By Kate Zydor
Staff Writer
Harrison Lavelle, a junior political science and international relations double major, has partnered with political news organization Politico to create an interactive game titled, “You Be the Campaign Manager,” where users can manage their own political campaigns.
Lavelle, who is currently studying abroad at Die Freie Universitaet in Berlin, Germany, is a co-founder and partner of Split Ticket, a website for election mapping and modeling as well as political forecasting work. Since its inception, the site has taken a data-driven approach to the political articles, ratings and models that it publishes.
Alongside his colleagues, Armin Thomas and Lakshya Jain, Lavelle started the political website in Nov. 2021. As part of his current role in Split Ticket, he coordinates the website’s House coverage, writes about a variety of electoral topics and produces political maps.
Prior to the formation of Split Ticket, both Lavelle and Thomas had worked for another elections website known as “Elections Daily.” However, they wanted to start their own site where they could make the executive decisions.
“Our goal was to create a source for non-partisan electoral analysis, focused on the importance of data in supporting logical conclusions, informing the general public about elections and civics more generally,” Lavelle said. “We also wanted to combat misinformation and common misconceptions.”
According to its website, Split Ticket works “to present electoral data in a compelling and easy-to-understand fashion that offers new insight for both the layman and the experienced politicos.” Over the past two years, the site has experienced rapid growth and strives to bring awareness to how elections are run.
“I’d like to think we’ve succeeded in…building our institutional credibility in the election forecasting [and] predicting community,” Lavelle said. “Despite our political differences, we keep doing good non-partisan work that attracts readers from both sides of the aisle.”
As of May 2023, Split Ticket began its partnership with Politico, a leading political news outlet that reports on politics and policy in power centers throughout the world where access to reliable information and nonpartisan journalism inform those who are intrigued by politics.
“You Be the Campaign Manager” allows players to manage a presidential campaign, however, in this game, there are only two months until Election Day 2024. Players must make choices on where to invest their resources and which regions to target in order to campaign effectively. Additionally, they must convince potential voters and turn out their base, referring to voters already affiliated with the candidate’s political party. This game enhances understanding of the electoral dynamics across America and demonstrates how voter turnout could impact election outcomes.
“We created a clustering algorithm to group counties into a handful of groups, each of which was characterized by a series of identifiable characteristics,” Lavelle said. “Based on their choices in the game, the player can see potential 2024 election outcomes and can learn more about demographic and regional differences in political coalitions.”
Players are able to choose whether they will campaign for a Democratic or Republican candidate. Following this decision, there are eight demographic clusters or groups each leading to a different election result.
“I think this is a great game because it gets the younger generation involved with politics and helps them learn more about the election process,” said freshman civil engineering major Preet Patel.
By creating an interactive game, Split Ticket and Politico have created a product that markets to a younger population that otherwise would not show an interest in politics.
“Since a majority of college students are over 18 and can vote in elections, they should be well-informed about the policies that impact their country, their communities and themselves,” Patel said.
“You Be the Campaign Manager” is laid out in an easy-to-understand format that is simplistic yet well thought out.
“The last few months were spent theorizing, programming, writing, and conferring with the editorial team at Politico to maximize the quality of the final product,” Lavelle said. “When we got the offer to pursue a joint project, we were more than happy to accept. Politico is well respected within and without the election community and we enjoyed working with them.”
Split Ticket and Politico have also co-written an article titled “The 8 places that will decide the 2024 election”.
With the work that Split Ticket and Politico have released and the various other enterprises that Split Ticket is constantly developing, Lavelle has high expectations for the future of this site.
“I hope that more people can get interested in elections and civics,” Lavelle said. “It’s important to have an informed and active electorate that isn’t afraid to take part in the process and answer questions when others have doubts. I hope that our Politico project goes a long way in getting new readers involved in the system.”
