CanadaFreePress.com:
Public apathy has long dogged municipal elections. Studies have been conducted to find out why and advertising campaigns geared to pick up public interest in civic elections have made little difference.
Peter Sobot, a young Notre Dame Catholic Secondary School student found a way to give hometown elections a boost in Burlington, about 60 kilometers west of Toronto. Proving that some entrepreneurs start off young, Peter is the creator of www.BurlingtonVotes2006.com. The new website educates voters about which candidates are running in each ward, what their platforms are, and makes it fun to participate in municipal election campaigns.
On BurlingtonVotes2006, members of the public at large can read about the candidates running for election and re-election in the November 13 municipal race, and can actually cast a vote for the candidate of their choice online. Lately, the site voting was brisk with more than 500 votes cast, for a variety of candidates. Even though the site has only been posted for 1 month, 5,000 people have already visited BurlingtonVotes2006.com. It has caught on with candidates vying for election, 7 of whom have already taken ads with Burlington’s youngest entrepreneur.
This puts a new twist on September’s traditional How I Spent My Summer Holidays assigned by schoolteachers everywhere. While most youngsters turn in essays about sailing, swimming, windsurfing and other summer pastimes, Peter could always write How I sparked new interest in Burlington’s Civic Elections.
Thinking like a typical entrepreneur, Peter says he’s now thinking of duplicating BurlingtonVotes in the next federal election. ‘It’s a lot of work, but if it goes well, I’m going to take the concept federal,’ he says. Only a true entrepreneur would include ‘if’ on a website that’s already realized 5,000 visitors in only 1 month on the worldwide web.
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