Learning from 2020 Election Interference: What to expect in 2024
“It will be fixed, you won’t have to vote anymore”
“Christians, get out and vote, just this time. “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” — Trump
Monitoring and responding to election interference is a challenging design problem. Why?
1. It is widespread and can take many forms (long lines, intimidation, disinformation, ballot shortages…)
2. Voting takes place in a short time window requiring remedies to be taken quickly
3. Different groups (lawyers, poll monitors, election officials) need to review the information collected
4. People should be able to easily report voter suppression issues they encounter with any type of phone
5. Officials need a real time dashboard where they can see reported problems and dig in for details as needed
6. The software has to be dependable and scalable to deal with thousands of issues reported per second.
Traditional methods involve hotlines that voters call to report issues. Such systems are good but can be swamped by phony calls by hackers and require more effort to triage and handle audio calls. This blog describes See Something, Say Something (See Say) that complements existing election interference response systems with an internet based solution using esri technology. See Say was designed with commercially available esri software and used in the 2018, 2020 and 2022 elections.
Explore the See Say 2020 dashboard
Learning from firefighters and air traffic controllers to deal with election interference
There are many situations that need a rapid response to dangers that shift suddenly and are widespread.
Hurricanes — Where is it headed? Where should people evacuate?
Wildfires — Where is the greatest danger? When should fire fighters and equipment be assigned?
Virus outbreaks — Where are the most infections? Where should medical supplies be sent?
They all involve getting accurate information from the frontlines quickly. Analyzing it and planning the best response with limited resources. Time is of the essence.
Voter suppression has many similarities. It’s widespread. Takes different forms. There are limited resources and time to respond. It demands an easy-to-use, flexible system for the public to report incidents of voter suppression; tools to quickly screen the incidents reported and escalate them to the right (legal, press or community group) resource.
Keep it simple
See Say is shared freely with volunteers, poll monitors and voters. It can be used on any smart phone without having to install any software. Election interference issues can be reported with a few clicks and include the GPS location, date, time, notes and even photos and videos. Submissions are screened to filter out spam and then shown on a real time dashboard. Confidential details are hidden from public view but available for authorities and journalists. Local elected officials can also see issues being reported.
See Something, Say Something.
See Something, Say Something (SeeSay) was developed in 2018 to empower voters to quickly report hurdles they face in voting and complements existing hotlines. It is based on ArcGIS Survey123, a widely used app that the federal government and other agencies use to respond to natural disasters, medical emergencies and other dangerous situations.
See Say is the brainchild of Andrea Miller, a veteran community organizer and founder of Center For Common Ground. She identified the need for a solution to fight voter suppression by letting voters quickly report incidents and developing a community owned database of incidents that could be used to counter the dark forces preventing people from voting fairly. See Say was developed in three weeks before the 2018 midterms by DemLabs using Survey123. Applying an existing software platform like Survey123 takes less time, money and effort than developing a solution from scratch. Longevity is another benefit as the software platform will exist and continue to be enhanced independent of election cycles. ESRI, the firm behind Survey123 is a fifty year old, multi billion dollar firm with a long history of continued innovation.
See Say 2018 was launched with help from Samantha Bee, OSET Institute, NBC, Democrats.com and Rock The Vote.
See Say 2020 was supported by Reclaim Our Vote, Free Speech For People, The Lincoln Project, Inside Edition with Deborah Norville/Megan Matson and Alyssa Milano.
TakeAway: Fight election interference with the best, proven technology available like esri. (Discloure: I have no financial interest in esri).
Deepak
DemLabs
DISCLAIMER: ALTHOUGH THE DATA FOUND IN THIS BLOG AND INFOGRAPHIC HAS BEEN PRODUCED AND PROCESSED FROM SOURCES BELIEVED TO BE RELIABLE, NO WARRANTY EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED CAN BE MADE REGARDING THE ACCURACY, COMPLETENESS, LEGALITY OR RELIABILITY OF ANY SUCH INFORMATION. THIS DISCLAIMER APPLIES TO ANY USES OF THE INFORMATION WHETHER ISOLATED OR AGGREGATE USES THEREOF.
Hotline vs Internet reporting of problems
Reposted from Democracy Labs with permission.
