VoteForBernie.org serves many specific purposes — discovering whether your state has primaries or caucuses, whether they are open or closed (or something in between), and important voting deadlines for each state (as well as the territories, like Washington DC and Puerto Rico.) The primary function of VoteForBernie.org, however, is Getting Out The Vote! Many pollsters focus on an older demographic, because if history is any indicator, young people don’t vote - I created VoteForBernie.org to help change that. Bernie dominates virtually every online poll, and we need to convert those clicks into votes in the primaries and caucuses!
Millennials of America know who their candidate is, but he will not win unless we drastically increase voter turnout in 2016. In 2008, voter turnout for the Democratic primaries reached an all-time high. That sounds like great news, until you realize that only 27% of eligible citizens voted on Super Tuesday. I’ll repeat that: 27% was a record turnout. We can do better. We will do better.
This is how we will win.
About the creator
My name is Jon Hughes, I am a professional web developer and consultant based in beautiful Southern Oregon. For most of my life, I had been politically unmotivated. Then I learned about Bernie Sanders. I was skeptical of the ‘internet hype’ he was receiving, but after seeing the record-breaking crowds he was drawing, after hearing people I know and respect promoting him, and seeing people who were like me, who normally didn’t care anything about politics, talking excitedly about getting money out of politics as if it were achievable and many other important issues as well. I had to investigate. So I looked into Bernie’s stances and history, and after a while, I began to realize that Bernie was someone I could feel good about voting for, instead of just voting for the lesser of two evils, as had been the case for far too long.
I decided to vote for Bernie and looked into how to do that. In my research, however, I learned that many states have closed primaries, including my state, which meant that I had to change my registration from Independent to Democrat in order to vote for Bernie in the upcoming primary. I mentioned that fact to Oregonian friends and family: Turns out they didn’t know about closed primaries either. I realized that many people simply didn’t have the information they needed to vote for Bernie, and decided to do something about that.
The result was this website, VoteForBernie.org. Though it started very simple, I have continued to add more important information with the goal of making voting as easy possible, (under the current system, anyhow.) Since launching in June of 2015, VoteForBernie.org has served millions of unique visitors and continues to provide important voter information to tens of thousands of individuals every day. I get emails from people all over the country who have updated their registration so they can vote for Bernie in their primary. I truly believe that if we can Get Out The Vote, we will be able to elect Bernie Sanders. Let’s do this.
If you wish to contact me, you can use the contact form.
#FeelTheBern!
Disclaimer: I am a volunteer and am not compensated for my time or for the costs associated with running VoteForBernie. If you wish to donate, I encourage you to donate to Bernie’s campaign directly. If you want to support VoteForBernie, all that I ask is that you share it on your social network of choice. I do not accept donations, Bernie’s campaign needs your money more than I do!