SA Government - Advisory election.

See how the South Australian Government used our election services to facilitate preferential voting for the fisheries council advisory board.

The problem they faced.

Recreational fishing is a significant attraction for South Australia and the fishing sector is a significant contributor to the South Australian economy. It is an important aspect of social, cultural and economic life, which generates jobs and economic activity in metropolitan and regional SA.

For some time there has been a need to enhance the dialogue and communication between recreational fishers and the South Australian Government. In order to assist with this goal, the Liberal Marshall Government made an election commitment to form a Minister’s Recreational Fishing Advisory Council (MRFAC). This, coupled with the Premier’s goal of fostering a blockchain innovation hub in South Australia, meant Horizon State was the perfect fit.

The solution we provided.

During our interaction with the Department of the Premier and Cabinet (DPC) we identified factors for success which were essential in delivering a positive experience for both the customer and their end users. These were;

A simple and intuitive interface
Availability (uptime) of the voting platform
Integration into existing website
Increased rate of participation
Transparency in engagement
Independently auditable results

Horizon State developed extensions to the platform to allow voters to cast a preferential vote that accounts for a large number of candidates (42). The various User Experience approaches were tested with the customer to achieve maximum efficiency and simplicity. Additionally, modifications were made to the platform to add the capability to have reserved seats with the preferential vote. This met the conditions that were required by DPC to have the advisory board contain at least one each of female, inland fisher, and a person representing the tackle sector. Given the complexity of the requirements, we had to ensure that the user interface was able to gracefully handle the process in an intuitive manner.

How did it turn out?

The Department of the Premier and Cabinet’s (DPC) aim is to maximise the value of its IT strategy, innovation and investment in South Australia, and SA’s premier – Steven Marshall – is positioning South Australia as the blockchain capital of the country. Both the Department and the Premier can comfortably say they have made great progress towards their respective goals by using a blockchain voting platform.

DPC benefited from having transparent results made available promptly at the conclusion of the vote. This has provided the citizens who voted with confidence that their vote has been counted without interference of a centralised party. The voting and result-calculation processes were checked by two independent bodies, and were found to be correct.

Due to the ease of use of the Horizon State platform, a higher level of engagement was attained when comparing the participation rates in previous, similar engagements. This was partly due to the fact that citizens could vote online from the comfort of their home on a smartphone or computer.

What they said about the journey

"The voting process has been transparent and historic — for the first time in South Australian Government history, Blockchain technology was used for the voting process. Blockchain is an exciting emerging technology which is extremely secure and already used all over the world to perform valuable transactions."

Tim WhetstoneMinister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, South Australia