First POST: Taking Stock
BY Miranda Neubauer | Monday, November 5 2012
From techPresident
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TechPresident has created a comprehensive list of the Internet-enabled or mobile-ready tools people have built this year to help you get to the polling place and share how the experience went.
One addition since Friday: Find Your F**** Polling Place.
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Other election-day data news: @JesseCFriedman from Google tweeted that Google has updated its polling place information with post-Sandy reassignments. New Yorkers can also find out about poll site changes by text message.
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A Pew survey found that voters were more likely to see political videos shared by friend or a news video than a video ad.
Around the web
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New Jersey residents displaced by Hurricane Sandy will be able to vote by e-mail, an option already available to overseas and military voters, officials announced over the weekend. @pbump and Turbovote explained the details of the process.
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In an video that grist.org described as "The most brutal ad you’ll see this election," ClimateSilence.org juxtaposes Mitt Romney mocking President Barack Obama's promise to stem the rising of the oceans with Sandy's devastation. Alec Baldwin narrates a similar video being promoted by MoveOn with the message "Alec Baldwin Has A 30 Second Message You Need To Hear By Tuesday." Clinton mentioned Sandy in a robocall for Sean Patrick Maloney's House campaign in New York.
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Popsci reported on how the most prolific maintainer of the Hurricane Sandy Wikipedia page, a climate-change denier, aggressively edited out any attempts to link the storm's devastation with changes in the environment caused by human hands.
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FEMA addressed rumors circulating about its response to the storm on Twitter and on its website, while the Nassau County Executive expressed his anger at the Long Island Power Authority on Facebook. The Huffington Post profiled the person behind @ConEdison. A developer created a website visualizing ConEd's gradual restoration of power to customers in the New York City metropolitan area.
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An American Crossroads anti-Obama ad that has been airing nationally has met with some derision online for the way it shows a woman viewing presidential debate footage of Obama on her iPad. "Love the lady in the American Crossroads commercial criticizing Obama for her family's woes will standing in her nice home with an iPad," @joeymccann5 tweeted.
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The Obama campaign was out with a video titled "Will Ferrell Will Do Anything to Get You to Vote" and another video featuring "West Wing" actor and Wisconsin native Bradley Whitford promoting registration and voting in Wisconsin.
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The Obama campaign is encouraging its supporters to look up how many people with their first names have already voted.
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A Pew study found that the discussion of the presidential candidates on social media was particularly negative compared to mainstream media.
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Conservative websites like Twitchy took aim at governmental responses to Hurricane Sandy, noting that a link tweeted by the New York City Mayor's office to a Sandy relief website didn't work, and that the White House pointed out in a tweet that standard text rates would apply for its service offering shelter information.
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A writer suggests that in the aftermath of Sandy, "New Yorkers proved that only three things are important to them — fully charged cell phones, laptops and Wi-Fi."
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In an interactive, the New York Times outlines the 512 paths to the White House for the presidential candidates.
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The Wall Street Journal reported on how Facebook and Twitter have been reaching out to political campaigns.
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Buzzfeed noted how John Kerry "trolled" Mitt Romney on Twitter.
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The founder and former director of Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota and the author of "Broken Ballots: Will Your Vote Count?" outlined recount scenarios involving paperless voting machines.
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Campaigns and Elections outlined some final online political advertising opportunities. Earlier, Adweek had reported on political advertising on Hulu.
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A fundamentalist Christian group claims that 1,698,069 people have signed up on its website to vote for Jesus rather than Romney or Obama. The website calls into question the Christian nature of Mitt Romney's faith and attacks Obama for his "attacks on Christianity and Christian churches."
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The Sierra Club is advertising an "I'm Voting For" event on Facebook.
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Trevor Timm from the Electronic Frontier Foundation argues that it is time to stop citing the "Fire in a Crowded Theater" argument.
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The New York City MTA plans to make its subway countdown information available on smartphones and computers.
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South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley sought to address concerns over reports of a cyberattack on the state's Department of Revenue that may have compromised personal information.
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A Congressional candidate who won a Republican primary in Hawaii is running his campaign as a "homeless candidate" from a minivan with a laptop.
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The judge in the Trayvon Martin case rejected a gag order in the trial that prosecutors had demanded, noting that suspect George Zimmerman's lawyer had been using a legal blog, Facebook page and Twitter posts alongside outreach to traditional media to spread his opinions, thereby disrupting the trial. But the lawyer said that media outreach was only done to counter the overwhelming negative publicity against Zimmerman, and pointed out that the Martin family were also using social media and traditional media to push their points of view.
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Reuters reported how a former tax official in India has been leading an anti-corruption campaign, with activists recording citizens' complaints on laptops, and showing success in achieving media attention via social media and television.
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Russia's Internet surveillance measure went into effect last week.
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Britain's first 4G service has launched.
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Hungary's Prime Minister has pushed through a law in parliament requiring voters to register before elections via the Internet or through a local authority.
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A top Bank of England official suggested that the Occupy movement played a key role in bringing about financial reform.
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Kickstarter has officially launched in Britain.
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A top British cabinet official recently recommended that Internet users give fake details to websites to protect their security.
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A Vietnamese court sentenced two songwriters to prison for posting songs online that were critical of the government.
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Forbes recently highlighted how Bulgarian banks aim to bring down a successful Wikileaks copycat site.
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The Finnish Supreme Court rejected a case from an Internet service provider fighting a ban on the Pirate Bay.
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The father of a brain-damaged Foxconn worker has taken the company to court in China.
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A suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa is offering a free mobile phone for every resident who can catch 60 rats.