| Q: I have voters whose street name starts with a number
that were not found when I located voters. For example, a street is named
20 Mile Level Road (a sample address is 2906 20 Mile Level Rd). The streets
layer has the correct house ranges and the name is spelled the same in both
files, but the voter is not found.
A: Maptitude deals with
most addresses fine, but you have found the exceptional situation -- one
where the street name actually begins with a number. Under normal
circumstances, PM will see the street address 2906 20 Mile Level Rd as 2906
Mile Level Rd (removing the 20). You can get around this with a clever
trick. Maptitude will allow you to create a location index
(Tools-Locate-Index Locations, see pp. 283-285 of the Maptitude User's Guide
for more) for your streets file. The location index can be set up to see
the street number followed by the street name without doing the
standardization (which is what removed the 20). This will create a new file
with an .idx extension that can be used on the records that fall out. The
thing to note, though, is that the addresses in voters file must match the
streets layer exactly. For instance, If your voter file had the address
2906 20 Mile Level Road but the location index [made from the streets file]
had the street as 20 Mile Level Rd, the address WOULD NOT be located.
Again, this is because geocoding using a street index does not standardize
the addresses.
To
use this solution you should do the following:
Create a location index
This should be done every time that you make ANY changes to your street
file.
-
Make a map of the new streets as the only layer.
-
Choose Tools-Locate-Index Locations.
-
On the Settings tab, use All Features, and make sure the Range is set to
Two Ranges.
-
On the Name Fields tab, choose the format Number followed by Street Name.
-
Everything else should be correct, so click OK.
-
Type in a name for the street index and browse to the directory where you
saving your PM data. Click Save.
Use the location index to locate voters
You
should only use the location index to locate voters that cannot be found
with the streets file.
-
Switch to the Location Index by choosing Political-Settings-Streets
and changing Geocode to Choose Index File... and browsing for the file
created above.
-
Click OK to close the settings dbox.
-
Geocode the voters as usual.
-
After geocoding the voters, switch to the streets file by choosing
Political-Settings-Streets and changing Geocode to Use Streets
Layer and browsing for your streets file.
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