-----
Forwarded Message ----
From: Aaron B Strauss <aaronbs@gmail.com>
To:
John <johnaborras@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Friday, 25 July, 2008 2:24:22
PM
Subject: Re: VIP/EML CONVERGENCE?
VIP: only from state EMS's, but
not all states have street segment
info. To come up with a complete,
50-state solution, other third
parties (e.g., Google, Vote411) must rely on
other sources such as
public voter files.
Yes, voters input their
address -- sorry that I didn't make that clear
in the previous
email.
Aaron
On Fri, Jul 25, 2008 at 9:17 AM, John <
johnaborras@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:
> Aaron
>
> Where do you collect this additional data
from - the State EMS or from
> other sources?
>
> Having got
this additional data how would it be used by the third
> party to answer a
voter who didn't know their precinct? Would the
> voter input their
address and the system then have the necessary
> functionality to match
that address to a precinct?
>
> John
>
> On Jul 25, 2:04
pm, "Aaron B Strauss" <
aaro...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
Most of this is absolutely correct. However, third-party solutions
>>
never rely on (potential) voters knowing their precinct in order to
>>
find their polling location. VIP's solution to this is to collect
>>
three things:
>>
>> 1) A mapping of street segments into
precincts.
>> 2) A mapping of precincts into polling
locations
>> 3) Information about the polling locations (i.e., address,
directions)
>>
>> Other third-parties collect
publicly-available voter files (laws on
>> how public vary from state
to state) and use the addresses in the
>> voter file to match addresses
to precincts to polling locations.
>>
>>
Aaron
>>
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 24, 2008 at
5:22 AM, John <
johnabor...@yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:
>>
>> > Aaron/Doug
>>
>> >
Following our recent telecon we've been having a few internal
>> >
discussions about how we would manipulate EML to meet your needs,
>>
> particulary the handling of addresses and geography. Daivd Webber
is
>> > working on a demo solution and we hope to be able to show
you that in
>> > the near future. In the meantime can you
clarify some aspects of the
>> > VIP functionality for my benefit at
least please.
>>
>> > As I understand it States will
provide a subset of data from their EMS
>> > systems to third
parties to use in their outlets to the public. These
>> >
subsets of data will not hold any voter information and will only
>>
> provide a basic set of functionality to enable the third parties
to
>> > answer straight-forward questions or direct voters to the
correct
>> > locations for accurate and specific
information.
>>
>> > For example to answer the voter's
enquiry of " Am I registered to
>> > vote" the third party's system
will only provide the URL of the
>> > State's website where that
particular question can be answered using
>> > specifc voter
credentials. The third party system will not answer the
>> >
question directly as it doesn't hold the voter registration
data.
>>
>> > To answer the question "Which polling station
do I use" the third
>> > party system will provide a list of polling
station(s) for each
>> > precinct and will assume the voter knows
which precinct they belong
>> > to. Basic data about polling
station open times will be provided with
>> > the address
information. The third party's system will not provide an
>> >
enquiry system that matches the voter's address with the appropriate
>>
> polling station. If the voter doesn't know their precinct they
would
>> > be referred to the State's website where that information
can be
>> > obtained by an address matching process again using some
form of
>> > credential.
>>
>> > Other
questions about absentee voting etc will be answered with the
>> >
URL of the State's website where that information is
avialable.
>>
>> > So am I right to assume that the third
parties will only provide basic
>> > data and pointers to
authorative sources rather than sophisticated
>> > functionality to
do address matching and voter matching?
>>
>> >
John
>>
>> >