The application enables users to see their national representatives.
Users can find their polling place by typing in their address.
Philadelphia-based, non-partisan government watchdog group, the Committee of Seventy provides citizens of Philadelphia with web-based district matching and elected official and polling place lookups
Client Committee of Seventy
Challenge Each Election Day in Philadelphia, the Committee of Seventy manages several volunteer programs that help citizens successfully find their polling locations, inform them about the issues on the ballot, and report any polling location irregularities. In order to cut back on the number of simple polling location inquiries coming in through the busy election day call center and to provide a year-round resource for Philadelphians, the Committee of Seventy needed to make it easy for citizens to find important information about their representatives and where to vote.
Solution
Azavea built a web-based application that provides users with a simple search interface to match their street address to their legislative districts, elected officials and find the location of their polling place. Powered by Azavea’s Cicero district matching and elected official lookup API, the Online Citizen’s Guide enables users to:
- Find their national, state and county elected officials
- Download a spreadsheet with their elected officials, including contact information that can be easily used in a mail-merge
- Print a flier with their elected officials and phone numbers
- Locate their polling places and voting districts
- View the boundary of each of their legislative districts on a map
Outcomes
Released three weeks before the 2010 primary elections in Philadelphia, the website provided voters in the Philadelphia region with information vital to successfully placing their vote on election day. Users printed out reports that contained details about their polling place location and who their elected officials were. Putting a map of their district and polling location online enabled users to visualize both where they would be voting as well as the shape and coverage of their election district.
The site continues to receive steady traffic as Philadelphia area residents search for information about their legislative districts, elected officials and voting day polling location year-round.
Website
http://guide.seventy.org