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A SSOCIAT E P ROF ESSORG EORG E M A SO N UN IV ERSIT Y
NON- RESIDENT SEN IOR FELLOWBROOK ING S INST ITUT IO N
ELECT IONS.G M U.EDU
Dr. Michael McDonald
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
DATA FORMAT
USE: CAUTIONARY TALE
Open Data
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
Open Data
The Problem: Do as I say, not as I do…
United States redistricting:Highly decentralized: to states and localitiesHighly politicized: those drawing districts are
those who represent them.Highly litigated: political losers seek redress
from the courts.Closed process: data and software generally
not widely available. Little public input.
www.districtbuilder.orgwww.publicmapping.org
Michael McDonaldGeorge Mason UniversityBrookings Institution
Micah AltmanMITBrookings Institution
Builds on Best-of-Class Open Source Software
6
Where has DistrictBuilder been used?
7
Used in 10 states
More than 1000 legal plans created by the public
Thousands of public participants
Millions of viewers
How has DistrictBuilder been used?
PPR-México 8
For Transparency: Dissemination Public understanding Evaluation/comparison
For Education: Staff training Classroom teaching Student competitions
For Participation: Integrated into official decision
process Non-partisan public organizations
For Election Administration:
Internal collaboration/analysis sharing
Support for commission
DATA FORMAT
Open Data
Google/Pew Voting Information Project
Google/Pew Voting Information Project
USE: CAUTIONARY TALE
Open Data
Purposeful Misuse of Open Data
Early voting – some U.S. states permit persons to vote in advance of the election.
Primaries – elections where party nominees are selected by voters
Party registration – some states restrict participation in primaries to persons who register with a party
Some states publish on the web real-time open data on early voters
Purposeful Misuse of Open Data
Ohio Critical battleground state would likely determine
winner of presidential election Permits early voting Does not have party registration, but records last
party primary a voter participated in as “party” ~0.5 million voted in 2012 Democratic primary ~1.3 million voted in 2012 Republican primary
Ohio localities publish individual records of early voters on the web.
Purposeful Misuse of Open Data
Professors at the University of Akron knowingly published a report of Ohio early voting statistics by what they called “party registration” to claim Romney was winning Ohio
Disseminated by Romney campaignReported by news organizations like CNN
and FOX
A SSOCIAT E P ROF ESSORG EORG E M A SO N UN IV ERSIT Y
NON- RESIDENT SEN IOR FELLOWBROOK ING S INST ITUT IO N
ELECT IONS.G M U.EDU
Dr. Michael McDonald
