Day: August 30, 2022

Nowadays, almost everyone knows the importance of voting, even in midterm and local elections. After all, our votes help determine the direction of our country. 

However, researching and choosing a candidate, physically voting, and getting our selected candidates into office can be complex and confusing, especially in this climate of increased gerrymandering. One app has been developed and unleashed to help guide people through the muddy waters of voting, and keep people informed and poised to make good decisions that speak to their best interests. 

Developed by tech experts and co-founders Sara Gifford, Victor Allis (CEO), and Paul-Erik Raué (CTO), ActiVote is a nonpartisan application that allows voters to organize and plan their voting.

Solving the Problem of Why People Don’t Vote 

Through their initial research, Gifford and her team discovered that people often fail to vote for several reasons. Many found voting too difficult, claiming that they feel separated from the campaigns and valuable information about candidates. Voting can be very time-consuming, especially with new mandates that have made mail-in/absentee voting more difficult in some states. Moreover, some people are still unaware of when voting occurs, particularly with primary elections which, in some areas, can be critical in determining the trajectory of a political landscape. Even more still get confused by the procedures and system surrounding the voting process. 

The ActiVote app was explicitly designed to take some of the mystery out of the voting process, allowing voters to not only gather information about candidates and races, but find out where voting is taking place and how to register and physically vote. The app cuts through all of the noise that often crops up surrounding an election cycle and presents information in a clear-cut and accessible manner. 

“We wanted to be a one-stop shop that’s for voters, not campaigns, to offer them simple, consumable information. It’s like the Duolingo of democracy,” says Gifford. 

And much like Duolingo’s language-learning mobile app, Gifford is hopeful that ActiVote will significantly increase political literacy and understanding in the United States, leading to more active participation in our democracy.

The ActiVote app is designed to be easy and accessible. Users input their home addresses and are given access to all local, state, and national elections they are eligible to vote in. Voters can see where their polling places are located and find out whether they are able to vote by mail and how. The app sends notification alerts, so users never miss an election — no matter how local. 

Daily Democracy 

The ActiVote app also focuses on building habits, not just disseminating one-time bite-sized morsels of political information. Through #DailyDemocracy, app users will be given one small action a day to help them build their “political muscle.” The hope is that these small actions will lead to more active and engaged voters. 

“Confidence inspires action, and we aim to create confidence in the electoral process,” explains Gifford. 

Taking just one minute a day, #DailyDemocracy allows users to add their voice to the public discourse, support candidates with whom they agree, and find others who feel the same way they do about important issues. Prompts are sent with questions regarding policy. Users can see where they fall on the political matrix by answering questions, and they can even rank candidates and see instant poll results within the app. With connections to social media accounts and friends, users can even encourage others to vote and participate in local, state, and federal elections.

This active involvement serves to empower the electorate to educate themselves. Users can earn badges for increased engagement and inspire other users with digital lawn signs, answering questions about policies, and overall increases in civic engagement through the app. 

An Educated and Informed Electorate 

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “An enlightened citizenry is indispensable for the proper functioning of a republic.” This notion still holds true today. 

ActiVote internal research found that, following its release in 2019, the ActiVote app successfully got infrequent voters to the polls. Their metrics showed that, within the non-frequent voter cohort, people who engaged with their app were 33% more likely to vote. With critical issues on the ballots and incredibly close races happening at all levels — from school boards to the Oval Office — every vote counts. 

The way politicians and grassroots campaign canvassers try to get out the vote and spread information often involves some very old-school tactics. While going door-to-door to stump for a candidate can be marginally effective, this method is time-consuming, costly, and may ruffle some feathers. By putting all the information in one place and allowing people to access that information on their own terms and at a time most convenient to them, the chances of influencing that educated elector to vote increase. 

ActiVote gives people all of the necessary information to educate themselves in the palm of their hands. “It’s on their terms, and we are providing nonpartisan, factual, unbiased information,” says Gifford.

While there is no singular solution to increasing the number of people who get to the polls, the founders of ActiVote see a bright future for their app’s influence on the electorate. Gifford sees the app as buoying our democracy. “Democracy is at its best when as many people as possible participate.”