This document presents a case study on using Google Maps to report election results from the 2010 Kenyan referendum. It discusses problems with previous elections, outlines objectives to develop a geospatial approach displaying results, and methodology which included collecting constituency boundary and results data, importing it into Google Fusion Tables, and mapping the results. The results showed support for the referendum, with opportunities to reduce errors and increase transparency in releasing election data to the public online.

1. REPORTING ON ELECTION
RESULTS USING GOOGLE MAPS
A CASE STUDY OF THE 2010 REFERENDUM RESULTS
IN KENYA
OUMA LEONARD ODHIAMBO
F19/1899/2007
SUPERVISOR: MR. J.N MWENDA

2. PRESENTATION OVERVIEW
 Introduction
 Problem statement
 Objectives
 Methodology
 Overview of methodology
 Area of study
 Data sources and tools
 Data Preparation
 Results and analysis
 Conclusions & Recommendations

3. INTRODUCTION
 One of the most critical ways that individuals can influence
governmental decision-making is through voting. Voting is a formal
expression of preference for a candidate for office or for a proposed
resolution of an issue. Voting generally takes place in the context of a
large-scale national or regional election; however, local community
elections can be just as critical to individual participation in government
 Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted
unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in
1948, recognizes the integral role that transparent and open elections
play in ensuring the fundamental right to participatory government
 If elections are not properly managed, riots and even civil war can break
out in a country. It is therefore important that election results be
disseminated to the public as soon as practically possible through the
available media.

4. PROBLEM STATEMENT
 Kenya’s first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative
Council took place in 1957. In May 1963, elections were
held based on the widely held principle of “one person, one
vote.”
 Kenya has successfully held largely peaceful elections
thereafter
 The December 2007 elections marked a radical departure
from these positive trends. As the initial vote count came in
to the ECK, opposition candidate appeared to have a
substantial lead.
 As the count continued, however, the incumbent closed the
gap and overtook his opponent by a substantial margin to
win reelection amid largely substantiated claims of rigging (
IFES Kenya, 2008), leading to protests and riots and
discrediting of the ECK for its involvement

5. …………CONT’
 The protests escalated into unprecedented
violence, leading to over 1,000 deaths and the internal
displacement of more than 350,000 people
(IREC, 2008)
 According to the IFES report, most of the operational
tasks were still accomplished manually. In 2007, laptop
computers sat unused while the tallying of results at
polling stations was conducted by hand, leading to a
delay in transmission to headquarters.
 The delay in announcement of the final results at the
National Tallying Center, led to some media houses
relying on unspecified sources to broadcast and
announce results ahead of the ECK, in an effort to
outdo each other (IREC, 2008).

6. …………….CONT’
 The Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) was formed to
replace the ECK. Its mandate was to institutionalize sustainable
electoral processes that would guarantee free and fair elections, part of
which included the development of a modern system for
collection, transmission and tallying of electoral data.
 IIEC was replaced by a permanent electoral body, the Independent
Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) in line with the new
constitution. It has embarked on various reform in the electoral system
, including; the parallel vote tallying system, electronic voter registration
and the electronic vote tallying and transmission.
 Geospatial technology integrated with information systems can easily
help to solve some of the problems. This is achieved by disseminating
all the results, final and provisional to the public through a dynamic map
as the results tickle in.

7. OBJECTIVES
 The main objective of the study is to develop a Geospatial approach to
some of these electoral problems to assist in prompt dissemination of
electoral results to the public in an easy to understand and visually
appealing media.
 The system will enable update of election results in the Google Fusion
Tables* and the final output displayed as a Google Map on a dedicated
website.
 The specific objectives:
 Mapping the electoral constituencies in Kenya
 To develop a database of the registered voters in each constituencies.
 Using the 2010 referendum results, prepare a Google Fusion Tables
showing the results
 To display the results as map on a dedicated website, including the related
charts.
*A modern data management web application used to host, manage, collaborate
on, visualize, and publish data and maps online.

