Less Hassle, More Democracy
Introducing VoterPal
This year Small Planet was honored to work with Voto Latino, an organization whose aim is to strengthen the Latino community through civic engagement, issue advocacy, and leadership development.
Voto Latino's VoterPal app makes registering to vote easy. With a scan of your ID, VoterPal compiles your information and sends you a completed voter registration form. All you have to do is print, sign, and mail it.
VoterPal gives you the option of registering a friend, meaning you can take this app anywhere you go and use it to help others register. The “organizer mode” allows you to use VoterPal at events and keep track of the number of voters you’ve registered. Available on iOS and Android.
Other Political Engagement Apps
VoterPal is meant for everyone to use, because inclusivity and diversity (say it with us now!) strengthen democracy. Working on VoterPal got us thinking about other political engagement apps we think do a great job.
Countable
After determining who your representatives are, Countable provides you with feeds for each one. Each feed lists the bills your rep recently voted on, whether they got passed, and provides contact information to get in touch with them.
Countable features both brief and in-depth explanations for bills. Each bill has a comment thread highlighting opinions on both sides of the argument, providing an open discussion forum for the debated topic. It’s a great way to stay up-to-date with new legislation and to better understand the decisions your representatives are making. Available on iOS and Android.
Votespotter
Like Countable, Votespotter also lets you track your representatives easily. It’s simple to use, and great for understanding the bills your officials are voting on.
Votespotter shows a feed of the decisions they are making, descriptions of legislation, and it allows you to agree or disagree on those decisions by voting. It also makes it easy to contact your local officials directly from the app. Available on iOS and Android.
GlennKessler
The GlennKessler app stems from “The Fact Checker” column for The Washington Post, and provides all of the column’s information in one place.
To help users sort through the statements of various political figures, and understand the true-or-false accuracy behind those statements, GlennKessler provides articles with detailed explanations of each topic.
It also lets you test your own knowledge in a game, or watch videos and read interviews related to fact-checking. It’s an invaluable tool when it comes to staying informed and seeking out truthful information. Available on iOS.
