Headshot Photo of Sari Kaufman
2021 Award Recipient

SariKaufman

Project MyVote Project

Location Parkland, FL

Issue Area Civic Engagement | Gun Safety

After experiencing a school shooting as a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL, Sari became passionate about gun violence prevention and civic education. She found that voters were uninformed about local candidates’ positions, and consequently, politicians took little responsibility for their campaign promises. This compelled Sari to co-found MyVote Project, a student-led education organization and website that provides accessible nonpartisan voting information, including every candidate’s background, policy stances, news articles, and social media.

MyVote also hosts candidate forums, policy events, and Get Out The Vote (GOTV) activities to educate the public and hold politicians accountable. MyVote has mobilized 200 student volunteers to research 5000 candidates; over 3000 users in more than 20 states accessed the website; their GOTV phone banking has reached 15,000 people, and MyVote social media content has reached 25,000 users. MyVote will scale to reach voters in every state with state leadership teams that will distribute the volunteer effort across the country.

I would not have voted for my local officials, if MyVote did not exist. [from a user]

Sari Kaufman
Sari and a group of teens wearing masks and holding up a QR code for the My Vote Project.

MyVote Project

myvoteproject.com

My Vote logoSari found that voters were uninformed about local candidates’ positions, and consequently, politicians took little responsibility for their campaign promises. This compelled her to co-found MyVote Project, a student-led education organization and website that provides accessible nonpartisan voting information, including every candidate’s background, policy stances, news articles, and social media. MyVote also hosts candidate forums, policy events, and Get Out The Vote (GOTV) activities to educate the public and hold politicians accountable. MyVote has mobilized 200 student volunteers to research 5,000 candidates; over 3,000 users in more than 20 states accessed the website; their GOTV phone banking has reached 15,000 people and MyVote social media content has reached 25,000 users.