Why Political Data Is a Complete Mess
Posted in: Uncategorized
Politics is hardly ever a clean business, but the voter data underlying campaign strategies can be a real mess.
While today’s political data technologies and analytics may look automated and highly precise, the information feeding these systems often comes in far less sophisticated forms, including scanned printouts filled with nonstandardized data. It might even be delivered on a floppy disk.
When Sherrie Preische, a Democratic data cruncher in New Jersey, requested information this spring on election outcomes by precinct in Burlington County, she received a 46-page scan of a paper report from the county clerk’s office showing the number of voters registered in each of hundreds of voting districts, how many people voted and for which candidates. Ms. Preische, partner at Fifty-One Percent, a political data and analytics startup that serves local campaigns in New Jersey, said some election results data is available for easily-digestible digital download from the Burlington County website, but the precinct-level data was not available that way.
Post a Comment