In the lead up to local elections, many questions arise.  Candidates need to know which forms to complete, the deadlines they must meet, and where the area boundaries lie.  Meanwhile, local people need to establish which electoral area they live in, who their local candidates are and whether their allocated polling station has moved.  Local media have questions about the electoral process, and even internal staff need to find key documents quickly. 

When the Irish local elections of June 2024 loomed on the horizon, the franchise unit of Donegal County Council expected to be inundated with requests for information.  Concerned about this weighty workload, the unit asked the council’s IT team if it could create an online portal to enable candidates, local media, the general public and staff to access the required information themselves, quickly and easily.  

Huge efficiency gains for council and candidates
The Donegal County Council Election Hub significantly reduced the amount of time that the franchise unit had to spend responding to queries and sending out information, regulations and maps by email to 91 candidates.  “Our ArcGIS hub delivered huge efficiency improvements for the council’s franchising unit, but it was more efficient for candidates as well,” observes McDonough.  “They didn’t have to keep ringing in to check deadlines or request forms and maps; they could find everything they needed on the ArcGIS hub—and more!” 

A more transparent electoral process
For members of the public and the media, the hub made the electoral process more transparent.  For the first time, information on electoral areas, rules and regulations, relevant acts of law, polling stations and candidates was all available for everyone to explore, in one place.  “We provided a single, authoritative one-stop-shop for all information about the election, which will have helped to give confidence to the electorate that the election was being run properly,” asserts McDonough.   

Increased public engagement in local politics
The Election Hub was so accessible and easy to use that it helped to engage the public’s interest in the county elections by giving them the information they needed to participate.  On the day of the election, people could also keep an eye on the dashboard of results, via the hub, to monitor counts and see democracy in action.  “We felt it was very important to show the whole electoral process as much as we could,” says McDonough.  “In this way, we hope that we have piqued people’s interest in local politics and encouraged more local residents to vote in elections.”

Deeper insight into election results
Through the use of the hub and dashboards, Donegal County Council has been able to give the general public a deeper insight into key features of the election, such as the gender imbalance in elected councillors and the accuracy of ‘tallyman’ predications.  As McDonough observes, “It is important for local democracy that people understand the results of elections and who their elected councillors are.  ArcGIS enables us to tell people about the council they voted for, in a way that is accessible and easy for everyone to understand.”