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Did You Vote? Now Your Friends May Know (nytimes.com)
A look at VoteWithMe and OutVote, two new political apps that are trying to use peer pressure to get people to vote. From a story: The apps are to elections what Zillow is to real estate -- services that pull public information from government records, repackage it for consumer viewing and make it available at the touch of a smartphone button. But instead of giving you a peek at house prices, VoteWithMe and OutVote let you snoop on which of your friends voted in past elections and their party affiliations -- and then prod them to go to the polls by sending them scripted messages like "You gonna vote?" "I don't want this to come off like we're shaming our friends into voting," said Naseem Makiya, the chief executive of OutVote, a start-up in Boston. But, he said, "I think a lot of people might vote just because they're frankly worried that their friends will find out if they didn't."
Whom Americans vote for is private. But other information in their state voter files is public information; depending on the state, it can include details like their name, address, phone number and party affiliation and when they voted. The apps try to match the people in a smartphone's contacts to their voter files, then display some of those details. The data's increasing availability may surprise people receiving messages nudging them to vote -- or even trouble them, by exposing personal politics they might have preferred to keep to themselves. Political campaigns have for years purchased voter files from states or bought national voter databases from data brokers, but the information has otherwise had little public exposure outside of campaign use. Now any app user can easily harness such data to make inferences about, and try to influence, their contacts' voting behavior.
Whom Americans vote for is private. But other information in their state voter files is public information; depending on the state, it can include details like their name, address, phone number and party affiliation and when they voted. The apps try to match the people in a smartphone's contacts to their voter files, then display some of those details. The data's increasing availability may surprise people receiving messages nudging them to vote -- or even trouble them, by exposing personal politics they might have preferred to keep to themselves. Political campaigns have for years purchased voter files from states or bought national voter databases from data brokers, but the information has otherwise had little public exposure outside of campaign use. Now any app user can easily harness such data to make inferences about, and try to influence, their contacts' voting behavior.
I'm in a state with vote by mail, so I did it weeks ago.
Still can't get my friends to vote. They're convinced it gets you jury duty
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Drives like this always make me think something along the lines of "hey I know you're so disconnected and ill informed that you didn't know today was voting day so please go out and make an ill informed decision"... Still, maybe in aggregate it these things are for the best.
"I think a lot of people might vote just because they're frankly worried that their friends will find out if they didn't."
If that's your only reason for voting, then you might as well just stay home. People voting on heuristics or based on what pop singer posted is what got this country into it's current mess. If you aren't willing to make the time and effort to research candidate positions (or even who the candidates are) then you are doing more harm to good when you vote. Democracy and effective government can only exist with an informed electorate. Put pressure on our politicians to campaign on actual, thought out policies and then hold them to those policies if they are elected. Do your research yourself, go to each campaign's website, watch debates and speeches, etc-don't just listen to talking heads or what your preferred candidate says about their opponent. Voting is a right just as owning a gun is a right. Uninformed voting is the electoral equivalent of waving a gun around in the air-when exercising a right, you have a duty to exercise that right responsibly.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
. . . they're probably not the kind of person that should be voting anyway.
My wife registered as preferring one of the parties here in our state. And she has gotten over 100 pieces of mail from that party urging her to vote for their candidates. I did not register a party preference, and have only gotten a couple of pieces of mail urging me to vote. Her voting history has been blazoned across multiple cards in the mail in blatant attempts to shame her into voting. Mine was on one of the pieces of mail that I got. It seems like pretty soon we'll be getting mail telling us that it's time for us to buy more toilet paper because we'll be out next week...
> "I don't want this to come off like we're shaming our friends into voting," said Naseem Makiya, the chief executive of OutVote, a start-up in Boston.
It doesn't "come off" like that at all. It comes across like you're a start-up with a useless, non-monetizable product and you're willing to attach yourself to nearly anything in order to gain your desired career trajectory.
Some day you're gonna get your ass kicked, you elitist prick, and you will deserve it.
I didn't care for the tone of the ops post but I don't think you could have chosen a better response to add weight to his opinion...
The apps try to match the people in a smartphone's contacts
All I have is a dumb flip phone. Aww, too bad you don't get to harvest my information for your use.
They are not for the best. Basically these types of things just turn the electorate into a mob. We are not picking the next American idle here; this is serious. I think every citizen should be able to vote but those who don't want to take it seriously should do everyone a favor and butt out.
Voting is a right; however if you choose to exercise it you have responsibility to take it seriously. Frankly if election day rolls around you still need to be told, that it is election day, where to vote, and what the names of the candidates are - you have not done so. You have no business going to polls at this point IMHO.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
>> You gonna vote? If you express yourself with words like "gonna", please don't vote.
If you think the target audience is concerned about slang, might I remind you that we now have a full compliment of emojis built into our desktop operating systems.
With friends like that, who need enemies?
Just remember this year, that due to all the conflict and divisive nature of politics, that to ensure we keep things civil at the polls:
1. Republicans, vote today at your normal places.
2. Democrats, vote tomorrow at your normal places.
This way we can ensure that we keep things civil at the polling sites and lessen any chance of fights and/or riots.
Pass the word around so that everyone knows.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Agreed.
We needs some laws on this quick, the privacy your political affilitation and if you vote is now just as important to keep private as it is on HOW you voted.
Things are getting so divisive that we may see things spill over into the workforce....were if your declared political affiliation is known, you may be let go from your job if it doesn't fit into those views carried by your immediate boss, or the company in general.
It is sad, but this is coming.
No one needs to know your leanings, unless YOU tell them, and if you vote or not, is no ones business.
