Voter friendly app to ease voting process, endorsed by Ysursa
According to the U.S. Census Bureau‘s 2012 “Young-Adult voting” report, American voters of ages 18 to 24 are the least likely group to show up at the polls to vote in an election. In fact, the report indicates young, college-aged voters are less likely to participate in state and local elections and midterm elections than they do in presidential elections that occur every four years.
Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa
Idaho Secretary of State Ben Ysursa said Idaho is no exception.
“It’s not something to write home about,” Ysursa said to an audience in Boise Wednesday. “I am disturbed, troubled and concerned about the decline in voter participation.”
Ysursa is working to break the declining trend by joining with the Voting Information Project (VIP), a national voter education program that seeks to make election information easily accessible to voters. A major component of the project is a free smartphone application that uses a citizen’s location to determine which polling station they need to vote at. It can also send links with information about the candidates on the ballot.
VIP works with states to provide official information to voters about where to vote and what’s on state ballots. The program is made possible by a partnership between The Pew Charitable Trusts, Google and participating states.
Ysursa has been a major proponent of the program in Idaho. He made an announcement of the state’s participation in VIP on Oct. 21, and said Idaho voters would be able to utilize the smartphone app for the midterm elections Tuesday.
Jim Mairs, coordinator for the Secretary of State, said he realizes reaching out to college students and young voters for state and local elections has been a nationwide challenge for all states. He also recognizes the cohort is a technology-based group and may fare well with the availability of a smartphone app to educate them about elections.
Mairs said he hopes young voters will utilize the VIP app to become better educated about state and local government developments and participate in the democratic process of voting.
Mairs said an increased student turnout with state and local elections could shift the issues politicians prioritize.
“Improving student participation in state and local elections is a longstanding goal of election officials, not only in Idaho, but across the country,” he said. “Although students are busy with school, social lives and work, their votes are important. Politicians may not speak to issues that students care about unless there are votes to be gained. When students as a group start voting consistently, more of the issues that confront young people will be addressed by office seekers.”
Jason Svedberg, a junior at UI, said he while he is a little apprehensive of electronic voting technology, he has overall positive feelings about the VIP smartphone app.
“While I like the idea of allowing better access for people to be more informed about where they can vote and who they can vote for, I have always been suspicious of electronic sources of information, because they can be changed and also be biased,” Svedberg said. “However, the overall idea of this app seems to be well conceived.”
More information:
The application will be functional for voters on Election Day. The app is available for download on idahovotes.gov, the Apple Store and Google Play Store.
Shannon Kelly can be reached at [email protected]