A new approach to informing voters on local elections

No ads, no paywalls — just clear, trustworthy election information organized under a 501(c)(3) umbrella

The Ledger has helped launch a nonprofit dedicated to reliable, easy-to-access election information; join our webinar with candidates on Tuesday night

Local elections are important — there’s a key one coming up in about 2 weeks — and I’m happy to tell you today about a new project The Charlotte Ledger is working on to get voters the information they need.

Building on the voter guides we have produced for local elections in the last two years, The Ledger has helped establish a new nonprofit whose mission is to empower local voters to vote smarter.

This new nonprofit, called the Civic Knowledge Initiative, aims to strengthen democracy by making it easy for every citizen to find, understand and act on clear, impartial information about their local government and elected officials.

Locally focused: Having citizens engaged and involved in elections at all levels is an important cornerstone of our democratic society. And while everyone has an opinion about what’s happening at the federal level in Washington, far fewer people tune into what their local elected officials and candidates are doing here, closer to home — even though they make critical decisions on public safety, growth, education, transportation and other important topics that affect our daily lives.

We want to change that. People should be informed and engaged on local issues that affect them. So The Ledger and the separate and independent Civic Knowledge Initiative have teamed up to produce The Election Hub for the city of Charlotte primary election on Sept. 9, and we’ll do the same for all local elections going forward. The Election Hub is an easy-to-read resource with candidate summaries, biographies and questionnaires. Unlike typical media websites, it is easy to navigate and is mercifully free of aggressive and distracting ads, pop-up videos and paywalls. It is free to all and easy to use.

There’s no obvious business model for making civically important information available for free — we don’t want to charge for it or sell ads against it —which is why we think it makes sense to organize The Election Hub under a nonprofit umbrella. The Civic Knowledge Initiative received IRS approval as a 501(c)(3) charity last month, so contributions to it are tax-free. (If you think this initiative is important and would like to support it with a tax-free gift, you are welcome to. If you have feedback, please let us know.)

We think this is an innovative approach to a pressing local problem, and we can draw on modern techniques to spread reliable election information — such as podcasts, social media, videos, events and more.

Join our online webinar Tuesday with city of Charlotte candidates

In that regard, we’re also pleased to invite you to a virtual candidate forum with city of Charlotte primary candidates on Tuesday (Aug. 26) from 6:30-8:30 p.m. You can register for that here. If you can’t make it during that time, register anyway, and we’ll send you a link afterward so you can watch later.

Many thanks to go around

There are a lot of people to thank for getting this project off the ground — most of all, Sucharita Kodali. Sucharita has a passion for disseminating trusted election information. A few years ago, she started assembling info on her own and posting it on Reddit, where it was wildly popular. The Ledger had the good fortune to link up with her in 2023, and she has taken charge of our election guides ever since.

Sucharita was the driving force in forming the nonprofit — an effort that received an early boost from Social Venture Partners Charlotte, which helps early-stage nonprofits and holds an annual pitch competition called SEED20. Sucharita’s pitch at SEED20 this spring led to several thousand dollars in donations from generous companies and individuals, which helped kickstart the project.

Sucharita Kodali, who started The Election Hub, with some of the informational yard signs from previous elections that are still in many of our team’s garages.

Thanks need to go to a lot of people: Kristin Beck and her team at Social Venture Partners, for its advice and help; Amy Aussieker of Envision Charlotte for serving as our fiscal sponsor as we worked to get up and running; Brie Chrisman from The Ledger’s team, who worked tirelessly to design and build an attractive website; and Emi Portino of The Brand Building Shop, who donated marketing services (via Social Venture Partners) and helped the new nonprofit hone its story and messaging.

Thanks also to our team of interns who, under Sucharita’s direction, worked quickly this summer to research and help write this year’s Election Hub: Morgan Boonshaft, Meha Khanna and Anish Vedantham.

Our team at The Charlotte Ledger is excited about the possibilities of this new effort, and we’re proud to help. It fits squarely into our mission of providing smart and reliable information for Charlotte.

We hope you enjoy it, too! Spread the word!

Tony Mecia
The Charlotte Ledger

P.S. Don’t forget there is an important primary election on Sept. 9. Early voting continues this week, through Sept. 6. Details here.

And of course The Election Hub has all the info you need.

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🎥 WATCH: Sucharita Kodali describes the idea behind The Election Hub, the signature project of the new nonprofit Civic Knowledge Initiative

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