‘Vote With Friends’ Aims To Make Election More Social

Will people “like” the latest Internet get-out-the-vote scheme?

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Roughly 6 million people play “Words with Friends” every day; now, one developer is betting Americans will vote with friends Nov. 6, too.

The Facebook application “Vote with Friends” will track friends who pledge to vote and then show up to the polls — ideally, the developer hopes, creating peer pressure for others to join in.

In a social-media driven election, the rationale is obvious.

A Pew Internet study released this month found that 39 percent of American adults use social media to share or engage with political news or opinions. According to the same study, Democrats most often use social media to urge others to vote, followed by Republicans and Independents, respectively.

So far, although relatively few people had signed up as of Wednesday, that dynamic appears to be playing out within the “Vote with Friends” app’s “voting blocks” — self-selected groups that include, “Prevent a return to the 1950s for women” and a MoveOn group.

There are a few quirkier, if sparsely populated, “blocks,” too: