Impact.VOTE is not tied to a particular party or candidate. Impact.VOTE is a multigenerational group of progressive activists who have come together to help engage and mobilize young voters in the democratic process.
We are facing a participation crisis in our democracy. This is in large part because of voter suppression and physical barriers in getting out to vote. We also face a truly insidious issue - lack of engagement. Impact.VOTE is an effort to combat disengagement by motivating young and disengaged voters to believe that their voice and VOTE matters in our elections. We activate voters by:
1. Communicating the impact that they can have as an individual on the races in their ballot.
2. Providing voters with a way to engage their voting networks encouraging some friendly competition with the goal of maximizing impact.
3. Articulating the impact the elected officials will have on our lives as people who live in the United States.
When our Impact.VOTE community logs in, they are able to view their individual ballots. These ballots show the projected impact of the particular race, and they provide descriptions that the candidates would have on people’s lives in specific issue areas if they were elected.
After committing to their own impact, the Impact.VOTE community is able to generate more impact by engaging their networks with a personalized referral link. By building out their teams, people who use Impact.VOTE earn impact points based on the number of high-impact elections their friends pledge to vote in.
What Are Pledged Votes?
You earn Pledged Votes every time you pledge to vote in an election, whether it is for President, State Senate, or Dog Catcher. You can also earn points every time you convince a friend or co-worker to do the same. The more elections you and your friends commit to voting in, the more Pledged Votes you will collect.
What is the Impact Score?
Your Impact Score is the total number of Pledged Votes you earn, weighted by an algorithm based on the competitive nature of the race, as well as the relative impact a vote carries in that particular race.
How is the Impact Score Calculated?
For the purposes of our Impact SCORE we grouped races into four groups (Very High Impact, High Impact, Moderate Impact, Low Impact). These four groups are informed by a voter's voter power (where available) and the competitiveness (as measured by recent polls) of that race.
Princeton Professor Sam Wang's work on voter power with the Princeton Election Consortium, found at this website, plays a large role in our Impact SCORE. Voter power is based off a concept known as "jerseyvotes" developed in 2008. Professor Wang succinctly sums up the concept in this statement: "The power of a single vote can be quantified by asking: In a neck-and-neck race, how much does one vote affect your candidate’s win probability?"
Here is Professor Wang's full explanation of quantifying voter power.
We are very grateful for the work on Professor Wang on voter power, and we encourage our users to check out his team's groundbreaking work on gerrymandering as well at this site
Donations to Impact.VOTE are not deductible as charitable contributions for federal income tax purposes, and must be made from the donor’s personal funds. Donations from federal contractors and foreign nationals are not allowed. Donors must be U.S. citizens or lawfully admitted permanent residents, and Impact Vote must use “best efforts” to obtain the name, address, occupation, and employer of any donor who gives more than $200 annually.
Impact.VOTE’s spending is independent, and does not make contributions or coordinate spending with any candidate or political parties.
Nope. We are doing this for the long haul. Elections happen every year, and each year matters! As our team grows we will provide more in depth content about the impact of elections on people’s lives.
Additionally, we have some exciting new features that we hope to roll out before and after the election. Make sure to sign up to see those new features!
If you have a suggestion for an “impact statement” about a particular election, email the name of the race, the issue area and your statement to impact@impactvote.org.
If you want to volunteer, email volunteers@impactvote.org, and we will get you connected.
If you have any questions, email support@impactvote.org.