Today is election day, and Google has all the voting bases covered. The Official Google Blog lists not only several Google sites and tools aimed at helping voters become better informed about the candidates, but it also provides links to help voters find their polling places and track election night results. This is not your grandfather’s election day.
Google offers several ways voters can become better informed about today’s presidential election. The first, the 2008 U.S. Election site, provides a quick run-down of all the major candidates–not just Barack Obama and John McCain, but also Libertarian Bob Barr, Constitutional Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, and Green Party duo Ralph Nader and Cynthia McKinney. It also provides links to campaign videos, historical voting maps, and even a Presidential Candidates gadget that lets you track blogs, news and videos of Obama and McCain throughout the day via your iGoogle page.
But Google doesn’t stop there. Once you know who you want to vote for, it wants to make sure you actually get out there and vote. It’s providing a U.S. Voter info site, which lets voters input their address and find their polling location. It’s also pushing voters to record videos of their voting experiences and upload them to a special YouTube site that aims to publicize any polling problems throughout the day.
And once everyone’s voted, Google wants to help you track the results. It’s providing a Google Maps Elections Gallery, which presents real-time election results on a state-by-state basis. So now you can get your own on-the-spot results via your PC, without having to spend the night watching the traditional TV outlets. Pretty 21st century.
So Google’s made it really easy. Get out and vote.
