Re: postal code-->electoral district: a free + legal way

Posted by Daniel Haran on
URL: http://civicaccess.416.s1.nabble.com/postal-code-electoral-district-a-free-legal-way-tp1518p1522.html

On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 9:06 AM, Jennifer Bell <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Isn't that a problem with all postal code to electoral district resolvers?
>
> Jennifer

Well, something is definitely fubared with these lists, because they
don't all return the same results.

Technically though, it should be an area overlap. For those postal
codes that overlap 2 or more EDIDs, all possibilities should be
returned in a query.

Otherwise, we mislead a fraction of voters.

d.


> --- On Thu, 1/29/09, Daniel Haran <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
>> From: Daniel Haran <[hidden email]>
>> Subject: Re: [CivicAccess-discuss] postal code-->electoral district: a free +  legal way
>> To: [hidden email], "civicaccess discuss" <[hidden email]>
>> Received: Thursday, January 29, 2009, 8:27 AM
>> The problem there is that it returns the centroid (central
>> point) for
>> the postal code. This works for the majority of postal
>> codes areas
>> that do not overlap electoral districts.
>>
>> d.
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 11:20 PM, Jennifer Bell
>> <[hidden email]> wrote:
>> >
>> > It came out on the changecamp discussion group that
>> there may be a free, legal solution for the postal
>> code->electoral district issue using two services:
>> >
>> > 1. pcode->geocode at geocoder.ca
>> > 2. Cory's geocode->EDID lookup API
>> >
>> > I tried it for my postal code and it worked.  Could be
>> good!
>> >
>> > Original discussion here:
>> >
>> >
>> http://groups.google.com/group/changecamp/browse_thread/thread/5e3e9d3a80cd3465
>> >
>> > Jennifer
>> > http://visiblegovernment.ca
>> >