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November 03, 2008

High-Tech Election Monitoring

Twitter Vote Report an all-volunteer effort, is giving voters a high-tech way to report on their experiences at the polls this election season.

Voters can report inaccurate voter rolls, broken machines, and long lines via Twitter, an online service that lets people send very short, frequent messages to one another, by sending a text message, or even using a touch-tone phone. Twitter Vote Report aggregates the information to create maps that show where there are problems.

“Imagine a nationwide Web map with pins identifying every zip code where Americans are waiting over 30 minutes to vote or indicating those election districts where the voting machines are not working,” the effort’s founders write on the Twitter Vote Report Web site. “Collectively we will inform each other when the lines are too long and ensure that media and watchdog groups know where problems exist.”

— Nicole Wallace

Monday November 3, 2008 | Permalink

Comments

1. Nicole – there are lots of mobile efforts under way to monitor the election in real time. For a few, see our article here: http://mobileactive.org/twitter-vote-and-other-mobile-innovations-americas-election.

   Katrin, MobileActive.org

   — Katrin Verclas    Nov 3, 01:37 PM    #

2. Thank you for highlighting the twitter vote story. This is a great service they are providing to all. http://www.ivotedrepublican.com

   — I Voted Republican    Nov 4, 12:49 PM    #

Commenting is closed for this article.

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