Facebook's vote planner wants to help you understand your ballot
Facebook doesn't just want to fill your feed with political articles and political rants. On Friday, the social network added a feature that explains what's on your ballot and where the candidates stand.
The feature, available on desktop and mobile here, shows the candidates for the national and state elections. Users can opt to see their local candidates if they enter into their address into the app.
Each candidate has a summary page on where they stand on the issues — provided by the campaigns themselves.
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For example, Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's Facebook page has a card on the economy that reads, "I'll provide tax relief to working families, raise the minimum wage and ensure the wealthiest pay their fair share."
Facebook users can also choose to endorse a candidate, which can be shared to friends or set privately. Candidates can choose to publicly display those names on their Facebook pages.
Additionally, the new feature shows state propositions, which users can swipe through to see a summary and other information provided by the nonpartisan Center for Technology and Civic Life.
Facebook isn't the only one with this type of feature. By typing "ballot" or "what's on my ballot" into Google, a search bar will pop up. Enter your address, and you will see the list of candidates, as well.
On Facebook, at the end of going through each section, you can choose to save your plan and print your results on paper to bring with you. Each selection can be shared to a friend as a post on your timeline or set to private.
"For example, you may want to be private about your choice for president, but share with friends your pick for a congressional race or a ballot initiative," Facebook's blog post on the update reads.
This is just the latest in a series of steps Facebook has taken to play a role in the 2016 election. Facebook helped more than 2 million people register to vote through a campaign on the app, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg announced this week.
The company also said it will remind people to vote on election day.
Topics Facebook Social Media Elections
Kerry Flynn is a business reporter for Mashable covering the tech industry. She previously reported on social media companies, mobile apps and startups for International Business Times. She has also written for The Huffington Post, Forbes and Money magazine. Kerry studied environmental science and economics at Harvard College, where she led The Harvard Crimson's metro news and design teams and played mellophone in the Band. When not listening to startup pitches, she runs half-marathons, plays with puppies and pretends to like craft beer.
