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Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

whoaremyrepresentatives.org

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Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#81

Post by afarrell »

kingosticks wrote: post #71
afarrell wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing for the ACA individual mandate? I moved abroad in the middle of this year and cancelled my US health insurance when I became eligible for NHS care. I'm realising now that there isn't a way to get a 1095-B from a government-run healthcare system that isn't in the US. Should I just pay the penalty for not having health insurance in the UK?

Forgive my ignorance but why is there a penalty and who is it due to?

There is a penalty for not having a minimum standard of health coverage and it is due to the IRS.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#82

Post by padobson »

I got my list and was pleased to see things like Auditor and Coroner, but why no state senator or state representative?

There's also no judicial branch to be found, which may not matter much for the Federal Supreme Court, because they're appointed, but just about every jurisdiction I fall under, State Supreme, State Appeals, Local Criminal, Local family, has an elected judge.

Judges tend to be a major source of ballot fatigue, because nobody knows who they are. You could argue that's a good thing, because then only informed voters are selecting them, but you could also argue that it's a bad thing, because only the self-interested are voting for them.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#83

Post by deftnerd »

epoch_100 wrote: post #7
coreyp_1 wrote: post #2

Why does it ask for your address? Just entering your zip code is sufficient to obtain a list. Are they harvesting the address data for some reason?

A sysadmin of Politiwatch here (non-profit that made the site). We're not harvesting your data. In fact, we nuke it right after we serve the request. We're super privacy conscious. Regardless, we ask for the address as well as zip because in many areas, a ZIP is not sufficient to gather detailed data, as an official may represent one part of a ZIP code and not another. Politiwatch, the non-profit that made WhoAreMyRe…

Would it be possible to provide this data, based on the address, via a JSON API?

I had goals to eventually to build a site that was similar but also shows political leanings and term length and when the next election for that position was going to occur. The desire is to build the core of a grassroots "run for elected seats" web service.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#86

Post by ytjohn »

jonknee wrote: post #39

Really useful, love the idea. There may be some data troubles though, I looked up myself and found that the Twitter link for Senator Maria Cantwell goes to a porn account, not her actual profile. Yikes!

Today you have learned something new about your Senator.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#88

Post by ytjohn »

chewyfruitloop wrote: post #48
grzm wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Keep in mind you may be on the border of a district. Your neighbor and you may not be in the same district. Likely won't make a difference, but it may. Maybe check multiple neighbors.

nothing like a nice honest bit of gerrymandering

Eventually, they will be so efficient at gerrymandering that they will be able to redraw districts live as people register to vote.

Re: Enter your address and find out everyone who represents you in U.S. government

#90

Post by pcwalton »

DrScump wrote: post #21
coreyp_1 wrote: post #2

Why does it ask for your address? Just entering your zip code is sufficient to obtain a list. Are they harvesting the address data for some reason?

Oh, yikes. It's much more complicated than that, especially to get localized offices and districts. I used to create voter data systems for candidates (clear back to when the data was available only on 9-track drives!), and it was quite a learning experience. CA, for example, has become so carefully gerrymandered that one of the buildings in my neighborhood is split between Assembly districts. It gets worse, or more…

> CA, for example, has become so carefully gerrymandered that one of the buildings in my neighborhood is split between Assembly districts.

Is that still true now with the Citizens Redistricting Commission?

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