Look for spelling variants or typos, especially when no other
precinct name is remotely close. The people who typed these things
in were not perfect. Also, slight punctuation differences are
common. For example, 'JONES' BRIDGE' matches 'JONESBRIDGE',
'WARREN' matches 'WAREN', and so forth.
Abbreviations and slightly different wordings are common. For
example, 'SMITH FIRE STA.' matches 'SMITH FIRE STATION', 'JEFFERSON
ELEM. SCH.' goes with 'JEFF. ELEMENTARY SCHOOL', 'BURGESS REC. CTR.'
with 'BURGESS RECREATION CENTER,' etc.
Often two or more precincts will exist with only one corollary
on the other side, e.g., 'PCT 17-A' and 'PCT 17-B' compared to
'PRECINCT 17'. The typical solution is to assume that both of the
variants on the one side are geographical components of the single
precinct on the other, so that they should both get the same MCDGRP.
When you make this assumption, make sure that there are no other
slight differences in the text names that would indicate that the
assumption is invalid, such as if one of the precincts '17' is for a
city ward in the county and the other is for a rural ward in the
county.
If an entire family of precinct names, e.g., 17-A through 17-X,
has the same MCDGRP, and most of them have unique corollaries on the
other side, but one or a few do not, then to those missing
corollaries you can assign the same MCDGRP that all the others have.
Do not do this if the family has different MCDGRP values,
though!
Remember, you can leave
precincts blank! We don't want to do this if we can avoid it,
but if the match is simply not possible, or if a candidate is truly
suspect, then skip it and move on. Just don't do this too often in
a single county, or you will threaten its MCD Group-ing
(see the
exceptions section
below).
Sometimes a given precinct record, either on the Census or PLVD
sides, will contain names for actual precincts that are obviously
different: e.g., 'PRECINCTS 15, 16, & 18'. On the other side you
may see three different rows, e.g., 'PREC 15', 'PREC 16', and 'PREC
18'. You can confidently make this match.
Sometimes acronyms are used, e.g., a 'MOAPA' series on one side
becomes 'MOA' on the other, or 'NORTH LAS VEGAS' becomes 'NLV'. Go
ahead and make the appropriate matches based on obvious acronyms, as
long as they are unique, i.e., there is no other name that would
produce the same acronym by the prevailing acronym-creation scheme
in that county. If they are not unique, then you will have
to skip these kinds of precincts.
Unfortunately, a new problem crops up with every state. Be
flexible, record the problem, your options, and your decision, and
move on, keeping in mind
Rule Number 5 above!
