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Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    ‘Snapchat’ helps citizens register to vote

    Snapchat helps citizens register to vote

    On September 25th, Snapchat added a feature to its mobile app that allows U.S. citizens to register to vote. The app uses a link that redirects the user to a website known as ‘Turbo Vote’. ‘Turbo Vote’ is a non-profit that helps people register to vote. Snap, Snapchat’s parent company stated that majority ‘Turbo Vote’s’ Snapchat users were between the ages 18 and 24 and resided in Ohio, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Georgia.

    ‘Snap’ also stated that Snapchat’s new component has helped over 400,000 people register to vote for the upcoming midterm elections.”Since society is so centered around social media, it’s a really good way to get young people registered to vote” Sophia Murphy said when asked about Snapchat’s new feature. This may have urged other large tech companies to incorporate similar kinds of programming into their products as well. “Twitter said last month that it would put a registration prompt into users’ Twittertimelines. Google devoted a Google Doodle to registering. Reddit had a pop-up message linking to nationalvoterregistrationday.org.” reported Marriah Zhou.

    The results that Snapchat acquired during the process dwarfed those of the famous singer and celebrity Taylor Swift. Taylor posted a pic through her Instagram profile asking her fans to vote this November in the midterm elections. Over 166,000 claimed that they registered in response to Taylors post. Marriah Zhou also reported “Vote.org said it had seen a surge in voter registrations, with 65,000 new voters in a 24 hour period.”. Although Swift’s impact was large, it was miniature compared to Snapchat’s.

    Snapchat reported that its new addition helped over 400,000 people register to vote.

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