Author Archive
Vote Report iPhone App Available for Download
Our iPhone app has been added to the iTunes store. Go and get it!
Android App Available, iPhone App Imminent
Some exciting news. Thanks to the hard work of Dave Troy with a great deal of help from Sze Wong, our iPhone vote reporting app has been approved. It should be available in the iTunes store or apps app on the iPhone by the morning. We’ll let you know in this space when it’s ready. (In case you’re wondering, yep, it will know your location from the phone’s built-in GPS.) And thanks to the great work of Nathan Freitas, our Google Android app is available this very moment. If you’re the lucky owner of a T-Mobile G1, just go the Android Market and search for “votereport.” Nathan has more details on his personal blog.
Early Vote Tweets Show Americans Making This Thing Their Own
A fairly sizable chunk of the country has already voted, thanks to so much more lenient rules this time around that allow people to cast an early ballot with no excuse most U.S. states. And we are completely thrilled that a good number of early voters have taken to using #votereport as a tag. We’ve been watching tweets roll in all day. What’s fascinating is how quickly people have taken to this idea and made it their own.
It’s going to be really interesting to watch how voters make use of that little 140-character box (and addition, of course, to our other reporting tools) to get their voices heard. Some reports have been particularly eye catching. Some people in some places are reporting that they zip in and out of their polling place in minutes. Others are letting everyone know that it’s best to bring a book and a bottle of water, because it’s going to be a long wait. Let’s have a look at a few sample tweets that have already come our way:
- ZekeSaysSo: #votereport #early #89501 Downtown Reno Libarary 1 minute wait time
- jessiecarty: #votereport yesterday in #NC #28269 2.5 hr wait at library #early
- boazsender: #votereport #02128 #bad #reg I have not received my mail-in registration confirmation, and the MA phone number has been busy for a week!
- jasonhanggi: #votereport #60657 the electronic voting machines were awesome. showed you a paper receipt before finally casting your ballot.
- RocchiJulia: LOVE Twitter #votereport! I voted #early last week in Arlington VA (#22201). Exp. was #good; #wait:10 min. Heard it’s much longer now.
- netZoo: #votereport #90650 #wait:150+ #early a tent is set up for people to wait in the shade. photo, more here: http://bit.ly/1vddE8
- mistersugar: I early voted in Durham, NC, where first-time voters get applauded. #votereport
- dcwumpus: “My #early #votereport - absentee ballots in #48823 require extra postage. Don’t let a $0.15 slipup keep your voice from being heard!
- OH_observers: #EPOH from 866 report -fake election officials letting people vote from parking lot in Columbus #votereport #43204 http://tinyurl.com/6nfrmw
There’s also been a little bit of direct action. A Minnesota voter tweeted to say that the League of Women Voters’ website listed November 3rd as election day in his precinct, which is decidedly not right. So we contacted the director of field staff at the League. And she actually signed up for Twitter so that she could address his complaint directly. How cool is that?
New York Times Caucus Blog Says “Tweet Your Voting Moment”
The New York Times’ Kate Phillips recently dedicated a post on the Times’ in-house politics blog the Caucus to highlighting Twitter Vote Report’s new approach to election reporting:
Standing in line for a long time at polls on Tuesday? Did you get turned away because you wore a T-shirt emblazoned with your candidate’s name? Are there machine problems, identification issues?
There are a number of legal and civic groups already in position to help, with their own phone lines and experts standing by.
But in addition, if you’re tech-savvy enough and use Twitter, or text, you can report your problems directly online through Twitter.
Making Twitter Vote Report a success is going to require a critical mass of people tweeting what they’re seeing on the ground this election. A prominent mention on the New York Times website certainly can’t hurt that effort, and so we’re much appreciative.
