Review and next steps

[Mark McEahern]

We now have one election under our belt. I think we should meet in person, review what we learned, and make plans for the next election. A draft outline...

0. Vision: 100% of eligible voters register and vote, preferably early

1. Marketing:

2. Fundraising

3. Engineering

4. Operations

Sent from my iPhone

[philip crawford]

As good software/systems are built through iterations, I propose we target the May 2nd special elections as the next opportunity to test changes to these items listed by Mark.

http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/2011/spring-special

--
imby - in my back yard
An Experiment in Hyper-Local Professional Networking
http://madison.imby.info/p/Philip.Crawford

[Lucas Dailey]

Agreed x2. Let's pick a time to debrief and review.

[Preston Austin]

Hi,

Agreed, though I is sick right now so may not make it unless it's a couple days out. Maybe I can listen in.

WRT marketing, obviously "every vote counts" close race and high turnout stories will be abundant in Madison and wrt/ SC race. We should craft messaging that makes it clear at a subtext level that "losing" votes counted too, and the greater the turnout the greater impact votes they didn't get have on elected officials' strategic decisions. Also greater turnout increases cost, the "control tax" to any group attempting to manipulate the outcome through on the ground efforts, paid ads, suppression, fraud, etc

the narrative I fear and would like to kill in advance, since it contributes so much to surplus helplessness, is: "Even with all that effort, BigMoney still won, and I still don't matter"

Thanks,

Preston

Sent from mobile device

[matthew clark]

Yes, course charting, good idea.

Each election is going to be a bit unique, so our strategy is going to need to adjust accordingly.  That will keep things interesting, to say the least.

I'm available whenever, with a preference on something outside biz hours, or later in the afternoon.

MattC

[matthew clark]

The last Dane Cty. ward just reported, and it tightened up again, btw.  Who says every vote doesn't count?

On Wed, Apr 6, 2011 at 9:48 AM, Preston Austin <preston....@gmail.com> wrote:

[Maurice Cheeks]

Sounds good.

Tomorrow after hours?
Monday after hours?

Maurice Cheeks
608.609.1152

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[philip crawford]

Check this out regarding absentee ballot requests.  Although this is only for registered voters, of course.  Still, kinda cool.

Request by E-Mail or Fax

A voter may request that a ballot be sent to them by sending an e-mail or fax to their municipal clerk. (See Directory of Local Municipal Clerks.)  Before the ballot can be counted on election day, the municipal clerk must have received a request from the voter with an original signature. (Print your emailed request, sign it, and return it with your ballot, but outside the certified ballot envelope.) This request should be made no later than 5:00 p.m. on the Thursday before the election in order for an absentee ballot to be mailed to you.

http://gab.wi.gov/elections-voting/voters/absentee

[Mark McEahern]

I vote for Monday.

// m

[philip crawford]

I can meet any time.  If no objections, shall we make it Monday at 5?

Lots of work can be done before then - I will get started on cleaning up the data and having reporting ready by Monday.  Investigating the assembly districts with elections on May 2nd is another area we should research.

[philip crawford]

OK.  Next meeting Monday at 5pm at Murfie?

I will clean up all the records from the April 5 election and consolidate into a MS Access database.

Can someone do some research before then regarding the May 2nd elections?  Where they are, organizations we might be able to partner with, etc.

- Philip

ps.  mark's agenda from earlier.

1. Marketing:

2. Fundraising

3. Engineering

4. Operations

[Lucas Dailey]

I can find the election info.

[Maurice Cheeks]

Monday at 5 is great. What is the address to Murfie?

Maurice Cheeks

608.609.1152

Sent from my iPhone

[philip crawford]

8th floor of the US Bank building.  Doors & elevators are unlocked until 6pm so should be no issues there.  my # 414-915-3833

[Greg Tracy]

you had me at "ms access".

[Lucas Dailey]

I have a public hearing a couple of blocks away at the same time, and I may not be able to get out of. I'll likely be late to the VoteSimple meeting.

[Mark McEahern]

A little more brain dump on this outline:

1. Vision: 100% of eligible voters register and vote, preferably early

2. Marketing: The target audience is obviously unlikely voters who
are fluent in texting (at least for the SMS app).

3. Fundraising: An update on this front?

4. Engineering / user experience:

a. What we learned about voter search, address search, and screen
scraping the GAB. Next steps?

b. The SMS interaction--is it too long? Are people scared off by
privacy concerns when we ask their dob?

c. The admin backend. Maybe an overview and a plan for involving
more people in working the queue?

d. The election model.

e. Ideas for a facebook app, do we have a Facebook fan page?

5. Operations

I'm not even sure what this means as distinct from any of the above,
so consider it a placeholder.

I'm hoping to spark some ideas so that Monday's meeting can start with
energy for a concrete plan and focus for tackling the elections just
around the corner.

Cheers,

// m

[Maurice Cheeks]

That was a helpful brain dump Mark.

How much time are people planning to be able to spend at this meeting at 5pm on Monday?

Maurice Cheeks
608.609.1152

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[Preston Austin]

I'm good for 2 hours mtg Monday, though might break out and work on some parts after.
--
Preston Austin
http://imby.info/p/prestonaustin