From left: Waterford City and County Council GIS project lead Jon Hawkins and Esri Ireland head of sales Dermot O’Kane. Image: Esri Ireland
Esri Ireland said this interactive online hub will let Waterford voters easily learn about candidates, how to vote and find their allocated polling station.
Waterford has a new online election hub to enhance information accuracy and boost voter participation for upcoming elections.
The hub was developed by Geographic Information Systems (GIS) player Esri Ireland and is the first dedicated resource of its kind to be rolled out by a local authority in Ireland. It will provide the 127,000 citizens of Waterford with easy access to transparent information ahead of local elections next month.
The online hub includes information about electoral candidates, existing elected representatives, electoral areas, and voting and registration FAQs. Users of the hub can explore and download interactive maps of the six electoral areas in the Waterford region.
Esri Ireland said users can also enter their eircode to find their elected representatives and get directions to their allocated polling station. The hub also aims to level the playing field for new and existing candidates, by giving the electorate equal access to information about all candidates.
Waterford City and County Council will be able to use the hub to spot anomalies where clusters of houses may have been assigned to the wrong electoral area, or where a voter has entered an incorrect eircode.
GIS project lead for Waterford City and County Council, Jon Hawkins said the hub will support election candidates and promote “greater voter participation in elections”.
“Waterford City and County Council needed to make information about elections more accessible to members of the public, help them find their polling stations and remove other barriers to participation,” Hawkins said. “Configuring the hub was very straightforward and it was an intuitive and responsive solution to build.
“The platform aims to educate citizens, inspire public confidence, and support Waterford’s prospective and elected representatives.”
The hub was built using Esri’s ArcGIS technology and can be viewed on this website link, in both English and Irish.
There are always concerns about false information spreading during an election, but this issue has been complicated by the rise of technology such as AI and an increase in cyberattacks. For example, the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre recently announced a new service to help prevent political candidates and election officials from being hit with cyberattacks during election periods.
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