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Would You Register to Vote on Facebook? Some Worried About Privacy

Jul. 20, 2012 5:38pm Liz Klimas

Washington State Becomes the First State to Allow Voter Registration on Facebook

Nine states allow online voter registration. Now, Washington state has included registration via Facebook. (Photo: AP)

Washington has become the first state ever to allow citizens to register to vote via Facebook, but some wonder whether this is the best idea given privacy issues the social media site has had in the past.

Policymic, for example, writes that a recent distrust by the government of Facebook’s facial recognition technology and this new method of getting voters signed up to head to the polls is a “contradiction [that] highlights the incredible growth experienced by the social network, as well as its pervasiveness in our every day activities…” Policymic points out that Facebook was recently called into question by the Senate:

In a hearing on Wednesday, members of a Senate subcommittee led by Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) sought answers from a senior Facebook official about the social network’s use of facial-recognition technology, challenging Facebook’s policy of setting the tag suggestions facial-recognition feature as a default, and then allowing users to opt out.

Senator Franken also suggested that the company has not been as forthcoming as it could be about how much data it collects and how that information is used. “I think Facebook could still do more to explain to its users how it uses facial recognition,” Franken said.

It has also recently agreed to submit to 20 years of government audits as a result of what some considered shady actions regarding its changes of privacy policies on users.

Still, Shane Hamlin, Washington’s co-director of elections, tries to dispel some of the privacy concerns. According to Reuters (via the Chicago Tribune), Hamlin said once you begin inputing your information into the app — MyVote — “you’re no longer entering data on Facebook.” He reiterated that “Facebook is not collecting any of the data.”

According to Reuters, name, birth date and a state identification number or driver’s license number is all that’s required.

Washington’s deputy director of communications for the Secretary of State, Brian Zylstra, said Facebook and Microsoft, which co-developed the app, approached them about introducing the app to the state’s constituents — at no charge to the state.

“With online voter registration it helps reduce costs because there’s no paperwork involved,” Zylstra said according to WNYC. “We still have paper voting registration, which costs some money there, but it will help save our state and counties time and money by doing it online because it’s paperless.”

Zylstra also confirmed Facebook would not be collecting any of the data provided by users.

Washington is one of nine states that have some form of online voter registration. WNYC reports other states also have some legislation pending that could someday allow for online registration.

(H/T: SlashGear)

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Comments (69)

Aerocog
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 9:14pm
I barely support voting by mail, the internet is too risky to have people that type of decision over it. Voting must be physically and I think it speaks more levels when you actually have leave your house. Besides we’re already had too many issues just switching votes over from paper to digital.

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- yougottabekidding
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 10:22pm
  One way, get off your lazy ass go to the voting place from 8am to 8pm on a designated date with your photo id! No early voting , no kiss my butt voting , no I’m special voting, no I use paper that I put in my trunk and find it later, no more we have more votes then voters and the military that are citizens vote no matter what and if it takes three weeks for their ballets to get there then so be it their vote counts. Federal elections everyone does it one way only! Face book my butt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
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- SCREW-WINDOWS
  Posted on July 21, 2012 at 12:34am
  Just because someone has millions of like button hits doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.
  
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South Philly Boy
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 8:43pm
No WAY

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- Bill Rowland
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 9:09pm
  Not just no but HELL NO!!!!!
  
  OMG Nov 6, 2012
  
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- Stiggs
  Posted on July 22, 2012 at 8:45am
  Hell, NO…leave FB out of voting process. IMO, this is like sticking your finger in a beehive to see if you get stung.
  
  If the gov’t wants to save money, I’ve got a long list of suggestions for them.
  
  Report this comment
The0bserver
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 8:33pm
This is the wrong question. Would I trust any vote coming from FB? That’s the question. The answer is no. Computers are too easy to hack. The internet was not designed for security. Unless you have read every line of programming code, you have no idea what the program does. Too easy for scammers to scam.

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- The0bserver
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 8:38pm
  Then there’s: “According to Reuters, name, birth date and a state identification number or driver‘s license number is all that’s required.” Great, comes complete with the risk of ID fraud.
  
  And of course, your ballot, your vote will be a secret, which you are entitled to under the Constitution. (wink, wink, nudge, nudge.)
  
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Git-R-Done
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:36pm
Another opportunity for voter fraud.

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DRAGONSEED
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:27pm
ARE YOU KIDDING?? Why is this even legal?

Why don’t they just let people vote on AOL bulletin boards, while they’re at it?

WHO IN HELL is RUNNING this country? We need a REAL PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS, not these “virtual” nutcases, pandering for “virtual” votes from “virtual” people.

This is NOT a VIRTUAL WORLD! WAKE UP, America! TIME IS RUNNING OUT.

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- Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 8:00pm
  Here is some questions that should have been answered in this article:
  
  Is there state specific (Washington in this case) legislation covering online registration on the books as of this time, or is it still in a void?
  Why not have an secured, state government website that residents of Washington state could go to and use to register instead of via facebook?
  What is to guarantee that some hacker(s) have not already, or will not, infiltrate the system to use the information for voter fraud, ID theft, consumer fraud and so much more?
  I see this system as too easily manipulated; unaccountabie and corruptable and not worth being done this way.
  
