ChaCha Teams With “Rock The Vote” For Election Answers
Posted by Justin on Oct 15, 2008 in In The News, SMS / Text
ChaCha, a unique “mobile answers” service, has teamed with “Rock The Vote” to engage and inform voters as well as provide voting, polling and other related information for the upcoming November 4 election. With the knowledge of Rock The Vote, combined with the streamlined delivery of ChaCha, users can simply text-in their questions about the election, and receive an instant response.
Here’s how it works: users can send questions to RTVOTE (788683) and politically trained ChaCha Guides will provide informed, non-partisan answers via SMS within minutes. Potential voters can learn everything from where their polling place is, to the positions taken by the candidates on everything from energy to taxation. You can also access the service by calling 1-800-2ChaCha as well.
With this election being one of the most closely-followed elections in our history, ChaCha recognized a huge increase in political questions, and decided to give the people what they want. In addition to some 35,000 ChaCha “guides” already in place, ChaCha is using the proven track-record of Rock The Vote to enhance its answers even more.
“As the presidential election continues to heat up, we’ve seen a sizable increase in questions about the election,” said ChaCha Co-Founder and President, Brad Bostic. “ChaCha has rapidly become a popular, trusted resource for young people who want information while on the go. By making credible answers easy to access on virtually any mobile phone, ChaCha and Rock the Vote are providing unprecedented access to the information voters need to make informed choices.”
My only question, as I’ve always said about the ChaCha service, is why wouldn’t it be easier to just do a quick Google search on your mobile device rather than texting a question, waiting for a “guide” to look it up and respond. With so much political information floating around on the Web already, questions can be answered pretty quickly from a mobile device.
Erin | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply
You said it yourself “so much political information floating around on the web”.. why not have someone do the work of sorting through it for you, especially if the answer is guaranteed non-partisan? That’s essentially what ChaCha does, they sort through all the results and send you the answer (not to mention the obvious: not all phones have the web).
This service really appeals to the younger demos, I wonder if this kind of thing will increase voter turnout.
justin | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply
That’s a good point: it might be easier to have someone else do the legwork for you. The non-partisan aspect is also a good thing, given the slanted content that’s so prevalent right now
Cathy Banks | Oct 15, 2008 | Reply
Well, not everyone has a mobile phone with fast internet access, and even with an iphone googiling for political answers is kind of a pain if you just want a simple and quick answer.