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by CivBase 1956 days ago
How is this not already a public resource offered by the US federal government? Surely it would be trivial to require states to collect and report their election data to the fed using a standardized schema.
4 comments

Elections are the responsibility of the individual states, so right there there’s at 51 entities with their own data sets. Of course, in many states, elections are handled at county level, so that’s more entities involved. And at least in my state, individual precincts may have different voting systems, within a single county.

Basically, it’s a decentralized mess.

It can stay a decentralized mess. All the federal government has to do is require states to collect and report specific data in a specific format. They don't have to take over the election process. Apparently the states are already keeping records of that data since this project was able to reach 100% for the 2016 election, so they're already half way there.
How much do you want to be taxed for this service? We got it from strangers for $25,000 in 2 months. I'm guessing it would be slightly more if dictated by statute.
"The fed" does not mean "the federal government." "The Fed" means Federal Reserve.
Yeah, sorry. Hopefully it was clear what I meant in context.
>How is this not already a public resource offered by the US federal government?

Because the Constitution protects how States run their elections from federal restrictions/requirements.