Purge Alert browser extension

What problem are you trying to solve?

There are many attempts[1][2][3] by states to purge voters from the rolls. There is a growing need for voters to continuously monitor their voter registration status so they know quickly if they have been caught up in one of the purges.

Unfortunately, most official voter registration lookup tools by states are very cumbersome to use and do not let you monitor your registration status over time. Additionally, alternative tools (vote.org, register2vote.org) require you to provide your contact information and/or consent to marketing and receiving messages from their organization.

This project's goal is to create a browser extension that makes it easy for voters to keep an eye on their voter registration status, without having to compromise their privacy or worry about spam.

Pros of making a browser extension:

No privacy/spam concerns (lookup data is stored locally by the browser extension itself).
No terms of service concerns (individual voters are making the lookup requests via their browser extension, not a third party).
No server hosting concerns (the lookup code is run by the browser extension itself, so no need to run dynamic app servers).
Easy to install (two clicks on most browsers, no need to create a user account or password).
Easy to keep up-to-date (browser marketplaces have background update processes already in place).

Cons of making a browser extension:

Debugging is hard (users must report bugs/issues since there's no server logging).
Mobile support is poor (few mobile browsers have extensions).

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

Groups of voters targeted by these registration purges.

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

State/local voter registration lookup tools - Most states and many counties have an online voter registration lookup website.
- Pro: It's the authoritative source on whether you're registered to vote.
- Con: The websites are often poorly designed and hard to use.
- Con: One-time check (doesn't alert you if you get purged).
Vote.org - Nonprofit vote advocacy organization that lets you fill out your information to check your voter registration status.
- Pro: Easier to use than the vast majority of
- Pro: Easier to point people to instead of each individual state/county website.
- Con: Requires more information than most state voter lookup tools.
- Con: Tracking/third-party data sharing is allowed in their terms of service.
- Con: Requires you to consent to receive emails/texts from Vote.org.
- Con: One-time check (unknown if it monitors your status over time).
Register2Vote.org - Nonprofit vote advocacy organization that lets you fill out your information to check your voter registration status.
- Similar to Vote.org in that it's easier to use than state websites, but has privacy and spam concerns since it requires you to provide your contact information.
Vote411.org - League of Women Voters website for voter tools.
- Pro: Registration information provided alongside the LWV's voter guide.
- Con: Just provides links to each of the state lookup websites.

Unfortunately, there are no APIs for voter registration lookup, so website automation is the current de-facto standard for non-official lookup tools.

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

[1] - Texas officials launched voter purge with big splash, little accuracy [2] - Georgia could purge 330,000 voter registrations before 2020 [3] - Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right to Vote

What help do you need now?

What I will do myself:

Write Firefox and Chrome extension prototypes

Help needed after prototype is done:

Design/Branding/Marketing
- A good name for the project
- A pretty landing page where people can install the extension
- Social media presence for the project
- UI/UX for the extensions/apps themselves
Software Development
- Github repo on github.com/open-austin
- Write scripts to support more states than just Texas
- Maintain scripts that break

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

Project steps:

Write browser extensions that support Texas
Create branding + landing page for project
Add support for other states
Explore porting the extensions to other programming languages for SDKs

The goal is to have this project functional, at least for Texas, and published to the browser extension marketplaces by Q2 2020.

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

Email: diafygi@gmail.com
Slack: danielroesler on open-austin.slack.com

Project management

Checklist for NEW ideas :baby:

Hey, you're official! You're now part of the growing civic hacking community in Austin. Here's a few things to get started (a couple you've probably already done).

[x] Create this idea issue
[x] Flesh out the who, where, and what questions above
[x] Start the conversation about this idea on Slack Replace this link to the #general channel with your project's preferred channel. Added #p-purge-alert slack channel

Checklist for ACTIVE projects :fire:

Let's get this project started! When this idea starts taking off, the Projects Core Team will start helping this project's lead(s) out with project management and connecting you to resources you may need. To get there, please complete and check off the following:

[x] Post an update at least once a month to this issue. Use BASEDEF for ideas, but it's ok even if your update is just "nothing new happened this month" or "we saw a small increase in traffic to our app this month". If there's no activity for two months, that's no problem, life happens. We'll just label this as backlog so others know you'll get back to it when you have the time. If nobody hears from you at all in more than two months, we may mark it as abandoned so that others can pick up this idea and run with it.
[ ] Take 30 minutes to complete Open Leadership 101
[x] Create a GitHub repository. Ask for help setting up permissions if you want your repository to be within the Open Austin Github organization.
[x] Create a README file in your project repository. This file should help newcomers understand what your project is, why it's important, and kinds of help you're looking for.
[ ] Create issues to describe each task that you plan to do or need help with and how a contributor can get started on that task. You might start and stop a lot, so consider issues as your to-do list.
[ ] Create a team for your core contributors
- This will make it easier for you to manage your github repo access. People on a team have the same level of access. Admin access will allow your trusted contributors to make changes as needed.
- You can remove and add people to your team as needed.
- View some of our teams: https://github.com/orgs/open-austin/teams
- Note: You can also allow collaborators outside of your team and give them more limited access.
[ ] Create a user group in Slack so you can "@" your core contributors all at once, without bothering other people who use the Slack channel. You'll need permission from a Slack admin, so just mention @leadership on Slack to get this set up.
[ ] Create a Google Drive, Dropbox, or other cloud storage to share larger files. Github and Data.World are good for code and data, respectively, especially when you need version control. But they're not good for very large files, documentation, articles, etc. A cloud storage option will allow you to easily share, create, and collaborate on documents with your team and help organize ideas and thoughts.
- Doing this early on can help your team stay organized and to onboard new contributors who wouldn't have access to files you all have shared over email.

Checklist for FEATURED Projects :tada:

To have your project FEATURED on Open-Austin.org, complete the following documentation. In past projects, well-documented featured projects have more contributions than other projects.

[ ] In your README, link to the Open Austin Code of Conduct or write your own code of conduct.
[ ] Create file: LICENSE to give your project an open license, allowing for sharing and remixing.
[ ] Create file: CONTRIBUTING.md so others know how they can contribute.
[ ] Create an easily shareable project management artifact, like a Civic Tech Canvas or Open Canvas
[ ] Create an issue on the open-austin.github.io repo with the title Add [my project] to projects page. An Open Austin leader will review this issue and post your project :balloon:
[ ] Tell the City of Austin. If your idea is in a shareable format and can benefit people around the city, go to that site and follow the instructions on the bottom of the page to showcase your work there.

If you get stuck at any point, feel free to reach out to the leadership team on Slack by adding @leadership to your message. We're here to help you make real changes to our city.

open-austin / project-ideas