PAC - Politcal Action Computing
Some of you may know that Jack is a dull boy, unless he has data. Less of you may know that Chris Hazel is a dataphile extraordinaire.
When you take public records and mix vigorously with the likes of us, you get? Voila!
Now, I’m not giving away all of our tradecraft, but suffice to say we can figure out where the fish are. Here is some more “data.”
This is fun! And, informative. :v)
This tells us that of a city of 106,000, only 19,493 have ever voted in a city election. Of them, only 7,500 have voted in 4 or 5 of the last 5 city elections. And they tend not to be young. :v(
If you use the data, you can see what neighborhoods rock the vote. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
PS. This analysis uses the Nov.2010 voter file. If you don’t know what that means, you are in a world of hurt.
Screenshots have been altered to protect voter privacy. We have fun, responsibly.
May 16th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
How in Hell is Nutter gonna read that?
May 16th, 2011 at 9:46 pm
Wow Jack my kind of fun. The high vote count in the Belvediere and the Upper Highlands are just shockers lol. I find the age demographic much more interesting and I would like to see you play with that a bit.
May 16th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
PC,
We want to encourage the reliance on data driven decision making. It starts with the campaigns and, hopefully, lands in the Chamber approving performance budgets. Oh, to dream.*sigh*
The glad handing transactional politician will work harder. We will work smarter AND harder.
tick tock ;v)
May 17th, 2011 at 12:59 am
I’m glad that people like you with your expertise exist to do this kind of analysis….fascinating! Thanks for posting this!
May 17th, 2011 at 6:11 am
OK, I give up - what is DOR?
May 17th, 2011 at 8:39 am
DOR is Date of Registration. It helps to see if someone that may not have a long history has a short, but consistent participation.
May 17th, 2011 at 10:15 am
Hey Jack,
Not to take a contrarian view, but we had a challenger in 2009 that ran a campaign without relying on data to “target” voters. Not only was he electorally successful (without the endorsement of the paper), but he was also responsible for LowellStat (a promise he campaigned on) and for this year’s budget becoming performance-based.
Data is only worthwhile in the hands of someone who can appropriately use it. I think that was PC’s point. It can tell you where the “fish” are, sure, but it can also map the neglected places that are never “targeted,” an exclusion which compounds apathy. More importantly, on the administrative side, it can tell you whether neighborhoods are being treated equitably. But, again, being “data-driven” is not enough. Talking with people, whether for an election or for governing, must also complement data in the “equation” of decision-making. And remember that the data itself doesn’t solve a problem. Someone must put it to good and proper use.
May 17th, 2011 at 10:19 am
tho raw data is nice, how about drawing some conclusions for us laymen??
May 17th, 2011 at 10:54 am
nmul,
Let me be clear. I reject your offerings here. I only approved your comment so I could tell you to your blurred out visage, I consider your blogging of no value. Hence, we are done.
May 17th, 2011 at 11:03 am
Dan,
I mean to be cryptic. The Wizard of Oz is a good metaphor for politics. Brain, Heart & Courage. Let me close by saying, “We’re Not in Kansas Anymore…“
May 17th, 2011 at 1:15 pm
PS.
Dan,
If you hear me say “performance budgeting,” I mean the SC.
h/t to Tom Moses?
May 17th, 2011 at 1:24 pm
Thank you, Jack! Bye, bye NUML.
May 17th, 2011 at 6:30 pm
Assuming DOB is “date-of-birth”, there seems to be a discrepancy between that and his DOR (first line entry) in that he would only be 14 years old at time of registration! But even that is not as surprising as the 6-year old in line 2.
May 17th, 2011 at 7:07 pm
Ahem!
Screenshots have been altered to protect voter privacy. We have fun, responsibly.