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Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

runforoffice.org

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Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#151

Post by jimterrapin »

huevosabio wrote: post #42
jimterrapin wrote: post #34

My name is Jim Cupples and I work on RunForOffice.org Thank you for the suggestions and comments. I'm a politics nerd that likes local government, and believe it has dormant power for movements. I wrote a piece called The Bottom Carries the Top that explains my thoughts on that stuff. Anyway, I agree with many of the comments and we think the university positions is a great idea. If you like, feel free to email me at…

This looks like a fantastic work! I have pondered for a while on building software for political campaigns (albeit focused on Mexican independent politicians), and nation builder seems the closest to what I have in mind. Care to elaborate a bit on the state of political software and your experience in building and selling software for politicians?

I don't have as much experience building/selling software. I'm sure tha practically everyone on this board has better tech chops than me. I come from a poli-sci background and the work on this project is what exposed me to tech. I can happily speak to features that I'd like to see for political software, but when it comes to building software, I'm a poor resource.

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#152

Post by jimterrapin »

nix0n wrote: post #118
jimterrapin wrote: post #34

My name is Jim Cupples and I work on RunForOffice.org Thank you for the suggestions and comments. I'm a politics nerd that likes local government, and believe it has dormant power for movements. I wrote a piece called The Bottom Carries the Top that explains my thoughts on that stuff. Anyway, I agree with many of the comments and we think the university positions is a great idea. If you like, feel free to email me at…

Hi Jim, this is a terrific tool. It would be more useful for students if it included age requirements for offices (if any).

Thanks very much. You're right about including age requirements. We have the project in a stage where we just want to get it into people's hands to use. We have a lot of blank fields that we will go back to fill and make things more searchable.

It's great to hear what people are looking for. Thanks!

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#153

Post by jimterrapin »

loteck wrote: post #56
jimterrapin wrote: post #34

My name is Jim Cupples and I work on RunForOffice.org Thank you for the suggestions and comments. I'm a politics nerd that likes local government, and believe it has dormant power for movements. I wrote a piece called The Bottom Carries the Top that explains my thoughts on that stuff. Anyway, I agree with many of the comments and we think the university positions is a great idea. If you like, feel free to email me at…

Hey Jim, I just wanted to say that I personally would like to recommend this product, especially as it adds more offices and features. Great idea. Before I share it widely, though, I'll probably wait for it to fix the issue of showing past elections as future, as that is very confusing for people who don't know term lengths off the top of their head.

Thanks very much! Yes, it is showing past results, and we probably won't get to fixing those for another 2 weeks. Some states have been completely refreshed, but we have around 30 more to go.

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#154

Post by jimterrapin »

DrScump wrote: post #144

I'd suggest a reword to " might be eligible" or "your residence qualifies for" or somesuch. Some offices have their own specific requirements, such as age or technical qualification. For example, to run for California Attorney General, one "Must be admitted to practice before the state Supreme Court for at least five years immediately preceding election or appointment to the office".

Yes, you're correct. Attorney General, Treasurer positions, Law Enforcement positions, and a few others do require advanced degrees. We have plans to include that in our data. Thanks.

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#155

Post by DrScump »

jimterrapin wrote: post #154
DrScump wrote: post #144

I'd suggest a reword to " might be eligible" or "your residence qualifies for" or somesuch. Some offices have their own specific requirements, such as age or technical qualification. For example, to run for California Attorney General, one "Must be admitted to practice before the state Supreme Court for at least five years immediately preceding election or appointment to the office".

Yes, you're correct. Attorney General, Treasurer positions, Law Enforcement positions, and a few others do require advanced degrees. We have plans to include that in our data. Thanks.

My comment is not a criticism at all! There is a point of diminishing returns on such projects where a pedantic correction can require loads of work. Great work.

A similar-concept project was posted here on HN this month:

https://whoaremyrepresentatives.org

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#156

Post by Tangurena2 »

YPCrumble wrote: post #38
tptacek wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unlikely your local governments have added or subtracted a lot of positions since the last election, so just look at the 2017 elections on the list.

Most elections are on even years and the 2016 stale data is covering up many elections that happen every two years and should be part of 2018 data.

Many county and local elections are in odd numbered years. Illinois is one example: https://ballotpedia.org/Illinois_elections,_2017

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#158

Post by jimterrapin »

EternalData wrote: post #53

I always love technological solutions that ease the path forward to meaningful action. I wonder if there's a way to algorithmically determine how a candidate with subpar funding could beat somebody established with many more (a playbook of kinds). That would be the next step forward -- sure, you can run, but it flips the dynamic when you're smart about running to win.

Yes to all of this. There are algorithms to be applied, we just need more/better data to fine tune them. Of course, it's politics, so it's more art than science, but there is a lot to be uncovered with patterns. Great thought.

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#159

Post by jimterrapin »

CM30 wrote: post #60

Interesting idea for a site. However, is there a version of this for people in countries outside of the US? Because as someone in the UK, I'd love to know what elected offices I'd be elligible to run for over here. And I'm sure people in places like Canada, Australia, France, etc would be interested in a similar site for their country as well. Still, seems pretty neat so far.

Ha! Thank you for mentioning that. There is an Open Data org in Canada that we've been working with, and we are also assembling the GIS data for the UK. Hope to have it within the year.

Re: Run for Office: Find all elected offices you are eligible to run for

#160

Post by jimterrapin »

CM30 wrote: post #60

Interesting idea for a site. However, is there a version of this for people in countries outside of the US? Because as someone in the UK, I'd love to know what elected offices I'd be elligible to run for over here. And I'm sure people in places like Canada, Australia, France, etc would be interested in a similar site for their country as well. Still, seems pretty neat so far.

Ha! Thank you for mentioning that. There is an Open Data org in Canada that we've been working with, and we are also assembling the GIS data for the UK. Hope to have it within the year.
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