SCH Junior Launches Mobile App for 2020 Election

Springside Chestnut Hill (SCH) Academy junior, Zach Schapiro launches Election Accomplice, an app designed to engage students in the election process just in time for November 2020. 

As a high school student, Schapiro recognizes the importance of enlisting his peers to be motivated voters when it’s their turn. “I’m not old enough to vote, but I know how important it is for my friends and for me to understand the process and get involved now,” says Schapiro. 

Election Accomplice has two parts, a strategy game and the 2020 forecasting model. The strategy game pits the player against a choice of presidential opponents to see who wins in November. The 2020 forecast model is a sophisticated voting simulator to track current election polling. Using demographic data, local and national economic forecasts and top-rated polling data, Schapiro’s forecaster runs 500 – 1000 simulations daily and computes election results. Users can take an analytical deep dive in the model’s “What Are the Odds?” section, setting their own state-by-state conditions and seeing how it impacts the election. 

Zach explains his motivation for developing the app: “Understanding data is even more critical for kids today than ever before. We’re inundated with data, charts, graphs and it’s pretty easy to make numbers tell a slanted story. It’s incumbent on my generation to understand and be comfortable working with data and be critically thinking about what the data means.  The better we are, the better we’ll be at consuming the news.”

Schapiro furthered his interest in programming and app development at SCH’s Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) and through the school’s world-renowned robotics program.