With the most uncertain election in modern American history fast approaching, social networks are doing a final big push to get their users registered to vote.
The efforts align with National Voter Registration Day, which punctuates ongoing efforts from companies like Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat to get people to the polls, whether IRL or through mail-in voting.
Snapchat, which says it has helped 750,000 U.S. users get registered to vote, announced new voter-focused programming with an eclectic slate of celebrities that included Snoop Dogg, former President Obama and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The social network is also launching some new Snap Originals (the company’s short-form pieces of content) themed around the U.S. election. Those include a “Good Luck Voter!” miniseries by Peter Hamby and a special election-focused episode of “While Black with MK Asante.”
Star power aside, a Snapchat tool prompts users to make a plan to vote with friends and also allows them to request a mail-in ballot through the app itself. Any account featured on Snapchat’s Discover page can also embed the platform’s voter registration tool directly into their content.
Image Credits: Twitter
Twitter’s own efforts also put voter registration front and center. On September 22, all U.S. Twitter users were sent a prompt asking them to register or confirm their voter registration through TurboVote. The prompt and an accompanying push alert were sent in 40 languages. The new reminders join the company’s existing voting info hub and its #YourVoiceYourVote campaign, which recruited popular accounts like Marshmello and Chrissy Teigen to promote a link to Vote.org’s registration check page along with original voice notes. Twitter also added new hashtag emoji linked to #NationalVoterRegistrationDay and #VoteReady.
Adding to its existing efforts, like the launch of its own election info hub, top-of-newsfeed prompts and Instagram reminders, Facebook roped in celebrities Alicia Keys, Gabrielle Union, Jada Pinkett Smith and others for a special “Vote-A-Thon 2020” series of live-streaming educational PSAs around voter registration. Facebook says it has helped 2.5 million people get registered to vote across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.
Image Credits: Facebook
Facebook’s top-of-feed notifications reminding users to register will run on the Facebook app, Instagram and Messenger through Friday September 25. Users who use a new set of Instagram stickers for National Voter Registration Day will have their story featured in a special voter registration-themed story on the social network.
YouTube and the apparently still-in-limbo TikTok didn’t appear to be holding their own voter registration drives Tuesday, but Google, Reddit and Discord all featured prominent home-page banners reminding users to register to vote.
