Facebook Tool Lets Friends Urge Friends to Vote Approve R74

In what is believed to be the first application of its kind employed in the state, and one of the first nationwide, Washington United for Marriage (WUM) today launched a unique and powerful GOTV tool designed to engage family and friends to make sure all supporters of Referendum 74 cast their ballot by Nov. 6. The tool’s potential power is significant because when you include the friends of WUM’s Facebook fans, the campaign now has a reach that extends to every Facebook user eligible to vote in Washington.

Leveraging their Facebook network, R74 supporters can now see who among their family and friends has voted and who has not. By using the “Get Out Your Friends” connection tool, linked here approve74.org/friendvote, supporters can cross-reference their Facebook networks with the state’s publicly available voter database. That’s Step One.

The second tool, allows R74 supporters to then send a message to their friends expressing their approval of the freedom to marry and activate their network to vote. WUM has provided a sample message which supporters can simply copy and paste or modify.

“This is a 21st century voter tool that we believe our supporters will love and implement,” said WUM campaign manager Zach Silk.  “We now have more than 53,000 fans on Facebook.  By empowering them to reach out to their family, friends and colleagues to vote by Nov. 6th, we’ve turned each of them into the modern-day equivalent of a door-knocker.  The only difference is they can now reach hundreds of supporters and never leave the comfort of their living room or kitchen table.”

The two powerful tools are now part of the arsenal WUM has been utilizing called “Marriage Heros”.  Once supporters vote, and energize their network to do the same, WUM has created model templates to allow supporters to showcase their vote to Approve R74.  Supporters can import their own picture and customize it with a choice of of Approve R74 graphics. They can then upload them for use as their Facebook profile picture or on other online services like Twitter, GitHub, Gravatar, Instagram and others.  They can also create their own customized profile photo by going to approve74.org/ivoted.

A full array of user tools can be accessed at hero74.org.

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