OMAHA—Patrick John Stevens realized around the time of the 2012 presidential election that he often stepped into a ballot box knowing exactly which candidate he would choose for president—but past that, voting became difficult.

He sometimes recognized names of senators, house representatives and legislators, but didn’t know anything about their background, stance on various topics, or even the responsibilities of the position at stake. This approach resulted in Stevens voting based on the party line (that is, when a party was actually listed next to the candidate name) because he didn’t have anything else to go on, or literally Googling candidate names for a hurried decision.

“I found myself voting based on pointless reasons—like, ‘Oh, this guy has the same first name as me and a cool last name. OK!’ Then later I would learn more about both candidates in that situation and wish I had made a completely different choice,” Stevens told SPN. “At first I blamed myself for not knowing enough and not doing enough research, but doing that kind of research is really labor-intensive for most people.”

Over the next two years, he struck out to make that process much easier. Already a part of Omaha’s startup scene, Stevens started sharing the concept for VoterSnap, a website that provides candidate and position information to voters before they arrive to vote. The site can be used on a tablet or desktop, but has the same look and feel as if it were a smartphone app.

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Users sign up by submitting their address and ZIP code. Stevens said this first step is what makes VoterSnap so unique, because that information is then used to create a digital copy of the exact same ballot users will see on Election Day.

However, the VoterSnap ballot contains more information than just names and titles. You’ll also find a 45-word elevator pitch and a five-word background for candidates as well as short position descriptions.

“Basically, you can learn about each candidate in about 15 seconds,” Stevens (right) said. “Another challenge is that candidates sometimes don’t know how to get their message to the right people at the right time, or don’t have enough resources and funding to market accordingly, so this really helps both voters and candidates all at once.”

Research had showed Stevens that nothing quite like this existed on the market, which compelled him to move forward with several basic prototypes based on the previous election. He also started calling political candidates to see if they might participate and took note of the positive feedback he received along the way from both candidates and voters.

Stevens discovered that average voters were just like him—they expressed frustration at not knowing the names on their ballot or what the positions entailed—which encouraged him to continue developing VoterSnap as a side gig to his day job in sales.

Then in January, he got laid off.

“I liked my job, and every sign told me I was excelling at my job, but at the time I felt a strong desire to completely focus on making VoterSnap a reality,” Stevens said. “So when I got fired, it was actually the perfect opportunity to go all in and make this dream of mine a reality.”

He began working on VoterSnap full time and focused again on customer interviews with voters and candidates. A non-developer, Stevens additionally utilized affordable app prototyping software to build a product to be used in the Nebraska primaries in May.

“The feedback was better than we could have imagined,” he said. “We tested with people we knew in those various districts but also did target marketing using a neighborhood-specific social network called Nextdoor, which enabled us to provide an accurate ballot based on party affiliation and address of the voters and users. That allowed us to recreate the exact same ballot that the person would see on Election Day.

“People told us VoterSnap took the guesswork out of voting, that it was smart, simple to use, relevant and powerful.”

After the primaries, Stevens contracted with The Attic—a student development group out of the College of Information Science and Technology at University of Nebraska Omaha—to fully build out VoterSnap. The company’s launch is planned for Oct. 10, so that VoterSnap can be used during Nebraska’s November gubernatorial elections and in all elections going forward.

Right now Stevens personally collects candidate information, but intends to automate the process somehow in the future in order to make it a little easier for candidates to add their information. VoterSnap will additionally utilize both free and paid features to benefit voters and candidates. While the startup has been bootstrapped from the beginning, Stevens says he’ll likely seek investment for talent recruitment and scaling at some point.

“There’s no reason for people to feel silly or guilty for not having the information they need to vote,” Stevens said. “We want to create a movement where it’s cool and expected to not only vote but be an informed voter.”