EC to start testing new tech

 THE Electoral Commission is improving the electoral roll with new technology.

Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen said they were developing software to use tablet as an option for electoral roll maintenance.

“As part of this development, the commission will be pilot-testing this technology during the 2013 Motu-Koita assembly election roll update programme,” he said. 

Trawen said although the commission would be updating the Motu-Koita electoral roll using the  manual system, the tablet-based system would also be field-tested as part of the development process.

He explained that once the electoral roll update was completed, the commission’s Information Communication Technology branch would check the updated roll with the data collected on the tablets to verify if the system was working and make any changes.

“The commission believes that this new system has the potential to speed up the process of roll updates and also contribute to a more accurate roll,” Trawen said. 

“It is expected that once fully tested the system will be an important feature in future role updating programmes.

“I’m excited about this new development as I believe is the very first use of tablet technology for election roll data collection and maintenance in the world.”