Washington State Voters Can Register to Vote On Facebook

Washington State has decided to introduce a voter registration system on the social networking site. In a statement released from the office of Secretary of State, it will soon introduce an app on its Facebook page which will allow all the residents of state that are eligible to cast their vote to register themselves on the app.

“In this age of social media and more people going online for services, this is a natural way to introduce people to online registration and leverage the power of friends on Facebook to get more people registered,” co-director of elections Shane Hamlin told the Associated Press.

The app was developed by Microsoft, which later got support from Facebook and Washington. By clicking on the application which is accessible on the Facebook page, it will allow Facebook to access users’ information. The information will be regarding users’ name and date of birth etc. After that, users will have to provide some additional information from their driver’s license or state ID card. Hamlin made it clear that the information provided by the users will not be misused by the social networking site.

The recent figures from the Secretary of State’s office indicate that Washington has more than 3 million registered voters. The state has registered 475,000 people since the system was introduced in 2008. It is estimated that 32% voter registration has been done online. It was observed from the data that 62% of online registrants were younger than 34 years old.

While registering to the voting process on Facebook, users can also “like” the app and recommend it to their friends. In addition, users can access official website “My Vote”, which contains information regarding the applicant and ballot measures. The app is expected to launch as soon as next week. Online voter registration is already working in other states of America including Indiana, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and Louisiana.