How this demo creates a ballot plan

What this MVP is

This is a product prototype for testing the flow: address entry, values quiz, candidate match explanations, proposition choices, and a printable cheat sheet.

The current demo uses mock Texas ballot data. It is not an official voter guide, official sample ballot, or voting instruction.

How matching works

Users answer values questions on a five-point scale. Each demo candidate has issue-position scores on the same scale. The app compares the distance between those scores, averages the alignment, and turns it into a match percentage.

A high match means the candidate positions in the demo dataset are closer to the user's quiz answers. It does not mean the app is telling anyone how to vote.

How real data should work

The Travis County pilot should use sourced data from official election pages, candidate websites, candidate questionnaires, public statements, voting records where available, endorsements, and plain-English proposition summaries.

Every claim that affects a match explanation should trace back to a source. When source material is thin, the app should say there is not enough information instead of forcing a confident recommendation.

Future AI/RAG layer

A future version may let users ask natural-language questions about a candidate, proposition, or match explanation. That layer should answer only from curated source material and cite the relevant sources. If the data does not answer the question, it should say so plainly.