NYC startup believes the feature designs of current social media are responsible for the spread of fake news and helps to create more division in the country. To fix it, they aim to re-invent the way we learn about the issues, communicate about politics and pick our leaders.

New York, N.Y. — July 24, 2019- A new, first-of-its-kind non-partisan app called Vote In or Out is intent on transforming the way Americans learn information about the candidates running for office and have built a product designed to foster better informed voting decisions by the public. The creators believe their app’s features will help increase voter participation, improve how we approach our political discourse, force public servants to be more accountable to the people that elect them instead of to the lobbyists that fund them and ultimately, encourage its users to help send fake news into a virtual trash bin.

The app directly connects people to research and links them to the candidates, advocates and organizations they trust. Users will be able to explore who supports their stances on the issues in seconds with swipe-able candidate score cards. They’ll be able to collect and post research about the candidates so they become better informed before they make their voting decisions.

Lisa Chin Mollica — Founder of Vote In Or Out

The app is the brainchild of Lisa Chin Mollica, a 40-year-old Asian-American UX designer, with over 20 years of experience in product design and growing startups, who is currently the Head of Product Design directly under Arianna Huffington at Thrive Global. She is a mother of two, is married to a firefighter serving as a Lieutenant in the FDNY and resides in Brooklyn, N.Y.

She feels there has been a degradation in our political discourse due to social media as it currently exists and decided to do something about it with her creation. “Facebook, Twitter and Instagram weren’t built for politics. They were built to connect family and friends by making sharing information extremely easy with the simple click of a button, whether it be pictures of kids and pets, posting an article or commenting on a thread. But that ease has not been without unintended consequences when it comes to our politics, including conversations filled with friction and the spread of fake news.”, said Lisa Chin Mollica, Founder and Chairman of Vote In or Out.

“Most of the posts and comments you currently see on social media have only been vetted by a handful of the general public and allow for misinformation to thrive. The end result is that it often leads to emotional arguments that yield little reliable information for people trying to get information on the candidates running for office. The same mechanisms that help us connect and share with loved ones are the same ones that help spread fake news and drive us apart.”- Lisa Chin Mollica

Reduce The Noise. Combat Fake News.

Some of the other main reasons the creators say they made Vote In Or Out include creating a new way for people to communicate about politics so that they can hear one another without getting in each other’s way, and most importantly, to work towards achieving a better informed electorate that surrounds their energy around issues instead of political labels. They understand the influence that the spread of fake news has had on the public, and they want to tackle that big problem too.

“As we now know, an enormous amount of fake news been easily shared in the past few years, and even worse, has been believed by many people. This proliferation of fake news has been especially effective at influencing people’s thoughts, their views on issues and ultimately, how they pick their leaders. To help combat the spread of fake news, every post made on the app comes with built-in accountability. The app’s interface is designed to keep the discourse civil, and to encourage fact-based assertions and claims by allowing users to fact-check one another with required source links.”, said Michael Sciaraffo, Executive Director of Media Relations/Operations for Vote In or Out.

Vote In or Out wants to help cut down on the noise, and instead elevate fact-based, peer-reviewed research to allow voters to find the information they need to be better informed. In order to make a post on the app, users must adhere to a structure where every post will require a source link. Posts may also be fact-checked by any user, but will also require a source link as well. All posts and fact-checks will be rated up or down by the community of users that best match a user’s stances on the issues that matter to them most. This will bring the best rated content to the top of their feed and send fake news down to the bottom, leading to users seeing less of it in their feeds.

Stance Switch Feature

And to ensure users aren’t relegated to their own political bubble, the app has a feature called “Stance Switch”, a button pressed by the user that will switch their top-rated posts they see at the top of their feed from the people they agree with to those they don’t, giving the user insight into what the opposing arguments are for a particular issue.

Come Together. Make America Great.

“One of the things we promote on our app is crowd-sourced research. Unlike the design of other social media, users on Vote In or Out will be required to post research with sources linked to their claims. And all research posted by users will be scrutinized by the larger community of users who will have the opportunity to fact-check that posted research.”, said Michael Serpico, Digital Brand Manager for Vote In or Out. “This will lead to less focus on opinion and more focus on promoting a culture of consuming more research-backed statements and information when it comes to our social media discussions around politics in an engaging and creative way.”

All the Information You Seek In One Place

Another major problem in the app’s crosshairs is the confusion and difficulty surrounding the process for voters to assess and evaluate the candidates on the ballot asking for their vote. With so many candidates running for President, how is a voter to determine who best represents their stances on the issues? Nobody has time required to go through the arduous motions of truly differentiating between the candidates running.

“Think of how daunting and time consuming it would be to truly be able to differentiate between all of the candidates’ stances on issues that are most important to you. And all of them are asking you for your vote. So how are you supposed to make an informed decision? There are at least 25 people running for President on the Democratic side. And there are dozens of issues important to each different voter.”, said Rolf Luberoff, Executive Director of Marketing for Vote In or Out. “You would have to create a massive spreadsheet, with columns for each issue, or for each bill that’s been voted on, then Google each candidate, identify each issue, check each of their voting records, see what advocacy groups endorsed them and at the end of all of that, you end up with a lot of information to process mentally. It’s enough to make some people not bother voting at all.”

