About Us

Andrea Torkelson
Andrea Torkelson is a true believer in grass-roots campaigning, her professional specialty for the past decade. Like millions of others, she’s also an avid Facebook user. So it’s no surprise she had the foresight to create VoterBuzz, a mobile app that takes grass-roots campaigning to a new level by harnessing the power of social networking. She has joined forces with her beloved grandmother, Frances Cardinale, to put technology at the literal fingertips of voters, candidates and groups. “VoterBuzz is really about simplifying a lot of the hard work needed to be successful in a grass-roots campaign,” says Torkelson, also database manager and operations coordinator for the Nolan Group, one of Florida’s best political consulting firms. “This app makes it so much easier to do all of the things that are at the heart of a grass-roots campaign.” Torkelson is a frequent guest speaker on the topics of campaign technology and grass-roots campaigning. In addition to founding VoterBuzz LLC, Torkelson is an Army veteran, a business management graduate from the University of Phoenix, and treasurer of the Committee for Open Democracy, a nonprofit organization that evaluates elections for adherence to international and democratic norms.

Frances Cardinale

With almost seven decades of experience in the advertising business, Frances Cardinale knows what it’s like to change with the times. As the co-founder of VoterBuzz LLC, Cardinale is excited to help lead politics into the digital age. “I love how this gives people the ability to interact easily with their political representatives,” she says. “This really empowers the voter to be part of the election process.” Cardinale began her advertising career by helping her father with the firm he owned in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She went on to fill every imaginable position in the company, including janitor. Cardinale eventually took over her father’s company then joined her son and daughter in forming the Nolan Group, one of Florida’s most successful political consulting firms. Working with granddaughter Andrea Torkelson to create VoterBuzz LLC fulfills several of her passions. “I’m a firm believer in states’ government, in free enterprise systems, and in entrepreneurship,” she says. “And I’m all for anything that is new in technology. I’m thrilled to see the power it puts at our fingertips.”