Post on 13-Jan-2015
description
Mobile Election Notification/Electronic Election
Administration Tools
Brian D. NewbyElection Commissioner
Johnson County, Kansas
December 9, 2008
Johnson County Kansas
Choose Effective Over Hip
• Digital democracy—Twitter, Text Messaging, YouTube, Mash-ups, blogs, etc.—definitely has a role for election administrators.
• Johnson County has focused on the application first, technology second.
Benefits
• Target voters under 30.
• Provides a reason to have a conversation rather than just saying, “It’s important to vote.”
• Drives people to our website and allows us to engage with them more.
Mobile Election Notification
Current
• Podcasting
• Textcasting
• Polling Place Lookup by Address
Evaluating
• Twitter-Like Instant Day-of communication to election workers
• Inclement weather wake-up “robo” calls to election workers
Mobile Election Notification
• Part of a comprehensive plan to engage with people on their terms.
• Linked to a website refresh organized by visitor segments rather than topics.
• Segments include voters, election workers, media, future voters, and others.
• Drives users to the website (reduce phone calls).
Organized
By Visitors
Mobile
Sign-Up
What Is a Podcast?
• For our purposes, it is a series of messages sent out for each election– Regularly scheduled messages– Urgent messages with critical election information
• Each message will contain:– A recorded statement– A title (like an e-mail subject line)– A description (a short overview of the audio message
content)
Voters Can Subscribe Directly or Through ITunes
www.jocoelection.org
Podcasts Are Really Simple
• As in….Really Simple Syndication (RSS)
• With the new version of Microsoft Windows, RSS will become mainstreamed, much like the Internet was mainstreamed with Windows 95.
Podcast Subscribers….
• Go the website of an Aggregator and install their program– Attensa (uses Outlook)– Feedreader, RSS Bandit (“stand alones”)– iPod (iTunes)
• On a web page, click on the RSS Feed button and follow the prompts to begin subscribing to their podcasts– CNN (links to webpage for text, audio, video)– Wall Street Journal (text)– Jo Co Election Office (audio)
www.itunes.com
Voters Can Subscribe Directly or Through ITunes
www.itunes.com
Voters Can Subscribe Directly or Through ITunes
www.itunes.com
Voters Can Subscribe Directly or Through ITunes
Election Updates in ITunes
Podcast “Album” ImageITunes “Album” Page
Podcast Messages
• Recorded and scheduled• Updated for users when they charge
their IPODs• Headline is most important part of the
podcast• Can be video or audio• Can include attachments, like voter
registration and advance application forms
Text Messaging
• Short messages sent to cell phones or email.
• 160-character limit:
Advance Voting at the Multi-Service Center in Lenexa will not be open on 7-14 due to power outage. It will open at 8 am tmw.
Textcasting
Users sign up at www.jocoelection.org
Textcasting
Users sign up at www.jocoelection.org
Jo-Co Po-Lo
www.jocopolo.com
Johnson County Election Office
Jo-Co Po-Lo
www.jocopolo.com
Johnson County Election Office
Voter types VOTEKS and address to short code
Response Received Within 60 Seconds
Learnings
• Media interest is high.• Legal/public records issues arise.• Each medium is different; communicating
becomes an art.• Podcasts drive website visits.• More email users than cell phone users, but
cell phone users are gaining.• The services are pivot points for changes and
application improvements ahead (some of which we may not know).