CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A Chicago company is helping voters across the country learning about every candidate and referendum on their ballots this year.
Alex Niemczewski said that in 2014 she knew who she was voting for for major offices but, "there were all these offices that I really didn’t know what they were responsible for, local candidates whose names I didn’t recognize, so I made a website just to keep track of all the candidates."
That led Niemczewski and a friend to expand the website and research every candidate for every race in the country, no matter how small the office, and thus, BallotReady was born.
"Everyone we talked to was like, ‘Oh yeah, I guess when it comes to judges or I don’t know about, I don’t know what Water Reclamation commissioners do," she said.
Niemczewski said BallotReady is getting positive feedback from people who use it.
"People say, ‘This is the first time I’ve actually been able to confidently complete my whole ballot. It feels really good to cast informed vote,'" she said.
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Now, BallotReady lists information for more than 95,000 candidates in all 50 states. In 2018, Niemczewski said there were seven million visits to her website. So far in 2020, she said there have been ten times as many people visit the site at this point as they did in 2018.
If you go to ballotready.org, you put in your address and you can check out every candidate and issue on your ballot.
The University of Chicago graduate said there are 50 full-time employees at BallotReady.
On the business side, Niemczewski said BallotReady sells its info on candidates, voting and ballot information to political action committees and organizations that are trying to get out the vote.