9 ms·

$1M VotePlz Sweepstakes

108 points by runesoerensen 10y ago

alva 10y ago
Not a criticism! Replace benefitting party as you wish. It is interesting when these initiatives present themselves as non-partisan. If you target a demographic that polling suggests will go for your preferred party, plough tons of money to encourage them to vote, can it truly be described as non-partisan? edit: And if so, should they be obligated to disclose their preference and intention?
- beefman 10y ago
  It is criticism. Insightful criticism. Thank you.
- mkagenius 10y ago
  It is clear whom they don't want them to vote but what's wrong in that. They are not forcing anyone - just enabling them. They want them not to sit this one out as this could make them regret for not voting when there was a chance.
- gizmo 10y ago
  There are two parts to it. First it encourages young people to vote. This is important because young people will be the most affected by policies enacted by the next president. This part is non-partisan, because it forces both political parties to take young people more seriously as a voting block. Second it's clearly against Trump, because Trump's base consists of older white people with racial anxiety/anger. Young people lean democrat, but they don't get out to vote.
  - gthtjtkt 10y ago
    > Second it's clearly against Trump, because Trump's base consists of older white people with racial anxiety/anger. Young people lean democrat, but they don't get out to vote. If you honestly believe this, you are very out of touch with reality. Young voters hate both major party candidates almost equally.
    - mikeyouse 10y ago
      Clinton is a 36-point favorite over Trump with 18-34 year olds: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pr/2016/08/15/poll-finds-millennials-favor-clinton-over-trump-wide-margin/88757778/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pr/2016/08/15/poll-finds-...
      - makomk 10y ago
        Yeah, 18-34 year olds are a lot more willing to support Clinton than Trump, and also the age group with the most Clinton supporters and the least Trump supporters. It's easy to get a different impression from the mainstream press sometimes because they're pissed off that young people aren't even more overwhelmingly supportive of Clinton and some of them are supporting third parties instead. They came to believe that young people's anti-Republican lean would mean automatic Democrat victory in future and now they're angry that it hasn't come to pass.
    - gizmo 10y ago
      Recent polls (2014) say young people are strongly leaning democrat. This may not match your experience, but then again, I don't believe you can understand a country by extrapolating from your social circle. http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/wt-ykjnhfuezhxsedgqldg.png http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Prod...
  - r00fus 10y ago
    Arguably, YC leadership is overbalanced towards Trump [1]. As someone who has a preference, I wholeheartedly support more enfranchisement regardless of demographic or party. That's a race to the top, not the bottom. [1] http://fortune.com/2016/07/21/peter-thiel-gives-full-throated-endorsement-of-donald-trump/ http://fortune.com/2016/07/21/peter-thiel-gives-full-throate...
nilved 10y ago
Yikes, cringe. Please tone down the emoji and literallies and why evens.
- obmelvin 10y ago
  Presumably you aren't the target demographic of the site. It's not meant to appeal to you.
  - nilved 10y ago
    I am the target demographic, and this doesn't appeal to us. > The 2012 election was decided by millennial turnout. And this election should be too. It’s up to you to vote and decide! Millenials see politicians and old people using emoji as contrived and duplicitous. They also hate the word millenial.
    - logfromblammo 10y ago
      At least they eventually replaced the "Gen Y" placeholder with an actual name... You know that word that Gen X hates, because the media constantly uses it to refer to us? Yeah, neither do I. Just be glad that your generational cohort is large enough that people will actually pay attention to you as an advertising demographic or voting bloc. Even when the Boomer-controlled media is ridiculing you as special snowflakes in your safe spaces, at least they're talking about you.
    - obmelvin 10y ago
      I am also in the target demographic, and agree that it doesn't appeal to me. I would imagine that it would appeal to others our age. Most people I know aren't like you (presumably) and I, but I try hard to meet people with different interests and I could see some/many liking the simple message.
- treehau5 10y ago
