Tag Archives: Elections

Keeping one billion voters informed in India and Indonesia

Cross-posted from the Google Asia Pacific Blog

Election season is in full swing for two of the world’s largest democracies as a staggering one billion people make their way to the polls in April. To help keep Indian and Indonesian voters informed, we’ve launched tools that provide easier access to the latest news, videos, and practical details about the coming elections.

India
We’re enabling interaction between candidates and their electorates through a series of Hangouts on Air with India’s political leaders. You can view the conversation with BJP leader Arun Jaitley and stay informed about upcoming guests through our Elections Hub.

Indians can also submit an interactive Pledge to Vote on the map to share messages with fellow citizens on why voting is important. If you need any inspiration, watch this moving story of Mr. Shyam Negi, independent India’s first voter, who is 97 years old and has never missed the opportunity to cast his vote.





Indonesia 

In Indonesia, voting-rights NGO Perludem and The Asia Foundation are using our Google Maps tools to create a candidate information map that will be updated as votes come in on election day. Together with Perludem, we’ve also held workshops to enable Indonesian candidates to reach and communicate with voters across the country on platforms such as YouTube and Google+. In this year’s election, 44% of voters are between 18 and 22 years old, and are casting their ballots for the first time. We hope that through better engagement with the candidates, more young voters will be encouraged to go to the polls.

Indonesia’s Elections Hub also keeps citizens informed about how the different political parties are trending in Google Search. 



As election fever sets in, we hope the Elections Hubs at Google.co.in/elections for India and Google.co.id/elections for Indonesia provide you with all the information that you need to stay on top of these significant events.


Posted by Chetan Krishnaswamy, Head of Government Relations at Google India, and Shinto Nugruho, Head of Government Relations, Google Indonesia

Involving French citizens in the 2014 municipal elections

In March, French citizens will head to the polls to decide who is best fit to manage their cities. Before they vote, they will engage in a heated debate on issues ranging from housing, to urban planning and local taxes. We believe the Internet can play a central role in facilitating this debate and access to information. This is why we have partnered with France’s public TV network France Televisions - its information website France TV info and its regional TV channel France 3 - to allow French internet users to question candidates via Hangout on Air.

Visit “Mon Débat 2014” (My debate 2014) and register for these live debates or organise your own. More than 50 Hangouts are set to take place across the country in the weeks to come. Once they have taken place, the playbacks of the debates will be available to watch.


This week, the two main candidates in the race to become the next mayor of Paris, +Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet and +Anne Hidalgo, will both answer questions from citizens via Hangout on Air. Sign up now to participate. Below, see an example of an already conducted hangout.



The platform also will serve as a news hub. Users will be able to browse electoral news curated just as the rest of the platform by our partner, France TV info, and discover election search trends to get a sense of what fellow French citizens have on their mind.

Posted by the Election Team, Google France

Voting in the Big Apple

Posted by Kate Sokolov,  Google Politics and Elections Team 

More than 8 million people live in New York City. Tomorrow, they head to the polls to cast votes in the citywide party primaries.

To help New York City voters find where to vote in the primary elections, how to get there, and who is on the ballot, we’ve launched the latest edition of our Voter Information Tool. Voters can enter their address to find their polling place and locate it on a Google Map. They can also find ballot information and candidate details for races all the way from Mayor and Borough President to Public Advocate, as well as easily check voting rules and requirements.

We hope this tool will help New Yorkers from Staten Island to the Bronx find all the information they need as simply as possible.


https://voter-info-tool.appspot.com/?election_id=4010