2018 Facebook Vote Products

Reminding and helping people overcome barriers to voting is one of the ways we can help people have a voice in the political process in 2020. As states from Wisconsin to Tennessee change vote-by-mail requirements, it’ll be important to disseminate accurate voting info. This note is an overview of the products Facebook launched during the U.S. 2018 midterms to increase voter turnout and voter knowledge. 

Barriers to Voting & Opportunities

2018 Learnings

• State-level targeting and election dates: Launching election reminders with specific dates can get tricky when state-by-state targeting is not 100% accurate. Someone who in lives in Virginia but gets served a DC election reminder may think it is voter suppression. Be thoughtful about tri-state areas.

• Contextual entrypoints: When do people need to update their voter registration? We need to identify these life events (just turned 18, just moved, etc.) and serve contextual reminders in a way that also respects data privacy. 
• Messenger & IG DM: Campaigns cite peer-to-peer SMS as one of the most effective ways to “get out the vote.” We should leverage private messaging to help trusted peers spread accurate voter info to their friends.
• Search: On election day 2018, the top typed queries in the US were all elections related. News Feed and other surfaces are more popular than search, but let’s not forget search as an entry point. 
• “I Voted” Stickers -> more info: If we are launching “I’m Registered” or “I Voted” Stickers for Facebook Stories, they need to “tap” to voter reg or polling info to match the success of Instagram Register & Voted Stickers (which did this in 2018).
• Spanish and other languages: Ballots often are required by law to be made available in languages spoken by the precinct. Let’s ensure our products are in different languages to promote greater accessibility to voting info.
• Public figures: We need to prioritize partnerships and building products for public figures, many of whom (e.g. Taylor Swift effect) are effective spokespeople for civic engagement. They are already working with Headcount & Rock The Vote, orgs who have spent years investing in celebrity outreach. However, these are not the most frictionless and effective voter reg platforms.
• Rely on third-party elections data: Facebook should not be the arbiter of elections data such as dates, district geographies, and candidate lists. We should work with third parties (we worked with DemocracyWorks, Ballotpedia, CTCL in the past) to provide this data (and promote civic partnerships). We also need to QA data in real time as large amounts of elections data and candidate lists change rapidly.
• Don’t forget local elections: We are already expanding to local election reminders. Since voter knowledge decrease down-ballot, let’s ensure we’re providing info about local candidates and races as we did in 2018.
• Candidates as creators: There was a 73% drop-off between candidates who visited the ballot video upload page and those who uploaded videos. Launch candidate creator products early, and work closely with out gov’t outreach team to build the best product to drive up-funnel creation.
• There will be special and runoff elections: Keep these in mind and stay updated through local news and Secs of State.
• Partnerships: We need to prioritize co-designing and partnering with the many organizations in the civic space.
• Non-eligible to vote: We need to thoughtfully consider how we build for people who are not eligible to vote. We can’t target based on eligibility, but we can consider opt-out flows for people who may not want to see an election reminder again.

2018 Election Products  

Facebook Voter Registration Drives: Reminders people to register to vote via Turbovote and create a voter registration drive from their profile or page. Facebook and Instagram helped register an estimated 2 million people during the 2018 US midterm elections.

Ballot & Candidate Videos: People can see a sample ballot for every level of office based on address. Candidates had the option of uploading videos responding to standardized questions.

Election Reminders: Before Election Day, we turned on the vote planning tool to help people look up their polling information. We also turned on search shortcuts to this product, and sent News Feed messages to people to remind them to vote early and before election day.

Search Shortcuts: When people search for any candidate’s name, we’ll show them a search shortcut to ballot. We also triggered a shortcut to gettothepolls.com to help people find where and when to vote based on 100+ voting-related terms. 

Facebook & Messenger Camera Sticker: Stickers in the Facebook camera 👇🏽

Artwork was created by Closer&Closer Artists

Elections Coverage in Watch: Featured broadcast pinned at top of Watch with content by our partner, ABC, starting in the evening. A “See More” CTA on the unit would deep link people into stream. 

Town Hall Notification: A notifications users receive the day after elections letting them know they have new representatives. The notif leads into Town Hall.

Special & Runoff Elections: After the general election date, we ran News Feed reminders to people in states with known state-wide runoff, special, or remaining elections.