Votizen, a startup that seeks to connect registered voters to one another and political campaigns through existing social network accounts, has launched a free new voter ID card and election information micro app for the iPhone.
The app, which can users can download from the Web here and appears in the new Passbook section of iOS6, shows a user’s party affiliation, voting history from their current address, polling location and even reminds users to vote on election day on November 6th and, if a user has entered their voting preferences in this election, the app will remind them of those as well.
Votizen co-founder Jason Putorti explained to TPM his organization’s thinking behind launching the app:
“There’s an old expression about being a card-carrying Democrat, Republican, etc. and with the launch of Apple Passbook, we saw a perfect opportunity to allow people to claim their voting record and do exactly that,” Putorti wrote to TPM via email. “It’s a fun conversation piece for people to show off, and in that way we hope it will encourage more voter registration and civic participation. We have designs this year for Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, Independents, Greens, and Constitution party members.”
Here are screenshots of the sign-up page and the Votizen mobile voter ID card micro app itself:
But aside from being a conversation topic, Putorti sees real value in being able to give voters such basic but critical election information on the go, through their iPhones.
“Practically speaking, a lot of people complain about not knowing where their polling place is, or when they get to the polling place, a lot of the downticket races are unfamiliar to them,” Putorti explained. “This is a great way to address both of those issues, as our passbook app will tell you where you’re currently registered, and you can take your filled out ballot into the polling place with you— as most people have their phones with them all the time.”
Putorti also revealed to TPM that Votizen would be launching a full mobile app soon, separately from the voter ID card app for Passbook.
“The Passbook app is a great way to get started, and hopefully will make voting and participating in politics a little sexier than it was before today,” Putorti said.
Votizen, which was co-founded in 2009 by former USA.gov creator David Binetti and Putorti, has already digitized the voter registration of all of the nation’s 200 million registered voters and on its website, allows users to see which of their social media contacts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus are registered voters.
The company, which has attracted venture capital funding from celebrity investors including Napster co-founder Sean Parker, is headquartered in Mountain View, California.
Corrections and updates: Updated after publication to correct misspelling of “Putorti” in one instance in the third paragraph and to add new screenshots of the app.
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