Active Citizen

Inspiration

We were inspired to create Active Citizen as we realized that the nationwide low voter turnout in local elections is largely caused by low awareness and difficulty of being informed of local government and politics. Election campaign signs run along the streets, but who are these people and what are they for? Obtaining information about local candidates often requires tedious searching through many websites and links, if any information is available at all. National elections are primarily the center of political attention, but in reality, local elections are where our votes most directly impact the communities we live in. We developed Active Citizen to address the rampant low local voter turnout issue by integrating API data into a user-friendly interface so citizens can actively participate in their local democracies with ease.

What it does

We created an interface where users can find local elections and current officials in the United States by entering their address. It displays information about upcoming elections and the officials currently in office.

How we built it

The project began by establishing the structure of the website using a simple HTML layout, implementing Bootstrap for designing and arranging content. This layout included a menu bar and a box with rows and columns for organizing the information, containing a card for entering addresses and two grids for showing upcoming elections and current leaders. In the style sheet, we created extensive designs for the entire project to guarantee uniformity and adaptability on various devices. We developed JavaScript code to communicate with the Google Civic Information API, creating an input area for addresses, retrieving information about representatives and elections based on the user's choice, and inserting this data dynamically into the HTML tables. We activated the auto-complete feature when the page loaded, by configuring the Google Places Autocomplete input field. During the progress of the project, we tested and fixed any errors in the application, making modifications as needed to ensure everything functioned as planned. This project exhibits a practical use of web development expertise, including HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and API combination.

Challenges we ran into

We started by creating a simple layout and researched various ways to gather data. We used local websites to gather data but quickly realized that it was not scalable. During our quest to find new sources for data, we discovered the Google Civics API which helps us find local government officials. We also had to figure out how to get the address input from the user in the same form as the API parameters. To solve this, we used Google Maps Places API which can autofill addresses which makes it easier for the user to input their address.

What's next for Active Citizen

To further enhance Active Citizen, we could send alerts to email addresses that subscribe to the site (using an HTML form to allow for email input and using either PHP or asp.net). This will allow users to receive notifications about time sensitive voting requirements, such as when to apply for absentee or mail-in voting. The aim of this project is to making voting accessible and convenient, and that will be easily obtained by pushing notifications to users.