19 Guiding Good Governance Before using location data, Fey knew that the ballot boxes were on their way but couldn’t pinpoint their precise location. Meanwhile, he would field phone calls from candidates, county personnel, and journalists who wanted updates on results. Now, Fey and his team have a dashboard that takes away the uncertainty. “As ballot boxes come back, we know when we scanned them back into the office and when we broke the seal to take the results back to our tabulation room. We can zoom in on specific collection points to see which ones are accounted for and how many are outstanding. We know every part of the process and can visualize it,” he said. The iPhones that track ballot boxes work in concert with other GIS-powered tools. Together, they provide a complete operational picture throughout the election cycle. A suite of web maps and mobile apps keep officials, candidates, and constituents updated throughout. Then the cycle repeats. Moving from Paper to Smart Maps Fey is often asked what he does when there isn’t an election. His answer is surprising: there is always an election. In the coming 18 months, Saint Louis County will host six elections, not including any special elections required by individual city charters. The most populous county in Missouri, Saint Louis County is home to nearly one million people with more than 700,000 registered voters. What makes the region unique is its jurisdictional complexity. On top of the county’s two congressional districts, there are seven county council districts, seven state senate districts, and 30 state representative districts. The county’s 87 cities each have their own elected officials. Voters also elect officials for 24 school districts, 25 fire districts, and a plethora of other special purpose districts. “We end up with this crazy spaghetti web of local governments and precincts, and it’s our job to make sure people get the correct ballot,” Fey said. “This is a big challenge in election administration. Everyone knows who they want to vote for, for president or governor. But in larger jurisdictions, when you get down to state representative and county commissioner, if someone gets the wrong ballot, they might not even know it.” When Fey started working for the county in 2015, board of elections personnel were using colored pencils to redraw district lines on paper maps based on new census data. If these boundaries are redrawn incorrectly or aren’t accurately translated into a voter database, errors occur and elections must be rerun, which is costly for municipalities and their constituents. To solve this, the board of elections’ GIS specialists work with judges and redistricting bodies to create digital maps of voting districts. Now, the maps are available on the Redistricting Hub on the board of elections website. The resource aggregates all county districts, outlines their boundaries, and shows any changes. Most redistricting processes happen every 10 years, but if boundaries need to be redrawn, the maps must reflect changes immediately. With the Redistricting Hub, these changes can be easily made and communicated to constituents and stakeholders, including politicians whose district locations and makeup may have shifted. The In-Person Absentee Check-ins dashboard allows election board staff to see election progress and what communities are participating.
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