"I appreciate the efforts of Google, Yahoo! and MySpace to encourage eligible Californians to register and vote. California's high-tech sector has always led the world and I'm proud that these companies are using their influence to promote the importance of voting." McPherson said. "Too many young people choose not to participate in the democratic process and these companies are uniquely poised to reach this underrepresented group. I hope many Californians, especially young people, take advantage of these convenient and free resources."
Google has launched a new layer in Google Earth with aggregated elections information that points California users to the Secretary of State's Web site. Conceived by Google Earth engineers who found it difficult to find aggregated election information online about races country-wide, the 2006 Google Earth Election Guide serves as an easily accessible resource for users to find information about candidates, voter registration, and campaign financing for the November 7th elections.
The 2006 Google Earth Election Guide includes clickable place marks for all 435 Congressional districts. Each place mark includes:
- The slate of candidates running for office in that district, with live feeds from Google Web, Image and News Search for each candidate
- Campaign finance information from the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and Center for Responsive Politics for the district's candidates
- A link to voter registration and voter information sites, localized to each state.
In the days leading up to the election, Yahoo! will host and feature a polling-place locator tool, developed jointly by Yahoo! and the League of Women Voters. The tool integrates Yahoo! Maps to help California voters easily find their polling place. Yahoo! is also providing a host of election season coverage, ranging from breaking news to an original news initiative, "Talk to Power," that has enabled Yahoo! users to ask political leaders the questions most important to them. Yahoo! will also once again feature its popular "VOTE" t-shirts on Election Day, allowing Yahoo! Messenger users to remind their friends to vote using their Messenger Avatar. Yahoo!'s 2006 election hub coverage can be found online.
MySpace launched a partnership with Declare Yourself, a non-partisan voter education project, to create a MySpace page encouraging MySpace's 114 million users to register and vote. Visitors to can register to vote, watch PSAs by famed director David LaChapelle encouraging civic responsibility and can provide a link on their personal MySpace site to encourage friends to register via MySpace.
Declare Yourself registered over 1 million voters nationwide in 2004 and expects to register even more with the MySpace partnership.
