US Vote API Project Chosen by Ruby for Good – Hack-a-thon

The three-day Ruby for Good hack-a-thon is “dedicated to making the world gooder”. This year the Ruby for Good beneficiaries includes US Vote. The Ruby for Good event brings skilled Ruby programmers from all over the world together and forms teams that take on software projects that will help communities.

The programmers will focus on creating a State Voter Information Data API. This project will entail development of an API and accompanying documentation. The aim of this program is to take data from the already existing US Vote State Voting Requirements directory, Election Dates and Deadlines and Voting Methods and Options databases and make it available to other voter outreach organizations and even states.

Why does this serve the community? US Vote collects and maintains this information from all states and presents it in a clear and accessible format with the aim to share and inform all voters, voter organizations, and even government agencies. It is useful to other organizations to benefit from the information we collect to inform the voters with which they communicate. The Ruby for Good programmers will create a tool (the API) that will enable these interested parties to take this information and use it on their own websites and apps.

The hack-a-thon is held from July 31st until August 2nd at the George Mason University in the DC-metro area. 72 programmers, divided into 15+ teams will be “staying in the dorms and brainstorming, hacking and cooking together in communal areas.” As stated on the Ruby for Good website, sadly, no cats will be attending “to purr program with.”

US Vote wishes all programmers happy hacking and sends you a big thank you!