What Is New With The GeoElections Suite of Applications

In the State of Florida we are seeing a trend to move from the traditional ranged addressing to discrete points to identify different households for voter registration. The Secondary Address Unit Designators described in US Postal Publication 28 can most effectively be deployed with discrete points. In multi-unit residential facilities, the secondary address is necessary to distinguish one residence from another. Points also handle residences set far enough off the street to place them in a precinct with a ballot different than the one assigned using the ranged addressing from the street segment. The degree of precision discrete points offers gives greater control to the elections officials and staff to eliminate addresses that do not exist other than in a generalized range. The map below illustrates the density of households at the roof topin contrast to the traditional 100 to 198 addressing style of ranges. While dense, there are fewer addresses than would exist in a range. This can eliminate the potential for someone to register to vote using an address that does not exist. ICW has added the ability to designate a list of secondary unit types for the pop-down list when adding a GeoPoint. The geocoder has always worked with ranges, but now has been modified to control how strict the rule for use of secondary address unit designator should be applied. A great point of beginning in building these files starts with the local E911 Coordinator and/or property appraiser. Typically, data created by another governmental agency is purpose built to serve the management goals and objectives of that specific agency. While the data may be perfect for their needs it may not be suitable for use by our elections officials.