Respect Authority

Well it was several years after the fact, but Diddy finally did it. Though I have yet to hear whether this year’s non-voters actually died, there is abundant and growing evidence that voting was not only popular in 2008, it was also, well …cool.

Propelled by the fairly new prevalence of both Facebook and YouTube, neither of which had taken hold of the 20-something psyche in 2004, hordes of over-eager Americans bombarded their friends and peers with reminders, notifications, photos and even videos documenting their voting experience.

Anecdotally, I can say with some confidence that no less than 70 billion Facebook members had some version of the “John Smith is happy about voting!” status, but if you won’t take my word for it, take the Associated Press’. In an article Tuesday evening, the news organization documented the prevalence of Facebook photos and YouTube videos of young people casting their ballots.

Ironically, in several states it’s actually illegal to have any sort of recording device in polling places, or the public display of a marked ballot, including Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Nevada, North Carolina and Texas. But considering the majority of those states took the red brick road to defeat last night, it’s probably safe to say those people weren’t memorializing much of anything.

With voting becoming so cool, maybe in 2012 Paris Hilton will actually register.