Land van Cuijk streamlined its redistricting elections with Shift2
When the five former municipalities of Boxmeer, Cuijk, Sint Anthonis, Mill and Sint Hubert and Grave merged into the large municipality of Land van Cuijk, they were looking for a way to run their elections centrally and streamlined. Here's how Land van Cuijk got a grip on their redistricting elections with Procura.
After a process of years, the five municipalities joined forces on January 1 and became the municipality of Land van Cuijk. Because the municipal council also had to take office on January 1, 2022, a way was sought to streamline the redistricting elections in all 33 residential areas of the former municipalities. By realizing the run-up, conduct and results of the elections with Shift2's solutions, the redivision elections in Land van Cuijk were conducted better, faster and more efficiently.
The challenges surrounding redistricting elections
Land van Cuijk serves more than 90,000 residents in an area of more than 351 square kilometers. Of those residents, 73,959 were eligible to vote for the new municipal council on Nov. 22, 23 or 24, 2021. There were a number of hurdles to overcome before the elections could be realized.
- Merging databases
Five municipalities meant five large databases of polling officials and polling places. Those five databases had to be merged into one database in order to implement redistricting elections. - Organizing Corona-proof Elections
At the time of the redistricting elections, the Netherlands was still in lockdown. The elections had to be organized corona-proof to minimize the chance of contamination. - Getting a grip on a large election
For the municipalities it was the first time they had to organize an election of this size. Getting a grip is then more challenging than when it has to be realized for a smaller municipality. - Digitizing
Elections are still mostly done on paper, so not all polling officials and chairmen are used to working with automated systems. Getting these employees used to the new environment also presented a challenge.
Land van Cuijk therefore needed a partner who could not only streamline, but more importantly unburden.
Grip and streamlining during elections
To effectively organize the elections, Land van Cuijk recognized the need to work with a partner who could support them with all their challenges. Shift2 (formerly Procura) provided the support the municipality needed. Together with project manager Elections Astrid van Leeuwen and consultant Maarten van der Veer, the day became a success by choosing solutions that matched the level of relief Land van Cuijk was looking for.
"Our team worked intensively on the merger of our municipalities and on preparations for the elections. Shift2 took a number of important issues completely out of our hands for us, relieving us completely. For example, Maarten realized the migration of databases, and then took us through the capabilities of Shift2's elections solution. With every step in the process, the importance of our elections was seen by Shift2. Even during the elections they were constantly available. Very nice, because this allows everyone to do their work a little better anyway." said Diny Geerlings, project manager of redistricting elections.
Automated reporting of attendance figures
To keep a central overview of the different polling stations and the different days, but also to provide a tool for the chairmen of the polling stations, Land van Cuijk also decided to work with the MijnStembureau app. From that app, the chairperson could check off the digital checklist, the turnout figures could be communicated in the interim, and at the end of election day, the preliminary results could be communicated automatically. That was convenient, especially since the election results were presented entirely digitally, due to the lockdown in effect at the time.
Announcing the results is, of course, incredibly exciting. The pressure is high and you want everything to go well. Besides, there is nothing you can do about the technical part at that moment. But everything went really well. Everyone was very satisfied with how it went. Even from the board came compliments on how well it had gone.
Future-proof solutions
The day went smoothly at Land van Cuijk and the solutions will continue to be used in the future. And that's not the only thing Diny is pleased about: "Shift2 took a lot of work off our hands. The solutions ensured that our election process was of high quality and was set up properly and efficiently. We also enjoyed the contact. We will definitely continue to use the solutions!
Big savings on postage and paper
By working with the Voting Members Portal, Land van Cuijk was able to easily access, classify and instruct polling officials. Messages and appointment decisions were sent digitally to the polling officials, saving paper and postage. In addition, the chances of a message not arriving were greatly reduced because it was possible to check exactly when which message had been sent. This worked well for the municipality.
Besides saving us a lot of postage, the portal took a lot of manual work off our hands. All users were very enthusiastic about this.
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