Be there, Be Counted!,"" a voter registration group created and run by Stanford undergraduates, recently began streaming its own Facebook application.
The group's media director, Stanford sophomore Ellen Cerf, described the application as ""an experiment to see if social networking works to make people vote.""
Cerf said Stanford senior John Nantz created ""Be there, Be Counted!"" to provide clarifying information on voting and absentee ballots in particular after he failed to fulfill a ballot requirement and was unable to vote in the 2006 election.
According to Cerf, the efforts of ""Be there, Be Counted!,"" including the Facebook application, are designed to make the process of voting easier, especially for college students.
Cerf said red tape associated with the voting process is extremely different from state to state, and while other voting groups provide information, ""Be there, Be Counted's"" Facebook application is unique in its use of social networking.
""I can see if a friend from home has requested her absentee ballot, and if she's going to miss a deadline I can send her a message to tell her,"" Cerf said about one of the application's features.
UW-Madison journalism professor Dhavan Shah, an expert on media influence on civic participation, said information and messaging on the Internet for political ends lead users to become more active.
""The use of the Internet and social media such as Facebook, that inform and connect people simultaneously, when used for political ends, they do have sizable consequences,"" Shah said.
He said people become more civically and politically active as information online increases.
According to Cerf, the staff of ""Be there, Be Counted"" is pleased with the progress of its online efforts thus far.
""We've reached 8,000 people already,"" Cerf said.
Wisconsin Student Public Interest Research Group Chair Tony Uhl said while actually registering voters is the best approach to assure participation, online resources can be a big help to someone who has no idea how to vote.
""Someone can Google search 'voting districts,' and boom, it tells you where to go vote,"" Uhl said.
