Yes, it is time for another round of elections in the State of Georgia.
On November 7, Georgians will be voting for Mayor, City Council, and City School Board (depending on their exact location and voting district). Those in the City of Atlanta of the City of Decatur, will be voting for school board members or specific tax referendums, for example.
Now, if you feel like the state is constantly in the middle of election campaign season, you aren’t wrong. But that is why local startup Branch Politics exists, says founder and CEO Walter Ley.
“We’re coming off a huge election year this past year. We’re also heading into 2024, which is going to be a huge year in Georgia. We have some local elections here in Atlanta, but those elections aren’t as big as the previous year’s municipal elections. So that’s changed a lot of how people are paying attention to politics. Typically in a big year like 2022, there’s so much buzz around elections, everyone’s trying to find information and it’s easy for us to get in front of people. But in a year like this, it’s really about how we can more proactively get in front of people and let them know that there’s an election coming up.”
Branch’s mission is simple: Get nonpartisan information to voters. Users simply give their address and Branch curates a ballot, breakdowns what each candidate stands for, and what your vote will mean. That means no more sitting in the polling booth asking: ‘What does a school board member even do?’
National Expansion
It’s been a busy year for the Branch team. After completing Techstars Impact Powered by Cox Enterprises and participating in the program’s Demo Day in April, the team has been focused on geographic expansion. Branch Politics is now live in Virginia, Washington State, and Mississippi, on top of its home state of Georgia. These states were selected because they have off-year elections in 2023.
Ley knows that the very core of what Branch does – getting voters the nitty gritty details about their local elections – is not inherently very scalable.
“Finding a scalable way to research all those candidates and provide that information has been really the big challenge behind what we do. But that’s been the main thing that we’ve been solving the last few months,” he added.
Some Reminders From Branch
Early voting is now open in Georgia, with Election Day set for November 7. So Georgia voters have just over a week to research their ballot and figure out their plan to vote.
Mississippi, Virginia, and Washington State voters also go to the polls on November 7 for important local elections. Registered voters in those states can now check out Branch to start researching their ballot.
