Open Knowledge FoundationSep 8, 2023
If you attended #OGPEstonia, you probably saw this face always asking the same question (in an Argentine accent): What about a public infrastructure for electoral processes? This is @pdelboca, Senior Developer at @okfn, finding allies for a project he's starting to develop 🧵
Show threadOpen Knowledge Foundation
Implementing and caring for open standards is the core of our work at @okfn – e.g. #opendefinition, #frictionlessdata, #opendatacommons etc. Now, in a key moment for democracies worldwide, we are turning our attention to electoral processes 🧵
Sep 8, 2023 at 1:12pmWeb
Show threadOpen Knowledge FoundationSep 8, 2023
Our bold question: What is the open, consensual and shared universal public infrastructure to guarantee democratic elections? By infrastructure, we mean a package of standards, public software, protocols, open audit processes and other eventual tools for information integrity 🧵
Show threadOpen Knowledge FoundationSep 8, 2023
As Sarah Lister from UNDP Governance said during her talk at #OGPEstonia, we need to strengthen the "capacity of electoral bodies". Did you know that in 2024 there will be elections in 65 countries?
Show threadOpen Knowledge FoundationSep 8, 2023
Building on that, we very much agree with the point made by Gloria Guerrero from ILDA, that there's a new world divide: countries with good or bad legislation for ensuring tech is used for the common good. With this work, @okfn wants to provide assets for such good policies 🧵
Show threadOpen Knowledge FoundationSep 8, 2023
The first step of this initiative is an open #webdialogue next October focused on recent or ongoing elections in Latin America – Guatemala🇬🇹 , Ecuador🇪🇨 , Argentina🇦🇷 , and Brazil🇧🇷 , to name just a few, are worth analyzing conjunctureally from the angle of open standards 🧵
Show threadOpen Knowledge FoundationSep 8, 2023

This idea was born last March in a team conversation (https://blog.okfn.org/2023/03/13/how-far-are-we-from-an-election-data-standard/) and grew until it became a project.

Stay tuned and get in touch via network(at)okfn.org if you are willing to join forces for this initiative!

#OpenElectoralStandards
#Democracy
#OpenGov

How far are we from an Election Data standard? – Open Knowledge Foundation blog

Show threadSlightlyCyberpunkSep 8, 2023

@okfn Just be careful where you source the data from...

https://mastodon.slightlycyberpunk.com/@admin/111021531178375601

SlightlyCyberpunk (@[email protected])

So I`m looking up some election data from my state government's website. They've got a webpage that shows simple HTML tables of results with a simple and predictable URL scheme and clean(ish) source, and then they've got downloadable, machine-readable data files. Which is all excellent! ...except the downloadable files show different results?? Example: If you look at https://www.ri.gov/election/results/2020/general_election/bristol/0201/ you see 657 votes for Cicilline in precinct 0201 Now, compare that to the entry from the long format data file at: https://www.ri.gov/election/results/2020/general_election/data/ 03030010201000003000001000001000001000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000DEM0020030Representative in Congress District 1 David N. Cicilline Bristol 0201 District 1 01 And from the data description file that should decode as: Contest Number = 0303 Candidate Number = 001 Precinct Code = 0201 Total Votes = 000003 ... WHAT THE FUCK? (It appears that maybe total votes for everyone is being set to the value of one of that precinct's WRITE-IN options...maybe specifically the president write-in, haven't analyzed that hard...but again, WHAT THE FUCK? I mean I *have* been drinking but I don't think this is the booze!)

Slightly Cyberpunk Mastodon