Election Day 2008 via Social Media

At 7:15 AM I was at the polling place. I had never seen the school parking lot that full, for any occasion, in all the years I’ve lived in the neighborhood (over 10). The line inside turned out to be a 2-hour wait.

It has been utterly fascinating to me watching the campaign evolve through the social media. There is massive amounts of information available about this, so I am not going into any particular depth. I just wanted to share a few of things I found interesting.
VIDEO YOUR VOTE (YOUTUBE)
While I was waiting in line at the polling place (a local school), a woman walked down the long hall with a camcorder, documenting the length of the line. I laughed. Later I found out there was actually a competition for election day videos. It was all a PBS idea …

PBS: Video Your Vote: http://www.pbs.org/vote2008/youtube/
Youtube: Video Your Vote: http://www.youtube.com/videoyourvote
But isn’t legal in Michigan:

Citizen’s Media Law: Guide: Documenting Your Vote: http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide /documenting-your-vote
I learned here that it isn’t legal in Michigan to post photos of your ballot, so it is a good thing I refrained from taking any! A fascinating way to catch a personal glimpse of the election day experience across the nation.
FACEBOOK & MYSPACE
If something is big in Youtube, you can bet it is in Facebook and/or Myspace also.

Facebook: Election 08: http://www.facebook.com/election08/
MySpace: MyVote: profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile…
TWITTER
The first social media election coverage I really noticed was when Twitter made an election tracking banner at the head of every page. Their election page can be a real timewaster, as comments from real people scroll across the screen in real time as they happen.

Twitter: Election: http://election.twitter.com/
FLICKR: ELECTION 2008
“A picture is worth a thousand words”, and people must believe it seeing the extraordinary quantity of politically-themed groups, photos and images in Flickr, the famous photo sharing site. It has really brought the campaign and election to life, having so many different points of view and perspectives widely available in vivid technicolor!

2008 Presidential Election: http://flickr.com/groups/election2008/
Early Voting 2008: http://flickr.com/groups/earlyvoting08/
BOTH CANDIDATES HAVE STRONG PRESENCE

John McCain 2008: flickr.com/groups/mccain2008/
Barack Obama 2008: flickr.com/groups/barackobama2008/
YAHOO SEEKS ELECTION COVERAGE PHOTOS

Yahoo News – Election: http://flickr.com/groups/ynews_election2008/
BIZARRE BEDFELLOWS
Or perhaps simply bizarre politically-themed pictures.


Anti-Obama League: http://flickr.com/groups/anti-obama_league/
Barack Olantern: http://flickr.com/groups/876267@N24/
Dolls for Obama: http://flickr.com/groups/752938@N20/
John McCain Photoshop CHUDlenge: http://flickr.com/groups/mccain_chudlenge/
FRIENDFEED
It becomes especially obvious how embedded the candidates are in social media when you check out their FriendFeed streams.

FriendFeed: Barack Obama: http://friendfeed.com/barackobama
FriendFeed: John McCain: http://friendfeed.com/johnmccain
BLOGS (TRACKING THE RETURNS)
I’m not really going to touch on the blogosphere and the current election, except to highlight just a couple excellent posts on how to use online resources to follow the election today.

The Next Right: Where to Get Official Election Returns: http://www.thenextright.com/patrick-ruffini/where-to-get-official-election-returns
Silicon Alley Insider: How to Watch Election Day Live Online: www.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/how-to-watch-election-day-live-online
THE FINALE?
And yes, I did eventually succeed in voting. 🙂