A Social Media Guide to Election Day Preparedness
If nothing else, the past two elections taught me one thing – no matter which side you are on, there will be an element of surprise that will fly in the face of all. You can point me to the latest polls, remind me of the great American electoral system, the Constitution, common sense, but I won’t be satisfied until the very last ballot is counted. Neither should you.
- Check out the list of poll closing times across the states
There are roughly four days left until we are finally able to exhale and leave the seemingly perpetual presidential race behind us. Unless you are planning to go to bed early and wake up to your morning coffee and newspaper on Wednesday, you will have to get through the broadcast media circus of Tuesday night. To me, it is a strange kind of entertainment, where fate of the country fluctuates with every commercial break. An array of distressed anchors invent drama where there is none, only to run out of breath when things start going South for real.
Want to save yourself from the TV drama? Follow the elections online:
Want to talk back? Follow and participate in these online discussions:
Did you know there are seven different systems of ballot casting across our nation’s states and counties? If you are still wondering what to expect in terms of election equipment and voting systems, visit Verified Voting Foundation’s site. If you are still unsure where to find your local polling place, locate it with Google Maps.
As much as we’ve been bombarded with viral videos, text messages and e-mails from all sides, we shouldn’t forget that collectively we have just as much power to communicate back. Not only by voting, which goes without saying, but by making sure that the Election Day goes off as it should. When you try to get 100+ million voters to polling locations in one day, problems with long lines, broken machines and registration records are inevitable.
Report your experiences and voting problems and violations at:
Years later we will look back at November 4, 2008, smiling about the outdated vocabulary of blogs, tweets, etc. but realizing that on that day the unprecedented majority did cast their vote because maybe they felt the democracy was finally back thanks in part to social media.
ADDED ON NOV 11, 2008:
A collection of online resources for voters from NYTimes.com:
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/politics/Voters-Guide.html