  I think you hint at another point -- this phrasing has been coming from everywhere, and the fact that it continues to come from people who tend to support one particular candidate makes me weary of it: "The 2016 US Presidential election feels like the most important one so far in my lifetime" seems like it really is just a euphemism for "Candidate X is really scary, so despite what you think about Candidate Y, we must fall in line and vote for him/her" Every presidential election is important. Unless the President somehow gained newfound apocalyptical powers, I don't think it is any more or less important than before. You should vote because you want to exercise your right to vote, not because everyone is compelling you of how "important" (a.k.a super duper scary) it is. Telling everyone to "get out and vote" is hardly helpful. We have security experts telling us electronic voting machines are just plain not safe, we have laws that disparage minorities and low-income people from not voting, and worst of all, we have a majority of the population who is completely ignorant or lackisdasical of the numerous blunders and legitimate concerns over both major candidates (at least in my view its the only way to explain the vehement support they continue to receive -- nevermind how awful my person is -- look at how awful yours is! I know you are but what I am! I am rubber you are glue!) These are the real issues we should be trying to address. This has been the absolute worst election season I have ever experienced on my short time on earth, and everyone older and wiser than me concurs. There has been more mud slinging by both parties, and every side of the media that they make Fox News look "normal". I am terrified of the choices either candidate is going to make in the near future. Either one will be able to push the supreme court to its most extreme position in history. You may think that be a victory, but life has taught me extremes in one direction or the other are aways bad. Neither of these two deserve anyone's vote. If anything we should be voting for a constitutional amendment to be able to vote to redo the whole thing and get two new candidates, whatever, anything besides these two. I know, I know, "vote third party", which is all great and fun, until you get blamed later for being the reason the other party won. Just ask anyone who ever voted for Ralph Nader. Sorry I am not sorry for posting this rant here. I just am so fed up with our current state of politics.
0003 10y ago
Not sure why you need my email address to check if I am registered...
- kevhito 10y ago
  They need to notify the winner(s) somehow?
d0m 10y ago
FYI, at first glance the name looked very spammy. If I didn't see the samaltman.com domain I wouldnt have clicked. I'm glad I did though, good luck with that initiative.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
ronilan 10y ago
Obligatory. - Incentivizing to vote with cash prizes. Isn't that illegal?" - "Illegal? Sam(ir) this is America".
- throwanem 10y ago
  Not a lawyer, but as far as I know, the relevant statute would be 18 USC 597, which says: "Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate [...]" Which I strongly suspect is why the language around the offer universally refers to "check[ing] voter registration status". And I'm sure somebody or other's legal team has reviewed this language and signed off on it.
  - Kiro 10y ago
    > And I'm sure somebody or other's legal team has reviewed this language and signed off on it. Not really related to this but I think you would be surprised how often this is not the case. I've been involved in many big contracts where I've realized no actual lawyers have been involved at all.
    - peterbonney 10y ago
      In this case there's a lengthy terms and conditions document, clearly drafted by lawyers.
      - Kiro 10y ago
        Yeah, you are probably right but I wanted to get that off my chest anyway. Sorry for OT.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - awwstn 10y ago
    From the sweepstakes rules: > YOU AND INDIVIDUALS TO WHICH YOU PROVIDE THE REFERRAL LINK DO NOT HAVE TO REGISTER TO VOTE TO RECEIVE ENTRY INTO THE SWEEPSTAKES. This Sweepstakes is non-partisan and open to all individuals who satisfy the eligibility requirements above. The number of unique individuals who check their voter registration using your link may impact the VotePlz leaderboard, but entry into this Sweepstakes is solely based on the steps provided above.
oh_sigh 10y ago
So, Sam, who do you support? Why is this election bigger than any other presidential election? Also, is there a strong correlation being registered to vote and actually voting? If you aren't motivated to even register to vote already, will entering a contest making you register really affect your desire to go out and vote?
- rory096 10y ago
  >So, Sam, who do you support? He's made no secret of this. http://blog.samaltman.com/trump http://blog.samaltman.com/trump
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    $1M VotePlz is too little too late of that's the impetus; keep the cash and do something useful with it Sam, like fixing the DNC so they run a competent candidate next time.
    - hellogoodbyeeee 10y ago
      You have been the victim of the conservative spin machine if you think one of the most experienced candidates that either party has fielded in decades isn't "competent".
      - lintiness 10y ago
        let me guess, romney was "too robotic" and "didn't stand for anything" ... ?
        hellogoodbyeeee 10y ago
        I don't see how my opinion of Romney's personality has any bearing on Clinton's resume.
