State Releases Voter-Friendly App
According to Professor Walter Wilson, people with smartphones are already more likely to turn up at the polls. Photo courtesy flickr.com/matt_gibsonAudio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
By David Martin Davis, Texas Public Radio
Early voting in Texas begins on Oct. 22. If you need a friendly reminder about that and other election information, there’s an app for that.
The Texas Secretary of State’s office has produced a smartphone app that gives the user the 411 about election dates, has the statewide sample ballot and shows where to vote. You can even double check if you are registered to vote.
However, not everyone is a fan of the SmartTXVoter app. Walter Wilson is a political science professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
“It’s a joke,” he says. “Fact is – that app is going to help people who were already going to vote.”
He says the 47 percent of Texans on the wrong side of the digital divide who don’t have smartphones are the ones that need this handy-dandy election information the most.
“People with smartphones are already more likely to have the resources – in terms of wealth, education and so on – that make them turn up at the polls,” Wilson says.
To download the free app, search the iTunes or Google Play app store for SmartTXVoter.
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