Mark McKinnon commented last week on Twitter’s new role in democracy, drawing praise from like thinkers on the Internet but also some criticism in the comments on his own blog. While the long-term impact of Twitter is certainly debatable, its presence as a channel for real-time feedback on politics is undeniable. On Election Day, the world will get to see this power in action with the Vote Report project.
The Obama Effect
As the TwitVote experiment likely proves, the Twitter community—itself a reflection of online technologists and other early adopters—is pro-Obama. I suppose I’m no different.
The Twitter community is a bit biased
This election cycle has been far more uplifting than the past several if only because it seemed several reasonable options among the many candidates, in a race that included an historic battle late into the primary season. Barack Obama isn’t my ideal candidate, but when I show up at Meadowwood tomorrow morning—some 3.3 miles away from my house—I’ll be voting for what he inspires.
We forget, often, that the President may be the most powerful leader in the world but he also holds an office that doesn’t make laws, establish budgets, or rule on Constitutionality. Presidents merely influence these things through the people they choose to surround them and the way they conduct themselves in public. I’m sure Barack Obama has great ideas about how to fix the economy or health care, etc., but that isn’t the reason to vote for him.
If you want a sign of what kind of nation we might be under Obama, look at the army of citizen volunteers willing to go door to door to fight for his candidacy. They change avatars and middle names on Facebook in a sign of support. They compose songs. Most importantly, they get involved with local politics and become active in their own communities. Kerry and Gore didn’t invoke the same degree of passion. Obama is attractive because of the reaction the nation has had to his campaign.
Vote Report
Obama can’t take credit for any of the work done on Vote Report—a community-sourced election oversight project—but I have to wonder whether it comes to fruition without his Presidency motivating people to get involved.
Vote Report is led by a group of online activists that include Micah Sifry and Noel Hidalgo. For the many voters who experience voting problems—long lines, broken machines, missing names on registration rolls—this project provides a conduit to register a complaint on location. Using Twitter and hashtags (like, “#wait:120” for a 2-hour wait in line), messages are distributed and aggregated to give a real-time look at where problems arise in the 2008 national elections. You don’t have to use Twitter in order to participate; Vote Reports has other ways to send your experiences to the volunteers, including phone (an automated system at 567-258-VOTE (8683), or talk to a human at 1-866-OUR-VOTE).
Community-source election oversight
One of the outcomes of this mass of information is a Plodt graph to show how the data changes over time. The team of developers is also working on a mashup with Google Maps. For developers and researchers, there are also several ways to get the raw data. Vote Report is a massive collaborative effort that includes support from organizations like Rock the Vote, Common Cause, NPR’s Social Media Desk, Women Donors Network, PBS, and Demos.
Behind the scenes at Vote Report
For more on Twitter and politics, visit Warren Sukernek’s list of political Twitter bookmarks. It contains a growing number of web articles and tools surrounding the current political season.