The AEC Turned To Snapchat to Convince the Kids to Register to Vote

The AEC Turned To Snapchat to Convince the Kids to Register to Vote

Unsolicited Snapchat DM-sliding isn’t something anyone wants, unless it’s the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) and they’re nudging you to enrol to vote and make your vote count.

Well, that was the case last week, and this is part of the combination of things that saw a staggering 214,000 people enrol to vote on April 18.

 

In a bid to further educate and engage young voters in this year’s federal election, Snap Australia (Snapchat’s owner) and the AEC launched a series of ‘in-app tools’ they say leverage the power of augmented reality (AR) and video to drive enrolments, educate on voter services and share information around polling day.

The 2022 Federal Election is of course being held on May 21. The AEC has been quite busy, launching its election misinformation campaign earlier this year, which includes a disinformation register that behaves sort-of like an FAQ page where a ‘fake news’ myth is posted and the AEC places a large red ‘X’ next to the line if it is indeed misinformation.

The AEC is also actively fighting the trolls. Over the past few weeks, the AEC has been going hard on Twitter, directly replying to claims surrounding the Australian electoral process. It’s not putting up with any election disinformation.

So it’s no surprise it’s making me feel like that Steve Buscemi meme and heading to Snapchat to spread the good word.

snapchat aec
Image: Snapchat/AEC

Using AR, Snap has built an educational ‘Quiz Lens’ that enables Snapchatters to find out how old they need to be to vote and if they know how to make their vote count. The idea is to drive young Aussies to check their enrolment status. If you haven’t enrolled to vote, unfortunately you can’t have your voice heard this election, but it’s still a great idea to make sure you’re enrolled for next time.

While enrolling is done with, the AEC and Snap are turning their effort to making a big point around reminding the younger generation that their vote counts. So that’s cool. Is ‘cool’ still cool to say?


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