Thanks to Facebook, voter registrations surge

Social media is more than posts of cat videos and political rants as Facebook showed by getting hundreds of thousands of people to register to vote this fall.

"Facebook has demonstrated the power of social media to engage more people to register to vote, helping thousands take a big step to casting a ballot this November," said California Secretary of State Alex Padilla in a statement. "For many who may be new to the political process, an invitation to register can be a powerful nudge to get involved."

Facebook dove into the voter registration process this fall. On Sept. 23, Facebook sent reminders to its U.S. users, who were at least 18 years old, about registering to vote. The effort, which ran through Sept. 26, provided a link to voter registration sites at the top of Facebook's News Feed.

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