LiveBallot, based on Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud computing system and developed by Democracy Live, allows voters who are overseas the chance to vote in a simple and easy way. The system has been in use since December for soldiers who are overseas, but will be used in the upcoming Florida primary.

This was accomplished with the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment Act which allows voters to cast their ballots through a simple web portal. Since voting began, over 1,200 Florida residents from 40 countries have cast their vote using the software.

Virginia just implemented the technology for their citizens who are overseas on January 20. This will let them be ready for the state’s March 6 Presidential Primary Election.

Beginning in late April, the software will also be rolled out to 13 counties in California who will be able to vote in the state’s June primary.

Washington State will roll out the LiveBallot platform this year for their voters with disabilities.

“These elections are a huge step forward for voters living or serving our country overseas,” Bryan Finney, President of Democracy Live said. “LiveBallot allows us to deliver secure voter-specific ballots through the web to any eligible voter, anywhere in the world. By cutting the ballot’s transit time in half, LiveBallot ensures that voters are able to access, vote and return their ballot in time for it to be counted.”

Microsoft’s role in this is their Azure technology ensuring that ballots are transferred securely no matter where in the world the citizen is.

“With LiveBallot, government officials have options that they’ve never had before,” Kim Nelson, Executive Director of eGovernment for Microsoft said. “Because of its scalability, reliability and low cost, the Windows Azure cloud solution makes sense. Elections officials are among the first to realize the benefits of cloud computing for their unique seasonal situations.”

Officials are reaching out to those people who might have a hard time getting to the voting booth, people with disabilities, and having them cast their ballots via iPad. The voting officials are going around to nursing homes, community centers, and anywhere else that they feel might house people with the desire to vote, without the ability.

The iPad is a good device for disabled people to use to vote, as they don’t even have to pick up a pen. Voters can tap their choices via the touchscreen or even direct election officials to tap their choice for them. This helps out those voters that might have a physical disability or severe arthritis. For those with vision problems, the iPad voting software allows for adjustments to the font style and size, as well as the color of the screen.

According to the AP, “State elections officials say they’ll use the same system in the special general election in January. And if the pilot project is successful, they’ll make the service available across the state. They believe Oregon is the first state to try using iPads to mark ballots.”

Officials are hoping the iPad voting program will eventually replace the other methods of helping disabled people vote. The computer equipment currently in use is getting old, and it’s clunky.

Apparently, Apple donated 5 iPads to help with the program. If it proves successful, the state would need 72 of the devices (2 per county) to make it a statewide initiative. The voting software cost around $75,000 to develop. All of this together would put the total cost at around $110,000 – which is merely a fraction of what Oregon spent in the last two years on accessible voting tools ($325K).

It is important to note that the voting is not truly electronic. The votes are not being officially cast wirelessly via the iPad. The iPad allows the voters to make their pick, but an official ballot is printed and then mailed to the elections offices.

On Election Day, some voters in Oregon are voting to replace U.S. Representative David Wu, who resigned amid some strange circumstances back in July.

Tuesday’s elections include two gubernatorial races, in Kentucky and Mississippi, as well as mayoral contests in big cities like Baltimore, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Francisco. Ballot initiatives are being decided on the issues of voter and collective bargaining rights as well as the issue of “personhood,” a measure in Mississippi that would greatly influence abortion rights.

Can iPads be an effective tool in helping more people vote? The iPad is already being used in many school districts as an educational aid – and that seems to be a nice fit. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Google’s Election Center is available to users as an "experimental" service. It lets election officials provide data directly to Google for use in search tools. 

"Anyone with a website can also provide this same functionality by embedding the open source Election Center gadget on your site, or use the gadget code or API to build your own," says Google Public Sector Engineering Manager Dan Berlin. "And you don’t need to be at your computer to easily find this information. If you’d rather get it on your mobile device, we’ve also created a mobile landing page: m.google.com/elections."

Google users can also search Google for [polling place] or [where to vote], and see a search box for helping to find their polling places, candidates, and local election offices. Users need only to enter their addresses.

Google also has a special section in Google News for election news. 

