Electorate wins Rep. Kevin Hern’s 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Oklahoma’s First District

When asked what inspired the creation of Electorate, the student said, “Three years ago when I was a Freshman, my high school began to enact virtual learning. I took my being at home all day as an opportunity to become a phone-banker for political campaigns as the 2020 general election was right around the corner. Sounded like a piece of cake as all campaigns were transitioning their volunteers from the doorbell to the phone, but what turned out to be the hard part wasn’t the nerves I felt or the stutters in my voice as I made those calls; the challenge was simply finding the opportunities on the internet. I wanted to volunteer for multiple campaigns and fill up my calendar when I wasn’t on a zoom call for my class, but it seemed as though all campaigns made it as hard as possible to volunteer for. I remember all the tabs I had to open just to see the opportunities in my State displayed all at once.It’s 2020, I thought, how has someone not made an app with all these events displayed at once. I found a website that had something similar, but with no tracking of service hours, and besides, who would use a website if there was an app available. No one uses Facebook the website, only Facebook the app, I thought. Although it took me several years of learning to code and eventually creating the app, this difficulty attempting to find my passion by volunteering ultimately led me to create Electorate. Also, remembering my experience of trying to find internships on political campaigns during the 2022 midterm elections is leading me to continue my work on this app and allow campaigns/organizations to post job and internship openings. Looking back over my past year of programming helps me think that this app will fill the void of connecting lawmakers with the electorate and the electorate with the lawmakers. ”