Not sure if your rep is the perfect one? Find your match score on Issue Voter.
We sat down with Issue Voter creator, Maria Yuan, to learn more about her new transparency tool that allows everyone to play along with their reps from home.
As more and more Americans become curious about the details of our political process, opportunities to offer more transparency arise. One particular blindspot we’ve noticed is how hard it is to track what our Congressional representatives are doing on a day-to-day basis, especially for bills that aren’t buzz-worthy enough to hit our news feeds.
For most of us—especially those of us who haven’t been tracking policy for decades—it’s a time-consuming task to follow what happens on the House floor, and even more challenging to cobble together enough research to fully understand whether or not we agree with the outcome of ever vote.
Maria Yuan’s civic engagement platform, IssueVoter, tackles this issue by offering an interactive look into how our reps vote, and an easy way to send them our input before upcoming votes occur.
We were able to seat down with her and ask her a few questions around her story, what inspires her, and the future of civic engagement.
Tell us about how it all started:
It all started in 2006 when I was a campaign manager in Iowa. The State Senator was in a swing district, so it was a key race. There was so much emphasis on the election, but not very many resources for the electorate to make informed decisions at the polls or to stay connected with reps after they’re elected to office.
Nothing like IssueVoter had been created, so I decided to create it as a one stop shop to make it very easy for people to become engaged and informed.
How does IssueVoter work?
Anyone can input their zip code and automatically get insights into the most recent votes their reps have cast. We allow you to read what both sides are saying about every bill, cast you own “vote,” and then see whether or not you agreed with your rep. Many of our users are surprised to learn that their rep may not truly represent how they feel about every topic, especially ones that aren’t in the spotlight or receiving media attention.
For upcoming votes, IssueVoter automatically sends your opinion to your Congressional representative on your behalf—no calling required. Then we’ll follow up to let you know which action they took, whenever it happens.
Why is IssueVoter important?
We want to give everyone a voice in our democracy, with an outcome of more engaged Americans. I think it’s so frustrating that so many unnecessary debates arise from simple misunderstandings and partisanship. For example, most NRA gun owners want good background checks. This fact is lost on many, and causes more division than actually exists.
IssueVoter is not a reaction to the 2016 election, it’s more than that. It’s critical for a more diverse group of people to be more civically engaged. People are paying more attention now, and the easier we can make it to take action, the more tangible and long-lasting impact we’ll see for years to come.
Town halls are not scalable or attainable, and only a certain (small) part of the population even knows where they happen or how to attend. It’s just not a realistic thing to assume that having only these avenues for participation will continue to be sufficient to embrace this wave of new interest.
Who is IssueVoter perfect for?
There are two types, really. The first is those who are super active—going to marches, calling their reps and other voters, and subscribing to lots of email lists to stay informed on the latest issues that matter most. For this group, IssueVoter is another tool in their toolbox of activism.
The second group is young people who are really busy. They’re neither in politics, nor activists, but they feel a certain level of stress about the current administration and just want an easier way to keep tabs and participate. They’ve gone from feeling like everything was taken care of to feeling like they need to babysit, and IssueVoter gives them more control back.
One of our goals is to help expand the current electorate to include new voices—do you see this type of shift growing in 2018?
Absolutely. Just look at what happened in Alabama, and the spike in their voter turnout. The Democratic party has more momentum behind it than ever before, but they need to listen to these new voices if we want real change.
Where have you seen success and how would you characterize it?
Some people are feeling more empowered, but they’re still nervous about midterms. IssueVoter is getting most of its traffic from word of mouth, which is awesome — it means people definitely care!
We’re specifically not a social network on purpose. 90% of our users told us they wanted to share their results with their representative, but less than 25% would share with friends, family, or colleagues. This seems to be a private experience, and we’re happy to create a safe space for this type of knowledge-sharing and feedback to happen between constituents and their reps.
What changes have you seen in the issues people care about and how they’re interacting with them?
In regards to issues, civil rights, environment and immigration are the most popular (including the Dream Act).
The most interesting thing to me is that engagement is not one-to-one anymore— we’re seeing engagement with a lot of communities. Students, workplaces, families, and other groups. Using IssueVoter is also not just a one-time thing—behavior is definitely changing. For example, first time users of IssueVoter send an average of eleven opinions to their Congressional rep, which is very exciting!
What other resources do you find useful?
Ballotpedia has a lot of useful info. I also like Politifact.
Newsletters—The Atlantic’s daily politics roundup at the end of the day shares all kinds of articles from various news sources.
TurboVote — they help register people based in New York City to vote. They will remind you to never miss an election, even the hyper local ones. And they’ve already surpassed 1 million users.
Why is IssueVoter important in the primaries?
It’s a very important tool to get everyone engaged and educated, especially in places like New York where gerrymandering takes place and incumbents have been in their seats for so many years. And in “safe” districts that usually sway in favor of one party, primaries are the only chance for voters to truly have a choice. Not all reps are created equal, and IssueVoter helps bring that to light.
A special thanks to Maria for taking the time and make sure to check out IssueVoter.org.
