Why Live Streaming Local Elections Matters

A 2022 poll by CNN sheds light on the sad state of the public trust in the elections process. More than 50% of the respondents expressed little to no confidence in the fairness and integrity of the American elections process. This is highly concerning for US democracy.

What is the main reason behind this sense of distrust? According to a 2023 Bipartisan Policy Center survey, more than 72% voiced their concerns regarding misleading, inaccurate information about elections.

This is why live streaming local elections has gained immense popularity and is being increasingly adopted by counties to broadcast elections for the public to see it in real time. So why not TV when it is more accessible to American households?

It is worth pointing out that TV has been a major source for Americans to get elections updates and stay informed. However, with the passage of time, the trust in the media has gone low. According to a 2023 Gallup poll, only 32% of respondents reported a significant level of confidence in the news provided by the media. Another 39% do not trust the media at all.

Gone are the days when only TV was there for politicians to reach their audience. Now, via live streaming, they can connect with millions of people instantly and ensure greater transparency and increased public involvement in the democratic process.

Imagine the public being able to watch election coverage online from the comfort of their home, from candidate speeches and voter turnout updates to real-time vote counts and final results. Local elections live streaming not only brings the election process closer to the public but also builds trust and confidence in the democratic system.

In this blog, we will delve into why you should live stream local elections, the benefits it offers, and ways to effectively livestream local elections. So, without any further ado, let’s get started with exploring the importance of livestreaming local elections.

Why Livestreaming Local Elections is Important

As we mentioned earlier in this blog, live streaming local elections has been increasingly adopted as a critical method for broadcasting election events. The need for greater transparency and public engagement has driven this shift.

Traditional methods of covering elections, such as in-person attendance and limited media broadcasts, often left many voters without access to crucial information. Live streaming local elections solves this problem by allowing anyone with an internet connection to watch election coverage online. It let's people to view what is going on over the Internet as election events take place.

This involves the live broadcast of polling stations, candidate speeches, voter turnout, and real-time results. People can watch the electoral process, although they may not physically participate in it. This gives them a sense of involvement and builds their confidence in the democratic system.

This also helps make local government activities more understandable and accessible. The idea is to make access to the election direct and transparent. Thus, it is open and engaging for more people.

Benefits of Livestreaming Local Elections

Let's discuss the benefits of live streaming local elections in detail. You should livestream local elections for the many benefits that it provides, such as:

• Public engagement
• Inclusive electoral process
• Enhanced community involvement
• Real-time updates and accurate information
• Trust and credibility
• Helps in post-election reporting
• Compliance with legal requirements

Public Engagement

Local elections live streaming can significantly enhance public engagement by making the electoral process more visible and engaging for the public. When voters can watch live coverage of polling stations, candidate speeches, and real-time results, they feel more involved and connected to the process. This visibility creates a sense of participation and excitement, which can motivate more people to vote.

It allows voters to feel they are part of the action rather than just being passive observers. This immediacy and transparency can capture the public's interest more effectively than traditional media, which often only provides highlights or summaries.

Inclusive Electoral Process

Live streaming makes election coverage accessible to all demographics, including those who cannot attend in-person election events. This is particularly crucial for individuals with disabilities, the elderly, and those living in remote communities. By providing real-time access to election proceedings, live streaming ensures that these populations are not left out of the democratic process.

For example, someone with mobility issues or living far from polling stations can still watch candidate speeches and vote counts from the comfort of their home. Someone with impaired hearing can also read transcriptions or subtitles.

This inclusivity bridges the gap for underserved groups, fostering a more comprehensive and participatory democracy. Everyone, regardless of their physical limitations or location, can stay informed and engaged with the election process, strengthening the overall integrity and fairness of the electoral system.

Enhanced Community Involvement

Live streaming local elections foster a sense of community and collective participation. When people can watch the election process unfold in real time, it creates a shared experience that strengthens community bonds. This shared viewing experience brings people together, enabling discussions and engagement among citizens.

This collective participation is essential for nurturing a sense of civic duty. By seeing the democratic process in action, individuals are reminded of the fact that their vote counts. It reinforces the idea that every vote matters and that each person has a role to play in shaping their community's future.

