Vote early and vote often to help your party take the lead on Geopollster
Political polls typically only represent “people who own landlines and are too polite to hang up on cold callers.” Geopollster aims to change that by counting each of your foursquare checkins as a vote for your political party. The results are anonymized and tracked by city and state to provide a real-time picture of how foursquare-using Americans will vote in November.
When you register with Geopollster, you’re asked which political party should get your vote (don’t worry, they include more than just Democrats and Republicans). Each time you check in, a “vote” is counted for your party. Like Joe Lieberman, you can change your party affiliation at any time.
The results are tracked nationwide and by city and state, of course. A real-time map on their homepage shows the current leader in each state, with a more detailed breakdown available when you roll over them on the map. Democrats currently have a slight edge nationwide, with 44% of the vote compared to Republicans at 40%. Libertarians and the Green Party are showing particularly strong at this early point in the race, with 9% and 6% respectively.
Perhaps more interesting is the detailed tracking of checkins by category and venue. Democrats, for instance, currently control the strip club, record shop and winery categories, while the Republicans control churches, college libraries and government buildings. A feed on the homepage shows the venues and categories where a party has recently taken control.
More active foursquare users have more of a say in the final outcome. If you’re the mayor of a venue, your vote is worth 50% more than a regular user. Your vote is also weighted more heavily by the number of foursquare badges you have (up to a maximum of 10). Votes at some venues aren’t tallied at all.
The odds that Geopollster’s results will mean much come November are pretty slim, but it’s a fun way to track the political leanings of the foursquare crowd. What do you think of Geopollster?
