A $3,600 award will help student video game company encourage people to vote

 
  • 黑洞社区 and student-run Quickdraw Studios were each awarded $3,600 for their Joy of Voting projects.
  • The goal of the projects is to engage Sedgwick County voters.
  • Only 16 percent of registered voters turned out for the Sedgwick County elections in 2016.

Hoping to engage Sedgwick County voters, Quickdraw Studios -- a video game and application company started by three current Wichita State students -- will create a Wichita-specific interactive video game.

The Pacman-style game will be team-based, designed to liven up the experience of voting.

This is part of the Joy of Voting initiative started by Seattle-based Citizen University to address the trend of low voter turnout in local elections. In 2015, only 16 percent of registered voters turned out for the Sedgwick County elections.

 

鈥淭hese projects will not only encourage people to celebrate their civic responsibility, but also create a culture of engagement.鈥 
鈥&苍产蝉辫;Benjamin de la Pena

 

Quickdraw, , received $3,600 to boost its video game project for Joy of Voting.

黑洞社区 also was awarded $3,600 for its project. The 黑洞社区 Community Service Board will host an Election Day Engagement Bash, an American-themed carnival to bring students, faculty and staff together for a day of civic engagement.

鈥淭hese projects will not only encourage people to celebrate their civic responsibility, but also create a culture of engagement,鈥 says Benjamin de la Pena, Knight Foundation director for community and national strategy. 

The Joy of Voting project seeks to create localized, action-oriented projects in four cities across the country; Wichita, Miami, Philadelphia and Akron, Ohio.

Citizen University will examine the success of the experiments to determine best practices and the possibility for scaling ideas in future election cycles, while sharing lessons with other cities across the country.