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The Jack Brooks Foundation

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Help America Vote Challenge

Over 65% of Americans participated in the recent election. Share your ideas to maintain or even increase voter turnout at future elections.

This challenge is closed

stage:
Won
prize:
$15,000

This challenge is closed

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Summary
Timeline
Updates19
Forum7
Teams365
Summary

Overview

Please note that all submitters must hold valid US citizenship.

Overview

The 2020 Presidential Election has been remarkable in many ways.  One of the most significant things about this election is that it enjoyed the highest level of voter participation since the 1908 election, with nearly two-thirds of eligible Americans exercising their right to vote.  This level of voter engagement is fantastic.  Several factors contributed to this level of voter turnout, key among them is that presidential elections always have higher voter participation rates than local elections. 

The Jack Brooks Foundation (JBF) wants every election - including presidential, state, and local - to have high levels of voter participation and engagement.  JBF is sponsoring the Help America Vote Challenge to gather your non-partisan ideas for how to improve voter turnout.  We aspire to have the voter turnout in the 2020 election represent the new baseline.  Whether you have ideas about how to improve physical accessibility, overcome different barriers to voting, streamline the voter registration process, or any other aspect of improving voter participation rates, we would like to hear from you.

We’ve just experienced a historic election.  How can we maintain, and even build, on this momentum so that every election has a similar level of engagement?  Did you see or experience something that could be implemented more broadly, changed, or improved upon to sustain these voter participation rates?  JBF wants more Americans to exercise their constitutional right to vote.  If you are a US citizen and you have an idea to improve voter participation - regardless of your political affiliation, we invite you to be heard.

 

How to Participate

  • Click SOLVE THIS CHALLENGE to sign up
  • Read the Challenge Guidelines to learn about the requirements and rules.
  • Consider joining forces with others, using our team matching feature
  • Begin your entry. Save and edit as you go.
  • Share this challenge on social media using the 'share' button above. Show your friends, your family, or anyone you know who has a passion for civic and voter engagement.
  • Start a conversation in our Forum to join the conversation, ask questions or connect with other innovators.

Guidelines

Challenge Breakthrough

Engaged and informed citizens are key to a healthy democracy. However, if people encounter barriers to voting, that enthusiasm can be lost. JBF seeks proposals that identify viable solutions to improve The Voting Process to increase voter turnout.

 

Background

Engaged and informed citizens are key to a healthy democracy. However, if these individuals encounter barriers to voting, participation in the process can suffer. JBF seeks proposals that identify viable solutions to improve the voting experience.

According to the Pew Research Center, the United States of America lags in voter participation. The first step to participation in The Voting Process is registration. In 2016, only 64% of the US voting-age population was registered, compared to 90% in Canada. The actual voter turnout rate in the United States is around 50%, substantially lower than other countries, like Belgium, where 90% of registered voters cast ballots. The US ranks 26 out of 32 highly developed, democratic countries for voter turnout.

Voter turnout is influenced by many different factors.  One factor is geography - voter turnout can vary widely based on location.  More than 60% of voters participated in the 2018 midterm elections in western states like Colorado, Minnesota, and Montana.  But only 40% did so in the southeast region: Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia.  Voter turnout in the state of Hawaii was less than 40%.  Other factors affecting voter turnout include:

  • Gender - Women tend to vote more often than men
  • Age - Older individuals tend to vote more often than younger ones
  • Education - Individuals with a college degree tend to vote more often than those without a degree
  • Socioeconomic status - White-collar workers tend to vote more often than blue-collar workers

The Jack Brooks Foundation seeks to improve the ease with which Americans engage in the political process. The mission of the Foundation, named after the 21-term congressman from Texas, is to “empower the American electorate” with effective non-partisan methods to improve voter turnout. The ultimate goal is to consistently raise voter turnout in every election.

Through this challenge, JBF hopes to identify voting obstacles and how they can be overcome. JBF believes that American democracy will be strengthened by having more voters engaged in the process of choosing their leaders, at all levels of government.

 

Your Challenge

Individuals and organizations from across the country are invited to submit their proposals that identify barriers or obstacles to voter participation and suggest changes and innovations that could be implemented to overcome said barriers and improve voter turnout at the polls.

