To: Dale K. Weighill, Governmental Operations Committee Chairperson
From: Domonique Clemons, Genesee County Clerk and Register of Deeds
title
RE: Approval of an agreement between Genesee County and Civera, in an amount not to exceed $41,700.00, to provide for an online searchable historical election results database and statistics tool; the cost of this agreement will be paid from account 1010-215.00-933.001
recommendation
BOARD ACTION REQUESTED:
Approval of an agreement between Genesee County and Civera, in an amount not to exceed $41,700 to provide for online searchable historical election results database and statistics tool.
BACKGROUND:
ElectionStats by Civera is a direct-to-consumer database that allows the elections office to download current and historic election data to our website that can be accessed by the public. This database allows journalists and concerned citizens to access election information without the direct involvement of election staff. It also allows candidates and civic groups to analyze data for information about how to allocate resources for future elections. There currently is no other product like this on the market. The closest comparison is an election night reporting system. ElectionStats is different as it is a storehouse of all past elections that grows with time and is used for longitudinal research and analysis in addition to one-off reference lookups on past elections. No other vendor provides a comprehensive database of current and historical election data that is secure and can be easily accessed by the public. In recent years there has been a large uptick in public information requests from our office for historical election data that can be aggregated. Each public information request is a request for a specific group of data that needs to be gathered, downloaded, and provided to the requestor. The process for gathering this data is a drain on staff resources and they generally happen in the least opportune time, when...
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