The Jack Brooks Foundation (JBF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering, educating and motivating individual Americans to participate in The Voting Process, and HeroX, the social network for innovation and the world's leading platform for crowdsourced solutions, today launched the crowdsourcing competition "Help America Vote Challenge" to find effective methods for increasing U.S. participation in elections at the local, state, and federal levels. The United States is well behind most of their peer democratic countries, with only 56% of the voting-age population casting a vote in the last presidential election. That percentage drops even lower in non-presidential elections.
Low voter turnout in U.S. elections has been reported for several decades. There are many barriers to participation, such as transportation issues, long wait times at the polls, voter apathy, and scheduling conflicts with employers. The COVID-19 pandemic is now an additional barrier to voter turnout. When elections have poor voter turnout, the results do not reflect the needs and wants of the general public, whether it is a position on an important policy or the selection of a particular candidate for office. Bringing more Americans into electoral politics means that those we elect and the policies we support are true and accurate reflections of our values.
"Voting is the cornerstone of democracy, and we must motivate every American to engage in the voting process in every election," said Jon Bassana, President and CEO of The Jack Brooks Foundation. "Congressman Brooks was deeply committed to all his constituents, no matter their political leanings. The Foundation's work is inspired by the Congressman's conviction: voting amplifies the voices of constituents, which means our elected leaders will better reflect and represent the people."
The Jack Brooks Foundation seeks submissions that propose compelling, non-partisan approaches to improving voter turnout. JBF wants more Americans, irrespective of party affiliation, to exercise their constitutional right to vote, so proposed solutions must be non-partisan. The goal is to improve voter participation, not to impact the outcome of elections.
"Exercising your right to vote is a democratic imperative," said Christian Cotichini, CEO, HeroX. "Our crowdsourcing platform will help identify voter turnout solutions from across the U.S., which is, in essence, the most democratic way to improve our democratic process."
The Challenge: Individuals submitting to this "Help America Vote" challenge must identify an obstacle to voter participation and then propose an approach to reduce or eliminate it. The Jack Brooks Foundation believes that increased voter participation is beneficial to this country, regardless of the voter's political affiliation and preferences. As such, all proposals to improve voter turnout must be non-partisan in nature and scope, and must be submitted by U.S. citizens.
The Prize: A total of up to $15,000USD will be distributed to the top three respondents: Grand Prize: $7,500, Second Prize: $5,000, and Third Prize: $2,500.
The Jack Brooks Foundation may also use submissions to identify potential collaboration partners following the conclusion of the Challenge.
How to Become a Solver: The prize is open to any US citizen aged 18 or older, participating as an individual or as a team.
To accept the challenge, visit https://www.herox.com/helpamericavote
ABOUT HEROX
HeroX is a social network for crowdsourcing innovation and human ingenuity, co-founded in 2013 by serial entrepreneur, Christian Cotichini and XPRIZE Founder and Futurist, Peter Diamandis. HeroX offers a turnkey, easy-to-use platform that supports anyone, anywhere, to solve everyday business and world challenges using the power of the crowd. Uniquely positioned as the Social Network for Innovation, HeroX is the only place you can build, grow and curate your very own crowd.
Explore the latest challenges at www.herox.com
ABOUT THE JACK BROOKS FOUNDATION
The Jack Brooks Foundation is a nonprofit organization developing independent and nonpartisan initiatives designed to empower, educate and motivate individual Americans to participate in The Voting Process. Every U.S. citizen has the right to vote, and we inspire people to exercise that right. Our initiatives change the way Americans think about and participate in this nation's representative democracy. More information can be found at www.jackbrooksfoundation.org.
Media Contact:
Alexandra Pony
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