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Twitter Helps Out With Election Irregularities

by Terrence O'Brien on November 5, 2008 at 05:06 PM

Twitter Helps Voting Problems Get Solved
Twitter has proven its usefulness before, expanding the classroom, reporting on earthquakes and protests in China, and helping one journalism student get out of a Egyptian jail.

According to the Silicon Alley Insider, Twitter yesterday continued to prove that it's good for more than just sharing your random thoughts when at least one voter managed to get help at the polls from the Election Protection group. Twitter user @wellstoneaction tweeted that a polling place in Minnesota was difficult to find due to road closures and a lack of signs. @wellstoneaction tagged his message with a #votereport (hash tags allow users to track specific topics) so that his complaint would be picked up by Twitter Vote Report, a site for Twitter users to register voting issues and warn of long lines.

Within minutes of his message, he was apparently contacted by a member of Election Protection in Minnesota, who somehow solved the issue. @wellstone updated just a few moments later "wow, great work Election Protection folks. I got a call in minutes in response to my tweet reporting a problem. #EPMN #mnvotes."

Twitter turned out to be an invaluable tool for Election Protection, which fielded numerous complaints, and kicked off 20 investigations due to reports that came in from the service. So for those who charge that Twitter just adds to the noise on the Internet without contributing anything of worth, we say "Ha!" [From: Silicon Alley Insider]

Tags: election, election 2008, Election2008, elections, elections 2008, Elections2008, micoblogging, social-networking, twitter, twitter vote report, TwitterVoteReport

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