{"id":37476,"date":"2016-03-15T12:11:22","date_gmt":"2016-03-15T17:11:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=37476"},"modified":"2016-03-15T12:11:59","modified_gmt":"2016-03-15T17:11:59","slug":"vote-informed-ballotready-stresses-local-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/vote-informed-ballotready-stresses-local-races\/","title":{"rendered":"Vote informed: BallotReady stresses local races"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Harvard Zhang<\/strong><\/p>\n

Are you voting for someone because you think he or she has a cool name? Or it’s the first person on the ballot? Do you ever guess for offices further down the sheet or simply leave blanks?<\/p>\n

In this big election year, a pair of online services want to empower you with free, nonpartisan candidate information for each race so that you can vote confidently — and not just for president.<\/p>\n

Voter’s Edge<\/a> covers elections in California, Illinois and New York. It’s a project of Berkeley, Calif.-based MapLight, a not-for-profit tracking money in politics.<\/p>\n

More ambitiously, a Chicago-based online voter guide<\/a> actually hopes to make money with its service.
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cLearning about your local elected officials is a gateway to becoming more knowledgeable about what is going on in your community,\u201d BallotReady Inc. CEO Alex Niemczewski said. \u201cIt could be motivating for people to take action on the things they care about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cutting its teeth on the Chicago mayoral runoff and two state elections in Kentucky and Virginia last year, the for-profit startup is riding the tides of this election year to attract more voters to use\u00a0its service. The four-person company is raising initial capital, and looking ahead to business expansion and profitability based on Democracy 101 \u2013 the representation of voters\u2019 opinions.<\/p>\n

Enter your ZIP code, address and which party\u2019s ballot you\u2019d like to see on BallotReady\u2019s website, and you can compare each candidate\u2019s profile including experience, education and stances on issues. More than 40,000 web surfers have used the website to ready their ballots in the past month.<\/p>\n

\"BALLOT-2\"<\/p>\n

Snapshot of BallotReady’s website, which provides candidate information in Illinois primary election.<\/div>\n

Illinois has 7.5 million, or 74 percent of state residents age 18 and over who have voted in the past four years, according to\u00a0 nonpartisan advocacy group Illinois Campaign for Political Reform. The average voter turnout for Illinois primaries was a low 22 percent from 2008 to 2014, and 54 percent for general elections in the same time frame. Those who vote are BallotReady\u2019s current target audience.<\/p>\n

Illinois voter turnout<\/h2>\n

[field name=”chart”]<\/p>\n

Voter turnout averaged 22 percent and 54 percent in Illinois primaries and general elections from 2008 to 2014, respectively. (Harvard Zhang\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

BallotReady, funded by organizations including the University of Chicago Institute of Politics with a total $140,000, is currently\u00a0striving to raise $750,000 in a seed round until May to operate through 2017, according to CEO Niemczewski.<\/p>\n

Boulder, Colo.-based startup investment accelerator MergeLane LLC is leading the initial capital raising, which will\u00a0pay expenses including content collection, website maintenance, marketing and salaries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll cover one primary in a new state every month through September, and seven states this November,\u201d Niemczewski said. \u201cIn the long run, we want to cover every candidate in every race in every election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Profitability and privacy<\/h2>\n

BallotReady is banking on\u00a0its belief that voters want the officials they elect to represent their viewpoints. Not\u00a0profitable yet,\u00a0the firm is\u00a0focusing on enlarging the user base. The company plans to aggregate data on the issues voters care about and sell the data to analytics firms and work with campaigns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe market size of campaign spending is big enough that it\u2019ll be more of an opportunity and more sustainable to run as a for-profit than relying on foundation support,\u201d Niemczewski said. \u201cWe plan to do online surveys in the fall to get voters\u2019 feedback on candidates\u2019 policy proposals and sell that back to the campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BALLOT-1\"<\/p>\n

From left to right, BallotReady’s Director of Content Sebastian Ellefson, Chief Executive Officer Alex Niemczewski, and Chief Operating Officer Aviva Rosman.(Heidi Zeiger\/Heidi Zeiger Photography)<\/div>\n

But some voters are concerned about their privacy. \u201cI don\u2019t like the idea of pandering and commodifying my personal data,\u201d said Andrew Catalfamo, 29, a sales and support representative in a supply company who voted Sunday at Pottawattomie Park in Chicago\u2019s 49th Ward in Rogers Park.<\/p>\n

Candidates\u2019 campaign ads in their BallotReady profile\u00a0are also considered. Niemczewski\u00a0said that\u00a0when they tried out\u00a0campaign ads in Kentucky\u2019s election last fall, the company received only positive feedback from users, because, she said,\u00a0voters like seeing how candidates represent themselves.<\/p>\n

Presidency and more<\/h2>\n

The problem BallotReady tries to solve is voters skipping or guessing for offices further down the ballot because it is time-consuming to glean information on dozens of non-presidential candidates who don\u2019t have much new coverage, and many people have little interest in politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe dominant, top-of-the-ticket, most interesting and most important race is the presidency,\u201d said Brian Gaines, a political science professor at the University of Illinois. \u201cIf someone is really excited about a particular race, presidential or the state\u2019s attorney or something, votes in that and skips the others, they\u2019re still taking part in the realm of politics that is salient to them and has caught their attention. I think that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

But BallotReady\u2019s starting point is \u201clocal elected officials matter,\u201d Niemczewski said. \u201cThey control the quality of our water, they decide on school funding and whether to open or close mental health clinics, and they control how much taxes we pay. It\u2019s hard to get information on them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Considering the current fiscal issues troubling Illinois and the Laquan McDonald shooting plaguing Chicago among other issues unnerving the nation,\u00a0some voters reflected on why they go to the polls in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think voting is a right, it\u2019s a civic duty, and I\u2019ve voted in almost every single election since I was 18,\u201d said Linda Lynch, 57, a programmer analyst who voted Sunday at Pottawattomie Park. \u201cThink about all those countries where people cannot vote, and how excited they become when they first cast their ballots.\u201d<\/p>\n

BallotReady Inc., a for-profit online voter guide company, helps you to vote informed and confidently with its free, nonpartisan candidate information. (Theresa Thompson<\/a>\/Flickr)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Harvard Zhang Are you voting for someone because you think he or she has a cool name? Or it’s the first person on the ballot? Do you ever guess for offices further down the sheet or simply leave blanks? 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