        lintiness 10y ago
web007 10y ago
Odd that it shows I'm not registered - I wonder if it has trouble with permanent absentee ballots? That would be especially unfortunate since they encourage that option after registration.
jahabrewer 10y ago
With the incentive being student loan payoff, shouldn't we be concerned that this is targeting voters that skew Democrat?
- nilved 10y ago
  Yes, this is undeniably a partisan endeavour.
  - palakchokshi 10y ago
    I'm sorry are you saying that there are no student republicans? that's a very misinformed opinion if you believe that.
    - echelon 10y ago
      Neither OP nor GP said that. They're pointing out the political distribution within the target demographic.
      - palakchokshi 10y ago
        I'm sorry but the guy said it is definitely a partisan endeavor, which I don't think it is. It is merely an effort to educate young voters for the need to register to vote. This demographic has been historically known to have a low voter turnout with only 46% of eligible voters[1] having voted in 2012 election. [1]http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/16/millennials-match-baby-boomers-as-largest-generation-in-u-s-electorate-but-will-they-vote/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/16/millennials-...
    - d0lph 10y ago
      You know what they say, if you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart, and if you're not a conservative by 50, you have no brains.
      - 09bjb 10y ago
markcerqueira 10y ago
I'm definitely registered to vote (at the correct address), but this website claims I am not. I voted (by mail) in the Democratic Primary.
- StephenSmith 10y ago
  Same here. This clearly won't work if a decent percentage of people are already registered and it doesn't know that.
  - shawn-butler 10y ago
    Just register in several places. Not like fraud is a real problem.
gthtjtkt 10y ago
> No one able to vote in the US should be sitting this one out I disagree. People who haven't taken the time to thoroughly research the candidates should not be encouraged to blindly push a button, especially this year. Most of them will probably be persuaded by fear mongering or partisan mud-slinging. That's not democracy, it's just mob rule.
- gizmo 10y ago
  It doesn't take a lot of research to choose when one candidate is comically unqualified. The people voting is the entire point of democracy. Smart people and dumb people. Policy wonks and random button pushers. It doesn't matter, everybody gets one vote. That way whatever the outcome is, it reflects the will of the people. To oppose this is to oppose democracy itself.
  - lintiness 10y ago
    he didn't oppose the right to vote; he said not everyone should vote. and please, just because you think we'd never have heard of hillary if her husband hadn't been president does NOT make her "comically unqualified". let's leave the politics to the sensationalist 24/7 "news" machine, mkay?
    - gizmo 10y ago
      I would never call somebody who has been appointed to high political office comically unqualified to run for president.
  - gthtjtkt 10y ago
    There are (at least) two comically unqualified candidates in this year's election. Thank you for proving my point.
    - gizmo 10y ago
      She is literally the most qualified presidential candidate in a generation. She has the bipartisan support of all five living presidents today. That's unheard of. And she's running against a con man who scams his suppliers, scams students with his fake university, and who is utterly ignorant of foreign policy.
gizmo 10y ago
This is a terrific initiative. Especially the part where you can take a picture of your driver's license and get everything taken care of. Everybody with a little bit of startup experience knows that removing signup friction makes a huge difference and yet voting in the US is way more complicated than it needs to be. This isn't an accident: legislators know low turnout doesn't affect all demographics equally. So I support projects like these that get people to vote.
glibgil 10y ago
Enter for a chance to win... jury duty. No thanks!
- throwanem 10y ago
  Do you not care about any of your civic responsibilities, or only those which require more than an hour or two of your time every few years?
  - glibgil 10y ago
    Yes
- siegecraft 10y ago
  I'm pretty sure that you can now get jury duty without being registered to vote.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
revelation 10y ago
I think it's unethical to link prices to debt, college or student debt in particular. How about a "50k for a business plan" option? This is a startup accelerator, right?
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
rubidium 10y ago
"The 2016 US Presidential election feels like the most important one so far in my lifetime." -sama I'm the same age as Sam. But I must confess I don't see why he sees this one as the most important. Both candidates are terrible (for different reasons). It's quite damning of the entire political establishment. I just want to get through the next 4 years and hope that either party can finally find one good candidate.
- colmvp 10y ago
