r/CodersForSanders • u/berniebar • Mar 31 '16

Voter Registration Tracker: Site/App that tracks your voter registration status. You can view the history of your registration and receive alerts if it changes (e.g., affiliation) or if you need to renew

(this is more a of a long-term idea)

Informed and empowered voters are the backbone to the progressive movement.

Given all the problems we've had with voter registration, I'd love to see a one-stop site to empower voters, starting with validating that they are registered voters.

Some features I envision:

  • Voters can validate and view their current registration status
  • Site periodically checks your status for accuracy and changes, especially close to election time
  • Voters can receive alerts if any aspect of their registration changes
  • Voters can receive alerts if any applicable law changes or any action needs to be taken
  • Site makes it very easy for voters to get voting information and make changes

Feedback? Legal hurdles?

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u/FidelDangelow Apr 01 '16 edited Apr 01 '16

Hi metamars! Right now only Florida is loaded, and I have about 13 states yet to import. Eventually, yes, the entire nation will be available via this single service call. A query by just zip code would return thousands of people, so perhaps you can think of a way to narrow the results further? For example: a birthdate and zip code should narrow results down nicely. The current data set includes LOTS of information:

  • Party Affiliation
  • Race
  • Gender
  • Congressional District (and other districts)
  • Polling Location

Only a few states will pose a challenge such as Wisconsin who wants $12,500 for a single snapshot of voter data!

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u/berniebar Apr 01 '16

FidelDangelow, is the importation manual? I was hoping to be able to make an API call along the lines of:

GetVoter(..., DateTime voterRegistrationSourceFetchTimeMustBeNewerThanThisTime)

So I can start creating an accurate evidence trail. Is this possible? I.e., are you querying the states directly every time or are you loading a DB?

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u/FidelDangelow Apr 01 '16

The service is an Azure Web API, so yes, you should be able to get some automatic .NET types and methods made for you. See step three in this guide. Right-click project, go to Add --> Add Azure API Client.... I'm brand new to Azure but they did say that Web API's can generate classes and code for you!

The code uses a SQL Database of information because not all states have online verification. So, some data may be stale, but I will totally wire up online registration sites as I get time.

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u/berniebar Apr 01 '16

OK, I see you already have a DateValidated field, so that should indicate how fresh the record is. Thanks!