election ovservation
Posted by KatrinVerclas on Dec 07, 2008
The CODEO Election Observation Center for the all-important 2008 Ghanaian election is a busy place. Data operators are sitting on rows of computers monitoring incoming SMS messages from 1,000 polling stations around the country. Mobile phones are ringing constantly with calls from the observers in the field. Maps of the 230 constituencies in Ghana adorn the walls of the modern building at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra.
The Observation Center, affectionately called the "OC" by CODEO staffers, is the technology hub of the massive amounts of qualitative and vote count data that is pouring in from the more than 4,000 election observers deployed by CODEO, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers. This makes it by far the largest deployment of election observers in this year's election. Mobile technology, and text messaging in particular, is playing a critical piece in relaying both qualitative data on how the election is being conducted, and quantitative data that will verify the official results issued by the Ghanaian Election Commission.
