Official Foursquare 'I Voted' Badge Released for Polling Place Check-Ins

Visit elections.foursquare.com for visualization of voting check-ins nationwide

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Oct 27, 2010, 02:32 ET

WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Foursquare has partnered with a team of experienced political strategists, designers and activists to release the official "I Voted" badge in conjunction with launching a real-time visualization of check-ins for Election Day. The joint effort encourages voters to check-in at their polling place and share that they have voted with their friends through social media. Including the text #ivoted in their polling station check-in will unlock the badge.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101027/NY89935 )

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20101027/NY89935 )

The project was designed with three purposes in mind:

Encourage civic participation through the distribution of the "I Voted" foursquare badge;
Increase transparency by visualizing how many voters are checking-in, and at which polling locations; and
Develop a replicable and scalable system to use for the 2012 Presidential Elections and beyond.

The official site, located at elections .foursquare .com, will go live on November 2nd and display "I Voted" check-ins throughout the country as they are happening. The site will allow users to explore check-ins by city and state, while also providing data about the volume, time of day and gender that each polling location is experiencing. The interactive map of check-ins will also be available for embed on any website.

JESS 3 built a custom map visualization around cutting-edge technologies like HTML5, using semantic components and new features like the "canvas" element for interactive graphics. The site is accessing over 108,000 official polling locations provided by the Voting Information Project, which were then geocoded by the foursquare team and made available to JESS3 through the foursquare API.

Words From Our Partners

"Every day we see new examples of foursquare encouraging and reinforcing positive behaviors. We're excited to work with such an amazing group of partners to harness the power of foursquare to drive civic engagement through the 'I Voted' badge," said Eric Friedman, Business Development, foursquare. "With over four million users, foursquare is now at the scale where check-ins communicate a larger trend and we're excited to make this data more accessible to the public."
"For the first time ever, voters are going to show up to their workplaces on Election Day wearing their physical I Voted sticker and their co-workers will have already seen their virtual I Voted badge on foursquare, Facebook and Twitter," says Jordan Raynor, President of Direct Media Strategies and Founder of the popular Twitter petition on Act .ly which fueled the community drive for the I Voted badge.
"With foursquare's new 'I Voted' badge, the age of social voting is here," said Patrick Ruffini, partner at Engage who worked with the Voting Information Project to obtain polling place data for every state. "Asking all your friends to vote is now as easy as tapping 'Check in' while you're standing in line to vote."
"Foursquare has been popularized by users competing for points and badges for checking in at the grocery store or the local watering hole. The right to vote is the bedrock of our democracy, and it's only natural that we should be recognized for checking in at our polling place too," says Mindy Finn, partner at Engage.
JESS 3 co-founder and President Leslie Bradshaw added: "The age of social media truly impacting the political process is here; as an information design firm with roots in DC, helping bring this moment to life with a real-time visualization along side so many incredible partners is a dream come true for the entire JESS3 team."

About Us

The following team of passionate and experienced political digital strategists, campaign managers and activists came together to make this idea a reality:

Eric Friedman - Director of Client Services at foursquare; Patrick Ruffini - Partner, Engage & former eCampaign Director, Republican National Committee; Mindy Finn - Partner, Engage & former eStrategy Director for Romney for President 2008; Jordan Raynor - "I Voted " Act .ly Petitioner and President, Direct Media Strategies; Patrick Ottenhoff - Founder of The Electoral Map and Correspondent at The Atlantic; Tracy Viselli - Team Member of the Twitter Voter Report and Community Manager at ACTion Alexandria; David Almacy - Former Internet & E-Communications for the White House (oversaw http ://whitehouse .gov) and current SVP at Edelman Digital; Jesse Thomas - Founder and Chief Executive Officer of JESS 3 and Leslie Bradshaw - 2008 Election C -SPAN Hub Community Manager and current President and Chief Operating Officer of JESS 3.