New App Makes Voter Registration Easier

A partnership between Facebook and Microsoft Corp. has produced a new application with which Washington state residents can register to vote. Twelve other states make voter registration available online, but Washington is the first to allow voters to sign up for the election via social media. The idea for the app came from Rock the Vote, which wanted to attract young voters through social-media tools. "We had online registration in Washington for four years, we were the second state to start offering it starting in 2008, and we definitely want to grow and expand the use of online registrations because online registrations are more efficient to process," Washington's codirector of elections said. "And frankly, people expect to be able to do things online."