Mapping And Spatial Analysis Of Polling Units To Enhance Voting In Akure South, Nigeria

Polling units are isolated places with significant structures established by the Independent National Electoral Commission in Nigeria to serve as registration centers and voting units. The study aimed at mapping and examining the spatial distribution of polling units to enhance the voting process in Akure South, Ondo State. Handheld-GPS map 76CSX was used in acquiring coordinates of the existing polling units. Queries were performed to examine the ownership of the polling unit premises and also determine polling units with over 500 registered voters. The result of the query shows that 276 out of the 302 polling units in the study area have over 500 voters. The distribution pattern of the polling units was determined using the average Nearest Neighbour Analysis. The result indicates clustered with Rn as 0.502292 and Z- value is -16.546600 less than 1. Geocoding was done to ease accessibility and navigation to polling units. A map depicting the polling units' locations and landmarks was produced using ArcGIS 10.6, and it was revealed that some polling units allocated for the study area fall into surrounding Local Governments. It is worthy to note that the results of this study should be adopted, as it would efficiently enhance the voting process