Facebook aims to drive "substantial increase" in voting for US Presidential election
Facebook has driven “substantial increases” in voter registration across the country as it sets out to remind people to vote in the forthcoming US election.
Facebook reminds users to register to vote
The world's largest social media platform placed a 17-word reminder atop News Feeds of users who were 18 years old and over, in 32 states plus Washington D.C., urging them to register to vote. The reminder said, “Are you registered to vote? Register now to make sure you have a voice in the election.”
The message was presented with two links: one which leads to a federal directory of state voter registration websites and the other allowed users to share that they had registered.
Nine secretaries of state have given Facebook credit for boosting sign-ups after posting the reminder for four days during September.
In a study to analyze the effect of Facebook’s posts, five days leading up to the posts, averaged 14,650 sign-ups per day. During the four days that Facebook used the banners, California averaged 67,057 sign-ups.
Minnesota showed a similar trend. On average, for the five days prior, there was 1,446 sign-ups per day. Over the four days, there were 12,693 sign-ups on average.
Overall, all of the 16 states that were tracked, witnessed an increase in total online voter registration activity during the four days, according to the Center for Election Innovation & Research.