The challenge (August 2007) The foundation of an effective democracy is a well-informed electorate. And many Americans are hungry for information about elections and how to vote. But as we approach the 2008 elections, findings from past elections indicate that voters often struggle to get answers to three basic questions: - How do I register or find out if I'm registered?
- Where do I vote?
- What's on the ballot?
The paradox is that this information is widely available at the state and local level as part of election management systems and voter databases, many of which were created as a result of the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Election officials use this information to manage the registration of new voters, select polling locations, and prepare ballots for the millions of voters who go to the polls each year. But this information comes from a patchwork of data sources that are not consistently available to trusted organizations, such as civic groups, to whom voters turn for election information. Nor are answers to voters’ three basic questions readily accessible to the four out of five Americans who rely on search engines when looking for government information online. Initiative Recognizing Americans' interest in getting easier access to information about elections and how to vote, Google, the JEHT Foundation, and the Pew Center on the States – through its Make Voting Work (MVW) initiative – are undertaking an effort to address this challenge. Known as the Election Information Project, this partnership's ambition is to make official information provided by election officials both widely and equally available to the information providers – media, civic groups, search engines, and political parties – to whom Americans voters turn. In this way, we can best ensure that voters will more easily find answers to these three basic questions. As a fundamental step in this initiative, Google, Pew and JEHT are now partnering with a group of state election officials to explore development and implementation of a technical standard, known as an "open format," by which state and local election officials can more efficiently disseminate election information. The states invited to participate in the pilot phase of this partnership were carefully chosen to reflect the nation's political and geographical diversity as well as the variety of election management technologies currently in use nationwide. Through this open format, every address in America can be linked to its polling place. And with this link, election officials who adopt this standard will ensure voters gain access to the full range of election information, including: - Links to information about voter registration;
- Polling place address, directions and accessibility;
- Procedures governing voting, e.g. identification requirements;
- Type of voting equipment;
- Official information about candidates and issues on the ballot; and
- Polling place alternatives, such as absentee voting, early voting, and vote centers.
Benefits As election officials structure and provide a "feed" of election information in this open format, it will become available to all information providers in a recognized format. Thus, any organization, national or local, large or small, will be able to serve as a distribution channel for election information directly from election officials to voters. Among the benefits: - By proactively "pushing" election information out to voters through information providers, rather than waiting for voters to call or visit their offices, election officials will likely experience considerable savings in staff time and resources;
- In serving as the originator of authoritative election information, election officials can reduce the need for information services to gather and interpret election information – which can result in errors and frustrated voters;
- Election officials’ disseminating election information to information providers will link users to the election officials' websites, increasing traffic to these sites and raising voters awareness of the authoritative source of election information;
- In taking the step of adopting the open format, elections officials will enhance the presentation of election information on their own websites, as they, too, will benefit from a structured feed of information.
- By preparing for when the unpredictable happens, such as a polling place becoming unavailable, election officials would be able to issue updated information and anticipate that information providers would disseminate that in turn to voters.
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