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Phones App Shows Political Leanings By Location

Posted by timothy on from the spectrum-issues-make-it-impractical-in-europe dept.

An anonymous reader writes "This phone-enabled, java-app, Red | Blue, allows the user to identify the political leanings of their current location. "By taking your current location, and finding the nearest individual donors of campaign funds from the publicly available data from the Federal Elections Commission, red | blue is able to provide you an accurate reading of the political leanings of your surroundings -- red for Republican or blue for Democrat.""

2 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Political Leaning != Total Value of Donations by stomv · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The two phrases simply don't mean the same thing. Sure, it might be an indicator... but you know what is an even bigger indicator? Finding out how that particular voting precinct leaned in aggregate on the most recent presidential, senate, and house voting.

    Financial donations to political parties are a subset of political donations (PACs, volunteer time, etc). However, since its votes that count, and voting information is public, why not just use that?

    Or, why not use an accurate title to the thread?

    --
    Support a few technologists in Washington.
  2. Re:Find donors here by bmetzler · · Score: 2, Interesting
    how was I to know that my personal info would end up in a publicly searchable database? That's nobody's business but me, the candidate, and the FEC. Seriously - how is this public

    Keep this in mind the nest time you think that the Freedom of Information Act is a good thing. It comes back to bite you, doesn't it?

    Yes, it's always nice to be able to find dirt of the "bad guys." But when it is your personal information that is involved, Whew! Now it is another story.

    -Brent