Complete lists of apartment numbers

[codyschank]

What problem are you trying to solve?

Register2Vote developed a tool called MapTheVote with the goal of identifying residential addresses where no registered voters reside, and using this information to target voter registration efforts (both by mail and door-knocking campaigns). We start with an open source dataset called OpenAddresses. However, this data is largely missing information about apartment numbers at multi-unit residential addresses. Currently this limits MapTheVote to single-family housing. We know that it is crucial to expand our efforts to multi-unit housing, especially since these residences are more likely to have individuals with lower rates of voter registration (more likely to be renters and moving frequently, and have lower income).

Who will benefit (directly and indirectly) from your project?

Individuals who have difficulty registering to vote.

What other resources/tools are currently serving the same need? How does your project set itself apart?

As far as we know, we are the only project focused on improving voter registration rates by meeting people where they live. Another common method is to canvass for unregistered voters in public locations with high rates of pedestrian traffic, but this can be inefficient (as many people are already registered, and those who are not are unlikely to stop). It is also very difficult to track progress in random encounters, whereas the map helps focus efforts on those most in need.

Where can we find any research/data available/articles?

What help do you need now?

We have developed some ideas for tackling this problem (scraping the USPS website for apartment numbers). But have yet to come up with a scalable solution. We are currently focusing on ways to scrape the web to compile these lists of apartment numbers for addresses that we know are multi-unit residential addresses.

What are the next steps (validation, research, coding, design)?

The next steps are to brainstorm and crowdsource ideas from the broader community so that we can find new datasets or research new ideas. Once we have identified one or more solutions, we will focus on developing the tools to collect this data, and integrating it into Map The Vote.

How can we contact you outside of Github(list social media or places you're present)?

Email is probably the best way to reach us right now. We have a twitter account for both Register2Vote (@goRegister2Vote) and MapTheVote (@mapthevote), but neither is very active.

Cody Schank ([email protected])
Jeremy Smith ([email protected])
Madi Eden ([email protected])

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Project management

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