TurboVote is an American non-profit website that seeks to increase voter turnout by helping its users register to vote, find polling places, and research election issues. Its parent company, Democracy Works, was co-founded by Kathryn Peters and Seth Flaxman in 2010.

History

TurboVote was first piloted at Boston University during the 2010 midterm elections. TurboVote's parent company, Democracy Works, is a

501(c)(3) non-profit organization A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 5 ...

. Its donors include the

Knight Foundation The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, also known as the Knight Foundation, is an American non-profit foundation that provides grants for journalism, communities, and the arts. The organization was founded as the Knight Memorial Education ...

, which has given US$5.15 million since 2012. As of 2019, TurboVote has 51 employees and is based out of its

Brooklyn, New York City Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

office. Luis Lozada was hired as CEO in 2022 after previously serving as General Counsel for two years.

Services and partnerships

TurboVote's services include helping voters register to vote and apply for absentee or mail-in ballots and sending text and email reminders about elections. Its services are available in English and Spanish. TurboVote has partnered with more than three hundred institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, and companies to register more than ten million voters. Some partners sponsor mailings, allowing TurboVote to send legal paperwork to voters by mail. Democracy Works' partners have included Google,

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, Twitter,

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

reddit Reddit ( ) is an American Proprietary software, proprietary social news news aggregator, aggregation and Internet forum, forum Social media, social media platform. Registered users (commonly referred to as "redditors") submit content to the ...

WordPress WordPress (WP, or WordPress.org) is a web content management system. It was originally created as a tool to publish blogs but has evolved to support publishing other web content, including more traditional websites, electronic mailing list, ma ...

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BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

with

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

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, and

Lady Gaga Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta (born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Known for her image reinventions and versatility across the entertainment industry, she is an influ ...

. In 2022, Democracy Works and TurboVote supported more than 1,500 elections and distributed more than 54 million election notifications. The TurboVote tool was overhauled to expand its capabilities, allowing voters to check their registration status, pledge to register to vote once they turn 18, find their polling location, make plans to vote in person or by mail, and even contact their local election office.

Controversies

In 2018, TurboVote texted its users in

Boone County, Missouri Boone County is located in the U.S. state of Missouri. Centrally located the state's Mid-Missouri region, its county seat is in Columbia, which is Missouri's fourth-largest city and location of the University of Missouri. As of the 2020 U.S ...

outdated information based on the polling station locations from four years prior. After the county clerk's office contacted TurboVote, they texted correct information to the affected voters. In 2018, scammers posed as employees of TurboVote, phoning prospective voters in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

and

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

in search of personal information and money. In 2019, the National Association of Secretaries of State claimed that TurboVote has periodically failed to process voter registrations, like on September 25, 2018, National Voter Registration Day, when their website crashed.{{Cite news , last=Huseman , first=Jessica , date=March 11, 2019 , title=Facebook and Twitter Turned to TurboVote to Drive Registrations. Officials Want Them to Turn Away. , work=ProPublica , url=https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-and-twitter-turned-to-turbovote-to-drive-registrations-officials-want-them-to-turn-away , access-date=2022-07-23

References

Non-profit organizations based in New York City Companies based in Brooklyn Voter registration