8. METHODOLOGY
Data identification
Data collection
Data
Referendum conversion Constituency
and Boundaries and their
Results: Textual
processing details
data and charts
Data Validation
YES
Error? Editing
NO
Geodatabase
creation
Map Styling and Embedding on Results and
Website Analysis

9. AREA OF STUDY
 Kenya, officially the republic
of Kenya, lies between the
geographical coordinates 4°
North to 4° South of the
equator and Longitude
34°East to 41° East.
 It is bordered by the Indian
Ocean to its south-
east, Tanzania to the
south, Uganda to the
west, South Sudan to the
north-west, Ethiopia to the
north and Somalia to the
north-east

10. WHY THE STUDY AREA
 Lack of election data at lower electoral levels
 Availability of reliable data at constituency
level covering the entire country
 Need to show the national voting patterns in
the 2010 Constitutional Referendum.

11. DATASETS
Datasets Source Description
2010 Constituency Virtual Kenya A KML file of the 210
Boundaries (www.virtualkenya.org) constituencies as at 2010.
2010 Referendum Results IEBC A PDF document showing
in Kenya (www.iebc.or.ke) the results at constituency
level
County Profiles Kenya Open Data A list of the 47 Counties
Initiative (KODI) and the constituencies
(www.opendata.go.ke) that fall in them

12. TOOLS
Hardware
 Computer with the specifications of 1 GB RAM and 3.0 GHz
processor speed, 80 GB HDD.
 2 GB Flash Disk.
 Safaricom Broadband Modem and Simcard
 HP DeskJet F2483 Printer/Scanner.
Software
 Google Fusion Tables (Beta)*
 Notepad++
 PDF to Excel Converter
 Microsoft Office 2010.
 Fusion Table Layer Builder
*Experimental

13. DATA PREPARATION
 Data conversion from PDF to Microsoft Excel
 Importation of the results into Google Fusion
Tables
 Importation of the constituency boundaries to
fusion tables
 Merging the results with the boundaries
 Visualization and styling of the resultant map

14. RESULTS OF THE CONVERSION

15. RESULTS AS IMPORTED TO FUSION TABLES

16. CONSTITUENCY BOUNDARIES AFTER
IMPORTATION

17. MERGED TABLES

18. STYLED MAP OF THE RESULTS

20. ANALYSIS OF VOTER TURNOUT

21. OVERALL RESULTS
Overall Results
2%
31%
Yes
67% No
Rejected

24. DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS
 This shows the interest by Kenyans to election
related issues and the ease of access to
internet, which has cut a niche to itself as means of
sharing information by the public.
 With the landing of the fiber optic cables, access to
the internet has become affordable to many and even
much faster.
 According to latest statistics from US-based
Ookla’s NetIndex, Kenya is second in the
continent, after Ghana which has emerged as having
the fastest broadband internet speeds in
Africa., (Aptantech, 2012)), further enabling
accessibility to such maps.

25. CONCLUSIONS
 In conclusion, it can be said that:
 It is possible to display election results on Google
Maps.
 Possibilities for the results to be hosted on the
internet.
 Possibilities to reduce errors in election results
tallying and analysis.
 Chances of the public showing interest in such
online maps and actually viewing them.
 N/B Care must be given to the data entry and
editing

26. RECOMMENDATIONS
 With the advancement in technology in the country, there is need
to embrace the electronic voting and merge the same with GIS or
web mapping service that the commission may employ.
 The IEBC needs to build the capacity of their employees to be
able to implement GIS related aspects of the elections. Such
employees need to have skills in data
capture, editing, transmission and visualization in a GIS
environment. These might include GIS managers, GIS
programmer, GIS analyst and data entry personnel.
 There is need to explore the internet as a possible avenue for
release of election results to the public.
 There is need to extend the scope of the study to cover the
County Assembly Wards. There is also need to incorporate road
access so as to facilitate network analysis. This is important as
influences the creation of the electoral units as per the new
constitution.

27. THANK YOU