Google Unveils Helpful Voting Tools
If you live in the U.S. you’re undoubtedly aware that tomorrow, November 2nd is midterm elections day. In order to help you get out and vote, Google is providing an array of tools and services in hopes to make finding what you need easier.
Not sure where you’re supposed to vote or need some last minute informations? Google can help! Find your voting location by visiting http://maps.google.com/vote. Simply type in your home address in the search box on the left hand side and if Google knows of your voting location it will show you where it is and give you directions on how to get there along with a host of other information such as your states election website, voter registration and absentee ballot information, voter hotline numbers and more.
All of this is brought to you by Google Election Center which allows election officials to submit
- Polling place locations
- Registration instructions
- Ballot information
- State and local election office contact information
Through this, Google will also allow anyone with their own website to embed an Election Center gadget. You can customize your own gadget and get the embed code or just try out ours:
Aren’t going to be around a computer but still need this information? Google has you covered there as well. According to the Google Mobile Blog they have set up an Election Center mobile site at m.google.com/elections which you can view on your iPhone or Android device. As of this writing we were unable to get this to function properly on unsupported phones such as Blackberry or the PalmPre so YMMV.
Finally, as the day progresses, if you’d like to follow the elections and see how your candidate is faring or how close a race is on a particular issue, there is a special Google News section setup just for the elections.
Hopefully you will find these tools helpful. Don’t forget to get out and vote!