Concordia students launch app to get out youth vote
A group of Concordia University journalism students has launched a mobile and tablet application to counter voter apathy by trying to make it as easy as possible to cast a ballot.
VoteNote was designed specifically to target the 18-34 age bracket for the upcoming federal election on Oct. 19. It offers candidate, riding and general voting information to residents across Canada, using GPS tracking to detect a user’s location.
“We’re an easier way to understand Canadian politics,” said Thierry Tardif, director of media relations for VoteNote and one of five students involved in the project.
The free application takes users through each step of the voting process including what to bring as identification, how to register to vote and the location of polling stations. VoteNote allows Canadian voters to access this information in one location whenever they please.
“It’s two days before the election? They are stressing out? Bam. They can look at their phone,” said Tardif. “It’s there.”
It also provides the list of candidates for the riding in which the user is based so they can see who is running in their district.
“At the tip of your fingers you can look at the candidates. You know exactly who they are,” Tardif said.
The goal is for the information to be accessible nationwide for a younger audience, said Tardif. It is supposed to encourage millennials to exercise their right to vote by making it as easy as possible.
“There needs to be a change and we want to be that change” said Tardif.
The app contains the names of candidates running in every riding in Canada. Candidates have the option of enhancing their profile on the app by signing up through the VoteNote website for one of two packages. The first package, which is a flat rate of $300, allows candidates to provide a photo of themselves and a message for potential voters. The second, which is $500, goes further by allowing the candidates to receive weekly updates on their popularity from VoteNote.
Candidates can change their message at any time during the election campaign at no additional cost. It allows candidates to connect with potential voters by reaching out in a new way, said Tardif.
“I would say to the politicians that it is your move, it is your opportunity to take the chance for a different, more modernized way of campaigning. It’s your chance to get personal with voters,” he said.
Tardif says the application is the first of its kind in Canada. It took close to five months to create and launch it.
The team at Vote-Note is still in the process of updating the application as the election carries on. For example, the application will provide new information once the New Democratic Party selects a candidate for the riding of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount.
“There is still a lot more work to do,” said Tardif, who hopes that Vote-Note will acquire 100,000 users by the end of September.
The application is free to download on smartphones and tablets. It is already available for Android devices and will launch for Apple products on Thursday.