Politex

Thinking outside the voting box doesn't always help in finding it

Maybe it's just me, but when I tried out the new QR code printed on my Tarrant County voter's registration certificate this morning in search of my polling place, Smartphone technology once again made me feel dumb.

I scanned in the ubiquitous marbled square that accessed the county's elections site, entered my name, hit a couple of prompts, and voila, no voting location. I tried scrolling up and down, running through the prompts again, but no dice.

Was my Droid the dud? Had my fumbling digits once again failed the digital test?

A quick computer search (faster than the phone) turned up a subsequent page on the county election site that gave me the address of my polling place.

""It's definitely new this year," said Steve Raborn, the Tarrant county elections administrator, as he talked me through the QR steps later. "It's useful, but we really haven't had a lot of feedback about it yet."

Raborn reported later that he had no problems when he tried it on his own phone, and suggested that differences in phones or downloaded QR apps could be responsible.

_Shirley Jinkins

 

 

Think you can redistrict Texas? Try Iowa first

Last week's release of detailed data by the U.S. Census means redistricting has started in earnest in Texas. In the coming months, proposals will start surfacing of how to redraw the state's political boundaries.

In Sunday's paper, we took a look at how technology has reinvented the redistricting process over the last 50 years, starting with the first efforts to use computers to automate redistricting back in the 1960s. The automation never panned out but, by 1990, much of the process had moved over to computers.

This year, free online tools like Dave's Redistricting App and the Public Mapping Project will make it easier for the public to try their hand at redistricting states. In Austin, the Texas Legislative Council also plans to set up public workstations installed with the same redistricting software lawmakers are using.

But no online redistricting program for Texas will be as simple and fun as the one the Des Moines Register has created for Iowa. The newspaper's application not only lets users redraw the state's congressional districts, which need to shrink from five to four, but the online map conveniently pinpoints the homes of Iowa's sitting congressmen, giving political junkies the chance to decide which two incumbents they want to see duke it out for survival in a future election.

Don't expect to see a Texas redistricting program this easy to use. Iowa law prevents congressional districts from dividing up counties. Such is not the case in Texas, where redistricting battles routinely drill down to the street level. That means a digital redistricting program for Texas must be much more detailed and, subsequently, more complicated.

Here's my proposed map for the Hawkeye State. Took me all of five minutes.

You're welcome, Iowa.

-Aman Batheja

 

Keep looking for Politex at the new star-telegram.com

When you visit star-telegram.com on Tuesday, you'll notice that it's been redesigned. The Web site will have a new look, and will be faster and easier to use.

Look for Politex in the Blogs section of the new star-telegram.com homepage.

You can also follow us on Twitter.

-Aman Batheja

Celebrities getting out the vote on YouTube

Don't vote ... actually do.

That's what Leonardo DiCaprio to Sarah Silverman to will.i.am are saying in a public service announcement posted on the Internet on Wednesday.

"I mean, seriously, ... after this whole video — if you're not gonna vote, I don't even know what to say. ... You know you have to vote," Dicaprio says in the video.

The stars encourage viewers to find voting information online using Google Maps' voting information feature and then send the video to five friends.

The 4:45-long video posted on YouTube and other video-sharing Web sites has received just short of 1,000,000 hits if you combine the view count for the official censored and uncensored versions.

The video was produced by DiCaprio's production company and includes 27 celebrities

It's almost as star studded as will.i.am and Jesse Dylan's "Yes We Can" video posted earlier this year. The official version of that video on YouTube has received more than 10,000,000 hits since it was posted in February.

Check it out below. They've also posted an uncensored version here.



-- Andrew Chavez