  Same. I'd argue the 2000 election was far more important especially given the creation of the PATRIOT act and the decision to invade Iraq, both of which were coincidentally voted for by one of the current candidates.
  - lintiness 10y ago
    uh, you couldn't know what was going to happen a year later when voting in 2000.
    - specialist 10y ago
      Clinton and Gore knew. Their warnings were ignored.
      - mason240 10y ago
        I'm sure they did, as they both would have taken the exact same course of action. The PATRIOT Act itself was written by Sen Joe Biden ffs.
        lern_too_spel 10y ago
        The same course of action? War with Afghanistan was certainly inevitable after 9/11 (assuming Gore, like Bush didn't follow up on the warnings, and the attacks still happened). The Iraq War, on the other hand, would not have happened.
mtgx 10y ago
Getting more people to vote is nice, but ultimately you're still stuck with the duopoly [1] of parties. Why isn't there a big push to change the voting system to something that would allow better representation in Congress? A whopping 49% of Americans are registered as Independents, which leaves only half of Americans that truly feel like they're represented by the only two choices they're given every 2/4 years: the Democratic and Republican parties. That almost seems criminal to me. How can the only two viable parties (with the current voting system) represent only half the country at any given point in time? And the number of people that are registered as Democrats and Republicans drops every election. This is a democracy crisis, and people need to start treating it like one. If Sam Altman and the others in YCombinator really care about democracy, they should also support organizations such as FairVote.org and help them change the voting system city by city, and state by state, until it eventually happens everywhere. Oh, and just one of the many benefits of switching to a proportional representation voting system[2], or at least a single-winner ranked-choice[3] one? It gets more people to vote because they now feel better represented by the available viable candidates. Isn't that nice? [1] http://www.fairvote.org/monopoly_politics http://www.fairvote.org/monopoly_politics [2] http://www.fairvote.org/proportional_representation http://www.fairvote.org/proportional_representation [3] http://www.fairvote.org/rcv#rcvbenefits http://www.fairvote.org/rcv#rcvbenefits
- sidlls 10y ago
  Yes, almost 100% in agreement with you. My only quibble is that we take care to really know about who is running the various vote reform efforts and initiatives. The Democrats and Republicans will do whatever they can to get reform in name only under the guise of more choice. See California's "top two" primary system as an example of how one party more or less locks up exclusive access to the ballot in more cases than one should be comfortable with. If we aren't careful, vote "reform" efforts will look more like that than PR.
jhulla 10y ago
This is awesome. Encouraging potential voters to engage, understand, and participate in democracy is a good thing. Once registered, hopefully they will stay registered and participate for the rest of their lives. Besides the big name top of the ballot Presidential election there are many down ballot elections to consider. There are house elections, senate elections (in some states), local elections, as well as propositions, etc. With the wall-to-wall coverage of the Presidential election, it is easy to forget that the wheels of our democratic American system turn at multiple levels. E.g.: Your local school board matters. Your judges (if elected where you live) matter. Here are two summaries of California's propositions: https://ballotpedia.org/California_2016_ballot_propositions https://ballotpedia.org/California_2016_ballot_propositions http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-november-ballot-propositions-guide-20160630-snap-htmlstory.html http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-november-ballot-pr... Vote.
- web007 10y ago
  I like http://www.peterates.com/ http://www.peterates.com/ as well, informative and accessible reviews (with vote recommendations) for California propositions.
taylorbuley 10y ago
If there are assets available, I'd love to create a house ad campaign on our local CA newspapers pointing to this lander.
johnnyn2o 10y ago
I don't believe most of the people responding to this type of gimmick are educated enough to vote. Not that there are many good choices anyway. The last 8 years has been an assault on people of integrity.
beamatronic 10y ago
By filling out this form ( for California ) does all of my information become public record?
- throwanem 10y ago
  Not the VotePlz sweepstakes form directly, as far as their privacy policy seems to state, but if you actually register to vote, then your information will become part of the public record along with everyone else on a voter registration list.
davidbrent 10y ago
This list of known browsers(cookies) would be worth well over $1mil to US advertisers right? I can only assume they're selling it, according to the privacy policy.

