Facebook and Twitter Will Try to Mobilize Millions of Voters Tomorrow
Posted by Jason Better on Nov 3, 2010 12:48 pm
Source: ReadWriteWeb.com | Author: Marshall Kirkpatrick
Facebook, the largest online social network in the world, will put a call to hit the polls at the top of millions of users' Facebook pages tomorrow and will attempt to help them find the nearest polling station.
Facebook told press today that the company will provide an official app on the site that locates the nearest polling place, badges that users can push out to their friends' newsfeeds to show that they have voted and live streaming video coverage of early results starting at 4 p.m. Pacific. As one of the fastest-growing communication channels in history, Facebook could shake things up tomorrow on election day.
If the Facebook Newsfeed reaches a substantial portion of non-voters, that could have a political impact. According to the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, typical turnout for midterm elections is around 40%.
Or, as Michael Muskal wrote in the LA Times yesterday about all the attention the Tea Party receives, "The real majority in the midterm elections will be those who just skip it. Non-voters are younger, poorer, less educated and more liberal than likely voters."
Could This Get More People to Vote?
Could that group be moved by Facebook to vote in greater numbers? That doesn't seem impossible.
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Comments: 1
Encouraging people to vote
I believe it's a really good thing to have FB encouraged people to get out and vote. I worked the polls every time there is an election and I can tell you from experience that there is a great deal of apathy in our society. Hello folks. There are people on this planet that would die for the right to vote your choice and some of them do. I'm really glad that we have a lot of people turned out for the election yesterday. Change is good and voting for your choice is even better.