Geospatial Information Office and Minnesota Secretary of State utilize geospatial data to validate voter records

Minnesota leads the nation in voter turnout year after year (learn more on MPR's website), and we are leading the effort to provide more accurate voter precincts through a recent pilot program utilizing geospatial data. The National States Geographic Information Council (NSGIC) selected Minnesota as one of five states participating in the “Geo-Enabled Elections” project that focuses on using geospatial information to inform election practices.

Before Minnesotans can cast their vote on election day, one thing everyone must do is figure out where they vote. Polling places are decided by voting precincts—groups of addresses located close together—and managed by Minnesota’s 87 counties. The counties share this information with the Office of the Secretary of State (OSS) who incorporates it into an online tool that that allows you to plug in your address to find your polling place. When you head into the voting booth, most Minnesotans assume their house or apartment number is assigning them the correct voting precinct.

As part of the “Geo-Enabled Elections” project, OSS and the Geospatial Information Office within Minnesota IT Services (MNIT) utilized geospatial data and techniques to “pin” the location of each voter residence on a map, the teams validated voter records in the same way that many people use smartphones to navigate to an unfamiliar location, with better accuracy and efficiency. The “pins” represent a location based on longitude and latitude on Earth, rather than relying on a street address, which reduces the risk of election errors and helps voters more easily verify they are included in the right precinct.

OSS provided the Geospatial Information Office with addresses from the county-provided active voter records, without any personal information, and then MnGeo ran them through a geocoding service which shows where any address is using longitudinal and latitudinal information. Those results were then compared to the geospatial coordinates of a voting district. While there was a potential to find errors that needed to be corrected, voting data showed a much brighter picture: only around 8,000 records out of 1.3 million needed to be analyzed to confirm they were in the correct precinct. Many of these records were flagged because the “pin” was placed on a driveway rather than on the rooftop of a house, a house or apartment building was split in half between two voting districts. After review of the flagged 8,000, it was clear that the majority of these records were false positives, meaning that after they were reviewed, the conclusion was that voter was correctly associated with their precinct. Because of this project, the state has defined a replicable process to review voter addresses and precincts, flag them if they may be wrong, and share any concerns with Minnesota counties to ensure voter records are as accurate as possible.