108 points by runesoerensen 10y ago

alva 10y ago

Not a criticism! Replace benefitting party as you wish. It is interesting when these initiatives present themselves as non-partisan. If you target a demographic that polling suggests will go for your preferred party, plough tons of money to encourage them to vote, can it truly be described as non-partisan? edit: And if so, should they be obligated to disclose their preference and intention?

beefman 10y ago
It is criticism. Insightful criticism. Thank you.
mkagenius 10y ago
It is clear whom they don't want them to vote but what's wrong in that. They are not forcing anyone - just enabling them. They want them not to sit this one out as this could make them regret for not voting when there was a chance.
gizmo 10y ago
There are two parts to it. First it encourages young people to vote. This is important because young people will be the most affected by policies enacted by the next president. This part is non-partisan, because it forces both political parties to take young people more seriously as a voting block. Second it's clearly against Trump, because Trump's base consists of older white people with racial anxiety/anger. Young people lean democrat, but they don't get out to vote.
- gthtjtkt 10y ago
  > Second it's clearly against Trump, because Trump's base consists of older white people with racial anxiety/anger. Young people lean democrat, but they don't get out to vote. If you honestly believe this, you are very out of touch with reality. Young voters hate both major party candidates almost equally.
  - mikeyouse 10y ago
    Clinton is a 36-point favorite over Trump with 18-34 year olds: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pr/2016/08/15/poll-finds-millennials-favor-clinton-over-trump-wide-margin/88757778/ http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/pr/2016/08/15/poll-finds-...
    - makomk 10y ago
      Yeah, 18-34 year olds are a lot more willing to support Clinton than Trump, and also the age group with the most Clinton supporters and the least Trump supporters. It's easy to get a different impression from the mainstream press sometimes because they're pissed off that young people aren't even more overwhelmingly supportive of Clinton and some of them are supporting third parties instead. They came to believe that young people's anti-Republican lean would mean automatic Democrat victory in future and now they're angry that it hasn't come to pass.
  - gizmo 10y ago
    Recent polls (2014) say young people are strongly leaning democrat. This may not match your experience, but then again, I don't believe you can understand a country by extrapolating from your social circle. http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/wt-ykjnhfuezhxsedgqldg.png http://content.gallup.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Prod...
- r00fus 10y ago
  Arguably, YC leadership is overbalanced towards Trump [1]. As someone who has a preference, I wholeheartedly support more enfranchisement regardless of demographic or party. That's a race to the top, not the bottom. [1] http://fortune.com/2016/07/21/peter-thiel-gives-full-throated-endorsement-of-donald-trump/ http://fortune.com/2016/07/21/peter-thiel-gives-full-throate...

nilved 10y ago

Yikes, cringe. Please tone down the emoji and literallies and why evens.

