Using Mapping Tech to Mine for Voters
Week features an article on Using Mapping Tech to Mine for Voters, which describes how San Mateo County worked working with Farallon Geographics for a voter registration effort that was cost-effectively tailored to different minority needs.
Farallon integrated census data about households with voter registration information. It produced maps and guides for the county that show where voter registration is lagging as well as information about the ethnic mixes in those areas.
“You really couldn’t do this any other way, except with GIS,” says Farallon CEO Dennis Wuthrich. Well, you could, but it takes lots and lots of time. And effort. Anyone who’s ever seen the war room of a political campaign is familiar with the color-coded, hand-painted maps and graphs that are used and reused as they try to identify voters.
San Mateo’s Warren Slocum says the county has now changed how it works to register voters. Instead of sending a letter and hoping for the best, it’s organized house parties and other places where people who speak the same language talk to their friends and neighbors about everything from requesting a ballot in their native language to figuring out how to fill out a ballot.