Love is not the only thing that can be found by swiping right—Voter is a new app that uses a variety of political questions to “match” users with a candidate and party. The app’s simplistic design and structure maximize the convenience of analyzing modern political issues. Election Day is sneaking up on the United States quite quickly, but lucky for you, Voter is the tool that makes analyzing today’s political scene much easier. Here are five reasons you should use Voter before you cast your next ballot:
1. Voter uses modern political issues to match you with a political candidate and party.
The app currently offers four levels of questions with 61 questions total. After answering a variety of questions like “Drill for oil and gas in the U.S.?” and “Switch to a Flat Tax?” Voter will automatically match you with the candidate and party you share the most in common with. After the results appear, you can investigate the match by clicking on the result to see exactly which issues you agree and disagree on with the candidate or party.
2. Voter informs you on current and important political issues you may know nothing about.
Have no fear, if you have no idea what the questions are asking, tapping on the pictures of the issue and scrolling down provides background information on the topic. In addition, each description features a “best reasons to vote yes” and “best reasons to vote no” explanations.
3. Voter causes you to think critically about what issues matter to you.
Let’s be honest, voting as an R or a D doesn't mean anything unless there are issues, and opinions regarding those issues, that you and the party agree on. In order to categorize yourself with a particular party or candidate, it is important to ensure that you understand what is going on in the political scene and how you feel about it. To combat this, within Voter, by taping on each question the issue can be ranked from a “lil bit” to “very” important to you. This ranking factor plays into the matching process.
4. Voter provides nonpartisan information on each candidate.
In addition to matching a user, the app is an excellent, unbiased source of information regarding each candidate. Within Voter, the top campaign contributors, interesting quotes, a political map, an informative biography and links to each candidate’s contact information are provided.
5. You can learn local.
National elections are a fantastic thing, and people are much more likely to know who the president is as opposed to the mayor of a town, but in the major scheme of elections, your vote in a local election is more likely to make a difference. It is not uncommon for local elections to be won by less than 100 votes. For this reason, it is just as important to understand the candidates and issues facing your area. Voter provides a feature for users to enter their location and complete a similar matching process with local elections. Voter is currently working to expand its reach and will cover more local elections in the future.
