The 2008 election set a precedent on how candidates embraced social media and web apps to connect with voters.  Ever since then, these models have trickled down to elections of all types.  Local candidates have come to understand the important of using these tools to campaign to a hyperlocal market.

Election Hub brings a new dimension of information and media to the political landscape. It’s an additional medium that can be used to inform citizens and facilitates a two-way dialogue between candidates and the people
-Zach Kupperman, President of PolicyPitch, LLC

The 2010 New Orleans elections is no different with its first ever iPhone app called ElectionHub.  A joint venture between Susco Solutions, a company that specializes in custom web & software development and PolicyPitch.com, a crowd-powered platform that allows citizens to pitch new policy ideas at the local and state level.

The purpose of the app is for citizens to have election information at their fingertips.  Some of it's features include candidate bios, campaign finance reports, the ability for users to communicate with candidates, incoming news feeds, and weekly voting.  The app doesn't just focus on the upcoming mayoral race but council races as well.

App Review

The app itself is very simple for anyone to understand.  Once loaded, there are buttons for candidates and community.

Community Area of ElectionHub

The candidates tab will list potentials in the mayoral and council races.  Clicking on an individuals name gives you a more detailed breakdown including a photo, occupation, employer, and contact info.  A plus for us was the additional buttons toward the the bottom of the app that goes over activity, their twitter account, platforms, and finances of each candidate.  The activity area pulls a new feed of recent political New Orleans news, while the platform section has areas that detail the candidates stance on topics such as eduction and crime.  Another interesting section was the financial area, which gives details about the candidates finances and allows you to leave comments.  The community button acts like a slimmed down version of a Internet forum.  People can leave comments on topics in a threaded style fashion, discussing their views and opinions on candidates or the race.

Conclusion

While the app shows great potential, there were a few bumps that need to be ironed out before it gets heavy use.  Loading candidate information took longer than usual and once it was pulled up information was sparse.  When tested we noticed that speed problems occurred for 2G iPhone users by not 3G or 3GS users.  Many of the platform and finance areas were also missing vital information.  Currently the community area does not allow you to create a new topic for discussion and their seems to be no methods to combat spam or negligence.  But New Orleans citizens need not to fear as most of these items can be fixed with an infusion of information into the application's database.  “Residents of New Orleans are too busy building their careers, businesses, and lives to waste time searching disparate sources of information to decide who to vote for,” says Neel Sus, CEO of Susco Solutions, LLC. “ElectionHub allows us to go through the trouble of aggregating this information on behalf of the electorate, so they can spend their valuable time on the decision-making itself,” says Mr. Sus.

This is a great tool for New Orleans citizens, giving them a one stop shop for candidate information, allowing them to make more informed decisions and not having to waste time searching online.  We would encourage everyone who is running in 2010 to make sure their information is up to date so citizens can make those informed decisions.

Download The ElectionHub App For The iPhone