"We felt like, as a company that tries to improve information access, it was a space that could use our support."

-- Ginny Hunt

Voters who "Google" their polling place later today will find a new tool just released by the search engine to help answer voters' basic questions about where and how to vote. Ahead of the launch of this new feature, NationalJournal.com Managing Editor Lucas Grindley interviewed Ginny Hunt, a D.C.-based Google spokeswoman who works with the team responsible for developing election coverage. Edited excerpts follow. Visit the archives page for more Insider Interviews.

Q. What should voters expect to see when this new tool launches?

Hunt: Later today we will be displaying 50 states' polling location information on Google, so when voters go to Google and search for where to vote in their state they'll be prompted to a Google map that shows them their voting location based upon their home address.

It will also be triggered from "where to vote" and, you know, "Tennessee," which will then prompt you to enter your address. And when you do so, it will take you to a map that lists your polling place, also registration information and early vote information. If you go now to maps.google.com/vote, you'll see the information there without the polling places, which are coming later today.

Q. When I read about Google's work with the Voting Information Project, there was no plan to do all 50 states. Is that new?

Hunt: Correct. We're working with state and local election officials as well as the League of Women Voters. And we're working in two forms of information.

One, is we worked with secretaries of state to standardize their information, because what we realized during the process of this project was that the lack of standardization across counties and states as it relates to election information prevented a lot of development -- and development of applications -- because so much of the time was spent standardizing the information rather than innovating.... Our goal for the standard was to have five to eight states set up this year with standard information that was also in a feed, which would allow for any updates to the information to be automatically sent through the data feed. So we do have a core group of states that are participating in that project this year, which will expand in future cycles.

At the same time, we're also working to gather information online and with the League of Women Voters to provide information for all 50 states.

Q. And anyone can use this standard?

Hunt: Correct. It's open. It was developed through our open-source team.

Q. During the last election cycle did you all observe a demand for this information that you are now acting on?

Hunt: We did. Both in 2004 and 2006 -- and also in the primary -- we saw big spikes on Google Trends and on search for people looking for information on how to register, if they were registered and where to vote. It was those spikes in searches that prompted us to examine the problem. And so what we found was, even if users could be pointed to sources of information, there was a way to sort of simplify the process. And we felt like, as a company that tries to improve information access, it was a space that could use our support.

Q. How are you promoting this new feature?

Hunt: We will be letting the campaigns and the party committees know about the service. We have an embeddable form of the application, as well. It's just a simple search box that anyone can put on their Web site. And we are hoping that will make access to the information much easier across the Web. The interest isn't just in helping voters that only happen to come to Google but voters who are going to their local newspaper online or who are going to a blog.

Q. Will advertising be sold to candidates or groups around this information?

Hunt: No, the project is part of our public sector team. It's not part of our revenue team. So we are not monetizing the project.

Q. This could be just a first step toward election coverage for Google. What do you think it will look like the next presidential election?

Hunt: It will be interesting to think ahead. What we are really saying is that once you have a skeleton of information with precincts and who's on the ballot, there is a lot of information it can link to and be much richer in terms of what voters can access. We'd love to see a situation where you could enter your address and all of a sudden you see everyone who is on the ballot and what they have done while they're in office and where they stand on positions. Hopefully, the depth of information that is accessible will be much more robust in future cycles. And also, I think the work of citizens to make that information available has been exciting to see both in video and in text; hopefully that will expand, as well, in future cycles.

Q. Any chance that Google will help to standardize delivery of the election results? There are so many different standards.

Hunt: We haven't thought about it in terms of standardizing, no. It could logically flow from the secretaries of states; however, we are trying to take a small bite out of the apple.... We are going to have a continued conversation after November 4 with leaders in this space to figure out what can we collectively do to make this information more accessible.

Q. A description on the Voting Information Project's Web site made an interesting point. They said, "By proactively 'pushing' voting information out to voters through information providers, rather than waiting for voters to call or visit their offices, election officials will likely experience considerable savings in staff time and resources." How else could government "push" information to save time and resources?

Hunt: I think there are many ways, even beyond elections. You can see certain state officials are starting to push out more information as it relates to their budgets and spending. I think that the model of being more proactive in distribution is something that, hopefully, the new administration will adopt more thoroughly in all aspects -- rather than being reactive in waiting for someone to request, that they post information actively and update it. So I think that it applies in all sectors of public information.

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