Potential approaches of interest include but are not limited to:

  • Efforts to reduce wait times at polling stations
  • Advanced voting technologies
  • Improved ballot communication approaches
  • Streamlined voter registration processes
  • Voter registration drives based on social sciences

Approaches of all maturity levels are of interest to JBF, from initial ideas to tested programs. Proposals should present compelling evidence and/or sound reasoning of expected effectiveness.

The Jack Brooks Foundation is committed to the idea that increased voter participation is beneficial to this country, regardless of the voter’s political affiliation and preferences. As such, all proposals must be non-partisan in nature and scope and must be submitted by US citizens. Any proposal which intentionally favors a particular political party will be excluded from consideration in this challenge.

Submissions should include detailed information regarding:

  • Identification of the obstacle to voter participation and how the proposed approach will reduce or eliminate it
  • Discussion of the group affected by the obstacle and a description of how the proposed approach will impact that group
  • A description of the process to implement the proposed approach
  • A timeline for deployment (if the proposed approach is not already in use)

Respondents are encouraged, but not required, to include a short, five-minute video presentation describing the proposed approach (an opportunity to include a link to an online video will be included in the response form).

 

Prize

A total of up to $15,000 US will be distributed to the top three respondents:

Grand Prize: $7,500 US

Second Prize: $5,000 US

Third Prize: $2,500 US

The Jack Brooks Foundation may also use submissions to identify potential collaboration partners following the conclusion of the Challenge.

 

Timeline

Open to submissions - September 8, 2020

Submission deadline - March 12, 2021, 5pm EST

Judging - March 13, 2021 to April 9, 2021

Winners Announced - April 21, 2021

 

How do I win?

To be eligible for an award, your proposal must, at a minimum:

  • Satisfy the Judging Scorecard requirements
  • Thoughtfully address the Submission Form questions
  • Be scored higher than your competitors!

Solutions must, at a minimum:

  • Be non-partisan in nature and in scope. Any proposal which favors a particular political party will be excluded from consideration in this challenge.
  • Be submitted by a citizen of the United States of America

 

Judging Criteria

Section DescriptionOverall Weight
Impact

To what extent does the respondent expect voter engagement to increase (either in a specific audience or in the voting populace in general)? 

What evidence is provided to demonstrate the anticipated impact?

25
Scalability

How likely is it that the proposed approach can be implemented locally, regionally, or nationally? 

Does the respondent provide evidence or adequate description of how the approach may be scaled?

25
Quality of the proposed approach 

Is this approach feasible and well-reasoned? 

Is it likely to be successful if implemented?

What evidence does the respondent provide to demonstrate that the proposed approach would be effective in the US?

20
InnovationHow creative is the proposed approach?  Does it represent a new approach or one not widely used currently?20
Barrier(s) Addressed

Does the submitter effectively communicate the barrier(s) in question and how it impacts the target group?

Is the barrier identified by the submitter a valid one?  

10

 

Rules

Participation Eligibility:

The challenge is open to all adult individuals, private teams, public teams, and collegiate teams. All submitters must hold valid US citizenship. Submissions must be made in English. All challenge-related communication will be in English.

No specific qualifications or expertise is required. Prize organizers encourage outside individuals and non-expert teams to compete and propose new solutions. 

To be eligible to compete, you must comply with all the terms of the challenge as defined in the Challenge-Specific Agreement

Registration and Submissions:

Submissions must be made online (only), via upload to the HeroX.com website, on or before 5:00pm EST on March 12, 2021. No late submissions will be accepted.

Intellectual Property Rights:

As detailed in the Challenge-Specific Agreement – By entering, Innovator agrees that: (i) all Submissions become Challenge Sponsor's property and will not be returned; and (ii) Challenge Sponsor and its licensees, successors and assignees have the right to use any and all Submissions, and the names, likenesses, voices and images of all persons appearing in the Submission, for future advertising, promotion and publicity in any manner and in any medium now known or hereafter devised throughout the world in perpetuity.

All Intellectual property rights, if any, in the idea, concept, or activities demonstrated by the Submission will remain with the Innovator. The Innovator retains ownership of the Submission.

