Youth voting organization looks to mobilize voters on Discord using AI chat-bot

Youth voting organization NextGen America is launching an effort to connect with potential voters in the gaming community by utilizing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot.

The new voter registration program aims to engage with the prospective electorate by leveraging the chatbot, dubbed “VOTE-E,” on Discord, an increasingly popular social platform that allows communities to organize around interests and interact over text chats and voice.

The bot, which users can add to their server, can interact with others through direct messages, provide voting information and help them to register to vote come election time. The bot will also have the ability to point users to polling sites and provide reminders regarding election dates.

“Galvanizing the next generation of voters means connecting with them where they’re at, and for so many, that’s in online communities,” NextGen America President Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez said in a statement.

NextGen America’s Discord programs follow the organization’s mobilization pushes in battleground states like Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan and Nevada dedicated to animating younger voters.

“NextGen America’s Discord bot VOTE-E is a ground-breaking innovation that is taking youth-vote organizing into the future,” Ramirez wrote.

“Young people are passionate about issues affecting their communities and are consistently under-resourced and under-organized, he continued, “VOTE-E is another means to chip away at this disparity, providing young people with the critical education and resources they need to show up on Election Day via a trusted, accessible platform.”

NextGen America registered over 1.3 million young voters since their inception, according to the organization.

Updated: 5:42 p.m.

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