obmelvin 10y ago
Presumably you aren't the target demographic of the site. It's not meant to appeal to you.
- nilved 10y ago
  I am the target demographic, and this doesn't appeal to us. > The 2012 election was decided by millennial turnout. And this election should be too. It’s up to you to vote and decide! Millenials see politicians and old people using emoji as contrived and duplicitous. They also hate the word millenial.
  - logfromblammo 10y ago
    At least they eventually replaced the "Gen Y" placeholder with an actual name... You know that word that Gen X hates, because the media constantly uses it to refer to us? Yeah, neither do I. Just be glad that your generational cohort is large enough that people will actually pay attention to you as an advertising demographic or voting bloc. Even when the Boomer-controlled media is ridiculing you as special snowflakes in your safe spaces, at least they're talking about you.
  - obmelvin 10y ago
    I am also in the target demographic, and agree that it doesn't appeal to me. I would imagine that it would appeal to others our age. Most people I know aren't like you (presumably) and I, but I try hard to meet people with different interests and I could see some/many liking the simple message.
treehau5 10y ago
I think you hint at another point -- this phrasing has been coming from everywhere, and the fact that it continues to come from people who tend to support one particular candidate makes me weary of it: "The 2016 US Presidential election feels like the most important one so far in my lifetime" seems like it really is just a euphemism for "Candidate X is really scary, so despite what you think about Candidate Y, we must fall in line and vote for him/her" Every presidential election is important. Unless the President somehow gained newfound apocalyptical powers, I don't think it is any more or less important than before. You should vote because you want to exercise your right to vote, not because everyone is compelling you of how "important" (a.k.a super duper scary) it is. Telling everyone to "get out and vote" is hardly helpful. We have security experts telling us electronic voting machines are just plain not safe, we have laws that disparage minorities and low-income people from not voting, and worst of all, we have a majority of the population who is completely ignorant or lackisdasical of the numerous blunders and legitimate concerns over both major candidates (at least in my view its the only way to explain the vehement support they continue to receive -- nevermind how awful my person is -- look at how awful yours is! I know you are but what I am! I am rubber you are glue!) These are the real issues we should be trying to address. This has been the absolute worst election season I have ever experienced on my short time on earth, and everyone older and wiser than me concurs. There has been more mud slinging by both parties, and every side of the media that they make Fox News look "normal". I am terrified of the choices either candidate is going to make in the near future. Either one will be able to push the supreme court to its most extreme position in history. You may think that be a victory, but life has taught me extremes in one direction or the other are aways bad. Neither of these two deserve anyone's vote. If anything we should be voting for a constitutional amendment to be able to vote to redo the whole thing and get two new candidates, whatever, anything besides these two. I know, I know, "vote third party", which is all great and fun, until you get blamed later for being the reason the other party won. Just ask anyone who ever voted for Ralph Nader. Sorry I am not sorry for posting this rant here. I just am so fed up with our current state of politics.

0003 10y ago

Not sure why you need my email address to check if I am registered...

kevhito 10y ago
They need to notify the winner(s) somehow?

d0m 10y ago

FYI, at first glance the name looked very spammy. If I didn't see the samaltman.com domain I wouldnt have clicked. I'm glad I did though, good luck with that initiative.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

ronilan 10y ago

Obligatory. - Incentivizing to vote with cash prizes. Isn't that illegal?" - "Illegal? Sam(ir) this is America".

throwanem 10y ago
Not a lawyer, but as far as I know, the relevant statute would be 18 USC 597, which says: "Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate [...]" Which I strongly suspect is why the language around the offer universally refers to "check[ing] voter registration status". And I'm sure somebody or other's legal team has reviewed this language and signed off on it.
- Kiro 10y ago
  > And I'm sure somebody or other's legal team has reviewed this language and signed off on it. Not really related to this but I think you would be surprised how often this is not the case. I've been involved in many big contracts where I've realized no actual lawyers have been involved at all.
  - peterbonney 10y ago
    In this case there's a lengthy terms and conditions document, clearly drafted by lawyers.
    - Kiro 10y ago
      Yeah, you are probably right but I wanted to get that off my chest anyway. Sorry for OT.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- awwstn 10y ago
  From the sweepstakes rules: > YOU AND INDIVIDUALS TO WHICH YOU PROVIDE THE REFERRAL LINK DO NOT HAVE TO REGISTER TO VOTE TO RECEIVE ENTRY INTO THE SWEEPSTAKES. This Sweepstakes is non-partisan and open to all individuals who satisfy the eligibility requirements above. The number of unique individuals who check their voter registration using your link may impact the VotePlz leaderboard, but entry into this Sweepstakes is solely based on the steps provided above.

oh_sigh 10y ago

So, Sam, who do you support? Why is this election bigger than any other presidential election? Also, is there a strong correlation being registered to vote and actually voting? If you aren't motivated to even register to vote already, will entering a contest making you register really affect your desire to go out and vote?

rory096 10y ago
>So, Sam, who do you support? He's made no secret of this. http://blog.samaltman.com/trump http://blog.samaltman.com/trump
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  $1M VotePlz is too little too late of that's the impetus; keep the cash and do something useful with it Sam, like fixing the DNC so they run a competent candidate next time.
  - hellogoodbyeeee 10y ago
    You have been the victim of the conservative spin machine if you think one of the most experienced candidates that either party has fielded in decades isn't "competent".
    - lintiness 10y ago
      let me guess, romney was "too robotic" and "didn't stand for anything" ... ?
      - hellogoodbyeeee 10y ago
        I don't see how my opinion of Romney's personality has any bearing on Clinton's resume.
        lintiness 10y ago

web007 10y ago

Odd that it shows I'm not registered - I wonder if it has trouble with permanent absentee ballots? That would be especially unfortunate since they encourage that option after registration.

