Introducing SaysWe, the Social Pledge-to-Vote App

When we started thinking about and researching the decline in voting rates, we ran into some pretty interesting trends that could meaningfully motivate more people to participate in our democracy: First, people get super energized when events happen (like deportation events, mass shootings) that emotionally resonate with them. But that energy tends to fade over […]

Men and Women Fought (and Died) for Your Right to Vote

The right to vote is a rare thing in history. Sure, the Athenians had a short-lived democracy in the fifth century B.C. But for most people who have walked this earth, their lives have been ruled by some incarnation of kings, queens, warlords, czars, emperors, despots, tyrants, pharaohs, strongmen, presidents-for-life, and other assorted gangsters. It’s […]

Top Ten Reasons for Young Americans to Vote

Voting in the United States is often a painful process. Even in states like Colorado, California and Minnesota where voting is relatively easy, voters need to get registered, find time to get to the polling place or fill out a mail-in ballot, and often wait in long lines at the poll itself to cast their […]

Why Your Vote Is Like a Vaccine

Voting is like getting a vaccination. Both voting and vaccinations require some inconvenience and a little pain — with one ultimately delivering a healthier populace and the other a healthier body politic. People who don’t vote often explain their ignoring the ballot box by arguing that their vote doesn’t matter. The explanation is similar to […]

Why I joined the board of Rock the Vote

When I left LinkedIn to take time off, I began thinking about where to focus my civic energies to help reboot the US political system. I decided to spend time focusing on increasing our voting rates with the belief that higher voting rates will solve most of our political ills. I became especially interested in youth […]