YouTube Invites Users To Document Election Day With Video Submissions

The 2008 Presidential election was the first one where YouTube (founded in 2005) had the chance to serve as a digital scrapbook for our nation’s most important democratic process. The video sharing giant called for submissions as part of its Video Your Vote initiative, and the result was a 32 video playlist that showcased democracy in action. The chosen videos composed a profile of citizens uniting in common respect of their Constitutional right to vote; young, old, black, white, in person and absentee Americans will now have their 2008 choices cataloged for years to come.

Four years later, YouTube is once again asking voters to submit videos from their polling places in order to create a second Video Your Vote scrapbook (and maybe even fill in some major holes in this year’s exit poll data). Selected entries will be shown at the YouTube politics hub. Given the amount of growth we’ve seen on YouTube in the past four years, expect a more exciting assortment of videos beyond simple footage of people voting.

Aside from Video Your Vote, the politics hub will obviously feature a plethora of content in the next 48 hours, especially from its featured channels. ABC News has a predictions segment (featuring George Will and Cokie Roberts, among others), while SourceFed is taking a, um, different approach to the upcoming decision.

We’ll have plenty more coverage on this election, but be sure to keep Hank Green’s sermon in mind when you wake up on November 6: It doesn’t matter who you vote for, but for the love of god, VOTE (…but you should probably vote for President Camacho).