Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Live blogging from NAS Voter Reg Conference #2
The group has warmed up after lunch; I wonder if they spiked the soda.
We're in the midst of a long drawn out conversation about interstate interoperability standards and voter fraud. But I have to admit that the conversation is a bit frustrating to me. There is a such a diverse group of participants--usually a positive--that it is distracting from a productive conversation.
There seems to be little awareness of the data standard that had been released by Neil McClure. And many participants don't seem to understand the difference between making a national repository of voter registration information versus just making a portion of your state file available to other states, via a standardized data exchange format.
And then there is the always controversial spectre of "fraud." I find myself leaning over to my colleague from Pew, David Becker, and we have the same reaction: "What do you mean by 'fraud."
There are many different kinds of voter fraud, and simply asking "How much fraud is there" is not very helpful.
We're in the midst of a long drawn out conversation about interstate interoperability standards and voter fraud. But I have to admit that the conversation is a bit frustrating to me. There is a such a diverse group of participants--usually a positive--that it is distracting from a productive conversation.
There seems to be little awareness of the data standard that had been released by Neil McClure. And many participants don't seem to understand the difference between making a national repository of voter registration information versus just making a portion of your state file available to other states, via a standardized data exchange format.
And then there is the always controversial spectre of "fraud." I find myself leaning over to my colleague from Pew, David Becker, and we have the same reaction: "What do you mean by 'fraud."
There are many different kinds of voter fraud, and simply asking "How much fraud is there" is not very helpful.
