Vote Center Site-Selection: Facilitating Decision Making with GIS

Elections are a pinnacle of modern democracy. Fair elections have been a key pillar to the success of representative democracy; yet many of the age-old problems still exist. One of these problems is voter turnout and making voting accessible to every member of that democracy. In today’s elections we are at an interesting crossroads of technology and convenience. California has recognized both trends and is implementing the Voter’s Choice Act (VCA) or SB 450 to guide the future of voting in the state by allowing people to vote over a multi-day period and at any location of their choosing. With this change new voting locations will play a more critical role to the process than ever before. This paper discusses the design and implementation of a web GIS application that will assist Los Angeles County stakeholders and elections officials in choosing these new voting locations by providing tools for analysis. The tools developed are designed to assess potential site locations and their relationship to voters and businesses voter age demographics and voter turnout.