Real-time Updates and Accurate Information

One significant benefit of live streaming local elections is the ability to deliver real-time updates on results and proceedings. This immediacy ensures that the public remains informed and engaged, effectively reducing the spread of misinformation and speculation. By providing instant access to accurate information, live streaming helps maintain public confidence in the electoral process.

Trust and Credibility

Local elections live streaming boosts the credibility of local governments by making the electoral process transparent for all. When the public can watch the election in real time, it builds trust and confidence in the integrity of the election.

This transparency helps prevent and address accusations of unfairness or fraud, as the public and authorities can review the footage to verify the process. Transparent practices show that local governments are committed to fair and open elections, which is essential for maintaining public trust in democratic institutions.

Helps in Post-election Reporting

Livestreamed footage provides a valuable archival record essential for post-election analysis and reporting. These records play a crucial role in creating detailed reports on various aspects of the election, including voter turnout, election integrity, and any incidents that occurred, thereby supporting transparency and accountability.

Additionally, these archival records can be accessed for future reference, research, and educational purposes. This long-term accessibility ensures that past electoral processes can be verified and analyzed, contributing to continuous improvements in future elections.

Having a comprehensive and accessible archival record helps preserve the integrity of the electoral process by ensuring accurate documentation and preventing potential disputes or claims of irregularities.

Compliance with Legal Requirements

Many jurisdictions have legal mandates that require transparency in the election process. For example, In Texas, recent legislation mandates live streaming and recording of election processes in counties with populations of 100,000 or more.

This requirement, part of the Texas Voting Bill SB1, signed into law in 2021, aims to enhance election integrity and transparency. The law requires 24-hour video surveillance of areas where ballots are handled, providing the public with real-time access to vote-counting processes.

Livestreaming helps meet these legal standards by providing open access to the electoral proceedings, demonstrating adherence to regulations, and promoting fair practices.

Factors to Consider when Livestreaming Local Elections

Ensuring a successful and secure live streaming experience for streaming local elections requires addressing several key considerations. These considerations are discussed in detail as follows:

• High-quality and reliable streaming
• Scalability
• Security
• Multistreaming
• Media embedding
• Bandwidth management
• Device compatibility
• Archiving streams and on-demand viewing

High-quality and Reliable Streaming

Ensuring high-quality live streams is crucial for clarity and trust during local elections. By using backup streams, you can seamlessly switch if the mainstream fails, guaranteeing continuous, high-quality coverage.

For example, during a local election broadcast, if the primary stream encounters technical issues, your system can automatically switch to a backup stream using a fallback mechanism. This way, viewers experience uninterrupted coverage of important moments like vote counts and speeches, maintaining their trust and engagement. This setup is essential for delivering reliable and professional election coverage, ensuring viewers have continuous access to critical information throughout the event.

Scalability

Scalability is crucial for live streaming local elections due to the potential for a large and fluctuating viewer base. During elections, viewer traffic can spike significantly as thousands of people tune in to watch real-time updates, candidate speeches, and vote counts.

Elections often involve multiple locations, like polling stations and ballot counting areas. A scalable system can manage multiple streams at once, ensuring thorough coverage. Using content delivery networks (CDNs) or enterprise CDNs helps make your live stream available globally with minimal buffering and lag, reaching audiences worldwide smoothly and securely.

Curious about CDN streaming? Read our blog on CDN video streaming.

Security

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has recently issued a public service announcement (PSA) regarding malicious attacks by foreign actors or cyberterrorists that can negative impact public access to election information, ahead of the upcoming 2024 US elections.

Security is crucial for you, even for public live streams of local elections. The Government should comply with the regulations that require secure handling of public data. Top streaming platforms offer features like geographic restrictions, IP-based restrictions, and other features to keep content secure.

Using data protection measures creates a strong security framework, ensuring that only the intended audience can access the live stream, keeping the content safe and secure. This way, governments can confidently stream local elections without worrying about unauthorized access or data breaches.

Multistreaming

For events as critical as local elections, streaming the elections event on multiple platforms at the same time is crucial. This helps reach a wider audience and increases engagement. Using a professional online video platform, this process is made easy through multistreaming.

