Knight news challenge - elections

[Jameson Quinn]

The Knight foundation is giving away a total of $3 million in grants focusing on non-partisan ideas for improving elections, voting, and voter education. Clearly, we (that is, electology.org) should be applying for some of that money.

Their focus is media, so we should find a project to propose that has at least some media/outreach angle. I was talking with Aaron at the Liberty conference, and here are some of the ideas we came up with:

1. Online voting tool using improved systems.

2. Educational unit(s)/curriculum materials on voting systems. This should probably be targeted to a specific age range (eg, middle school, or high school...) and subject area (eg, math or social studies).

3. Studies of voter behavior... there is less of a media angle to this, but I could certainly write up a proposal of things worth studying.

4. Combination of 1 and 3, with analysis written for the general public.

5. Polling using a good voting system, with results and analysis published. Ideally, we'd get a partnership with some media outlet lined up - I'd suggest something online, like fivethirtyeight, Vox, or the like. 

6. Like 5, but focusing on awards and honors (Oscars, Hall of Fame, etc.) rather than politics.

Personally, I'd be most excited about 2 and 4, because I think they fit in well with what Knight is looking for, and they could certainly raise our profile. Aaron leans towards 1, because of the high impact it could have.

We don't have a lot of time here.. there are 6 days remaining to submit our proposal(s). We can do more than one. I think two applications would be a good idea. I'd be happy to help with any of these. What do you all think?

Jameson

[Steve Cobb]

http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2015/2/25/knight-news-challenge-elections-opens-ideas/

[Rob Wilson]

I think a good idea is to create a social media site specialized for political organization. It could do the following:

1) Help organize voting blocs and advocacy groups. Registered voters could organize into a voting bloc and pledge to vote for a candidate that bests supports their issues. Candidates could compete to get the voting blocs votes and different voting methods could be used to select who the voting bloc would support.

When a voting bloc is set up, the creators would be able to write rules for organization and the site could accommodate that. For example, members could be organized into groups and certain groups might be able to elect other groups. You might want to set it up so that members who belonged to the bloc for over a year gets to vote on elections for the board or for the spokesman.

Voting blocs would also be able to form a coalition with other voting blocs for each election.

Users of this site would be able to select an issue and the site would list all of the voting blocs that address that issues.

2) Give a platform for which candidates for any particular office can debate. Allow candidates for a particular office to register to a special forum where he and other candidates can debate from throughout the election. Candidates would also have their own user page in which they'd list the issues that are important to them and how they plan on addressing those issues if elected.

3) Provide a message board for a vast array of different issues. Allow the most popular advocacy groups to be able send delegates to their relevant forum to debate delegates from the other side in public view. These forums would be restricted to prevent it from getting cluttered up with crazy ramblings and ensure that the ones debating are the best to represent their issues.

People can learn about different voting methods through organizing the voting blocs. I think taking a more broad approach would sell better than just narrowing the the whole thing down to education on voting systems.