Website and data services have become an invaluable resource for millions of voters worldwide
WASHINGTON, D.C., December 31, 2018 - U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) and its Overseas Vote initiative experienced a tremendous rise in user activity for the 2018 election cycle with over 1.75 million users, a stunning 10-fold increase over the 2014 midterm elections cycle.
Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat, President and CEO of U.S Vote Foundation and Overseas Initiative claims that “…this dramatic growth is a result of the tremendous press coverage and the growing awareness of voting rights and resources, particularly for US citizens overseas.”
Overall, US Vote’s technology supported 1.9 million sessions and 6.9 million page-views for this 2018 election.
US Vote, Overseas Vote and its technology have become invaluable resources for voters who are otherwise flooded with information and struggle to make sense of it. “There has been an influx of voters who want to be engaged, particularly absentee, vote-by-mail voters, who realize they can participate in midterms and have their vote count,” says Dzieduszycka-Suinat.
86% of the forms produced this election year by the foundation’s websites were for the absentee vote-by-mail voters, and of these, 63% were overseas citizens. US voters are not allowing location to be a defining factor in whether or not they exercise their voting right. On the US Vote website, the highest user traffic day was Election Day with 84K sessions, 130% of 2016, a massive transformation for a midterm election.
In parallel to the increased level of absentee ballot request and voter registration form generation, was increased demand for voter information “civic data” services, such as the Election Official Directory and the Election Dates and Deadlines services with over 600K page-views respectively. These datasets are in turn licensed to other voter outreach organizations, bringing their extended use to millions more voters through additional third-party innovation and services. This exemplifies that accurate and relevant voting information is equally valuable to voters in their engagement. US Vote’s commitment to civic data, and its ongoing management and licensing of that data responds to a growing need for reliable, curated election data by researchers and developers.
Results of the US Vote 2018 Election Day Voter Experience Survey will be announced in January 2019.
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About U.S. Vote Foundation
U.S. Vote Foundation (US Vote) and its Overseas Vote initiative remain true to a unified vision and mission: Every Citizen is a Voter. The foundation aims for every citizen to have open access to voter information and the ability to easily engage in US democracy and civic life with voting as a central action.
US Vote executes its vision and mission through the development and provision of innovative civic tech solutions and data services for domestic, overseas and military voters.
US Vote's civic data and voter services are also licensed to leading voter outreach organizations, state governments, campaigns and agencies. Through this broad provision of data and services, US Vote's reach and influence are exponentially increased.
U.S. Vote Foundation is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501(c)3 charitable organization. Learn more at www.usvotefoundation.org.