Texas A&M students create app to help voters calculate financial impact of candidates’ policies

COLLEGE STATION, Texas (KBTX) – As early voting ends this Friday and Election Day next Tuesday, a pair of Texas A&M students are introducing a new tool to help voters assess how presidential candidates’ economic policies could affect their finances .

Designed for first-time voters and with economic uncertainty in mind, the app provides insight into how the tax and spending proposals of elected Republican and Democratic candidates could impact individual income.

Newcomer voter computer science major and A&M freshman Jonathan Daniel, one of the app’s developers, told KBTX he feels the weight of the decision he faces.

“From my perspective, I just turned 18. This is my first election voting in and I’m afraid of making a decision that isn’t as informed as it could be,” Daniel said. . “There is a lot of information out there and candidates are constantly saying things and it changes. So, being able to provide someone with a very clear source of information that they can easily go to to get information about a candidate opens up the opportunity to make a more informed decision about who you vote for, because it affects all of us. »

Daniel and fellow neuroscience researcher Alex Alvarez created the app to give voters a clearer picture of the financial stakes. The tool uses nonpartisan data from sources like the Tax Foundation to help voters make informed choices about policies that affect taxes, dependents and wages.

“You may be voting against your financial interests, and you may not be doing it intentionally,” Alvarez warned. “Maybe if you knew how it would change your income, maybe you would vote differently and maybe your life would be affected in a certain way that maybe would make your life a little more comfortable. Maybe you can live in a better area, send your kids to college or something like that. So we think it’s really important.”

Alvarez told KBTX that the app, launched earlier this month, offers an objective, data-driven look at political choices.

“One of the reasons we started this project is because we believe that politics is something that for me, as a scientist, is not something very scientific. It is not something objective that we can quantify. It’s more like… It’s very subjective,” Alvarez said. “So we wanted to add an element of real information: objective, measurable differences in how a politician can make your life better or worse.”

While the tool holds promise, such models come with challenges, experts warn. First, they rely on certain assumptions that can be complex. In today’s political landscape, any tool that appears to favor one side can quickly face criticism.

Daniel and Alvarez said that through their program they hope to engage more young people in the voting process and motivate those who feel excluded to participate.

Follow this link to use the A&M Student Policy Impact Calculator.

The gallery above shows examples and different variables that the Policy Impact Calculator can display. Income variables are taken from the MIT Living Wage Calculator. Both the Policy Impact Calculator and KBTX do not declare preference or affiliation with any political party.

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