So I put in my request for the Albany County Voter file 📂 with the state board today.

So I put in my request for the Albany County Voter file 📂 with the state board today.

They have an online form makes it super easy, you just give them a name and address along with attesting it will be used exclusively for electoral purposes. 🖋

I’m always a little nervous about signing any kind of public document 📄 like that relating to politics and I’m sure I run the risk of getting called into the big bosses office and asked what I’m doing requesting voter data. No I’m not planning on running for office or even immediately going to work as a consultant.

I noticed that Facebook is asking if I want to be friends with the State Election Democratic Commissioner. 👥 Getting checked out I think. Probably wondering why I’m requesting when I haven’t filed petitions to run for office. Some people probably think I’m really conservative with my gadsden flag. But I’m more of Hillbilly Libertarian who has voted for plenty of Democrats and voluntered and worked on a ton of their campaigns. But maybe I’m paranoid but I do shit like that reviewing public records and social media all day as the Deputy Research director.

But assuming my request is approved, I have some big plans for the data. 🗳 I want to use it to build a predictive model of actual election results based on the age, gender and party of who showed up to vote using machine learning. Sample 70% of the 316 County Election Districts and test the model on the remaining districts. 🔎 Then take the model and impute to actual voters. 📊 It would be interesting to see if I could predict how individual voters voted in the past and then use it as a model for future elections. Like I’ve done for years with campaign plans only this time with better more detailed analysis.

If the results seem promising I will talk to some of my trusted friends in politics 🐴 – some who are actually in office – and see if they could benefit from the model I build. Local campaigns rarely have polls so it’s hard to target 🎯 or drive then out based on polling but this method is essentially free. Not looking to sell my model or services but if I get skills, references and resume things it’s a win.

Some people truly enjoy politics. I don’t beyond the numbers game and the occasional October door to door. 🚪 Or call voters and stuff envelopes to help out friends win their local race. ✉ I do what I do for work but I would never want to run or hold office myself. 🧑🏻‍💼 Usually when I get involved on anything public it comes back to bite me. 👾

With my growing knowledge of the R statistical programming language and data science, I have big dreams on how I could help local candidates use data science for better targeting and pulling out of voters. But first I need real data to learn on and build the models 🔢 in my head that could some day make for more effective campaigns. My goal in life is to own pigs and goats and have fires, not public office or appointed to anything.