Select State Electoral Commissions are going Android

The NSW State electoral commission has gone Android, at least they will be, if a tender lodged with the NSW e-Tender website is correct.

The tender from the State Electoral office is for the fulfillment of an order of between 5,000 and 5,900 Android tablets that will be used in the three Electoral Commissions of NSW, Queensland and Victoria. Specifications for the tablets are broad to say the least, screen sizes aren’t specified so could range from 7″ all the way up to the 18.4″ tablet sized screen of the Asus AIO. The only definite is that devices must be running at least Android 4.0(Ice Cream Sandwich) or higher.

The tablets they are seeking to buy will be used for conducting electoral roll lookups, completing forms, and training electoral staff. The breakup of the order is for 1,500 each of the tablets to go to NSW and Victoria, with Queensland looking to purchase the remaining 2,000-2,500 tablets.

According to ZDNet the Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) will be running a specially designed Android application, which is aimed at assisting voters with low vision. The tablets sourced for the VEC would need slightly different specifications (relating to screen resolution) than the other tablets required by NSW and Queensland Electoral Commissions, so should the preferred and successful tendered tablets not be able to run their in-house app, the VEC would seek an additional 400 tablets specifically to run their app on tablet devices.

Full briefing on the tender should occur in late November sometime.