Follow Along as the World Votes

Image by cambodia4kidsorg via Flickr

OK, if this isn’t a teachable moment, I don’t know what is.

Another giant in the social media world, Twitter, will be making Election Day instantaneously more interesting for anyone who wants to follow along as-it-happens or wants to keep a wary eye on the day’s voting operations.

Calling all teachers! What a great lesson for high school students on Tuesday.  Log on and watch the action.

Specifically, Twitter has created  Twitter Vote Report to assemble reactions and reports from Twitter users, whether they’re standing on a long line to vote, watching TV reports, or experiencing something unusual at the polls. You can use the Twitter “hashtag” #votereport for tracking tweets and to participate.

You can also do any one of the following, according to Twitter:

If you currently use Twitter, send a message after you vote that begins with #votereport (this is critically important for ensuring that your message gets to the right place.) Then write some or all of the following:

#[zip code] to indicate where you’re voting; ex., “#12345″

#machine for machine problems; ex., “#machine broken, using prov. ballot”

#reg for registration troubles; ex., “#reg I wasn’t on the rolls”

#wait:minutes for long lines; ex., “#wait:120 and I’m coming back later”

#good or #bad to give a quick sense of your overall experience

#EP+your state if you have a serious problem and need help from the Election Protection coalition; ex., #EPOH

If you want to use your cell phone, you can also text messages to 66937 and begin your message with #votereport.

I hope we can all report in that things were #good.

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Don't Know Where to Vote? Ask Google

While working on a Hubpages article tonight called “10 Ways to Protect Your Vote,” I stumbled across Google Vote, the latest foray by Google into making our lives easier.  The site allows anyone with the basic questions about voting — who, what, when and where — can discover the answers to their questions with this handy little tool.

Google notes that of the people who failed to vote in the last presidential elections, 10 percent said the reason was that they did not know where to cast their ballots. Now, thanks to the wisdom and foresight of Google, there are no more excuses. Think back to 2000 and even 2004, now think about how much the Web is having an impact not only on the presidential election, but in our knowledge of the candidates, the issues and the controversies.

Here’s the quick tutorial Google provides for using Google Vote:

watch?v=QUn0hMIMy5M

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Register to Vote

I don’t care what age you are, what religious persuasion, ethnic background, racial makeup or party you’re registered with. I have tried as hard as possible — and it hasn’t been easy! — to keep politics out of my blog. But Saturday is the deadline in many states to register to vote. This is a landmark, history-making presidential election. Exercise your rights as Americans and vote. Take a look at this cool video and remember to register. Go to the website – it’s easy.

Declare yourself. Before it’s too late.

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