Millenials have the lowest voter turnout, despite being the 2nd largest generation of voters. Having identified that millennials are largely unsatisfied with their knowledge in local politics, TLDR aims to address the bottlenecks in the political education pipeline. We plan to alleviate voting friction for young adults by providing sharable, eye-catching content, that passively informs viewers on relevant political issues through a format they already actively use.
We summarize ballot information from Ballotpedia, an unbiased non-profit that compiles information about local ballot issues and topics.
This data is properly formatted into a JSON file which is fed into our video templating system in Adobe After Effects, auto-rendering a new video based on input.
These videos are automatically posted to state-localized social media accounts to provide a social-first source of reliable ballot information.
Through data-driven video automation, we can provide careful attention and detail at scale to bring light to information that might have previously been overlooked.
Equal Arguments from both sides
Key elected supporters and opposition
Voting registration information
Concise summary of proposed bill
Transparency to financial contributions
Impact of bill passing
Converting ballot information into a useable JSON format, our After Effects templating system interprets these input fields as text, image, vector pattern, and color data. We render these dynamically based on data used, and automatically stitch them together into one video.
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp 1",
"CompID": 1,
"Name": "INITIATIVE TOPIC - SOLID",
"Layer": 29,
"Values": "Environmental"
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp 1",
"CompID": 1,
"Name": "BALLOT TYPE",
"Layer": 26,
"Values": "Initiative"
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp 1",
"CompID": 1,
"Name": "STATE",
"Layer": 23,
"Values": "Washington"
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp 1",
"CompID": 1,
"Name": "INITIATIVE NUM",
"Layer": 21,
"Values": "Initiative 1631"
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp1",
"CompID": 1,
"Name": "MEASURE TEXT 1",
"Layer": 15,
"Values": "This measure would impose pollution fees on certain large emitters of greenhouse gas pollutants based on rules determining carbon content, starting in 2020. "
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp1",
"CompID": 1,
"Name": "MEASURE TEXT 2",
"Layer": 12,
"Values": "A public board would supervise spending the revenues on reducing pollution, promoting clean energy, and addressing climate impacts to the environment and communities. Utilities could receive credits for approved investments."
},
{
"Title": "Layer",
"Comp": "Comp1",
"CompID": 1,
"Name": "MEASURE TEXT 3",
"Layer": 9,
"Video": true
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp1",
"CompID": 1,
"Name": "MEASURE TEXT 3",
"Layer": 9,
"Values": "Indian tribes would consult on projects directly impacting their land. There would be periodic reporting on the measure’s effectiveness."
}
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp2",
"CompID": 13,
"Name": "ACTION ITEM 1",
"Layer": 14,
"Values": "Enact a carbon emissions fee of $15 per metric ton of carbon beginning on January 1, 2020;"
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp2",
"CompID": 13,
"Name": "ACTION ITEM 2",
"Layer": 8,
"Values": "Increase the fee by $2 annually until the state's greenhouse gas reduction goals are met;"
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp2",
"CompID": 13,
"Name": "ACTION ITEM 3",
"Layer": 5,
"Values": "Use the revenue from the fee to fund various programs and projects related to the environment."
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp10(3)",
"CompID": 931,
"Name": "WHERE - OPPOSE 3",
"Layer": 4,
"Values": "VERMONT"
},
{
"Title": "Layer",
"Comp": "Comp10(3)",
"CompID": 931,
"Name": "OPPOSER ELECTED NAME 3 - OUTLINE",
"Layer": 7,
"Video": true
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp10(3)",
"CompID": 931,
"Name": "OPPOSER ELECTED NAME 3 - OUTLINE",
"Layer": 7,
"Values": "Bernie\rSanders"
},
{
"Title": "Footage",
"Name": "Background Pattern Cross.png",
"FootageID": 663,
"ImageSeq": false,
"Path": "~/Downloads/ALL AFTER EFFECTS FILES/assets/General/Background Pattern Cross.png"
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp9",
"CompID": 864,
"Name": "OPPOSER DONOR NAME 2 - FILL",
"Layer": 7,
"Values": "Andreavor"
},
{
"Title": "Layer",
"Comp": "Comp9",
"CompID": 864,
"Name": "OPPOSER DONOR NAME 2 - OUTLINE",
"Layer": 8,
"Video": true
},
{
"Title": "Text",
"Comp": "Comp9",
"CompID": 864,
"Name": "OPPOSER DONOR NAME 2 - OUTLINE",
"Layer": 8,
"Values": "Andreavor"
},
{
"Title": "Layer",
"Comp": "Comp9",
"CompID": 864,
"Name": "OPPOSER DONOR NAME 1 - FILL",
"Layer": 10,
"Video": true
},
{
"Title": "Footage",
"Name": "Background Pattern Plus.png",
"FootageID": 298,
"ImageSeq": false,
"Path": "~/Downloads/ALL AFTER EFFECTS FILES/assets/General/Background Pattern Plus.png"
},
{
"Title": "Footage",
"Name": "Background Pattern Plus.png",
"FootageID": 351,
"ImageSeq": false,
"Path": "~/Downloads/ALL AFTER EFFECTS FILES/assets/General/Background Pattern Plus.png"
},
{
"Title": "Footage",
"Name": "Background Pattern Plus.png",
"FootageID": 370,
"ImageSeq": false,
"Path": "~/Downloads/ALL AFTER EFFECTS FILES/assets/General/Background Pattern Plus.png"
},
{
"Title": "Footage",
"Name": "Businesses Icon.png",
"FootageID": 391,
"ImageSeq": false,
"Path": "~/Downloads/ALL AFTER EFFECTS FILES/assets/Environment/Businesses Icon.png"
},
{
"Title": "Footage",
"Name": "Businesses Icon.png",
"FootageID": 725,
"ImageSeq": false,
"Path": "~/Downloads/ALL AFTER EFFECTS FILES/assets/Environment/Businesses Icon.png"
},
Americans have some of the lowest voter-turnout numbers of any democratic nation. While there are several reasons behind this, a significant and often over-looked reason is that voters simply don't feel informed enough about the complex issues they are voting on. With several organizations tackling the issue of "Getting out the vote", TLDR answers the important question: Once people start voting, how will they be prepared to do so?
TLDR was created by the cross-department collaboration of undergraduates from the UW iSchool, Paul Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, and Department of Design.
Thanks for checking out TLDR. For the best viewing experience, please visit this site on desktop (sorry!)