Additional Information

  • By participating in the challenge, each competitor agrees to submit only their original idea. Any indication of "copying" amongst competitors is grounds for disqualification.
  • All applications will go through a process of due diligence; any application found to be misrepresentative, plagiarized, or sharing an idea that is not their own will be automatically disqualified.
  • All ineligible applicants will be automatically removed from the competition with no recourse or reimbursement.
  • No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win the competition.
  • Void wherever restricted or prohibited by law.
Timeline
Updates19

Challenge Updates

Winners Webinar Recording

May 14, 2021, 7 a.m. PDT by Natalie York

Thank you to everyone that tuned in yesterday and to the challenge winners for participating in the Help America Vote Challenge Winners Webinar. 

If you didn't get a chance to tune in but are interested in learning more about the winning submissions, watch below. 


3 Hour Countdown to the Help America Vote Winners Webinar!

May 12, 2021, 8 a.m. PDT by Natalie York

The Winners Webinar for the Help America Vote Challenge begins in 3 hours.

If you have not yet registered, click here.

We hope to see you there!


Tune in Tomorrow!

May 11, 2021, 9:57 a.m. PDT by Natalie York

Reminder to tune in tomorrow, May 12th at 11am PT / 2pm ET for the Winners Webinar to hear more about the winning submissions for the Help America Vote Challenge!

Click here to register for the webinar. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with a link to join the webinar.

 


Join us for the Winners Webinar!

May 6, 2021, 9 a.m. PDT by Natalie York

Reminder to join us next week, on May 12th at 2pm ET // 11am PT, for the winners webinar for the Help America Vote Challenge!

The webinar will feature panelists from the Jack Brooks Foundation and the challenge winners to discuss their submissions. 

Click here to register for the webinar.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. 


Congratulations to the Challenge Winners!

April 29, 2021, 9 a.m. PDT by Natalie York

The Jack Brooks Foundation is pleased to announce the winners for the Help America Vote Challenge. Congratulations to the three winners, and thank you to all participants and everyone who made this challenge a success. 

“We are blown away by the enthusiasm generated by the Help America Vote Challenge,” says Jon Bassana, President and CEO of the Jack Brooks Foundation. “Our primary goal with this crowdsourcing competition was to offer a fun and engaging way to identify solutions to improve voter turnout and the caliber of the three winning ideas exceeded our expectations.”

The Jack Brooks Foundation hopes to identify potential collaboration partners for the winners to implement their ideas and programs. 

Please see below to read about the winning teams and entries.

 

1st Place - $7,500 - Vamos a Votar / Vote Week by Laura A. Miniel, Texas

Vote Week is a controlled study to promote and measure first-time voting among Hispanic teens. It has two components: Registration drives at high school campuses to answer questions and register first-time voters, and providing transportation in school buses to polls during early voting. The project is structured as a controlled experimental study, to measure and quantify results.

 

2nd Place - $5,000 - Providing Solutions to Voting Barriers by Spread The Vote Team, Florida

One of the most common barriers for disenfranchised voters is living in a state with restrictive voter ID laws. Spread The Vote helps individuals to obtain the IDs they need for jobs, housing, health care, and voting. It also helps clients register to vote and provides practical, easy to understand, informative and non-partisan voter guides and educational materials.  Spread The Vote works both in the community at large and with partner organizations such as homeless shelters, day centers, family services organizations and re-entry programs in several states. 

 

3rd Place - $2,500 - The Central Texas Civic Engagement Alliance by Cole Wilson, Texas

The Central Texas Civic Engagement Alliance would create a network of organizations, institutions, and clubs across Central Texas with the intent of increasing voter registration, education, and participation on campuses throughout the region. The approach would model the University of Texas-based Civic Engagement Alliance led by the nationally acclaimed student organization, TX Votes (housed within the Annette Strauss Institute).  

 

To learn more about the winning submissions, tune into the Winners Webinar on Wednesday, May 12 at 11am PT // 2pm ET by registering for the webinar here

 

HeroX and the Jack Brooks Foundation would like to thank the judges:

  • Costas Panagopoulos, Professor and Department Chair of College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University, Editor of American Politics Research, and Author
  • Lonna R. Atkeson, Professor of Political Science, Regents' Lecturer, and Director of the Center for the Study of Voting, Elections and Democracy and the Institute of Social Research at the University of New Mexico
  • Maggie Bush, Programs and Outreach Director for the League of Women Voters of the US
  • Matthew Weil, Director of the Elections Project at the Bipartisan Policy Center

Forum7
Teams365