Tomorrow is Election Day ... VOTE!

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I am PUMPED for Election Day tomorrow. So, in honor of this festive political occasion, here are some uses of locative services in GOTV efforts and in generating political awareness.

Foursquare created an “I Voted” badge to use on Election Day so users can tell their followers that they voted. Its goal is to “encourage civic participation, increase transparency in the voting process and develop a replicable system for the 2010 Presidential Election”. Check it out: http://elections.foursquare.com/

Candidates are also using Foursquare to help supporters track their campaign activity. Mark Kirk, Republican candidate for Illinois Senate, is a good example:

GeoPollster uses Foursquare check-in data to track virtual “votes” for each political party. There is a lot of data to support that a platform like this will not accurately represent voting patterns (ahem, Democrats are far more likely to actively engage with social media than Republicans), but it’s a fun tool nonetheless. It’s also funny to see where partisans are “checking in”. Currently Democrats have “seized control” of Red Robin Gourmet Burgers in Madison, WI. http://geopollster.com/

Google has an Election Center website/ mobile app where users can locate their polling place by entering their address. Facebook links to it on its “U.S. Politics on Facebook” fanpage. Find your polling place here: http://bit.ly/czvWk5

For more ways to use social media in political engagement, read this article: http://gigaom.com/2010/11/01/election-badges-vote-by-check-in-and-twitter-bubbles/. (This was also my primary source for finding these links).

And hey, now that you know where your polling place is, you should go vote tomorrow. :)