  Report this comment
- blackyb
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 10:34pm
  There is no way this election will be without cheating. This man in our White House knows what he is doing and it is not for the good of the American people. So far I have seen nothing good about his even being where he is or anything he is promoting. How did this happen. There was some major covering up done already. He is most likely ineligible. What is congress doing about this bunch of frauds in our White House?
  
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just my opinion maybe not yours
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:23pm
I am from Washington State, if your too lazy to go to the Washington State Voters Registration Website to register then you should not be voting!! I would prefer it if they even stopped that and made you go to the Courthouse or the DMV/DOL to register! I would really like it if it was illegal for King County residents to vote for anything except King county and city elections, bunch of liberal Californians live in that County and make the rest of Washington looke liek we are all liberals! If I didn’t love my native state so much I would move to a more conservative state like Northern ID!

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- Winedude
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 11:39pm
  So what you’re saying is that you don’t want anyone voting that is different than you. You may be a Washington State native but I assure you that somewhere in your background, a family member moved there from elsewhere. Perhaps they never should have been allowed (by YOUR ill-conceived logic) to vote in Washington State.
  
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- 4xeverything
  Posted on July 21, 2012 at 7:00am
  No WhINE, she’s saying she doesn’t want Californians voting in her elections. You’re sure living up to your name, DUDE.
  
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Meyvn
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:21pm
Hell no.

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Wolf
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:18pm
Of course there are going to be a few bazillion idiots who’d vote on FB. But if someone was to ask them, “What is voting?” they’d more than likely be unable to answer without prompting or a series of multiple guess answers… all correct.
Besides, one needs to be on FB to vote there… and FB is for fools and idiots.

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Micah.Stone
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:00pm
A better question: How many of these self-serving bureauweenies and politicians that want to use farcebook for voting registration OWN STOCK IN FARCEBOOK ?

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JD_Republic
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:57pm
Someone would have to be an idiot to vote through facebook.

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WiredRight
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:43pm
Not a chance…

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heavyduty
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:42pm
Let’s see, hmmmm!!!! The owner of Facebook and Obama are bosom buddies. I won’t be one of them voting there.

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- IMCHRISTIAN
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:07pm
  But there may be a few deceased that do
  
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- IMCHRISTIAN
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:11pm
  Or maybe all those that are collecting food stamps from Mexico can vote there too
  
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- just my opinion maybe not yours
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 7:17pm
  UMMMM you cant vote on there just register to vote on it! Either way I dont’ like it! If your too lazy to go to the Washingtone state website and sign up there then you should not be eligible to vote!! Everyone wants quick and easy these days, we have to have some kind of check and balances with voting so I say NO!
  
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- IMCHRISTIAN
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 8:36pm
  JUST you are right but I would even be very uncomfortable having even the registering on Facebook. We have seen to much fraud.
  
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Daveed
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:41pm
Hmmm, if I remember the news reports Wa. State has had it’s shares of voter fraud and election fraud. Twice now involving Gregoire.
NO to facebook for anything. It reminds me of Soviet Russia and all their paper files on suspected civilians unfriendly to their Administration. Now, who needs paper or road investigators when the civilians hand over all their personal information so their lives can be manipulated. Where the winners and the losers are predetermined by the casting of lots. You need a lot of gov’t keyboard pushers making great pay to override their conscience. There ya got it.

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blackfeather
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:30pm
…no way. many of the uninformed young crowd will though.

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MAMMY_NUNN
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:29pm
Only the uninformed sheeple would ever even think of such a thing.

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wordweaver
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:27pm
I would do nothing on Facebook that I might want to keep private. Period.

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TheEDGE
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:14pm
Wouldn’t be on Facebook.

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republitarian
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:13pm
I’ve found Facebook to be creepy since its inception. But at least it gave me a heads up to what Goggle had planned for us all. Jump out of the pot before the water gets too warm.

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RightUnite
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:09pm
Oh hell to the NO!!!

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- 4xeverything
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:14pm
  MMMMMM, Snap!
  
  Hahahaha! :0)
  
  Me either, by the way.
  
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another pucker
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:07pm
No!

XOXOXO

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Too_Far_Gone
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:05pm
No way in HeII ..

This is not good, what the HeII is wrong with people. think, geez ..

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JEANNIEMAC
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 5:56pm
Facebook was founded in 2004, a few months before the Democratic National Convention which placed Obama on the national scene. It was heavily involved in getting Obama donations and in pushing sjpport for Obama. I would not trust this site with any personal information, let alone giving them access to registration info. Who knows how they would use it to further Obama?

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Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 5:55pm
People should also worry about the chances of massive fraud being carried out as well.

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barber2
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 5:55pm
Privacy ? What’s that ? I thought everyone wanted to be ” connected”…. to be part of the great collective . One of Van Jones’ busy bees..just working for the Big Hive. Do young people even know what privacy…what silence,,,what being alone ..actually means any more ?

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- 4xeverything
  Posted on July 20, 2012 at 6:13pm
  Did you read my diary, BARBER2? I swear I was just complaining to the old book about that same exact thing the other day.
  
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Maxim Crux
Posted on July 20, 2012 at 5:48pm
Everything is corrupt all the way to the Supreme Court. Making it so a person or institution such as Acorn to use facebook is only asking for a fraudulent election and a leader that does not have the honor of the people.

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