Facebook has clambered aboard the ‘get out the vote’ train and is encouraging its members to vote in today’s US mid-term election.
At the top of the home page, before the news feed, there is a large box titled ‘Today is election day’. The graphic contains a link to help people find their polling place on the US Politics page and an “I voted” button so people can share the fact they voted with their friends. At the bottom it tells you which of your friends have already voted.
If anything is likely to get out the vote, it’s peer pressure and this Facebook app taps into that phenomenon. At 10.55am Pacific time, more than 4.26 million Facebook users had clicked the “I voted” button.
It also provides a neutral, non-partisan alternative for people who dislike the fact that the popular ‘Commit to Vote’ app was funded by the Democrats and contained the Obama symbol in the ‘o’ for ‘vote’.
Political candidates are strong users of Facebook and here at AllFacebook we have already done some analysis on how the election would turn out based on Facebook likes.
I’m guessing that the graphic is geographically targeted to people inside the US, based on IP address. Can any of our international readers confirm whether you see the election graphic as well?
Source: All Facebook
Tuesday, November 2, 2010