Building tools for record-shattering voter turnout: VoteAmerica
when
October 8, 2020
|
10:00 am
(PST)
Type
It’s 6am on election day. Do you know where your polling station is? For many Americans, voting is not a simple task. From information barriers, to legal complexities, to practical challenges there’s a lot that can get in the way. There are countless ways the user experience of voting could be more inviting and inclusive - where to start? In this talk, Michael Snook and Amy Lam will share how VoteAmerica is using tech to tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing voters across America, and how you can too.
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About VoteAmerica
VoteAmerica is a nonprofit organization founded by a small team of elections and technology experts who have come together to combat the chaos of the 2020 election cycle by helping to drive record-shattering voter turnout. VoteAmerica’s mission is to provide access to trusted election information, open platform technology, and education programs to support and empower the most vulnerable voters to navigate the path to exercising their vote.
Michael Snook, Product Manager
Michael Snook is an organizer and technologist from Charlottesville, VA who has deep roots in activism — from knocking on doors and coordinating volunteers for local elections, to managing data and strategy for Tom Perriello’s congressional race. In 2009, Michael helped to build BoldProgressives.org, working on dozens of congressional and statewide campaigns and managing their national Get Out The Vote campaign. Then for five years Michael was the Director of Technology for an international community of digital-first activist organisations across 20 countries and five continents. Michael is now based in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Amy Lam, Senior Software Engineer
Amy is a product-minded developer with a focus on the frontend, having worked at U.S. Digital Response, BetterUp, and Fastly. Before moving to Silicon Valley, she had a previous career as a Mechanical Engineer at Boeing, earning her master’s degree from the University of Southern California and her bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Amy does open source programming as part of the Ember.js Core Learning Team and is a Mentor for Code2040.
