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August 17, 2007
Savvy Electoral Boundaries Commission Uses Google Earth
The British Columbia Electoral Boundaries Commission has done something rather interesting. They have new proposed electoral boundaries. Rather than just create a static graphic map and publishing it in local papers or on a web site, they have released new proposed boundaries in several forms including Google Earth KML files (see example here 
). They have two sets of boundaries in the proposal (explanation here), but it is certainly easier to get in and see the details with Google Earth. What I found particularly interesting is that they also have released a time animation showing the changes to the electoral boundaries over the last several decades (found on this page - use the time slider to see the animation). Assuming more commissions were to use this progressive approach to sharing information, it may make it more difficult for politicians to use gerrymandering to redistrict voters to their advantage by making small changes to the boundaries. Anyway, my hat's off to this commission in British Columbia. Thanks to Jason Birch for bringing this to our attention.
Posted by FrankTaylor at August 17, 2007 08:10 AM
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Posted by: Harry Hayfield at August 22, 2007 03:33 AM
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Congratulations to the BC Electoral Commission on this, now all we need is for the UK Electoral Commission to pull it's socks up and do the same for the United Kingdom!