From groggyhimself@lemis.com Fri Jun 14 12:57:44 2013
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:57:44 +1000
From: Greg 'groggyhimselfgy' Lehey <groggyhimself@lemis.com>
To: info@aec.gov.au
Subject: Serious problems with AEC web site
Message-ID: <20130614025744.GC87267@eureka.lemis.com>
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Organization: LEMIS, 47 Kleins Road, Dereel, VIC, Australia
Phone: +61-3-5346-1370
Mobile: +61-418-838-708
WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/groggyhimself
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I've just spent the best part of an hour trying to work out which
electorate Dereel VIC is in.  According to the web site
(http://apps.aec.gov.au/eSearch/LocalitySearchResults.aspx?filter=Dereel&filterby=LocalityorSuburb),
we're in both Corangamite and Ballarat.  This is incorrect.  All of
Dereel is in the Corangamite electorate.  Even if, as claimed on the
web, there are localities which straddle electorates, the engine
should be in a position to determine which electorate a specific
address belongs to.

In this case, though, it seems that your web application goes by post
code, not locality, and thus claims that all localities in the post
code belong to both electorates.

I've looked at the official maps you provide, which are full of errors
and so bloated that it took my computer 15 minutes to render them.
Specifically, in
http://www.aec.gov.au/Electorates/Redistributions/2010/vic/map-files/ballarat.pdf
there is a road marked "Bacchus Marsh Balliang Road", a misspelling of
Ballan.  In the Dereel area roads are marked that do not exist.  The
overall quality of the maps is an order of magnitude worse even than
Google Maps.  But assuming that the electoral boundaries are roughly
correct, Dereel is only in the Corangamite electorate.

Presumably as a result of this inaccuracy, I have received mail from
both the Liberal and the Labor candidates for Ballarat; this
inaccuracy has at the very least cost them significant quantities of
money.

I have commented on this in my diary at
http://www.lemis.com/groggyhimself/diary-jun2013.php#D-20130614-003833
Please let me know of any factual errors and I will correct them.

Greg Lehey
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