jahabrewer 10y ago

With the incentive being student loan payoff, shouldn't we be concerned that this is targeting voters that skew Democrat?

nilved 10y ago
Yes, this is undeniably a partisan endeavour.
- palakchokshi 10y ago
  I'm sorry are you saying that there are no student republicans? that's a very misinformed opinion if you believe that.
  - echelon 10y ago
    Neither OP nor GP said that. They're pointing out the political distribution within the target demographic.
    - palakchokshi 10y ago
      I'm sorry but the guy said it is definitely a partisan endeavor, which I don't think it is. It is merely an effort to educate young voters for the need to register to vote. This demographic has been historically known to have a low voter turnout with only 46% of eligible voters[1] having voted in 2012 election. [1]http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/16/millennials-match-baby-boomers-as-largest-generation-in-u-s-electorate-but-will-they-vote/ http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/05/16/millennials-...
  - d0lph 10y ago
    You know what they say, if you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart, and if you're not a conservative by 50, you have no brains.
    - 09bjb 10y ago

markcerqueira 10y ago

I'm definitely registered to vote (at the correct address), but this website claims I am not. I voted (by mail) in the Democratic Primary.

StephenSmith 10y ago
Same here. This clearly won't work if a decent percentage of people are already registered and it doesn't know that.
- shawn-butler 10y ago
  Just register in several places. Not like fraud is a real problem.

gthtjtkt 10y ago

> No one able to vote in the US should be sitting this one out I disagree. People who haven't taken the time to thoroughly research the candidates should not be encouraged to blindly push a button, especially this year. Most of them will probably be persuaded by fear mongering or partisan mud-slinging. That's not democracy, it's just mob rule.

gizmo 10y ago
It doesn't take a lot of research to choose when one candidate is comically unqualified. The people voting is the entire point of democracy. Smart people and dumb people. Policy wonks and random button pushers. It doesn't matter, everybody gets one vote. That way whatever the outcome is, it reflects the will of the people. To oppose this is to oppose democracy itself.
- lintiness 10y ago
  he didn't oppose the right to vote; he said not everyone should vote. and please, just because you think we'd never have heard of hillary if her husband hadn't been president does NOT make her "comically unqualified". let's leave the politics to the sensationalist 24/7 "news" machine, mkay?
  - gizmo 10y ago
    I would never call somebody who has been appointed to high political office comically unqualified to run for president.
- gthtjtkt 10y ago
  There are (at least) two comically unqualified candidates in this year's election. Thank you for proving my point.
  - gizmo 10y ago
    She is literally the most qualified presidential candidate in a generation. She has the bipartisan support of all five living presidents today. That's unheard of. And she's running against a con man who scams his suppliers, scams students with his fake university, and who is utterly ignorant of foreign policy.

gizmo 10y ago

This is a terrific initiative. Especially the part where you can take a picture of your driver's license and get everything taken care of. Everybody with a little bit of startup experience knows that removing signup friction makes a huge difference and yet voting in the US is way more complicated than it needs to be. This isn't an accident: legislators know low turnout doesn't affect all demographics equally. So I support projects like these that get people to vote.

glibgil 10y ago

Enter for a chance to win... jury duty. No thanks!

throwanem 10y ago
Do you not care about any of your civic responsibilities, or only those which require more than an hour or two of your time every few years?
- glibgil 10y ago
  Yes
siegecraft 10y ago
I'm pretty sure that you can now get jury duty without being registered to vote.
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revelation 10y ago

I think it's unethical to link prices to debt, college or student debt in particular. How about a "50k for a business plan" option? This is a startup accelerator, right?

