Inspiration
Our inspiration is that a lot of young voters, including us, are very intimidated by voting in today's political climate. Additionally, not many young people feel they have a reliable place to find reliable information about political canidates.
What it does
VOTR makes voting less overwhelming by giving people a clear, accessible way to explore the candidates on their ballot. Users can discover who is running, review key background information and policy positions, and compare candidates side by side so they can make a more informed decision before Election Day.
How we built it
We built VOTR as a TypeScript web app with Next.js, centered on turning fragmented public candidate information into an experience voters can actually use. We created a data pipeline to collect and structure candidate records, then used an AI-assisted extraction layer to surface clear, comparable insights from the source material. The frontend presents that information in a simple, approachable format designed for quick election research.
Challenges we ran into
One of our biggest challenges was working with political information that is inconsistent, preserving context required careful data cleaning and validation. Also, setting up the repository.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
Something approachable. We built a system that organizes candidate information into clear, comparable profiles and makes it easier for voters to focus on the issues that matter to them. We’re also proud of the data pipeline behind the experience: transforming messy public information into structured, useful insights while keeping the product simple and accessible for everyday voters.
What we learned
We learned that trustworthy civic technology depends as much on careful data handling as it does on a polished interface. Public information is rarely standardized, so building useful candidate profiles requires thoughtful extraction, validation, and clear presentation of context.
What's next for VOTR
Next, we want to expand VOTR to cover more locations, races, and election cycles while improving the freshness and depth of candidate information. We also plan to add more personalized tools, such as issue-based candidate comparisons, ballot guidance, and links to reliable voting resources. Our longer-term goal is to make VOTR a trusted starting point for anyone who wants to understand their ballot and vote with confidence.
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