Manning the election fort

My newsroom is buzzing around preparing for election night coverage. My nerd-self is buzzing about the cool ways you can participate in election day online. The one we're looking forward to the most at KOMU is our CoverItLive chat we're planning online tonight. We have experts, candidates and candidate representatives jumping in to give our online viewers a chance to ask questions and get a new perspective on election night. You'll be able to view the chat starting at 7:00 p.m. CT.

If you use Twitter, there's the Twitter Vote Report project. All you have to do is go to your polling place, tweet about your experience and add "#votereport" to your tweet to get registered onto a national map of polling places. The site is also asking you to participate even if you don't use Twitter. You can send a text message starting with #votereport to 66937 (MOZES). Also, you can call 567-258-VOTE (8683) or 208-272-9024. There are even apps for iPhone and Android users.

Facebook is targeting all users ages 18 and up to vote. There's a notice at the top of each person's newsfeed reminding you to vote. You can also tell others you voted by posting a vote badge onto your wall. Facebook also created a voter page where you can search for your polling place using Google Maps.

To top things off, Foursquare has created a map that tracks the number of polling place check ins across the country. It created a special "I Voted" badge and website for members to add to their collection. To get the badge, all you have to do is say #ivoted into the Foursquare message. You can also post it to Twitter by adding #votereport to include it into the Twitter Vote Report at the same time. (By the way, if you like Gowalla, you can get an "I Voted" pin if you use the word "vote" or "voted" when you check in.)

These are just a few of the interactive ways to share your participation on election day. I hope you get a chance to go out and vote!