RE: Ballot Information Data Standards

["Paul Spencer" <paul.spencer@boynings.co.uk>]

Steven,

As the author of the EML schemas, I thought I would be a good person to
reply. The schemas are designed for personalisation of ballots as well as
many other election services, so meet your needs well.

The ballot schema is designed to present all the information required for a
ballot. EML ballot messages can include some display-related information,
but this can also be included in a stylesheet. In any event, some form of
stylesheet is required for display on the web. I produced one at an early
stage of the EML development.

Polling place locations can also be included in various messages, including
a PollingInformation message that carries information for display to the
voter. Opening times can spread over several days with different times on
different days and vary by voting channel. "Locations" can be various forms
of physical, phone or electronic address.

I am not sure what you are looking for in terms of mapping voting addresses
to districts. EML only defines interface messages, rather than services
themselves. There are messages for communicating between databases that
could probably be used for this.

We are always interested in learning whether our specifications and schemas
meet specific needs. If they don't, we regularly consider upgrades to the
specifications, so would welcome your feedback.

Regards

Paul Spencer
Senior Partner
Boynings Consulting
http://www.boynings.co.uk



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven Clift [mailto:clift@publicus.net]
> Sent: 23 April 2003 20:56
> Subject: Ballot Information Data Standards
>
>
> To OASIS Election Services,
> <http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=election>
>
> In the United States, a number of projects are working to allow
> citizens to enter their addresses and generate a list of their ballot
> choices.
>
> Examples:
> http://www.myballot.net - Minnesota
> http://www.publius.org - Michigan
> http://www.smartvoter.org - California
>
> In all of these cases, official election data has been gathered,
> adapted, and presented in a user-friendly way to help citizens find
> out who is on their ballot before voting, locate their polling
> location, and gather information about their candidates from a
> balanced non-partisan starting point online.
>
> The format for such data and the depth of coverage (state versus
> local races) varies from state to state and in many cases county to
> county.
>
> Are standards emerging from your emerging standards process covering
> the:
>
> 1. Presentation/format of ballot information data
> 2. Polling place location, hours, instructions data
> 3. Mapping of voter addresses to districts
>
> If we can leverage the thoughtful work of existing standards efforts,
> our goal would be to encourage state and local election offices to
> encourage the use such standards to improve the dissemination and
> reuse of this fundamentally important election information in voter
> education efforts.
>
> Sincerely,
> Steven Clift
> clift@publicus.net
> Board Chair, E-Democracy (producer of MyBallot.net)
> http://www.e-democracy.us
> http://www.e-democracy.org
> ^               ^               ^                ^
> Steven L. Clift    -    W: http://www.publicus.net
> Minneapolis    -   -   -     E: clift@publicus.net
> Minnesota  -   -   -   -   -    T: +1.612.822.8667
> USA    -   -   -   -   -   -   -     ICQ: 13789183
>
>