the power of geography - allowing voters to search on a map, staff to draw and analyze on a map and executives to measure performance on a map. The solution is a combination of desktop data management and QA tools, web services which provide functionality to other organizations and allow data loading from partner agencies, web applications for address and electoral geography data management by staff and for voters tools such as "Where do I vote?", interactive maps, and cartographic quality map production.
Approach
By understanding the key concept that people move, but addresses do not, the power of managing elections using a geographic approach becomes evident. Rolta's Elections Management solution is unique in this approach which allows for effective management of the elections process over the long term.
Business Value
The following benefits are obtained by using Rolta's Elections Management solution and services:
- Engage voters with easy to use tools to find out more about where to vote, how to get there, which candidates are running and live results during an election process
- A long term geography centric "voter" and "place" management strategy
- Analytical tools that allow for scenario modeling for redistricting of electoral geography and the addition of new address points and polygons
- A dashboard to gauge the effectiveness of the elections against key metrics from a management perspective
Technical View
Technical Issues
Managing electoral data and data associated with elections is a challenging task. Typically there are many sources of electoral data, coming from the local, regional and federal levels. There are usually many different systems for managing data on voters and on geography, coupled with other systems for elections related asset management, CRM and content management. Legacy systems are pervasive and the challenge rests in applying newer technology in a way that leverages legacy data, while phasing out legacy systems.
Rolta works with the leaders in the IT and GIS industry, including Microsoft, ESRI and others to gain efficiencies in overall IT infrastructure and provide a solution that ties together all systems and data sources. In other words, Rolta provides a best of breed technology solution based on established proven and effective practices and systems.
Solution Components
Specifically, Rolta's Election Management Solution is focused in three environments, desktop, web-service and web applications, to deliver data management, address / electoral geography management and voter management tools. For the desktop, the solution includes:
- Find Address, Electoral District, Polling Division, Parcels, Streets, Places
- Interactive Editing
- Edit Queue Browser
- Street Analysis
- Place Analysis
- Electoral Geography Management
- Cartography Management
With regard to web services, the following are a part of the Rolta Election Management Solution:
- Find Web Service
- Edit Web Service
- Parse Web Service
- Location Web Service
- Maintain Web Service
- Version Web Service
- Membership Web Service
- Map Web Service
And as for web applications, the following are included as part of the Rolta Election Management Solution:
- EMS Web GIS Application
- Elector Management
- Location Management
- Event Management
- Address Inquiry Web applications
- Address Management Web Applications
- Field Electoral Geography
- Where Do I Vote?
- Interactive Maps
Implementation
Each implementation carries with it specific challenges associated with existing systems, jurisdictional responsibilities and workflows. The first step in a successful implementation begins with a needs assessment and overall workflow assessment. Once an understanding is built in this regard and once business metrics are identified from an electoral point of view, a proof of concept is developed in many cases. These proof of concepts are valuable to help agencies to identify required functionality.
After this point, the Election Management Solution can be deployed rapidly and on-time to support the election day and the election process. Various software components are installed based on the technical architecture recommended by the IT arm of the elections organization. Training is conducted for those who will be responsible for maintaining and updating the site, likely the IT or GIS department, as well as elections staff. The final solution is tested and signed off by all stakeholders.
How Does it Fit and Why is it Different?
Rolta's combination of desktop, web services and web applications is a comprehensive and unique offering in the elections space. The solution uses a robust Service Oriented Architecture and XML based approach, which integrates business processes with internal and external systems and allows for future growth and planning. The concept of geography that is core to Rolta's solution is a vital, central piece to managing elections.