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rubidium 10y ago

"The 2016 US Presidential election feels like the most important one so far in my lifetime." -sama I'm the same age as Sam. But I must confess I don't see why he sees this one as the most important. Both candidates are terrible (for different reasons). It's quite damning of the entire political establishment. I just want to get through the next 4 years and hope that either party can finally find one good candidate.

colmvp 10y ago
Same. I'd argue the 2000 election was far more important especially given the creation of the PATRIOT act and the decision to invade Iraq, both of which were coincidentally voted for by one of the current candidates.
- lintiness 10y ago
  uh, you couldn't know what was going to happen a year later when voting in 2000.
  - specialist 10y ago
    Clinton and Gore knew. Their warnings were ignored.
    - mason240 10y ago
      I'm sure they did, as they both would have taken the exact same course of action. The PATRIOT Act itself was written by Sen Joe Biden ffs.
      - lern_too_spel 10y ago
        The same course of action? War with Afghanistan was certainly inevitable after 9/11 (assuming Gore, like Bush didn't follow up on the warnings, and the attacks still happened). The Iraq War, on the other hand, would not have happened.

mtgx 10y ago

Getting more people to vote is nice, but ultimately you're still stuck with the duopoly [1] of parties. Why isn't there a big push to change the voting system to something that would allow better representation in Congress? A whopping 49% of Americans are registered as Independents, which leaves only half of Americans that truly feel like they're represented by the only two choices they're given every 2/4 years: the Democratic and Republican parties. That almost seems criminal to me. How can the only two viable parties (with the current voting system) represent only half the country at any given point in time? And the number of people that are registered as Democrats and Republicans drops every election. This is a democracy crisis, and people need to start treating it like one. If Sam Altman and the others in YCombinator really care about democracy, they should also support organizations such as FairVote.org and help them change the voting system city by city, and state by state, until it eventually happens everywhere. Oh, and just one of the many benefits of switching to a proportional representation voting system[2], or at least a single-winner ranked-choice[3] one? It gets more people to vote because they now feel better represented by the available viable candidates. Isn't that nice? [1] http://www.fairvote.org/monopoly_politics http://www.fairvote.org/monopoly_politics [2] http://www.fairvote.org/proportional_representation http://www.fairvote.org/proportional_representation [3] http://www.fairvote.org/rcv#rcvbenefits http://www.fairvote.org/rcv#rcvbenefits

sidlls 10y ago
Yes, almost 100% in agreement with you. My only quibble is that we take care to really know about who is running the various vote reform efforts and initiatives. The Democrats and Republicans will do whatever they can to get reform in name only under the guise of more choice. See California's "top two" primary system as an example of how one party more or less locks up exclusive access to the ballot in more cases than one should be comfortable with. If we aren't careful, vote "reform" efforts will look more like that than PR.

jhulla 10y ago

This is awesome. Encouraging potential voters to engage, understand, and participate in democracy is a good thing. Once registered, hopefully they will stay registered and participate for the rest of their lives. Besides the big name top of the ballot Presidential election there are many down ballot elections to consider. There are house elections, senate elections (in some states), local elections, as well as propositions, etc. With the wall-to-wall coverage of the Presidential election, it is easy to forget that the wheels of our democratic American system turn at multiple levels. E.g.: Your local school board matters. Your judges (if elected where you live) matter. Here are two summaries of California's propositions: https://ballotpedia.org/California_2016_ballot_propositions https://ballotpedia.org/California_2016_ballot_propositions http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-november-ballot-propositions-guide-20160630-snap-htmlstory.html http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-november-ballot-pr... Vote.

web007 10y ago
I like http://www.peterates.com/ http://www.peterates.com/ as well, informative and accessible reviews (with vote recommendations) for California propositions.

taylorbuley 10y ago

If there are assets available, I'd love to create a house ad campaign on our local CA newspapers pointing to this lander.

johnnyn2o 10y ago

I don't believe most of the people responding to this type of gimmick are educated enough to vote. Not that there are many good choices anyway. The last 8 years has been an assault on people of integrity.

beamatronic 10y ago

By filling out this form ( for California ) does all of my information become public record?

throwanem 10y ago
Not the VotePlz sweepstakes form directly, as far as their privacy policy seems to state, but if you actually register to vote, then your information will become part of the public record along with everyone else on a voter registration list.

davidbrent 10y ago

This list of known browsers(cookies) would be worth well over $1mil to US advertisers right? I can only assume they're selling it, according to the privacy policy.