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TVR 101 -- Guide to EDay Tweeting

Page history last edited by Julie Roth 15 years, 5 months ago

Idea:

 

Once the hashtags and grammars and such are nailed down, we come up with a dead simple guide to how some actually goes about tweeting their vote report.  As far as the contents of it go, it would include streamlined list of the basic tags/grammar and then an "advanced" section for people who want to get more crafty and detailed with their tweets (or act as "supertweeters" and help other people figure out how to report).

As for distributing it, some ideas -- with the thinking that some combination of them will help get the information distributed far and wide:

 

  • Of course, a page up on whatever the main domain for the project is
  • Code for partner groups and the like to create their own page
  • A pdf one-page guide -- as much as pdf can be a pain, it's a good way to ensure consistency, and it's easy for people to mail around and post super quickly
  • A "pocket guide," that is, a small wallet card (gif or whatever) that people can print and take with them (maybe using PocketMod)
  • A widget of some sort that people can embed on their sites (maybe using http://www.clearspring.com?)
  • A blog ad (though on a lot of sites those spots will likely be filled on election day)
  • And then two crazy ideas. Just throwing them out there:
    • A t-shirt for sale on some online shop, perhaps like those golf shirts that have instructions upside down so that you can read them yourself -- not that anyone who actually buy, but it's kinda a fun hook.
    • During the RNC protests, when this idea of using Twitter for election protection first bubbled up, one of the folks organizing the protests (from Arizona, as it turned out) was encouraging protesters to write the legal aid phone number on their arms in marker. Is there is a corollary for our efforts -- some way to get the hashtag out into the world.

 

 

How to Monitor Polls

 

1. Sign up to volunteer for (x length of time) at your local polling location.

[Do we have a process for allocating hours?  Or do we direct them to a partner site for them to sign up to monitor their polling place?]

 

2. Take your cell phone, _________, and _____ with you to the polling place for your allotted time.  Download the volunteer kit here.

 

3. While on duty, use Twitter to report the following if you see them:

  • people waiting 30 minutes or more to vote
  • voting machine problems
  • voter registration problem
  • problem serious enough to require legal intervention
  • everything going well

 

 

How to Use Twitter to Report Election Issues

 

(Existing Twitterers, cut to the chase by clicking here.)

 

Introduction to Twitter

 

Twitter is being used for voter reporting precisely because it's so easy. You can watch this video to learn about what Twitter is and how it works, or you can follow these steps:

  1. Sign up for a free Twitter account here: https://twitter.com/signup
  2. Fill in the form with your e-mail address, etc., and you're ready to tweet.
  3. To "tweet," simply type 140 characters or less in answer to the question, "What are you doing?" into the box on your Twitter home page (http://twitter.com/home).
  4. Before Election Day, be sure to set up your Twitter account to accept updates from your cell phone (http://twitter.com/devices), so you can report from the field.
  5. On Election Day, text your reports to #votereport using the following codes:

 

Issue Code Example
Time of day #[time of day] #9:30am, #2:15pm
Polling location L:[location] L:1375 Third Ave Bethlehem, PA
OR Zip code #zipcode #19008
Long wait times #wait:[minutes] #wait:60
Voting machine problem #machine #machine
Voter registration problem #reg #reg
Lawyer needed immediately #EP[your state initials] #EPVA  (for Virginia)
No problems #good #good

 

Then, if you like, go to www.twittervotereport.com and see what happened to your message.

 

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