Vote-Ified review

The people of the United States are not voting anymore, especially the younger generations. I find it so sad that our ancestors fought so hard for people to be able to vote freely, especially the African-Americans and women of our country, and now there are less people voting than ever. The project Vote-ified was created to address the problem of people not voting. I found it most surprising that the number one reason people are not voting is because they are "too busy", which is what the creation of this app and website is supposed to address. The project tries to combat the problem of low voter turnout using three strategies: Awareness, Engagement, and Efficiency.

For the first strategy, Awareness, the app will keep you updated on who the candidates are that are running for elections. It will also provide videos of debates from these candidates. The next strategy, Engagement, aims to match you up with the candidate you agree on with the most issues. It includes a survey that asks you questions such as, "Do you agree with abortion?" and based on your answer it will match you with the candidate that has the same viewpoint. I think this is actually a good idea in theory; however, it was not actually included in the app. The group mentioned that the app would have this function, but did not actually create it in there. I think this may be because they had to pay for the full version of the app editor to do this? The last strategy for this project was, Efficiency, which enabled the user to see candidate updates, news, and even search for their polling location and get directions. This section also included an election calendar and a link to take you to a government website to register to vote. The app also includes lists of federal and state laws that the user may peruse through and a blog. The blog is written from the point of view of lawyers and student lawyers about newly passed laws and court decisions that might affect the people of the United States. I found this part really neat because I think it would be really interesting to read what lawyers would have to say. 

We need something to improve voter turnout especially among the younger generations, and I think this project has a lot of potential, but I do think there are a few flaws. Firstly, as minor as it may seem, there were a few grammatical errors on the website and in the app, and I think that brings down the professionalism of the project. Second, I was a bit skeptical about the funding of the project. I am not sure how they will be getting the lawyers to participate in the blog and how or if they will pay them. Lastly, I felt like most of the members of the group giving the presentation were a bit unenthusiastic and unprepared. I feel like there were several moments of just silence when they were asked questions, and no one seemed like they wanted to answer the question. However, I'm sure it had more to do with nervousness than anything else.

Overall I think this is a good project, especially since everything is in one centralized location and easily accessible.