This year, for the first time in American history, there was a free source of polling place data for all 50 states, open and available to all. Over 600 organizations, from Rock the Vote to Mobile Commons, Facebook to Foursquare, political parties to local news sites, all used the same data to serve their constituents. Millions of Americans used those tools to find their polling location.

Yes, you heard right - they were using the same data. It was provided by the Voting Information Project (VIP), one of the nominees for this year's Most Valuable Tech Award. We want to know what technology helped you this year!

Nominate the most innovative tools for a Most Valuable Tech Award.

Every year, technology is developed (or improved upon) that creates opportunities for organizers. But new technology doesn't come about easily. The VIP data took nearly two years to compile, and involved hundreds of people (including members of NOI's staff). So how did it all happen?

In 2008, Google and the Pew Center for the States partnered to create a free, 50-state database for polling place information, forming the Voting Information Project. NOI joined to facilitate the data collection and processing. Organizers worked with election officials in 20 states, who provided a central source of data. For the remaining 30 states, VIP organizers at NOI gathered data by calling hundreds of local election offices, collecting thousands of pages of data in varying formats. That information was crunched, standardized and cross checked by a team of data warriors, until they accomplished their goal: an accurate, free source of polling location information for 50 states.

The Voting Information Project is one nominee for the Most Valuable Tech award. But this isn't the only advancement this year that supported organizers in the field. What tools were the most important game-changers in 2010? Nominate your favorite for the Most Valuable Tech Award.

In 2010, we're presenting Most Valuable Organizing Awards in four categories: Organizer, Campaign, Tech, and #FAIL. By submitting a nomination, you're celebrating the dedication that so often goes unrecognized. And you're helping us find some of the most exciting work in our movement, which will help us to support organizers in the coming years. The Top 3 in each category will be announced and voted on at National RootsCamp in Washington, DC on December 11-12. RSVP to be there!

Photo by newbiemind shared under Creative Commons license.