Twitter Vote Report is Live!
Posted by Allison Fine on October 29, 2008
Three weeks to the day ago Nancy Scola and I hatched the idea of using Twitter to report on election day experiences. This morning Twitter Vote Report went live!
A volunteer network of software developers, designers, and other collaborators teamed up and spent hundreds of volunteer hours, no money was spent on this effort at all, to create the non-partisan Twitter Vote Report. Individual voters will use their cell phones to report on their individual experiences – the good, bad and ugly. How long is the wait in Cleveland, Ohio? Are the new optical scan machines staying up and running in Palm Beach County, Florida? Is failure to bring ID to the polls thwarting first-time voters in Indianapolis? With Twitter Vote Report, we’ll know the answers to those questions straight from voters from all over the country.
A large number of groups working on voter outreach and protection efforts have joined this effort. They include: the 866-OUR-VOTE (The Election Protection Coalition), Rock the Vote, Credo Mobile, Common Cause, Plodt.com, YouTube, twittervision.com, NPR’s Social Media Desk, Independence Year Foundation, Center for Community Change, Student PIRGs, PBS, Women Donors Network, and Demos.
And now we need everyone’s help to get the word out — this effort will only work if lots of people are using the system. So, here’s how it works:
If you currently use Twitter, send a message after you vote that begins with #votereport (this is critically important for ensuring that your message gets to the right place.) Then write some or all of the following:
#[zip code] to indicate where you’re voting; ex., “#12345″
#machine for machine problems; ex., “#machine broken, using prov. ballot”
#reg for registration troubles; ex., “#reg I wasn’t on the rolls”
#wait:minutes for long lines; ex., “#wait:120 and I’m coming back later”
#good or #bad to give a quick sense of your overall experience
#EP+your state if you have a serious problem and need help from the Election Protection coalition; ex., #EPOH
If you don’t use Twitter and want to go to http://www.twitter.com, sign up then follow the directions above.
If you want to participate by cellphone but don’t want to use Twitter, you can:
Send a text message to 66937 that begins with “#votereport”
Key in a report by calling (567) 258-VOTE/8683
Download and use the iPhone app (coming soon)
Please participate — we need lots and lots of voices heard on Election Day!
That’s it — let’s go and “tweet” this election!
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This entry was posted on October 29, 2008 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Social Media. Tagged: Election Day, Election Protection Coalition, Rock the vote, Twitter, twitter vote report. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
3 Responses to “Twitter Vote Report is Live!”
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Yks blog » Blog Archive » Citizens Driving Election Day Reporting With Twitter Vote Report said
[...] Fine just twittered me that Twitter Vote Report is now live. They need everyone’s help to get the word out on Twitter and the effort will only work [...]
Heath said
What is the point of this?
Allison Fine said
Twitter Vote Report allows voters to help one another (e.g. Lines are long, come later), to report voting difficulties (e.g. Voting machines broken), and to contribute their voting experiences to many others to contribute to how mapping how voting is going across the country.
Allison