Local govt elections website launched
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NZ firm that worked on US Democrats site makes local site
By Stephen Bell | Wellington | Monday, 27 September, 2010 | 3 Comments
Local Government Online (LGOL) has commissioned a website, www.elections2010.co.nz, that gives space for local body candidates to put forward their views and engage with voters. As far as LGOL is aware this is the first time all local body elections for a nation have been brought together on one website, allowing public questioning of candidates online.
The site is designed and built by Wellington-based SilverStripe, known for its role in the US Democratic party website in 2008. It runs on open source software using SilverStripe’s own content management system and taking geospatial data from Auckland-based Ko-ordinates.
Voters who don’t know what ward they’re in can enter their street address, get the answer and be presented with a list of available candidates, with their declared positions. However, the apathy that characterises local body elections seems to be reflected on the site: when Computerworld scanned some of the listings two weeks before the voting deadline a discouraging number of candidates had not filed position statements or even entered a basic profile, and many questions languished on the site unanswered.
Local body elections have a lower profile than Parliamentary elections and perhaps for that reason attract a noticeably lower voter turnout. Inertia sets in when facing multiple candidates for local and regional councils and District Health Boards, say respondents to an informal Computerworld canvass of views. Political positions are less clear and publicity in general more muted.
Comments
Website got million page views in 24 hours
Re: "More publicity to electors as part of the registration process and after would be valuable. "
http://twitter.com/#!/silverstripe/status/26890341142 states
"Past 24hrs: >15M hits, ~1M pages, >80k visits, >40GB traffic"
So I think the website did get a lot of use when people wanted to see what their vote did :)
Posted by Anonymous at 20:44:03 on October 10, 2010
http://twitter.com/#!/silverstripe/status/26890341142 states
"Past 24hrs: >15M hits, ~1M pages, >80k visits, >40GB traffic"
So I think the website did get a lot of use when people wanted to see what their vote did :)
Posted by Anonymous at 20:44:03 on October 10, 2010
NZ Elections website
The NZ Elections website is an excellent initiative that can only enhance democratic processes in the future - especially for independent candidates with a low profile. All people who promoted the concept are to be congratulated for their vision.
Next time around the key issue to be reviewed is around how the site and its functions will be communicated to candidates and to the public at large.
As a first time candidate, the first I knew of the site was reading about it in Rudman's column in the Herald. Because I felt the site had good potential I wrote various letters to promote the site. My offer to help some other candidates in our area to set up their site was not taken up.
The website manager Cassandra provided fast and helpful responses on a Friday evening and Saturday morning when I submitted my details. Her good humour and warmth were great.
Next time around I would hope that the candidate nomination process automatically results in populating the core items in the web pages. Just as it does for the print brochure.
More publicity to electors as part of the registration process and after would be valuable.
This landmark initiative should be widely promoted.
Posted by Keith Salmon at 12:20:46 on September 27, 2010
Next time around the key issue to be reviewed is around how the site and its functions will be communicated to candidates and to the public at large.
As a first time candidate, the first I knew of the site was reading about it in Rudman's column in the Herald. Because I felt the site had good potential I wrote various letters to promote the site. My offer to help some other candidates in our area to set up their site was not taken up.
The website manager Cassandra provided fast and helpful responses on a Friday evening and Saturday morning when I submitted my details. Her good humour and warmth were great.
Next time around I would hope that the candidate nomination process automatically results in populating the core items in the web pages. Just as it does for the print brochure.
More publicity to electors as part of the registration process and after would be valuable.
This landmark initiative should be widely promoted.
Posted by Keith Salmon at 12:20:46 on September 27, 2010
NZ Elections website
Am pleased to see there's quite a lot of people asking questions of candidates. This is surely good for the election process. As the article states, however, not many candidates are responding to questions, and I am told this despite candidates being emailed the questions, so this is rather a curious situation.
www.elections2010.co.nz/2010/q-and-a/
Posted by Anonymous at 22:00:12 on September 29, 2010
www.elections2010.co.nz/2010/q-and-a/
Posted by Anonymous at 22:00:12 on September 29, 2010
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