Handy Voter Information Tools for Citizen Activists

The Voting Information Project (VIP), a partnership between the Pew Charitable Trust, Google, and the states, is expanding its support of state and local elections in 2016, including North Carolina.

"In addition to the Nov. 8 generalelection, the project will provide critical information, such as polling placelocations and ballot summaries, for voters in more than 70 elections, startingin January. The races include presidential primaries in 32 states and statewideprimaries in 41 states, as well as runoffs where applicable, and dozens oflocal and municipal elections, including fire district and school board races acrossthe country"

That will add significantly to the number of tools available to citizen activists. Among the Voter Information Project's tool portfolio are:

• Get to The Polls:  "Get to the Polls, powered by the Google Civic Information API, allows voters to find their official polling place, hours of operation, and full ballot summary based on their residential address."
• SMS Tool:  "A short messaging service (SMS) tool provides voters with election information via text message. By texting “VOTE” or “VOTO” to GOVOTE (468-683), voters can find polling places, contact information for local election officials, and registration URLs. The app is available in multiple languages."
• VIP Voting Information Tool: "The Voting Information Tool is an easily embeddable, mobile-optimized, and white-label voting information tool that offers official voting information–such as polling place and ballot information–to anyone using just a residential address. The tool can be easily embedded on any website and supports multiple languages."
• White Label iOS and Android Apps: "These free white-label apps can be customized, branded, and released by state and local governments or third-party organizations. Download the iOS or Android app. These apps provide ballot and polling place information in multiple languages, as well as text-to-speech functionality."

The Voter Tools section of the State Board of Elections web site has several useful tools for checking voter registration records and polling site information. Everyone is aware of the voter search portal and polling place search portal.  But the Voter Tools page also details how citizens may use text messaging to inquire about voter registration information, absentee ballot status, and provisional ballot status.

Every citizen activist should be aware of these useful tools and be prepared to access them in 2016.  As some one who has worked countless voter registration tables, and information booths at local events, I can tell you that voters are quite often unaware of their voter registration status. These tools provide a simple, effective means for finding that information.,

And as Make It Count has noted before, it's a good idea to check your own voter registration information from time to time.You just never know.