Office of the Indiana Secretary of State. 200 W. Washington St. Indianapolis, IN 46204

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1 Office of the Indiana Secretary of State 200 W. Washington St. Indianapolis, IN Title of Program/Project: Who Are Your Elected Officials? Category: Information Communications Technology (ICT) Innovations Name of Project Lead: Mallory Wilson Contact Information: or State: Indiana Project Initiation and Completion Dates: Project implementation began in December of 2009 and was completed in September of 2010.

2 Executive Summary: The Who Are Your Elected Officials? was launched in early September The goal of this program was to provide an application for the public to find out who their elected officials are without contacting government agencies or departments. The parties involved in creating this website were united in finding a simple, easy-to-use solution for citizens to contact their elected officials. With such great collaboration, the State of Indiana has been able to assemble an application like none other. With over 12,000 elected officials in the Who Are Your Elected Officials? application, it is an extremely useful tool for the public in collecting contact information regarding their elected officials. The website is a one-stop-shop for all elected officials in the State of Indiana from, governor down to school board member. This program provides the citizens of Indiana with instant access to elected officials, improving their ability to communicate with their representatives at all levels. Many of the elected officials websites are linked to the application, allowing the user to easily access additional information such as legislation the representative is supporting. By providing the people of Indiana with instant access to their elected officials, we are creating an engaged and informed electorate, the key to a successful democracy. The Who Are Your Elected Officials web application may be found here: and it is also available as a mobile app for iphones and android devices. (Below) A screenshot (without results) of the Who Are Your Elected Officials? website for the State of Indiana.

3 Business Problem and Solution Description Government agencies were experiencing a high volume of calls from constituents asking the same question, Who are my elected officials? due to the lack of centralized access to this information. The State of Indiana wanted to create a database which would give constituents quick and easy access to information about their elected officials on the federal, state and even local levels. The Who Are Your Elected Officials website was the solution. The website is a one-stop-shop for all elected officials in the State of Indiana from governor down to school board member. Every visit to the website is one less phone call or being sent to a government employee to find out information about an elected official. By allowing users to access this information online, it reduces the time it takes users to obtain this information and allows them to access it 24 hours a day. Since time is money, this application saves taxpayers money by reducing the time government employees spend answering the same question Who are my elected officials? Users can view an interactive map that identifies the boundaries of an elected official s district. WAYEO utilizes Geographic Information System (GIS) technology and county precinct information to create and all-inclusive map highlighting an area represented by an elected official. Many challenges were faced during the creation of the website. Since the database includes information from the federal level down to school board members, there were some difficulties in gathering the information. The office relied on information from county clerks offices, which serve as the central location for information on candidate filings, resignations, deaths, and other changes regarding local offices. Maintaining and updating the information contained in the Who Are Your Elected Officials website is an ongoing challenge. The state cannot be aware of every change made on the school board or township level. However, county officers have been assigned a login and password and they are able to update their county s list of elected officials every time a change occurs.

4 Significance With over 12,000 elected officials in the Who Are Your Elected Officials? application, it is an extremely useful tool for the public in collecting contact information regarding their elected officials. State officials and county clerks offices across the state are receiving fewer phone calls from the public requesting contact information for their elected officials. Since its release in September 2010, the website has received over 122,000 visits. Spikes in traffic are related to events such as elections and when the President informs the citizens to contact their elected officials. Please note the increased traffic leading up to Election Day. On November 5 th, 2012, there were 4,375 visits in a single day. The website is a one-stop-shop for all elected officials in the State of Indiana whether it is a senator, governor, county commissioner, mayor or school board member. Every visit to the website is one less phone call or being sent to a government employee to find out information about an elected official. By allowing users to access this information online, it increases its accessibility by being available 24 hours a day. Since time is money, this application saves taxpayers money by reducing the time government employees spend answering the same question Who are my elected officials? The screenshot on the next page shows how the results for federal, state, county, township, municipal, and school board information is organized once the user inputs their address or clicks on the map.

5 If a user has a question regarding the website, there is a feedback button that allows the user to a member of the support team for additional support. All questions are addressed within a few hours of submission. (Right) Since this information is dynamic in nature, county clerks and members of the Secretary of State s office have the ability to edit the data as needed. All changes are immediately made effective.

6 Benefits of the Project This program provides the citizens of Indiana with instant access to elected officials, improving their ability to communicate with their representatives at the federal, state and local level. Many of the elected officials addresses are linked to the application, allowing the user to quickly and easy contact their representative. By providing the people of Indiana with instant access to their elected officials, we are creating an engaged and informed electorate, the key to a successful democracy. This innovative tool is also saving taxpayers money. Government employees are spending less time researching constituents representatives, allowing them to utilize their time on other projects or task to serve the public. Local governments are no longer burdened with deploying their own applications to disseminate elected officials contact information. This reduces the costs involved for the other government branches since they don t need to create, maintain and monitor a website. Instead, they can provide a link to the Who Are Your Elected Officials? on their website to encourage the public to obtain the information through the application. This application also saves time for the constituent who is trying to find the information. Often, the public may not know their elected officials or each office s responsibility, which makes it nearly impossible to find the correct elected official. By searching using the constituent s home address, the information for the elected official serving that area is listed in an easily consumable format. The application is simplistic in design and is able to serve any user. By simply typing in an address or selecting a location on the map, all elected officials from the President of the United States to local school board members are retrieved. Users of the application are able to download reports in Microsoft Excel format. In closing, since the site has become operational there have been 144,308 visits (as of May 2013.) Each visit has an average of 1 minute in length. That equates to over 2,400 hours that the site has been used. If a phone call had been placed in lieu of a visit to this site, that phone call would have been approximately 5-10 minutes in length as the person would spend time explaining what information they needed and then waiting for the employee to find that information.