Local Election Offices
Local election offices are at the front lines of voting. As the entity directly interfacing with voters, they may be the most useful resource for a voter that needs assistance.
The main reasons we point people to local election offices:
- to find out where to vote (polling place)
- to check on their registration status
- to register to vote
- to register for absentee or early voting
- to find out their local districts (like for school board)
- to find out about local candidates that we don't cover, or get a sample ballot
It is crucial that we keep this information up-to-date and accurate, as we refer all unregistered voters to these offices. Each state does this differently. It could be done on the town, county, or regional level, or some combination of town/county/regional. The office that handles voter registration might also vary, from Election Boards, to County Clerks, to County Auditors, or Voter Registrars.
Finding the Data/Collecting the Data
The Other Political Resources Projects Google doc https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QuXBzFBO0AnCCwsqfnqASa9gdOm5U9sl73rk7G15v5E/edit#gid=0 provides a state-by-state breakdown of which office handles voter registration in the state, links to that state's directory, the date that state's directory was last updated, and notes any special situations. It is possible that these links have since changed. If so, search for a directory for the office handling voter registration on the state's election website. Replace the outdated link with this link on the Other Political Resources Projects. Add any other information to this guide that you find pertinent.
If the directory provides incomplete data (for example, if it does not provide phone numbers, website addresses, hours, etc.), we might go to each county's/region's website and see if we can fill in the gaps with the information provided there. This would probably not be done for states with a large number of election offices. Please consult your supervisor to determine if this should be done.
Entering and Checking the Data
For the sake of continuity and clarity of data, it is important that all contact information on our website adhere to these formatting rules:
For each election office, check each field in our database and make the appropriate corrections.
If there is information provided in the directory that is not covered by a field in our database, let your supervisor know- we will consider adding this to our database. Some states provide both a mailing and a physical address for the local election office. Always use the physical address.
In general, do not delete information in our database unless you can confirm that it is wrong or no longer active. If we already have a website URL, make sure they are still valid for that locality's local election office. If they are no longer valid, do a web search to find the appropriate website and replace this information. The web address should be a site with elections information for that local election office- not a general county website, or a page on the state elections website. Ideally the URL that we point people to will be generic enough that people can access all of those information types mentioned above in the "main reasons we point people to local election offices", but specific enough that it's useful to people.
If there is a locality on the state's directory but seemingly missing in our database, hold Control+F and search to see if the locality is located somewhere else on the page. If it's not anywhere, ask your supervisor if it should be added. We do not cover unincorporated localities.
If there is a town/city/county in our database but seemingly missing from the state's directory, first look to see if it is somewhere else in the directory (Control+F). If it's still not showing up, do a web search for that town/city/county and see where they identify their local election office as being. If you still cannot find anything, let your supervisor know.
Also, see: Suggestions for Local Election Offices
Add to these suggestions as you see fit.
Contact Information for local election offices should also be updated near election time - about a month before or so. The list of local election offices should come from the state elections website. Most states list offices by county, but some such as WI and VT have many small election offices. The offices listed in admin should match those listed on the state elections website.
Again, in off year, you may only wish to update the states with state legislative elections that year. A summer update of this section is also a good idea - in case there are not member or student interns available near the election time.
