State of Washington to Use Facebook for Voter Registration

  • 18 July 2012
  • 2 replies
  • 16 views

Userlevel 7
  • Retired Webrooter
  • 1581 replies
"The secretary of state's office said Tuesday it will have an application on its Facebook page that allows residents to register to vote and then "like" the application and recommend it to their friends. It's expected to launch as early as next week."
 
Full Article Here
 
Interesting things to note:

  • They already had online voter registration - just not via Facebook until now.
  • Users must allow Facebook to access their information.
  • Users must provide a driver's license or state ID card number in the process.
  • According to the "co-director of elections," Facebook does not have access to the state's database itself.
On the positive side, this might make registering to vote easier for some people, and it might increase the overall number of registered voters.
 
On the other hand, with the seemingly constant concern coming up over Facebook's privacy policy, maybe Facebook isn't the best choice for rocking the vote?  This is bound to raise some security concerns over voter fraud as well.
 
Thoughts?
 

2 replies

Userlevel 7
To register to vote should be done on a Government website ONLY where it is connected to a State / Government database.
What's next - Voting online?
Since this article has struck a nerve and I can't post all of my thoughts, that's all I'll say about it. 😠
Userlevel 7
Badge +56
I know it does now affect me because I live in Canada, but users like me that don't use Facebook or Twitter or any other social media to me it looks like a privacy issue!
 
TH

Reply