This is supposed to be a free country and privacy on such personal believes and decisions, is a big part of that, to prevent you being coerced one way or another.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I actually feel a little better that this kind of public information is out in the open rather than being purchased only by the parties. Maybe it will drive greater participation in democracy and may expose shenanigans where perhaps publication is selectively withheld or delayed by whoever is in control of the elections or even help identify voting irregularities.
Nullius in verba
Shouldn't we first find out if people have an informed view of the issues on the ballot before we encourage them to go out?
Taking guns away from the 99% gives the 1% 100% of the power.
An old Asimov book used Multivac to question a single randomly chosen individual a number of seemingly random questions. From his responses it determined the proper outcome of the election for all districts. Obviously Asimov believed as you did but took it to an extreme level for a fictional story.
Amusing part is I read it Oct 2008, the story talked about the presidential election in Nov 2008. Think it was written in the 60s.
Just thought you might like to know is been a common theme for a while.
With all the voter suppression happening and voting machines flipping votes, you will not have to worry about it any more.
Showing you're on the left. If you were on the right you'd have said:
With all the illegal immigration happening and the fake voters created by the combination of unexamined mail-in registration and no-appearance-no-hardship absentee (mail in) ballots, you will not have to worry about it any more.
Both ideas are a hazard, whether or not they're true. The purpose of an election is to convince the losing side they'd have also lost the war, so they aren't tempted to start one.
They don't have to believe it's rock-solid-honest for that to work, because a close race means they'd probably lose the war because a lot of people who otherwise could care less WOULD care about trying to overturn the election and fight against them. But if they believe it's massively corrupted and the cheaters are now the tyrants, that stops working.
Look at The Battle of Athens, for instance. Or any of several other cases in US history where a corrupt and election-hacking political machine was thrown out by vigilanties. Or the left's tantrum after the 2016 election.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
The sent me a card telling whether or not I voted for the past years, along with the voting record of other people on my street with their names and addresses redacted for privacy. There are only TWO houses on my street!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Depends on where you live. Here, there's no point in voting because the Democrat will win, every single time, by more than +30%.
It's thinking like that which gave us Brexit.
I've been a poll worker three times in California. We had several printouts of the names and addresses of registered voters in our precinct. We had to put one of those printouts outside the polling place. Once an hour until 5 pm, on that public printout, we had to cross off the names of the people who had voted.
I asked someone why the list of voter names and addresses, and whether they'd voted, should be made public like that. She replied that it was to help political party workers get out the vote.
For me, that's not a good enough reason. My name and address, and whether I've voted, should be kept private.
Apps like these, and public voter printouts, hurt people's privacy.
I received a form letter showing me the voting status of everyone on my street (names redacted, addresses intact, but since I know my neighbors and where they live, it's hardly good enough to redact the names) and a warning that if I didn't vote today they would start calling me on the phone to explain myself. They didn't put it like that, of course, because that borders on harassment, but that's exactly what the entire letter implied. "If you choose not to vote, we'll be calling you in the next few days to discuss your choice." Yeah, I don't think so. The only response you're going to get from me is a big "Eff You".
It suggested that I may want to "talk to [my] non-voting neighbors to help them understand why voting is important]." and that they would be doing the same by calling them after election day (if they didn't vote), too.
Yes, you should vote. But whether you vote or not is still a choice and no one has the right to harass you for it.
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
Please back candidates that support ranked choice voting. It's the only easy to get out of the closed loop we are in.
That should be "" and "" tags.
Anyone with a red hat, you need to vote next month as it's national red hat month and you'll get twice the voting power if you save it up.
Hey! What do you have against Linux users?
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The solution to this is not telling people not to vote, it's trying to make sure as many voters are informed as possible. Otherwise you get rule by the most angry minority.
I'm in favor of mandatory (automatic) registration, of ensuring the pool of voters is as wide as practical (none of this Jim Crow era sanctions against people convicted of a crime) and I'm in two minds about whether we should have Australian style mandatory voting (you can always spoil your ballot, but you have to turn up to the election at least)
But... I'd also like to see the importance and responsibilities of the people voted for increased. It's ludicrous that my ballot paper had 20-30 things to vote on, including Florida state constitutional amendments proposing things that do not belong in a constitution, questions about keeping judges, and that's not to mention the local races. Thankfully I didn't need to vote for a dog catcher, but still.
This isn't "local democracy", it's ensuring only those most passionate about subjects control them, which isn't always for the best. My ballot should have had at most five positions this year: US Congress (Senator, Congressman), Florida State Congress (ditto), and local county commissioner. And that's it. There were, perhaps, two constitutional amendments that were legitimate, and those were the only two I've seen since I moved here (about who gets the vote, and removing a constitutional bar to lowering sentences) and perhaps if we weren't trying to shove high speed rail (I support HSR, don't get me wrong, just the constitution isn't the way to get it) and anti-off-shore drilling mandates, and mandates about casinos, and other similar BS, into the constitution perhaps these would have been resolved decades ago.
Make it simple. Make it understandable. Make it important. Give people something they can understand and they will make worthwhile choices. And let them make those choices.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
No, no, today is *Independent* voting day. Republican day was yesterday. Sorry you missed it. Better luck in two years. :-D
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Oh come on....
If anyone is really stupid enough to fall for that and not know it is a joke, then I'm wondering if they are even smart enough to go vote without hurting themselves along the way to the polling place.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Didn't even pause between those non-sequitur. Sure as hell didn't see the irony. Since then I've been opposed to Juries. The possibility of jury nullification saving me is dwarfed by the chances that somebody would send me up the river because they don't like the cut of my jib; especially since I'm a nerd.
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A joke ceases to be funny...if you have to explain it is a joke.
Any reasonably intelligent person would know that it was outlandish and therefore , a joke.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........