[Red Badger]

All they really had to do was cross-reference several databases with ordinary computers.

Voter Registration Database

County Property Appraiser’s Residential Addresses and Owners Database

County Coroner’s Death Certificate Database

County Building Permits Database of permits issued but not yet built and occupied addresses............

[Carry_Okie]

All they really had to do was cross-reference several databases with ordinary computers.

I would hazard that by no means all the thousands of jusrisdictions involved have the same data structures and formatting.

It's a big job. I'm glad somebody is attacking it.

[Rockingham]

What you describe is easy in concept as a matter of relational databases and link analysis but hard and expensive in execution. Computer equipment and software, and tech, analytical, and organizational skills are required. Moreover, even in well-maintained databases, data is always dirty to some degree, with errors in format and details of the record entries.

In practice, commercial data vendors make a good living from acquiring and cleaning up raw data from many sources around the country. And they are willing to provide access to that data -- for a price. Even then, for the project at hand, some unique, non-commercial political data sets still have to be found, acquired, cleaned up, and processed for insights.

In the end, it comes down to not just computers and software, but also time, talent, and cash.