Certification - October 2008 - (Page 23)

to the funds raised by Sen. John McCain. There are similar widgets for the congressional candidates. “Often people say, ‘Well, so what if there’s more information? Do people really want more information?’” Newman said. “It’s not so much [that] people will check MAPLight as often as they check the weather report. No, rather journalists, bloggers and active citizens [who] are already the sources of information for their communities will rely on MAPLight and other cutting-edge tools to extract key pieces of information. That power to drill down quickly to get a key connection will revolutionize democracy.” than in 2004, according to Mark Ritchie, Minnesota’s secretary of state. “From our perspective, we already had this great thing called the Polling Place Finder that had 90 percent of the machinery that was necessary,” Lautzenheiser said. “By far, the huge value for the Caucus Finder was recognizing that we had the tools, and with just a few simple applications of the tools and some minor process development, we could really have something that would be worthwhile to the public.” While IT has changed the way information is distributed to Minnesota voters, it has not affected the actual voting process all that much, as direct recording electronics (DREs) are illegal in the state for security reasons. Instead, voters go to the polls, vote on a paper ballot and then insert that ballot into an optical scan machine that then tabulates all the votes at the precinct level. “It’s a system that Minnesotans trust deeply. One result of that trust is that we have the highest voter turnout in the nation,” said Ritchie. “Most states that are looking to find a more dependable, less expensive system find themselves moving toward our approach.” Behind the Scenes IT hasn’t just had an impact on information accessibility; it’s also had an impact on the electoral process. For instance, in Minnesota, technology has affected the way information is distributed to the public, how voters cast their ballots and the way election results are reported. In terms of informing the public, Minnesota provides online information about the electoral process such as what’s on the ballot and where to vote. But this year, Minnesota went above and beyond and devel06STS0011 1/23/06 1:40 PM Page 1 oped the Caucus Finder, which is based on Polling Place Finder, in preparation for caucus season. The application, the first tool of its kind, allowed residents to enter their addressees and find out where all of the political parties in Minnesota were caucusing. To obtain the caucus locations, though, the state had to coordinate with each of the parties. “We gave [the parties] an Excel spreadsheet,” said Ted Lautzenheiser, chief information officer for the secretary of state’s office. “They would fill it out, and then we had the ability to load that into our system. We used DTS [data transformation services] and SSIS [SQL server integration services] packages and SQL server to load the data from Excel. Sometimes, it’s not how technically eloquent the solution is, but are you using a solution that everyone can use?” The tool proved unexpectedly successful, and the state had an unbelievably large turnout for the caucuses, four times more Scientists have determined that we only use 10% of our brains. Make the most of it. There’s only one way to prepare for your next certification exam and that’s with Self Test. It’s the only tool you’ll need to improve your IT IQ. Self Test Software helps you figure out what you know and gives you the answers to what you don’t. Hey, you’re already smart. We help you be smarter. w w w. s e l f t e s t s o f t w a re . c o m · 1 - 8 0 0 - 2 4 4 - 7 3 3 0 © 2006 Kaplan IT, Inc. All rights reserved. SELF TEST SOFTWARE® Kaplan IT, Inc. All rights reserved. be smarter http://caucusfinder.sos.state.mn.us/ http://pollfinder.sos.state.mn.us/ http://www.selftestsoftware.com http://www.selftestsoftware.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Certification - October 2008

Certification - October 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Data Stream Virtual Village Tech Careers Dear Techie Troubleshooting Academic Connection What We Like Look Ahead Elect IT: Technology and the Democratic Process Managing Relationships in the Nonprofit Realm Interface VoIP Technician: Answering the Call of the Network Inside Certification Ad Index Endtag

Certification - October 2008

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