Your Turn

Inspiration

We noticed that while students care deeply about social and political issues, many feel disconnected from elections. Many people want to vote but often feel disconnected from the process or unsure where to start. Between confusing deadlines, hard-to-find local info, and a lack of excitement, voting can seem scary or like a chore. That gap motivated us to create something simple, engaging, and educational - a platform that makes civic participation more accessible and exciting. We wanted to change that by creating a civic engagement - social and fun.

What it does

Your Turn helps students register to vote and learn about elections. Users can get personalized election information based on their location, ask our AI Civics Buddy to explain ballot measures and candidates in clear, unbiased language.

How we built it

We build Your Turn using: - Frontend: React + Tailwind CSS, for an interactive UI - Backend: Firebase for authentication and data management - AI: Gemini API for the Civics Buddy chatbot - Data Sources: Google Civic Information API for election data Our team collaborated through GitHub and prototyped UI/UX in Framer before integrating it into our React website.

Challenges we ran into

One of the main challenges we faced was getting our API to communicate properly with our backend. We ran into issues with endpoints not returning data as how we expected it to. Debugging these problems took patience, especially when trying to figure out whether the issue was in the backend logic or how we were handling responses in React. Through trial and error, we learned a lot about API integration, error handling, and the importance of clear documentation. Even though it was frustrating at times, solving these problems helped us strengthen both our technical understanding and teamwork.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of creating a working prototype that blends technology, accessibility, and civic engagement. Integrating Supabase and Gemini successfully felt like a big mileston for our team. We are also proud of how our interface visually turned out. Most importantly, we are proud that $$Your Turn$$ promotes awareness and helps students feel empowered to vote.

What we learned

Throughout this project, we learned the importance of clean API design, user-centered thinking, and functional collaboration. We discovered how crucial accessibility is when designing tools meant for public use. On the technical side, we gained experience using Supabase for authentication and integrating third-party APIs.

What's next for Your Turn

Next, we want to expand $$Your Turn$$ to a further college campus base. We want to include more colleges from more states. We plan to add features like voter registration tracking, election reminders, and gamified badges for participation. We would also want to continue refining our AI Civics Buddy to support multiple languages and potentially expand this to other countries' democratic systems. Our goal is to make civic engagement accessible, inclusive, and exciting for students everywhere.