ben, hey, we built a voter registration tool, a tool that helps you get your absentee ballot, and another that helps you check your registration status. later on this year we'll be adding SMS and email election reminders and a polling place locator. the tech itself is pretty straight-forward: we're a rails shop that looks to apply established technologies in new ways to increase voter turnout. that Register to Vote app seems incredibly cool, but I can't quite tell what it does. Are they integrating with the states via API or are they helping you fill out paper forms or something else entirely?
Vote.org is a non-profit that wants to get the US to 100% voter turnout. They're building tech that removes barriers to voting. On Vote.org, you can register to vote, check your voter registration status, or get an absentee ballot. And they're in the S16 batch of YC!
A bit more on me and why I'm working on this. I've been working at the intersection of technology and democracy in some form or another since 2004. My last project -- longdistancevoter.org -- worked to increase turnout by making it easier to vote by absentee ballot. When we started in 2008 only 8% of Americans were voting by mail. In 2014, that number had risen to 25%. My theory of change on increasing voter turnout is pretty simple: more people will vote, and will vote more consistently as voting becomes easier. And technology is the fastest, cheapest, and most effective way per dollar spent to make voting easier. So I'm continuing the work I started under Long Distance Voter under the Vote.org banner. We build easy-to-use tools that guide you through often-times confusing voting processes, save your contact info in our database, and then follow up with you later to make sure you vote.
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Great idea! I would see that working perfectly in other countries too. For example, in France, young adults don't always know how to register for the first time. Also many of them have to go back to their parents city to vote because they didn't re-registered when they moved out.
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