Overview:

Right now it’s almost impossible to vote informed on the entire ballot - as a result, most voters guess, leave blanks, or stay home altogether.

We believe that it’s critical to our democracy to help every voter cast an informed vote on every race, every election. That’s why we started BallotReady - a startup that creates digital nonpartisan voter guides and builds tools to help advocacy groups and campaigns inform and mobilize voters, powered by the most comprehensive database to local politics.

Founded in 2015 with funding from the National Science Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and the University of Chicago, BallotReady is now nationwide - in 2018, we covered 94,000 candidates on our platform and reached over 6 million voters in the midterm elections.

Role:

The BallotReady Electoral Fellows Program is a competitive, structured fellowship designed to provide immersive leadership experience within a fast-paced civic tech startup.

Selected fellows will be given the opportunity to develop experience and expertise across different departments, including data research, sales, customer success, project management and user support. In addition, fellows will have the opportunity to lead a team of interns and researchers, while also engaging in tailored professional development to further explore topics related to startups and politics.

The fellowship lasts from mid-January to mid-June. Fellows will work alongside BallotReady’s co-founders and department leaders as BallotReady covers elections in 2019 and prepares for 2020.

Who We’re Looking For

• Mission: Fellows bring a deep commitment to our mission. They understand why this work matters - why even a simple phone call to a county about early voting hours is essential to ensuring that voters have the correct information they need to participate in our democracy or why late nights around Election Day are critical for voter support.

• Leadership: BallotReady is a startup, meaning that every single person contributes to our success, roles often change or evolve, and team members are frequently given new projects and asked to figure out how to make them happen. We’re looking for fellows who are ambitious problem-solvers, who love to tackle challenges and run short tests to inform next steps, and who are excited by the ambiguities and possibilities in this role. Ideal candidates are interested in stepping up to identify opportunities and drive collaborative solutions that will have a lasting impact.

• Accountability: At BallotReady, we’re strong believers in flexibility in exchange for accountability. We trust our team to understand our goals and allocate their time accordingly - this requires Fellows with strong communication, organization, and self-reflection in order to manage multiple deadlines without a lot of oversight.

• Growth: This fellowship brings enormous opportunities to spearhead major projects, lead a team, and acquire new skills such as SQL, CSS, and project management. We’re seeking fellows with a strong interest in learning, feedback, and growing together.

• Full healthcare and dental
• Life insurance
• 401k option
• Unlimited PTO

BallotReady builds digital, nonpartisan voter guides to make it easy to vote informed on every race and referendum, every election.