Machine tallies are posted in each Newton polling place a few minutes after polls close. Wouldn’t it be nice if the results could be online a few minutes later? They can be.
I’ve developed online forms to crowdsource election results. Someone with a smartphone can type the results into the form at the polling place and — boom! — the results will be posted here on your electronic village.
But, the effort requires a crowd. Wanna help?
Are you going to be near a polling place around 8 on election night? Do you have a smartphone or cameraphone? Volunteer here.
Fantastic idea Sean. And a great opportunity for some of our Village 14 regulars to get out of their pjs and contribute for one night.
Great idea Sean. Now I just have to find someone who’s willing to swap my stupidphone for their smartphone for a night.
Nice! I’m sure this will make reporting easier, and save the city clerk from late-night calls from reporters looking for results. But then, if a reporter isn’t scrambling around on election night, they must be doing something wrong 🙂
But that would be a step in the wrong direction for Newton. We already are posting intermediate results and have the finalunofficial results online well before any other municipality.
@Joe: How it is “a step in the wrong direction.” Campaigns do this all the time. No one is suggesting that this would be official.
From my experience there are always a few wards that come in much later (an hour or more) than others. In this age of instant gratification, what wrong with a group of local activists working together and taking advantage of technology to share information?
We did this for the Mayor. The people that had the duty of waiting inside polling places got the last official numbers after the location was officially closed, we phoned them in to Deb Shah. They knew way in advance what was going on, but it was so close no one would celebrate until it was made official. It’s a great idea.