Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Insightus

Insightus's Journal
Insightus's Journal
May 1, 2018

Grassroots technology is fighting voter suppression and election hacking in North Carolina

Hey DUers,

A new initiative here in the Tar Heel State (and soon beyond) could use your help getting the word out.

NC-GoVote is a non-profit collaboration of professional data scientists and software engineers volunteering to develop new technology to fight the types of voter suppression - such as poll book purges and voter caging - that denied 1 out of every 80 NC voters the right to vote a regular ballot in 2016.

This new service, called Reg Watch, is non-commercial, non-profit, nonpartisan, and private. It works a lot like the credit report monitoring services you may already be familiar with, except that what it monitors for problems is your voter registration record. If a user who is enrolled in Reg Watch is purged from the poll book, Reg Watch alerts her in time for her to take action before election day. As a side benefit, it can also alert her if hackers alter or delete her voter registration record.

A non-technical introduction to Reg Watch recently appeared at Daily Kos:
In NC, election hacking, voter caging and poll book purges meet new grassroots technology resistance

A slightly more technical introduction is at Medium:
#TechForGood: Building an App for Voter Self-Defense

If you're a North Carolina voter, we invite you to sign up for Reg Watch. If you love a North Carolina voter, we ask you to pass the word along. And before you ask...yes, we intend to see this spread beyond NC, too, if it proves popular here first.

(Edit) PS: Even if you're not a North Carolinian and don't know any, you'll find some really interesting data visualizations in our Data section - a chronicle of the ongoing fight for voting rights in this critical battleground state.

Thanks!

Profile Information

Gender: Do not display
Hometown: North Carolina
Member since: Sat May 27, 2017, 09:31 AM
Number of posts: 15

About Insightus

Insightus (a 501c3 non-profit) is a collaborative of volunteer professional data scientists, information technologists, and other progressive 'quants' (folks w/ quantitative data analysis skills) donating our efforts to assist progressive organizations with "data-driven activism" services at no cost. Home-grown in North Carolina, our cloud-based team is increasingly nationwide in scope. We're passionate about voting rights and civil rights, environmental justice, and a civil society. For a sampling of our recent projects see http://insight-us.org/
Latest Discussions»Insightus's Journal