HOUSTON – A young Houston tech guru is hoping to get more people to the polls with his newest creation, Text to Polls.
Just text VOTE to 832-558-8306 and follow the prompts to receive the closest early voting polling location.
Nile Dixon, a 20-year-old student at the University of Houston Downtown, said he came up with the idea after becoming a volunteer deputy voter registrar and realized he didn't know the answer to a common question.
"Someone asked me 'Where ... you where do you go vote?' and I said, 'I don't know,' and I was, like, 'That's crazy, I'm here registering people to vote and I don't know where they should go,'" he said.
The service also provides driving directions and is available in Arabic, Cantonese, Vietnamese and Spanish in addition to English.
This is not Dixon's first time creating text technology to help people. During Hurricane Harvey, he created a text bot to help storm victims in need connect with people and organizations able to help.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help offset costs of adding and maintaining counties to the text bot.