Voter information system

Abstract

A method for providing voters with election information specific to voter polling location. A voter registration file is queried for a name of a registered voter in response to an input from a user. The user is queried for additional narrowing information through a series of single criterion iterations each time the query renders more than one result. The user is notified of multiple results after each single criterion iteration is processed to show the progress of the initial query. The user is granted access to a information page if the user is found in the voter registration file. The information page presents the user with relevant information based on the user polling location.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 10 / 642,470 filed Aug. 14, 2003 now abandoned, which, in turn, claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 403,603 filed Aug. 14, 2002 and U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60 / 408,805 filed Sep. 6, 2002.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to a system for conveniently providing information to users via a network regarding public information that may require some protected information to be referenced to refine searches, such as ballot content, poll information and other information regarding elections and government.[0004]2. Background Art[0005]A key to democratic and representative government is an informed electorate. When interacting with government, citizens must often search through irrelevant data to find information that is pertinent and often must divulge personal information to inc...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The system simplifies voter information access by providing accurate, jurisdiction-specific data without compromising user privacy, improving navigation and scalability, and enabling efficient notification of election deadlines and events, while supporting educational and mock election functionalities.

Problems solved by technology

In addition, complex ballot proposals relating to public initiatives, tax assessments and other issues frequently appear on ballots.

One problem encountered in prior art systems is that users with common attributes (e.g., a name is the common initial query) required the system to divulge information in the voter file to narrow the search parameters.

The excess information represented an unnecessary exposure of personal information and the system became exponentially difficult to navigate based on the recurrence of the original attribute queried in the database.

Government agencies have attempted to provide ballot data for major elections but a comprehensive system that provides a convenient way to access all local ballots, candidates and proposals has not been developed.

Some systems use direct address searches, but address searches require a great deal of information and do not provide information on registration status.

This approach has been problematic because many candidates (even those with campaign websites) fail to provide biographical data.

Individual citizens, however, find the same mapping system frustrating and difficult to use when they attempt to identify exactly which candidates and ballot proposals they will need to review.

The problems associated with this prior system is that it failed to identify a voter's polling location.

It required substantial processing time to create pre-proposal sample ballots that were incomplete.

It also was not easily scalable in that it could not accommodate a large quantity of data required for a complete ballot.

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