Electionland: the most important data journalism project this year

While America goes to the polls, a group of data journalists, fact-checkers, reporters and social media experts gather in a room at CUNY in New York. The purpose: to monitor in real-time voting issues around the country. It’s a huge project – you can see some of the results as they happen here. I’m also lucky enough to be part of it (you can read more about what our team did here).

Data journalism is often abstract and analytical — which is, let’s face it — part of the appeal in bringing hard facts to bear on emotional issues. But if voting is about protecting the heart of democracy, then monitoring the data to ensure that everyone gets their vote brings a shaft of humanity to those numbers.