Help us help you by casting a vote for Chalkbeat’s Election Engine

Chalkbeat has the chance to win $25,000 to expand our original online tool – the Election Engine – during the 2015 Aspen Institute’s Idea Awards, and we need your help.

With just a click of your mouse, you can help us bring you more of the journalism that you rely on to make decisions about education and to hold candidates and elected officials accountable for their policy promises.

Our Election Engine empowers voters to make more informed decisions by helping them compare and contrast candidates’ positions on crucial education issues. It also makes it harder for candidates to give avoidant non-answers to major policy questions.

We’ve seen how the early version of this tool, formerly dubbed our “election tracker,” has set the groundwork for a more informed voter base. We developed this concept in 2013 to cover the education issues at play in New York City’s mayoral race, and refined it in 2014 for the Indianapolis school board election. This opportunity will allow us to continue to develop this tool to help our readers navigate the often murky waters of candidate talk.

Click here to cast your votes now through June 1. Ideas with the most votes will be reviewed by judges, and finalists – hopefully including our own Elizabeth Green – will be presenting Shark Tank-style at this year’s Aspen Institute on June 30.