Turnout - turned out by Brown alumni
With the next election cycle on the horizon, political campaigns are going strong to get people to vote. Brown alumni Jason Wang ‘18 and Tyler Fox ‘18, are just two people, but they hope to get more Brown students registered to vote in a slightly less traditional manner.
Their idea bloomed last fall, and with a great number of us now staying inside with nothing much other than our screens, they aim to bring us entertainment, prizes, and most importantly, political engagement with as little barriers as possible. Registering to vote can often be a frustrating process for many, but they have partnered with TurboVote, run by the organization Democracy Works for their app, Turnout.
Turnout is a ballot-style game where the most popular answer is the correct one. Students respond to the game’s daily polls, trying to guess everyone else’s most popular answer to earn points. At the end of the week, those who finish in the top three will win the reward of the week, such as an Amazon gift card.
In order to sign up, students must sign up with their Brown email and also be asked if they would like to register to vote with TurboVote. TurboVote informs registered users of specific details regarding where and when they should go to vote, based solely by address. Once students are signed up for the game, they do not have to sign up for anything else. Users may also opt out of TurboVote notifications.
They were inspired by the fads of their time during Brown. During their time, one of the biggest things was a game show app called HQ. The campus-wide obsession grew to the point where the students would recognize the sounds from the game and immediately turn their attention to their own phones in time to participate themselves, whether it was the Ratty or their dorms.
I was curious about how they’d fund this, and was surprised to hear that this was about nothing other than to encourage people to register to vote. This wasn’t an app created to make profit or to be sustainable for long periods of time; rather, the alumni and various other funding sources are pouring money into the game for a period before the election.
Turnout is also not about data collection, unlike other poll-based apps such as College Pulse. It is a game that engages students in friendly competition. The sorts of questions asked are less serious and rather silly and inconsequential. The game leans more on game theory than trivia, as it asks users to pick what they think is the most popular answer, which allows for some interesting patterns.
The user interface is very sleek and cute, and the sign-up process is quick and streamlined. A good portion of the information is pre-filled with information from your Brown email. Below are some sample screens of the app from the testing period.
Another pro tip: if you get the game early and send your invite code to your friends, you get power ups, which puts you at a significant advantage for that week, so invite your friends to join the game and get registered to vote!
Turnout’s first round starts May 3rd on Sunday. Don’t miss out, and get started soon!
Download Turnout using the links below:
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/turnout-2020/id1502355350
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=us.turnout.android
Images via and Jason Wang '18.
