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Houseparty partners with Michelle Obama nonprofit to get out the vote

Houseparty partners with Michelle Obama nonprofit to get out the vote

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The superlative game rolls out today

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Popular video chatting app Houseparty is partnering with Michelle Obama’s nonprofit, When We All Vote, to launch a new in-app game to get out the vote ahead of the November election.

Houseparty’s new game, Pick Me!, is a superlative game that needs at least three people to play at a time. The game lets users decide which of their friends is the most likely to become an artist or win the lottery, among other questions, similar to yearbook superlatives. At the end of the game, Houseparty links out to When We All Vote’s website so users can check their registration status.

“Our goal and our mission is to increase participation in each election and change the culture rapidly,” Crystal Carson, When We All Vote’s vice president of communications told The Verge. “We know that to really change culture, you have to be in the culture. So, we’ve worked really hard as an organization to be in the moment and be where people are actually spending their time to share resources and information with them about voting on a regular basis.”

When We All Vote’s partnership with Houseparty is part of the nonprofit’s latest campaign, called Vote Loud, to reach young and marginalized voters. Other organizations like WarnerMedia and Gucci Changemakers and celebrities like Liza Koshy, Khalid, and Gaten Matarazzo are also part of the Vote Loud campaign.

“We wanted to build something more engaging around civic action, particularly given the state of the world right now,” Houseparty’s CEO Sima Sistani told The Verge. “As opposed to messaging and repetition like we’re seeing from some of these other social networks, which remains important, what we’re trying to lean into, given our new normal, is a more collaborative interactive engagement between friends.”

Other social networks like Facebook and Twitter have launched voting resource hubs ahead of the election. The platforms are using these hubs to organize election-related news, information, and voting resources ahead of the 2020 election.