About JoinCalifornia

The One Voter Project began with ElectionVolunteer.com, created by Alex Vassar in 2003 during the campaigns leading up to California's Recall of Governor Davis. The site began as a list of both local (Santa Clara County) Recall candidates and major candidates whose campaigns had local offices. During the 2004 Primary Election cycle, ElectionVolunteer.com organized early lists of candidates to help connect the budding campaigns with local volunteers.

Since the 2004 elections, the website has expanded into several online resources in the One Voter Project. JoinCalifornia.com, started in 2005, provides more than one hundred years worth of political history for California candidates, districts, and parties. The JoinCalifornia database currently contains almost thirteen thousand candidates in every federal and state election back to 1898. Together, the purpose of the One Voter Project websites is to educate the public about the political landscape around them, to create and interest in the politics, and help facilitate citizen involvement in the political process. Democracies work best when their citizens are informed and involved.

Alexander Vassar

Alex Vassar first became involved in local politics while studying History and Political Science at Cal Poly and San Jose State University. His activities have included work on several legislative and local campaigns throughout the state. Alex is an avid fan of the political process and institutions that make our state and nation work smoothly. Following the 2004 election, Alex did manual transcription of election results from decades-old sources into a spreadsheet that became the foundation for the JoinCalifornia website. He later spent months researching the biographies of generations of political leaders, resulting in an extensive collection of California Blue Books and a solid familiarity with most of the university and public libraries of the Bay Area and Sacramento. Alex was selected as to participate as a Senate Fellow in the 2007-08 Class of the California Capitol Fellows Program, working at the State Capitol in the office of State Senator Bob Dutton. Alex currently works for the California State Senate.
To contact Alex Vassar, email: alex@onevoter.org

Shane Meyers

Shane Meyers is a native Californian who provides the encoding and programming backbone to the Election Volunteer site. An Electrical Engineering graduate of Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, Meyers joined the Election Volunteer / JoinCalifornia team in early 2005 and helped facilitate the transition from a local website to a statewide resource. Shane has been honored for his work on the ElectionVolunteer and JoinCalifornia websites with a Congressional Commendation from several Bay Area members of the California Delegation;
"Mr. Meyers deserves recognition today for the great interest he has shown in improving the lines of communication between the public and their representatives at both the state and federal levels/. His efforts toward improving community political awareness are to be commended." - Congressman Sam Farr
To contact Shane Meyers, email: shane@onevoter.org