A number of folks at VotingSmarter gave The Gen Z Collective an awesome interview, among other things, about the importance of voting! Read on!
Tell us all about you and your organization!
VotingSmarter is an unbiased, apolitical voter resource. We help you find your #PoliticalMatch with our #CandidateMatchmaker – a mix of Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, and politics. Together we can change how you find political candidates and how they find you. We tell you who we voted for and how we mitigate our own bias in order to not affect your choices… This is unlike any other data source out there. My name is Natasha Romero-Salas. I am the CMO of VotingSmarter. Through social media and our #CandidateMatchmaker, we make sure that we always keep to our brand voice by posting things that are quirky, informative, trustworthy, and authentic. Since a key target market is Gen Z we make sure to keep things fun with political cartoons and pop culture references, but also unbiased information. Our #CandidateMatchmaker has turned 40+ hours of research into 4 minutes of fun. We know that demand for GenZ’s attention comes from a lot of different sources and the time they can give each is small and easily digestible. We only give you the facts and don’t let our political beliefs affect anything we put out. Lastly, we always make sure to draw in the dating app style of our #CandidateMatchmaker. Everything we do at VotingSmarter is based off of our ethos of Fair, Fast, and Fun.
Why do you think it’s important for your generation to let their voices be heard?
My name is Ana Isabel Alfaro. I am a marketing intern. I think it’s important for my generation to let our voices be heard on election day. Part of the pathway to social change and the power to affect real change on the issues I care about is by voting. Young people have been leaders in the Civil Rights Movement, the Environmental Movement, the Anti-war Movement, the fight for LGBTQ rights, and the fight against rising tuition costs. But low turnout leaves young people very underrepresented at the ballot box. Gen Z and Millennials today are outvoted by older generations. If we Gen Z show up to the polls this November, then the youth vote will be a larger share of all voters meaning we will have a powerful voice. If young people care deeply about issues and if we all show up the polls, then we have the power to affect change.
Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
My name is Annie Brennan. I am the graphic designer for VotingSmarter. I believe that each one of us has potential to affect the future by channeling our energy towards change. Why waste that energy on pessimism? The solution is not blind optimism either, but a healthy acknowledgement of the defects of the world paired with a focused commitment to optimism and hard work.
What are the most important issues facing our world right now and in the future?
My name is Laura Bea. I am a Political Research and Marketing Intern at VotingSmarter. Here at VotingSmarter, we work to keep our information and services unbiased and apolitical. We do not let our opinions get in the way when providing information to our users. Nevertheless, we recognize the plethora of issues facing our world right now. In accordance with our platform, I can answer this question based on data and facts. According to Global Issues, the leading political topics that are important to the world right now are the economy and the environment. More specifically, each generation group is facing issues they believe to be of high importance to them, both currently and in the future. According to Statista, the leading issues for Gen Z abroad include healthcare, civil rights, education and climate change. Similarly, Millennials find health and the economy to be top issues of importance in 2020. VotingSmarter acknowledges these issues and many more that are currently being discussed in the global community. Regardless of ideology, we work to provide unbiased information that will encourage individuals to register to vote and hit the polls this November. VotingSmarter always works to push people to vote for the candidate they believe will address what they care about in today’s world!
What does your organization offer that helps the world be a better place?
My name is Ada and I am a Marketing Intern at VotingSmarter. At VotingSmarter, we stand by our goal to eliminate “Blind Votes,” “Election-Night Stands,” and getting “catfished” by political candidates. In other words, our mission is to inform constituents of whom they’re voting for from an unbiased, apolitical standpoint.
Our current initiative to achieve this is our Candidate Matchmaker--a dating app-style questionnaire that allows users to indicate their political preferences and be matched with a candidate that best matches their ideology and beliefs. In the app, users swipe left or right through various cards with political statements to demonstrate their level of agreement. We love saying that we turn 40 hours of research into four minutes of fun! More importantly, we seek to prevent people from simply being influenced solely by peers or political parties; we want people to learn more about the policies they and their candidates care about.
In the future, we plan to develop tools that inform voters on campaign finance, media bias, policy tradeoffs, and more!
In short, VotingSmarter’s work to get people politically informed is how we incite positive change in the political process and the world.
Will you be voting in the next election?
My name is Riley McMackin and I am a Political Research Intern at VotingSmarter. I will absolutely be voting this fall and encourage everyone else who is of age to vote as well! The right to vote is an essential part of our democracy and it should not be taken for granted.
My name is Michael Galati, and I am on the Political Research and Marketing teams at VotingSmarter. I will definitely be voting in the next election, I have already filed to receive an absentee ballot, so I’m hoping everything works out. I think everyone who can vote should vote, but should make an informed decision when voting. That’s what VotingSmarter is all about! Learn about the candidates before you vote!
Please tell us all about your current campaigns, projects and endeavors. Tell everyone where to find you online and on social platforms.
My name is Michael Galati, and I am on the Political Research and Marketing teams at VotingSmarter. We have a beta version of our Candidate Matchmaker up on our website at VotingSmarter.com and we are working to release an updated version in the App Store. The Candidate Matchmaker is designed to pair you with a candidate that most aligns with your views and to help you learn more about candidates’ policy positions. The Candidate Matchmaker does so by asking you a handful of policy questions, and depending on your answers, will match you by percentage compatibility with a candidate and will then tell you their policy positions.
As we are a small non-profit startup, we are working on expanding our website. This expansion will include not only a blog, but also a podcast that will discuss voting dates and locations per county, the latest political news, updates on candidates’ policy stances, conversations from opposing political stances, and many more resources for unbiased, apolitical information you need when voting. We also have Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter accounts to maximize our reach.
If there is anything else you would like to say, please do!
My name is Terry Crandall the CEO and Founder of VotingSmarter. Thank you again so much for giving us the opportunity to tell you about the company. We are looking for partners and influencers, so if you like what we are doing please reach out!
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