Presented during the 2022 North Dakota Geospatial Summit in Bismarck, ND, September 14-15.

1. 2022 Elections: Improving voter data &
the citizen experience
Kay Anderson, GISP
GIS Programs Manager
Trevor Christianson
GIS Specialist North Dakota Geospatial Summit, September 2022

2. Abstract
Cass County will once again utilize vote centers for early voting and
election day in the 2022 primary and general election. The GIS
Department have been preparing for the elections ever since the arrival
of the 2020 census data. Since then, they have completed redistricting,
worked with voter lists to ensure voters are placed within the correct
precinct and created a wait times dashboard to improve the citizen
experience. Join us to learn more about how this was achieved.

3. Agenda
• Census
• County Commission Redistricting process
• State Legislative Redistricting – New precincts
• State Legislative Redistricting – Voter file update
• State Legislative Redistricting – Verify voter file
• Voter address data validations and improvements
• Citizen outreach
• Future plans

4. 2020 CENSUS
• Decennial census results delayed by Covid
• Crunched timeline – Raw date delivered 8/12/2021, official results
released 9/16/2021
• County Statute states that redistricting of Commission Districts has to
be complete and filed with Cass County Finance Director by 1/1/2022
• ND legislature approved new legislative boundaries in early
November – new precinct boundaries had to be filed by 12/31/2021

5. County Commission Redistricting
Fall 2021
State Legislative Redistricting: draw precincts
Nov – Dec 2021
State Legislative Redistricting: update voter file
State Legislative Redistricting: verify voter file
Primary Election
June 2022

6. Commission Redistricting
• Meeting of board within 3 months of official census release date
• Must be complete by December 31st
• Directed by County Administrator to present options to County
redistricting board
• October 18, 2021 – Board met to determine if commission
redistricting was required
• November 9th, 2021 – Public hearing with six options presented and
the new boundaries were finalized

7. Total Cass
County
Population:
2010 =
149,778
2020
=184,525

8. To redistrict or not?
• 2020 Cass population:
184,525
• Population Average:
36,905
• Each district must be
within 10% of the
average
• Map presented to the
board

9. Process
Esri Districting extension (ArcMap only) worked with census data and legislative
boundaries to create options
Considerations (Statute 11-07-03):
• Contiguous
• Follow Township lines
• Regular and compact
• As equal in population as possible
(‘cannot vary in population by
more than ten percent from the
average’)
Additional Considerations:
• Metro/urban nature of districts
• Major roads
• Rivers
• Diversion
• City limits & school districts
often not “straight” enough to
follow and change frequently
for extremities of Fargo

12. Six Options presented to the board:
• Option H - Horizontal
• Option N - North
• Option Q - Quadrants
• Option V - Vertical
• Option Y - Year platted
• Option R - Radial
• Option E - Extreme numbers
Citizens were given the ability to vote on options via an Esri Story
Map on the Cass County website

16. The winner was
Option V - Vertical!
• Metro districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 are
oriented vertically (north-south).
District 5 is metro and rural
• District 1 = 39,097 (+5.94%)
Mature neighborhoods
• District 2 = 38,178 (+3.45%)
• District 3 = 37,160 (+0.69%)
• District 4 = 35,146 (-4.77%)
Future growth area
• District 5 = 34,944 (-5.31%)
Future growth area

17. State Legislative Redistricting: New Precincts
• Legislative district changes finalized by North Dakota Legislature in
special session early November 2021- Cass County had changes to
districts
• Elections Coordinator sketched out rough boundary lines using Esri
Web Application Builder application to review count of age 18+
population per census block
• GIS used the Esri Districting extension to work through different
scenarios
• Final precinct boundaries updated in GIS

18. State Legislative Redistricting: Update ND
Voices
• Support Election Coordinator:
oLarge, detailed paper maps
oExcel lists of road names/address ranges
oInteractive Web application for additional verification layer
• Over 7,000 records updated in ND Voices voter database

19. State Legislative Redistricting: verify voter file
• Support election coordinator’s team with the following:
o List of voters in wrong precinct/school district/city jurisdiction
(iterated several times until all records updated)
▪ Repeatable geocoding process
• FME: Prep address points
• FME: Prep voter file
• ArcGIS Pro: Create Address Locator
• ArcGIS Pro: Geocode addresses
• FME: Prep error report

21. Data Preparation – Using Esri & FME tools
• Prepare Address Points - Use NG 911 address point file as input,
spatial join precincts & school districts to use as Geocoding locator
input
• Prepare ND Voices voter file – Clean, normalize data – Produce input
file for ArcGIS Pro Geocode address tool
Voter ID Status Precinct Name
Last Name Residential Address City
Middle Name Residential City School
First Name Residential City
Suffix Residential Zip

22. Prepare Locator and Geocode addresses
Prepare error reports using geocoding results – Spatial join school districts,
precincts, cities and compare. Output GIS & Excel file to share with Finance office

25. Error Examples
• Precinct in voter file is incorrect
• School district in voter file incorrect
• Addressing differences:
o City (Some zip codes are valid for multiple
cities)
o Missing directional suffix in street name
o Zip codes
o One unique address with different precincts
and/or school districts
o Errors were prioritized after discussion with
Finance Office

26. Improving the voter experience - Goals
• Minimize questions for clerks at the polls
• Provide maps for quick verification
• Validate addresses and other attributes
• Ensure each voter is placed in correct precinct and school district
• Ensure correct ballot style allocated to each voter

27. Citizen Outreach
• PDF Maps – Legislative districts & precincts:
• Posted on Cass County website
• Large scale maps provided to district party chairs prior to election
• Large scale maps posted at vote centers
• Wait Times Dashboard – Show current wait times on primary election
day

29. Data updated every 30 mins by poll workers using
Survey 123

30. Overwhelming majority of
views were for mobile
version

31. Future Plans
• General election November exploring:
• Where to vote map
• Who are my elected officials webmap?
• Poll worker applications
• Tracking of ballots, resources etc.
• Election results – Legally must be housed at SOS site
• Further data cleanup in ND Voices required before General Election

32. Thank you for your time!
Questions?
Contact: GIS | Cass County, ND (casscountynd.gov)