One of the projects I have been working with is twittervotereport.com and the following video is a reasonably fun way to learn about what is happening right before your eyes:
Cameos by Nancy Scola, Billy Gray, Beka Economopoulos, Matt Cooperrider and Noel Hidalgo.
Press Release: Twitter Vote Report
Whew! Three weeks to the day since the idea was launched and without a single penny spent – just hundreds of hours of volunteer time, we’re up and running at twittervoterreport.com.
Twitter Vote Report is a groundbreaking new citizen-driven election monitoring system: voters can use either Twitter.com, text messaging (direct SMS), an iPhone app, or our telephone hotlines to submit reports about conditions at polling sites. The twittervoterreport.com site will aggregate and map reports in a variety of visual formats (map, graphs, etc.) so that voters, the media, and watchdog groups can see the Nation’s voting problems in real-time, and do something about them.
But it only works if people know about it. Can you help?
There are several ways that individuals and organizations could help to spread the word, please see below. This has been an all-volunteer effort, some mad talented folks across the country kicked into gear over the past couple of weeks to pull it all together. We thank you in advance for your time and support!
How Organizations Can Help
- Join groups like the Election Protection Coalition, Rock the Vote, Credo Mobile, Common Cause, NPR, PBS, Current TV, TwitterVision, YouTube and others in endorsing this effort. We’ll put your organization’s logo on the website and list you as a participating group. Email beka AT notanalternative.net if your group can sign on.
- Email your supporters, friends, listservs, families, etc. to let them know how to submit reports. Here’s a sample email: Outreach Email Sample
- Put a Twitter Vote Report badge or banner graphic on your home page. You can find one here: Badges
- Organize a conference call with your folks to introduce Twitter Vote Report (one of us would be happy to join the call!)
- Send out your own press release! Feel free to steal language from ours: VoteReport Press Release
How Citizens Can Help
- Do most of the above.
- Sign up to be a “sweeper” volunteer on election day. Monitor incoming reports and turn useless, mangled tweets and SMS into useful structured data that will show up on our maps and other visualizations. No experience necessary. Sign up by adding your name at VoteReport Contacts List
- Submit reports on voting day! Here’s how:
- Twitter: include #votereport and other tags listed at http://www.twittervotereport.com to describe the scene on the ground.
- SMS: Send text messages to 66937 (MOZES) starting with the keyword
#votereport. You can use the suggested keywords listed at http://www.twittervotereport.com to make your report more descriptive and easier to map. - iPhone: We expect to have an iPhone Application in the App Store in the next few days
- Phone: Call our automated system at 567-258-VOTE to report about conditions, using any touch-tone phone
Read more at Louis Gray: Avoiding Issues at the Polls
