KnowVote

Inspiration

We were bothered by the unfairness in the US election system. We decided to create a series of programs to fix that.

What it does

First, we have a custom Google Sheets function to take your data and transform it into a ballot with an instant runoff voting system. Then, after getting many responses on the form, you would use our other tool to analyze that data and generate charts based on it.

How we built it

We used the Google Scripts editor to create the script for Sheets. Then, we used python to analyze the resulting css file and used a plotting library to graph everything.

Challenges we ran into

We initially had challenges with orienting the graphs in the right direction and making them look visually appealing. We also faced problems getting the sheets script up and running. However, with 15 hours left, we've solved all of our issues and finished the project entirely.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud to have worked with new technologies and libraries we've never used before. Additionally, we enjoyed doing research on the pros and cons of different voting systems and being able to graphically see that in the end.

What we learned

We learned how to use MapPlotLib and TKinter, graphing and GUI libraries, respectively. We had our first experience with Google Script. We also learned all about different voting systems, as noted above.

What's next for KnowVote

We plan to release these tools on the internet so everyone in the country can understand why our current voting systems suck and why we should vote to change to a different system in the future.

Built With

• forms
• python
• sheets