Media and Technology Companies Work to Get Out the Vote

As Election Day nears, prominent companies are actively encouraging their audiences to vote. Firefox, Twitter, MTV, and LinkedIn all partnered with Get to the Polls, an effort of the Voting Information Project (VIP), to help voters access information about polling locations, hours of operation, early voting, and ballot summaries.

Each company developed its own methods of directing users to the polls:

• On Tuesday, Firefox’s parent company, Mozilla, will feature the Get to the Polls prompt on the browser’s main page.

• When logging on to Twitter, users are able to send their address via direct message to @gov to receive their polling locations and a prompt to request information about what is on their ballots.

• MTV launched its Elect This project, targeting millennials. The site directs them to a polling locator and information about the issues that most affect their generation. 

• LinkedIn is debuting “Remember to Vote” on all mobile apps that will direct users to Get to the Polls. The company also published “Vote: An Important Connection to Economic Opportunities” on its corporate blog, because “we believe in the power of voting so strongly that we are reminding our members to get out and vote.”

VIP is a partnership between The Pew Charitable Trusts, Google, and the states, along with the Internet Association and the world’s top technology companies.

Alexis Schuler is the senior director and Monica Leibovitz is an officer for election initiatives at The Pew Charitable Trusts.

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