Interacting with the Atlas

 

The Atlas is a web application accessible via an internet browser. Due to the immense election data to spatially visualise and compare, the Atlas is primarily aimed at desktop computers usually with larger screens. Atlas interactions are predominantly via a mouse. The design is made simple via icons that depict the functions they are supposed to perform. Should you still have a question what an icon is meant to do, just hover your mouse over it and text will appear. A right-click on the map gives options to either compare election data over the years for a point/location or just reveal its location details.

 

How is the Atlas arranged?

 

The Atlas has two tabs, the main map and the comparison map. The main map is divided into a number of sections representing mapped electoral themes. The first section provides the base map with all election related boundaries. The next section on Voting District Delimitation sets the scene as the voting district is the unit against which all data is collected or captured. Comparison maps are provided to previous elections where applicable throughout the Atlas.

 

The voter registration section provides information on the two registration weekend activities. Activity is split into new registrations which will directly impact the voters’ roll, re-registrations to a different voting district which indicates voters who moved and then re-registrations in the same voting district where voters came to check their details. The voters' roll section provides details and analyses of the voter registration data, gender and age breakdowns are provided for all election years. The election results section has among others, tabular results for the national election and the nine (9) provincial elections. Voter turnout is also included here.

 

Party results contains a number of subcategories as outlined below:

• Leading party maps where every voting district is filled with the colour of the party with the most votes, providing an overall view of the results of the national election. When viewed in conjunction with the corresponding maps from other elections, trends and patterns become clear.
• Party support maps are provided for represented parties. These maps provide a view of the support a party received in each voting district and, in addition to comparing the party with its results from previous years, cross party comparisons are also interesting.
• Party support variance maps are included for the top five (5) parties and provides an indication of the party’s performance measured against the previous elections showing either growth or decline by municipality.
• Lead or lag analysis maps are done for the top five (5) parties and indicates the margins by which a party either led or lagged in any voting district.

 

Finally, the Atlas concludes with voter participation data and expands on three indicators, namely, voting time, age and gender where every voting district is coloured with the most prevalent range for that indicator.