Circle Voting

creator of VoteSF.com

Yummy Treats (i.e. New Features) for All the Kids on the Block

Here are some delicious treats for all you kids on the block who are following VoteSF:

  • If you are logged in, we now highlight comments from your friends and display only those comments in Friends view.  This makes it much easier to focus in on opinions and ideas from people you know — the main point of the site!
  • We added some general discussion pages: basically just a few broad topics with the Facebook social plugin for commenting.  This is great if you want to sound off about the election, give us feedback on our work or get help using the site.
  • VoteSF now works with more browsers!  We're now allowing browsers down to IE 8 and Firefox 3.6.  Safari and Chrome >= 4 should work great too.
Hope you enjoy all this neat new stuff.  More to follow =)

jesse

Four More Weeks -- So Many Friends Have Yet to Decide

With early voting beginning this Monday, you might be really surprised how many people in your circle are still undecided. Putting your ideas out during this critical period can have more impact that you might imagine. 

There is no public poll showing the level of indecision; however, we do know this from exit polls:

  • In 2008, 25% of voters decided their vote for the President during the last month. 
  • In 2006, 35% of voters chose their vote for the House of Representatives during the last month.
These were highly publicized campaigns that went on all year and were highly polarized by party.  The S.F. Municipal Election is much more complex with sixteen candidates, no party designations, and rank choice voting, a process far more involved than deciding between a Republican and a Democrat. On top of that, voters must form opinions about Sheriff, District Attorney and the propositions. 

VoteSF is a way for you to increase your influence by sharing with your friends during his critical period. It is not the typical ‘in your face’ style campaigning, but a way to offer your views to help your community decide.  

Take this opportunity to share your opinions and your strategy for rank choice voting in every race.  

 

Announcing VoteSF, San Francisco's Grassroots Voter Guide

We have some very special news to share: our newest site, votesf.com, is now live and has been generating more and more traffic.  This morning, mayoral candidate Jeff Adachi pulled into the lead after posting the site to his Facebook wall.

VoteSF is a grassroots voter guide for San Francisco, covering all the races in the November 8 municipal election.  It's written by individual San Franciscans, people like you.

Since you can go through arguments from everyone, or just your Facebook friends, it's a powerful tool for making voting decisions with aid from people you trust, not campaign slogans and advertising.

If nothing else, the Occupy Wall Street movement demonstrates there is widespread concern about corporate power and the effects of money in politics.  It's a time when it's more important than ever to find better ways of holding our elected officials accountable.  VoteSF is our contribution to this wider movement.

Will you help us engage the San Francisco public about this election and achieve more responsible, democratic governance?

Here's what you can do:

1) Check out the site at www.votesf.com.

2) "Like" us on Facebook or mention us in a wall post.  If you aren't in San Francisco, mention the site to your Facebook friends who are.

3) Indicate all the candidates of whom you approve or disapprove, and tell us why.  Help improve the quality of the debate by explaining your strategy or linking to good sources.

4) "Star" the comments you like and help move them to the top.

5) Let your friends know you're interested in their point of view, and that they can share it on www.votesf.com.

By contributing to VoteSF, you'll increase your influence and help your friends decide how to vote.  We urge you to share your views as soon as possible for the greatest reach before the election.

And, of course, you'll be supporting our efforts to create a new kind of grassroots voter guide.

Thanks for all your help,

Jesse and Murray

P.S. We're interested in your feedback, too, and we'd love to help out if you have any trouble using the site.  Reach the team at info@circlevoting.com.

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