They also identify widespread voter apathy as another reason why they built the app. In the 2016 Presidential election, as a percentage of eligible voters, Hillary Clinton received 28.43% (65,845,063) of all eligible votes compared to Trump’s 27.20% (62,980,160). That means that an overwhelming majority of eligible voters, 44.37% (102,731,399), did not vote in the last election. Some of the top reasons given by the non-voters is that they did not like the candidates or campaign issues, feeling that their vote wouldn’t make a difference and not knowing when and where to vote. By identifying the reasons most cited by eligible voters for why they chose not to vote, Vote In or Out plans to reverse that trend with their app.

Why wait every 2–4 years? Get Your Voice Heard Every Day

In an effort to increase voter participation, the app utilizes the science of intention so that the user can add candidates to their own customized “ballots” that are shareable on social media. The users customized “ballot” are then sent to them before they go to the polls and they’ll be reminded numerous times leading up to and on Election Day of where their voting location is and when the polls are open.

“We want to provide a resource for the public that can be a massive force for the greater good, which we believe will help to better engage infrequent and more apathetic voters by giving them a path to increased participation in future elections. Our platform can help transform the way people understand politics, and the power and connection they feel to it.”, said Julia Fusco-Luberoff, Executive Director of Women’s Empowerment for Vote In or Out. “We aim to engage as many people as possible around issues they are passionate about. We believe our app can empower voters, amplify their voices and make their passions contagious.”

“We seek to empower voters of all ages from across the political spectrum, and that includes empowering those who are still too young to cast a ballot. Even though they are not eligible to vote yet, we want to empower them to affect change because we feel that woke and passionate teens voices out there deserve to be heard just as loud as the adults. They will inherit the future so their voices and concerns are just as valid and we intend to ensure they have the tools to be the change they seek as well.”, said Nelson Figueroa, Executive Director of Outreach and Spokesperson for Vote In or Out, who is also a former MLB player and SNY baseball analyst.

“Vote In Or Out is designed to make informed voting easier by enabling its users to collect and share research on any candidate running for office. This gives the user the ability to rally around important issues with other users who agree with them on the issues and to create an intention to vote in order to increase voter participation.”, said Ron Minsky, Chief Executive Officer for Vote In or Out. “And we want to encourage power users, the smaller percentage of the public who enjoy doing deeper research and creating quality content that can be easily digested by any user. We want to connect power users with others voters who can rely on that information to make more informed decisions in the voting booth.”

Boldly and brazenly, Vote In or Out seeks to solve all of these problems in one fell swoop.

“The 2020 Election is right around the corner and primaries are heating up. We have a chance to reach millions of people in this country and increase voter participation and we’ve done so by combining all the best features of all the platforms they’re already familiar with.”, said Lisa Chin Mollica, Founder and Chairman of Vote In or Out.

“Our platform uses what works from proven apps using familiar features to create an effective voting experience for our users.” The app utilizes the ease of the Tinder swipe to allow the user to browse through candidates and quickly discover those who holds similar stances as them on pressing issues. It also has the scrutinizing features of Reddit in that every post the user sees will be rated by the user community for credibility and accuracy. It has the platform mechanics of Twitter in that it can amplify media and messages. It has the social hooks of Instagram in that advocates and leaders can build throngs of followers. It has the face-to-face engagement of Facebook Live to provide a place for candidates and influencers to connect and support important issues together in real time.”

The team building the app is on a mission and in a race against time to have the app ready for the public by as early as October 2019, providing plenty of time for the app to be available to and used by the public before voters head to the polls in early 2020. So, they are launching an Indiegogo campaign today to raise the $175k by August 31st, in order to be able to have the app built within 6–8 weeks from the moment they reach their goal. (Indiegogo Link)

Vote In or Out is kicking off their Indiegogo campaign launch with a Debate Watch Party on the 2nd night of the upcoming Democratic primary debates on Wednesday, July 31st starting at 5pm. The event will take place at ustwo New York, 26 Broadway, 16th floor, New York, N.Y. 10004. We will also be recognizing people who embody our motto “Be the Change”, including 9/11 Victim’s Health and Compensation Fund advocate John Feal for his tireless work over 18 years pushing Congress to finally fully fund the program permanently for 9/11 heroes and their families, who will be in attendance. The event will be hosted by comedian and actor Gianmarco Soresi and will feature remarks by two of the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who survived the Parkland tragedy. We will also be honoring Trudy Mason, former press secretary for Vice Presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro, for her lifetime of pushing to affect change. There will also be a walkthrough presentation of the app by the founder, Lisa Chin Mollica. Press availabilities will be available to cover the event including opportunities to have on-camera, in-person interviews with the app’s creators.

The company is confident that the public will gladly embrace this new technology, based on the kind of the feedback they have gotten since the app’s conception. “Sometimes when we see certain products or inventions for the first time, we wonder to ourselves why things like this don’t already exist or why someone didn’t already think of that. Well, Vote In or Out believes that we have created one of those products. But don’t take our word for it. Take a look for yourself and see if you agree.”, said Michael Sciaraffo, Executive Director of Media Relations/Operations for Vote In or Out. “We believe that once unveiled, the public will wholeheartedly embrace this new technology, and that it will turn the 2020 election and future elections down the road, on their head.”

Contact Information:

Vote In or Out

Michael Sciaraffo, Executive Director of Media Relations/Operations

Phone: 646–623–7542

Email: contact@voteinorout.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/voteinorout

Twitter: www.twitter.com/voteinorout

Instagram: www.instagram.com/voteinorout

See the Vote In or Out prototype: www.voteinorout.com

Support this project at indiegogo.com

Create, read and share research on key issues and candidates. Create your ballot. Vote. Be the change you seek in the world.

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