Why I am okay with Washington State registering voters on Facebook

If you follow my tweets assiduously (what? you don't?), you know I like to give the New York Times, the Henry Art Gallery, and other civic institutions a hard time for conducting public outreach via Facebook page. "Link to something open!," I protest.

But I don't have the same reaction to the news that Washington State is allowing citizens to register to vote via a Facebook app. I think this is because citizens are free to register in public ways as well, for free. (Yes, I am counting exposure to advertising, overt and subliminal, as well as submission to mining of one's personal graph, as costs.)

Though you have fewer options in Washington State when it comes to actually voting! That, you have to do by paper ballot, put into an envelope designed to be mailed. No more polling stations. If you want something of a public ritual when you deliver your ballot, the closest approximation is to walk to a drop box outside a government building.

Coming up tomorrow: a private startup event that won't let this blogger attend.