Millenials are known for low voter turnouts and a general lack of interest in politics, but two entrepreneurs here in Virginia hope to disprove that perception and make it easier for young people to connect with elected officials.
Writing letters to Congressmen, making phone calls or manning a picket line could soon be history, as entrepreneurs in Charlottesville and Richmond promote what they see as better ways to interact with lawmakers. The Voter’s Choice app, created by UVA students Tara Raj and Garrett Alan, opens communication between voters and representatives through a mobile polling application. Raj recalls the 2014 election.
“I was super excited to go and cast my ballot and what I found is that a lot of my friends were saying they didn’t vote because it was either too far away, and that also took too much time especially if they had to fill out an absentee ballot for their home state.”
They needed motivation, and she figured sending information to them on their phones might get them fired up about politics. She also wanted to connect candidates with prospective voters.
“As candidates are running for office they could be polling constituents and seeing how they view different issues.”
In Richmond, software programmer Joe Hinton has created a website called Occupy the System.org. Because politics and government are complex, he argues, only politicians and lawmakers now occupy that space, but he wants everyone to get involved. At a sidewalk café, he told us his story.
“It started at a Tea Party rally, I was still in VCU at the time and the Tea Party had just started up and it seemed like something I’d be interested in but when I got to the rally it just didn’t fulfill the things I was hoping it was going to fulfill.”
Then came the Occupy movement.
And I thought that could also be interesting, because I don’t really find myself on the left or the right, I’m just interested in politics in general and the science of it.
That, too, proved a disappointment, so he and a friend decided to launch a website about lawmaking that deliberately avoids labels. At Occupy the System, there are no Democrats, no Republicans, no conservatives or liberals - just ideas and information about legislation.
“Like, for instance, you can go to the My Leaders page and you immediately see the politicians that represent you and how they are voting and you get a live feed from the House, a live feed from the Senate
The website invites you to take a stand - or to write your own legislation.
“A group in the Midwest can come up with this legislation that someone in New York is like ‘I love that, I want to send it to my legislator.’ ”
By losing the labels, Hinton hopes Occupy the System.org will get voters to think critically, communicate with one another, and work together across party lines.