A post discussing this at the YouTube blog also talks about how YouTube has had a tremendous impact on the presidential race:

The influence you’ve had on this political season has been well noted in this blog and by most every major media outlet in the world. Your use of video to document and describe this Election on your own terms has created a new, more democratic political ecosystem and has caused many to call this the "YouTube Election." But while the profound increase in online activity has reshaped our national dialogue in so many new ways, today is where we see just how much it matters: the ultimate political action isn’t to upload a video to YouTube or to watch "Yes We Can" or "We Need McCain" one more time; it’s to GET OUT AND VOTE.

They also share the following video:

For more on how the Internet in general has helped shape the election, read this article. To see where the candidates stand on web issues, read this one.

Another one is Facebook. The social network (even if they don’t call themselves that) has grown tremendously in popularity over the last year or so, and continues to do so. Many of the network’s patrons have been using it as a platform to share content related to the elections, and not only the Presidential election as ABC News points out, but local/state elections as well.

"The Obama team got into Facebook early in the campaign, and more than 2 million users have signed on as Obama supporters," writes Bianna Golodryga at ABC. "The McCain camp has rallied more than 600,000 Facebook supporters of its own.  A team of campaign workers are dedicated to reaching them with messages, getting the word out to an unlimited number of users, but it’s not just the big race — Facebook is having a significant impact on local races, too."

Golodryga quotes Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg: "In some ways Facebook can be even more influential to local campaigns and politicians…Because those are places where a few thousand votes really matter and a few thousand votes can really swing a race."

I see no reason why the same thing can’ be said of MySpace and other social networks as well. It’s really a testament to how social media in general has played a role in the discussion and shaping of opinions of political candidates.

The cast includes: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz, Snoop Dogg, Harrison Ford, Julia Roberts, Ben Stiller, Will Smith, Steven Spielberg, Justin Timberlake, “Borat”, Zach Braff, Colin Farrell, Neil Patrick Harris, Scarlett Johansson, Shia LeBeouf, Tobey Maguire, Ryan Reynolds, and Jason Segal.

This is actually the second star-packed video (here’s the first)  to advertise the Google site, and YouTube is also running ads for the site at the bottom of videos while they play:

Google’s tool could really play a big part in getting people to vote, because year after year, many people just simply have not known where to go, and have probably been too lazy to find out, and instead of trying, just didn’t vote. It’s not hard to imagine many of these people sitting around watching YouTube videos, so it seems like a pretty good place for the PSA and ads. Even Halloween Google Doodle designer Wes Craven has a YouTube video telling people to vote.

By the way, Google has also released a mobile tool for volunteers to show people where to vote.

These tools should prove very useful, and will hopefully get people out of their house or job on Election Day to go cast their votes for the President of the United States, as well as other elected officials.

Google, who seems to really want to stress the importance of voting, has taken things a step further and released a similar tool for mobile devices for volunteers:

"With the U.S. elections less than a week away, voting drives are ramping up," says a blog post by a couple of Google Mobile Engineers. "Political parties and non-partisan groups alike are sending out volunteers to encourage citizens to vote on November 4. To make sure these volunteers have the same voter info tools available to them on their phone as on their computer, we’ve now launched a mobile voting locator tool on m.google.com/elections.”

Volunteers will be able to use the tool to find voting locations for any address while trying to recruit voters. This should be quite beneficial to their cause.

Via the company’s Web sites, both candidates will present their views on issues beginning today through Election Day to the 136 million Wal-Mart customers and its 1.4 million associates.

"We know that, like most Americans, our customers and associates are concerned with a number of important issues, including health care and the environment, with the economy at the top of the list," said Leslie Dach, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president of corporate affairs and government relations.

"As so many pollsters have pointed out, the ‘Wal-Mart Mom’ is at the center of the election and we’re pleased to offer Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain the opportunity to speak directly to her through these videos."

Two videos from each campaign are available on Wal-Marts Web sites. The video-based voter guide will allow the candidates to introduce themselves to customers, club members and associates, detailing their plans and stances on key issues, and will reflect the candidate’s campaign platforms in a nonpartisan manner.

The videos can be viewed at walmart.com, samsclub.com and walmartstores.com, the company’s corporate Web site. The Web sites will also offer information about other presidential candidates.

The retailing giant says it will alert customers of its online offering through public service announcements that will air today on its in-store television network.

"We thank Sen. McCain and Sen. Obama for sharing their views on these key issues with our customers, club members and associates so they can make an informed decision and have their voices heard on Election Day," said Mr. Dach.