{"id":76736,"date":"2019-02-26T17:07:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T23:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=76736"},"modified":"2019-02-26T17:08:52","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T23:08:52","slug":"neal-sales-griffin-launches-interactive-platforms-for-voters-to-compare-candidates-for-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/neal-sales-griffin-launches-interactive-platforms-for-voters-to-compare-candidates-for-mayor\/","title":{"rendered":"Neal S\u00e1les-Griffin launches interactive platforms for voters to compare candidates for mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yixuan Xie
\n<\/strong>Medill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

With the largest field of candidates in Chicago history running for\u00a0 mayor, mayoral candidate Neal S\u00e1les-Griffin created an interactive city budget and searchable questions platforms to help voters make informed decisions on choosing from\u00a0 the 14 candidates on the ballot for Tuesday\u2019s election.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1les-Griffin, CEO of the nonprofit CodeNow<\/a>\u00a0in Chicago, defied the standard for traditional candidate forums and developed an online forum of candidate responses to questions about issues such as education, housing, police and taxes.<\/p>\n

S\u00e1les-Griffin was inspired to launch the new tools as he campaigned,\u00a0 talking to more than 10,000 Chicago residents on the streets and hearing what mattered to them, he stated in a press release.\u201cChicago\u2019s problems come back to corrupt leadership and corrupt finances,\u201d S\u00e1les-Griffin stated. \u201cI want everyone to hold their elected officials accountable by following the money.\u201d<\/p>\n

The analysis on the budget platform<\/a>, covers more than $22 billion of the city\u2019s 2018 budget, with half controlled by the mayor and the other half controlled by departments. His campaign volunteers worked for months aggregating data from publicly available records, allowing taxpayers to see where every dollar goes. Users can specifically review revenue and expenditures of each municipal department to see if elected officials invest on issues that matter to them.<\/p>\n

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The budget tool created by Neal S\u00e1les-Griffin allows voters to specify the revenue and allocation of each department by line item. (Screen shot from the Neal for Mayer website)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen you go to the City of Chicago budget, it\u2019s very hard to understand how exactly officials are spending and what they are spending on,\u201d said Kristen Sanders, part of media relations team for S\u00e1les-Griffin\u2019s campaign. \u201cThe reporting is not transparent and these tools has laid a very serious ground work to make sure that people know how the money is spent.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the budget tool, the question app<\/a> is designed to help voters easily find out candidates\u2019 positions on various issues by aggregating data from 247 questions created by news outlets. Users can search by issue and see where each of the candidates stand on the same question.<\/p>\n

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We aggregated a database of questions and answers that all mayoral candidates responded to. Hope this helps some in the final moment! https:\/\/t.co\/QHTcX5qYKO<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/nnWbp9Hczo<\/a><\/p>\n

— Neal S\u00e1les-Griffin (@nealsales) February 26, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n