This means a live event can be broadcast from one source to various platforms like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and official government websites simultaneously. This approach ensures the content is accessible to a diverse audience, enhancing transparency and encouraging greater public participation.

Media Embedding

Official websites serve as a trusted source for all election-related information. They make it convenient for citizens to access everything in one place. It enhances the credibility and authenticity of the election coverage.

One essential aspect of using a professional livestreaming platform for streaming local elections is media embedding. This feature lets you place a live stream directly on any website. By doing so, you not only increase the exposure of your live stream but also makes it easier for people to discover your content.

Consider a local election scenario where live streams of polling stations and ballot-counting processes are embedded on the official website. Citizens watching these proceedings online are more likely to stay and explore additional information about the election.

The above approach not only provides transparency but also encourages visitors to engage with other election-related content, such as candidate information, voting procedures, and essential updates, thereby promoting a more informed and involved electorate.

Bandwidth Management

Just as a narrow road causes traffic to slow down, low bandwidth can lead to buffering, where the video pauses frequently to load. These occasion stops can be frustrating and disrupt the viewing experience. Using adaptive bitrate streaming, the player automatically changes the video quality to match the viewer's Internet speed. This approach ensures that even with varying Internet speeds, the live stream remains clear and uninterrupted.

Interested in knowing more about adaptive bitrate streaming and how it works? Read our detailed blog on adaptive bitrate streaming.

Device Compatibility

To make live streams accessible to everyone, it's important to ensure they can be viewed on any device, such as phones, tablets, or computers. This means that no matter what device someone is using, they can watch the live stream without issues.

To achieve this, live streams are processed through encoding and transcoding. The live stream is converted into various video formats and different versions of it at various quality levels are created. This way, the stream adjusts to work well on other devices and at different Internet speeds. So, no matter whether someone has a high-speed connection or a slower one, they can still watch the stream smoothly.

Archiving Streams and On-demand Viewing

Recording and archiving live streams is essential for several reasons, such as post-election analysis and public record-keeping. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002 mandates that states maintain and submit certain records related to voter registration and election results. This includes maintaining a centralized voter registration database and ensuring the availability of provisional ballots. The act requires states to produce records that can be audited and verified.

By choosing a live streaming platform that can record all streams and make them available on-demand, you ensure that important events are accessible for future reference. This capability provides you with valuable resources for analysis, transparency, and historical documentation and ensures that the election process remains transparent and that streams are preserved for review and accountability.

Livestreaming Local Elections with EnterpriseTube

EnterpriseTube offers multiple live streaming platform features for seamless live streaming of the electoral process. In fact, the County of Dallas, Texas uses EnterpriseTube for live streaming local elections and ensuring compliance with Section 127.1232(B) of the Texas Election Code. To learn more about how Dallas County uses Enterprise Tube you can read the Dallas County case study.

Ready to strengthen democracy by ensuring transparency in the electoral process? So why not sign up for a 7-day free trial of EnterpriseTube? See for yourself how live streaming local elections can prove to be more effective than any other means. You can also book a demo with us.

People Also Ask

What are the benefits of livestreaming local elections?

Livestreaming local elections makes the election process transparent and engaging by allowing people to watch live coverage from anywhere. It helps build public trust, ensures everyone can see the proceedings, and makes the process more accessible.

How does live streaming build public trust in elections?

Livestreaming builds public trust in elections by providing real-time visibility into the election process. It reduces misinformation and shows that the process is fair and open. This transparency helps people feel confident in the integrity of the elections.

What do you need for effective livestreaming of local elections?

Effective live streaming of local elections requires high-quality video, reliable streaming technology, and strong security measures. Not only this, but it also needs the ability to handle many viewers to ensure a smooth and uninterrupted experience.

Why use professional livestreaming solutions for local elections live streaming?

Professional livestreaming solutions for local elections live streaming offer extended streaming times, advanced security features, and dependable performance. Unlike basic platforms, they ensure uninterrupted coverage and protect sensitive information, which is essential for important events like elections.

How can EnterpriseTube help with local elections live streaming?

EnterpriseTube provides high-quality, secure, and reliable local elections live streaming. It offers features for embedding streams on official websites, handling large audiences, and ensuring seamless coverage, making it ideal for comprehensive election broadcasting.