Voter Information Portal Presented by: Marianne Cardwell, Woolpert, Inc. Cheryl Spencer, City of Indianapolis February 23, 2010

Overview History Demo Architecture

History

History First Polling Place Locator in late 1990’s. Original vision To locate a voter’s polling location based on their address. Used ArcIMS-based technology to display polling location information in a web application. Voter Information Portal (VIP) is the 4th generation of the Polling Place Locator. ESRI ArcIMS geocoding to locate an address. Use the x,y coordinate of the address to determine the precinct. Lookup polling place related to the precinct selected. Return polling place information to the user. 2nd version provided additional functionality such as verifying registration and discovering candidates and districts. 3rd generation replaced most ArcIMS functionality with ArcGIS Server technology (not the map).

Challenges Geocoding Used fallback (composite) geocoding from parcels to streets. Unable to locate 100% of addresses in Marion County Missing information Match scores not meeting threshold set in locator In a few cases street range interpolation put the address coordinate in the wrong precinct. Match scores

Geocoding

Geocoding (2)

Geocoding (3)

Application and Server Performance Acquired LoadRunner software in ? Was finally able to better identify problems before the application went to production. Was able to optimize server resources and tweak the application slightly to achieve better overall performance. Main goal was to keep the application up and running.

Indiana Statewide Voter Registration System Went online in 2005 and first used by Marion County in 2006. Must be a registered voter to get polling place information. Must enter birth date information. Clerk’s office decided they wanted to keep the Marion County version. Display elected officials, candidates and additional district information.

Voter Information Portal Upgrade technology Find a way to achieve better geocode matches. Same functionality as previous versions with the addition of sample ballots. Create a management portal for the Election Board personnel to manage candidates, sample ballots, and update elected official information.

Demo

VIP Demo Include video, just in case!

Architecture

Overall Architecture (1)

Overall Architecture (2) Service-oriented architecture. Bulk of logic in services. JavaScript code mainly contains page layout and interaction.

Dojo Widgets VIP uses 10 custom widgets: Address component: provides geocoding-like functionality. Tabs: each VIP tab is a widget. Provides user with information obtained from the Elections Service. Directions widget: provides directions using Microsoft’s Bing Maps API. Widgets developed so they can be used in other web applications.

Address Component (1) Custom Dojo widget used within a number of online city applications. User can enter street addresses or intersections. Lists suggestions. Uses city’s Master Address Database (MAD). No geocoding or ArcObjects. No ArcObjects means more flexibility in where service is installed.

Address Component (2) MAD (Oracle) GIS (SDE) 150 E Washington St x0,y0 200 x0,y0 100 x2,y2 x1,y1 150 E Washington St MAD (Oracle) Parcel Addresses Building Addresses Unit Addresses Street Address Ranges GIS (SDE) Parcels Polygon FC Buildings Polygon FC Units Point FC Streets Polyline FC Steps: Widget uses parcel, building & apartment addresses stored in MAD => more accurate location of address, which improves accuracy of polling place returned. Once address is located in MAD, SQL API is used to obtain the address’s XY coordinates. If address is not found in MAD, street is found in MAD, its geometry is obtained using SQL API, and the XY location is obtained using simple trigonometry.

Election Service – Structure WCF Service with 2 interfaces with identical methods: Client-side applications interface: methods are REST-enabled and called via GET requests. All input parameters are strings. Server-side applications interface: service can easily be added as a service reference in Visual Studio. Input parameter types vary.

Election Service – Functionality Possible Inputs: Address XY coordinates Precinct Returns: polling place locations satellite voting locations voter registration information voting districts elected officials candidates ballots

Obtaining Polling Place Input: XY coordinates Point in Polygon Query: which precinct polygon is point in? Tabular Query: which polling place is associated with the precinct? Query Web Service APIP Web Service

Obtaining Elected Officials (1) Input: XY coordinates Tabular Query: get list of positions For each position, get precinct feature class Point in Polygon Query: which precinct is it in? Tabular Query: which elected official is in this position in this district? APIP Web Service

Obtaining Elected Officials (2) Positions Table Districts Table

Obtaining Elected Officials (3)

Questions?