Massachusetts

[Arjayellis]

Overview

The database or data has some formatting or other issues that need to be resolved before it can be imported.

Overview

The database or data has some formatting or other issues that need to be resolved before it can be imported.

Action Items

• [X] Data Collection Design
  • [X] Review Secretary of State Website
  • [X] Call a County starting from the first until you reach one that can validate the data with you.
    • [X] Checking the data that we have is correct
    • [X] Gathering data for fields that are empty
    • [X] Asking if there is anything else we should know
  • [X] Update Location Validation Test Sheet
  • [X] Edit the issue Action Items to reflect findings
• [x] Data Scientist/Scrapers
  • [x] Add the following columns to your data schema
    • [x] display_notes
    • [x] where
    • [x] start_date
    • [x] accessibility
  • [x] Delete the following fields
    • [x] field 23
    • [x] latitude
    • [x] longitude
    • [x] social
    • [x] state and counties and county reps copy
  • [x] Rename the following fields
    • [x] validate_url to source_data
  • [x] If Hours are available add them to the sheet by using the following convention (removing any info about days they are closed e.g. closed sat and sun, unless it refers to a specific date they are closed): MONDAY-FRIDAY:1:00 PM-4:30PM or Monday-Friday:7:00-12:00
• [x] Address fields needs to be broken up into individual components (address_1 and address_2)

  • address_1 = Street name and address #
  • address_2 = suite # or room #, etc
  • city = city name
  • state = state name spelled out
  • state_2 = two-letter abbreviation for the address (for some states the location is in a different state than the voting district (crazy I know. But this is why there is a state field separate which is supposed to be the state spelled out and that is the jurisdiction, not the physical location)

Resources

Google Sheet

[kcoronel]

Folks in Massachusetts can submit a ballot online: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/VoterRegistrationSearch/preface.aspx

You may use this directory to locate contact information for submitting your 2020 Vote by Mail application to your local election office.

To submit your application, find your city/town in the list below. Your signed application may be submitted BY MAIL to the mailing address listed, BY EMAIL to the email address listed, BY FAX if available, or IN PERSON to the office address or drop box listed.

You may also use this directory to find your local election office or drop box for returning your Vote by Mail ballot. Ballots may be MAILED to your local election office or HAND-DELIVERED to your local election office, a secured municipal drop box in your city/town, or any early voting location in your city/town during early voting hours. Ballots CANNOT by emailed or faxed. Early voting locations and schedules are posted at www.MassEarlyVote.com at least one week before early voting begins.

[kcoronel]

I am working on updating this information 10/13

[aNullValue]

Note for the future: Massachusetts processing is an atypical case (will require manual jurisdiction rebuild) so I should handle its import personally.

[kcoronel]

@aNullValue should we ask someone to scrape information for this state?

[aNullValue]

@kcoronel Uhhhhhh. Something's not right here; I'm just not sure what went wrong. Massachusetts doesn't use the concept of "County", so I'd expect "City" to be there, but there's a separate column for that. And there's some stuff that is in the "County" of Boston but in various cities? I don't know how to interpret this data. Particularly since location_type and location_name are almost entirely blank.

[aNullValue]

I don't know if this needs to be re-scraped or if the original scraper still has the data and could just fix whatever happened here, or... something else.

[Seymour100]

@aNullValue , @Arjayellis , I've add another country tab to the Google Sheet with a fresh scrape. I also added 3 columns to it: dropbox_address, dropbox_city, and dropbox_notes. If there is not dropbox_city I'm assuming its the same as the office city. There are a handful of cities that have multiple drop boxes. For these there is one record for office address and then multiple records for the drop boxes. Have a look and LMK if you have any questions.

[aNullValue]

Massachusetts has been processed.