Dunedin as a Case Study for Local Election Voter Information

A Billboard used in the 2010 Dunedin Local Election for the Greater Dunedin Group of Candidates

An excert taken from “I wouldn’t chuck this out!” –Applying Infographic Design and Information Shortcuts to Local Election Candidate Booklets 

The city of Dunedin is situated on the South Island of New Zealand and is home to around 120, 000 inhabitants. As a case study for testing whether an improvement in local election voter information is necessary, Dunedin makes for a particularly useful example as a number of factors compound the problems of information scarcity and accessibility –namely its young seasonal population base, its electoral system and its recent change to an ‘at large’ central ward representation. As far as a ‘high cognitive cost of voting’ goes, Dunedin provides an excellent example.

Tacking Aim at the Candidate Information Booklets

In order to limit the frame for this research, I decided to take aim at a particular part of Voter Information that for me exemplifies what bad VOFO looks like-namely the Candidate Information Booklet used in local elections. You can flick throughthe Dunedin 2010 candidate profiles in the Issuu above or visit the Web version here.

These information booklets(or pamphlets) are always very similar -they consist of the candidates name, a recent black and white photograph, the name of a ticket or declaration of “independence”.