BallotReady, a new nonpartisan online voter guide to local elections, is providing its first-in-the-nation pilot for the Kentucky election. Backed by David Axelrod and the National Science Foundation, BallotReady’s mission is to make it easy to vote informed on every candidate on the ballot.
“Nationally, over 30% of voters show up at the voting booth but fail to complete their entire ballot,” said BallotReady co-founder and CEO Alex Niemczewski. “Right now it’s almost impossible to enter the voting booth fully prepared. I founded BallotReady because I believe that every elected official matters.”
BallotReady aggregates information from candidate websites, endorsing organizations, and boards of election – this fall, students at Eastern Kentucky University volunteered their time to research and enter content on candidates. Using this information, a voter can then compare candidates based on what they care about, save their ballot to their phone, and enter the voting booth prepared.
“This promises to be a game changer for the many local races that too many people just vote for by guessing,” said Niemczewski. “While there’s a high profile governor’s race going on in Kentucky, many people are still undecided about the five other positions on the ballot.” Niemczewski said she hopes BallotReady will help Kentucky voters feel confident in their vote and enable them to complete their entire ballot this November.
About BallotReady: BallotReady, www.ballotready.org, is an online voter guide to local elections. Less than a year old, BallotReady was founded in partnership with the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. The startup’s bipartisan board includes former presidential advisor David Axelrod (D) and former Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood (R). BallotReady has received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and from winning first place in Chicago Booth’s Social New Venture Challenge.
How to use the guide:
Go to www.ballotready.org
Click FIND MY BALLOT
Enter your address — the one on your voter registration
Select the OFFICE one at a time to see the candidates.See all the candidates and get their background information.
Find out what each candidate says about the issues by clicking from those listed.
Use this guide to be informed — and know what to expect — so you can vote for every race in tomorrow’s election.
Reviewing the site it seems a little sparse on down ticket races. Also, it tends to favor incumbents (and heavily those that have run for multiple offices, i.e. Grimes) that may have more information on the internet. Future endeavors may want to include some type of questionnaire to candidates to ensure all information is garnered. Great idea but still lacking in execution. Hopefully its full potential can be realized by the 2016 election cycle.