About 20,000 Mitt Romney campaign volunteers will be monitoring voter turnout on Election Day using a smartphone or tablet app, according to a new report.
The app serves two functions:
Volunteers can first use it to check-in Republican voters as they cast their vote. That data will be sent in real-time to headquarters, which can compare it to voter rolls to see which Republicans in a given area have voted. Those that haven’t voted early in the day will be subject to a barrage of phone calls making sure they cast their vote. This get-out-the-vote practice is decades old but the use of a smartphone to transmit live data is a relatively recent innovation.
The app will also assist Republican volunteers in monitoring polling places for signs of voter fraud, voter intimidation and other potential foul play. Again, that’s not a new function for campaign volunteers, but the rise of camera-equipped smartphones have made it remarkably simple for volunteers to carry out the task.
Of course, smartphone-equipped poll watchers, whether Romney-affiliated or otherwise, have to be mindful of all local law prohibiting election monitors from getting too close to a polling place or otherwise interfering with the process.
The report comes by way of TechPresident, which cited several blogs that cover political campaigns and organizing, but did not receive confirmation from the Romney campaign.
No new apps appear in the App Store or Google Play under the Romney campaign’s standard page. The “Romney-Ryan” app was last updated on Oct. 27, but the update did not add poll-watching capabilities.
However, a page on Romney’s website does ask supporters to “sign up for the Election Day Task Force.” The form on the page asks if the volunteer has a cell phone or tablet, what kind of cell phone he or she has, and if they use text messaging:
Mashable has asked the Romney campaign about the smartphone app, and will update this post with any response. We’ve also asked the Obama campaign if they have a similar app for volunteers.
Mashable explores the trends changing politics in 2012 and beyond in Politics Transformed: The High Tech Battle for Your Vote, an in-depth look at how digital media is reshaping democracy.
Read a few of the top posts from the series:
- Election 2040: The First President for Digital Natives
- Voter Data: What the Candidates Know About You
- How to Market the Next President
- Gaffesplosion: The Unrelenting Hype of Modern Politics
- How Social Media Can Safeguard Your Vote
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