"Alexa, tell me about the election"

Customers rely on Alexa to answer all sorts of questions throughout the day —from sports scores and state capitals to nutrition facts and the latest current events. During the midterm elections last fall, customers asked Alexa a multitude of questions, including "Alexa, when are the polls open?", "Alexa, who is winning in New York?", "Alexa, what happened in the midterm election?", and more.

As the 2020 U.S. Presidential election nears, we'll be building on last year's election experience and adding even more ways for Alexa to provide the information that matters most to you this election cycle—including support for new questions and features to keep you up to speed.

As the Alexa elections experience expands, here are the core principles that guide how we build these experiences:

Alexa is an objective source for elections information.

We aim to provide the most relevant, accurate, and timely information about elections and candidates. We federate across hundreds of information sources, and we collaborate with nonpartisan organizations to provide customers with information on polls, ballots, results and more. Alexa herself does not have opinions on politics or candidates.

We offer choice.

When it comes to news, Alexa is a conduit, not a news creator. Whenever possible we let you choose which news providers you prefer to watch, listen to, and get live updates from.

We will keep making Alexa smarter.

As with everything we do, we’ll learn a lot about the types of questions and information you want Alexa to be able to share, and release features that address those requests.

We are committed to ensuring Alexa provides the election information customers want most, and aim to make Alexa a helpful, unbiased source throughout every phase of the 2020 U.S. Presidential race.

New and existing Alexa features

Today, we announced the first new Alexa elections feature—beginning tomorrow 2020 U.S. Presidential Candidates can sign up to receive campaign contributions via Alexa. All candidates are invited to make use of this technology—on-boarding is simple and doesn’t require any technical experience. Starting next month, customers will be able to simply say, "Alexa, donate to [candidate name]" to contribute up to $200 to any participating candidate's campaign fundraising efforts. Alexa Political Contributions is powered by Amazon Pay, which uses the payment information associated with your Amazon account to complete the donation request. Get more information, or learn more about the on boarding process.

And if you're looking to get a refresher on how the election process works, an update about who's in the running and who's not, the timing for the next debate, or simply learn more about a candidate’s stance on a particular issue—just ask Alexa.

Here are some things to try:

"Alexa, who is running for president?"
"Alexa, how is [candidate name] polling?"
"Alexa, who endorses [candidate name]?"
"Alexa, when is the Iowa caucus?"
"Alexa, how does [candidate name] stand on Education?"
"Alexa, when is the next debate?"

Over the course of the next year we'll continue to add more features and experiences designed to give you easy access to the election information you care about most.