<!-- mobian-agent-page publisher="time" canonical="https://time.com/4505668/facebook-voter-registration-2016-election/" -->

---
title: Facebook Is Urging Users to Vote This November
description: The social media giant is launching a voter registration drive, encouraging users to register ahead of the November election
canonical: https://time.com/4505668/facebook-voter-registration-2016-election/
author: Daniel White
article:opinion: false
article:content_tier: free
article:published_time: 2016-09-23T14:23:33.000Z
article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:44:25.555Z
article:section: Politics
og:title: Facebook Is Urging Users to Vote This November
og:description: The company launched a four-day voter registration drive
og:url: https://time.com/4505668/facebook-voter-registration-2016-election/
og:site_name: TIME
og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe9ea0d81105afc2/6988a7422dce018db99eac36/2016-registration-reminder-sample.png?branch=production&amp;width=720&amp;quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;crop=16:9
og:image:width: 720
og:image:height: 405
og:image:alt: facebook_voter_registration
og:type: article
twitter:card: summary_large_image
twitter:title: Facebook Is Urging Users to Vote This November
twitter:description: The company launched a four-day voter registration drive
twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe9ea0d81105afc2/6988a7422dce018db99eac36/2016-registration-reminder-sample.png?branch=production&amp;width=720&amp;quality=75&amp;auto=webp&amp;crop=16:9
---

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe9ea0d81105afc2/6988a7422dce018db99eac36/2016-registration-reminder-sample.png?branch=production&width=720&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9)


# Facebook Is Urging Users to Vote This November


by 

[Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/)


## Daniel White


Sep 23, 2016 2:23 PM UTC

![](https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe9ea0d81105afc2/6988a7422dce018db99eac36/2016-registration-reminder-sample.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=3:2)

Facebook

by 

[Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/)


## Daniel White


Sep 23, 2016 2:23 PM UTC

Facebook is [rolling out a new feature](http://www.nature.com/news/facebook-experiment-boosts-us-voter-turnout-1.11401) that aims to boost participation in the November election.

Users 18 and over will be greeted by a “Register Now” button in their News Feed starting Friday, as Facebook launches its first nationwide [voter registration](http://time.com/4500216/election-voting-machines-hackers-security/) campaign for the next four days, the social media giant said.

Facebook has [experimented](http://www.nature.com/news/facebook-experiment-boosts-us-voter-turnout-1.11401) with influencing users to vote in the past. A single Election Day reminder from Facebook in 2010 may have influenced some 340,000 people to go to the polls, according to 2012 study published in the journal _Nature._

How many [Facebook users](http://time.com/4501740/brangelina-status-update/) will see this year’s message is unclear, but the 2012 study found that the incentive is in seeing friends who share that they voted.

The company wants to engage users first by getting them to register, and then by reminding them to vote and presenting the final results. Facebook sees itself as [uniquely positioned](http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/09/23/facebook-launches-first-nationwide-voter-registration-drive/90866726/) to do this because of its large user base.

“We thought we had a unique ability and responsibility to show people this reminder that they should be checking their registration so they can participate in the election,” Katie Harbath, Facebook’s director of government outreach, told _USA Today_.

Instagram will also get involved by making a similar push next week, according to Facebook.

```json
[{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4505668/facebook-voter-registration-2016-election/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4505668/facebook-voter-registration-2016-election/"},"headline":"Facebook Is Urging Users to Vote This November","datePublished":"2016-09-23T14:23:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:44:25.555Z","description":"The company launched a four-day voter registration drive","url":"https://time.com/4505668/facebook-voter-registration-2016-election/","keywords":["2016 Election","Tech","Social Media","2016 Election","facebook"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe9ea0d81105afc2/6988a7422dce018db99eac36/2016-registration-reminder-sample.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbe9ea0d81105afc2/6988a7422dce018db99eac36/2016-registration-reminder-sample.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"facebook_voter_registration","caption":"","creditText":"Facebook","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4505668/facebook-voter-registration-2016-election/","name":"Facebook Is Urging Users to Vote This November"}}]}]
```

