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Three local teens teamed up to help Rhode Islanders rock the vote on November 3 . They created the website Candivote . org , and it ’ s designed to encourage democracy in Rhode Island — and maybe the whole country . Arvind Sridhar , first-year student at Brown University , Shivesh Mehrotra , first-year student at Yale University and Lucien Gaitskell , a senior at the Wheeler School , first came up with the idea for Candivote in May . The three said they realized the importance of politics while in school together and wanted to find a way to create change within Rhode Island . The idea took the shape of a website where users answer a fifteen-question survey based on their values and changes they would like to see . The website then matches users with politicians in their town or city . Additionally , Candivote provides insight into the politicians ’ platforms and backgrounds . “ One thing everyone seems to agree on is that the country is so divided , and it ’ s so hard to understand how to create tangible change from the ground up ,” Mehrotra says . “ We did all this research and learned about our local politicians ... We want to help educate others and also increase our own involvement in local politics .” candivote . org — THERESA BROWN

THIS PAGE : ILLUSTRATION , GETTY IMAGES ; PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF CANDIVOTE . ORG ; OPPOSITE : PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF SAMANTHA LABRECQUE .

16 RHODE ISLAND MONTHLY l NOVEMBER 2020