ChaCha

Mobile Marketing Watch reports that Rock the Vote and ChaCha, a "mobile answers service" are teaming up to provide SMS answers to all your election questions:

ChaCha, a unique “mobile answers” service, has teamed with “Rock The Vote” to engage and inform voters as well as provide voting, polling and other related information for the upcoming November 4 election. With the knowledge of Rock The Vote, combined with the streamlined delivery of ChaCha, users can simply text-in their questions about the election, and receive an instant response.

Here’s how it works: users can send questions to RTVOTE (788683) and politically trained ChaCha Guides will provide informed, non-partisan answers via SMS within minutes. Potential voters can learn everything from where their polling place is, to the positions taken by the candidates on everything from energy to taxation. You can also access the service by calling 1-800-2ChaCha as well.

In theory, this sounds great. In practice, it doesn't work out so well. In light of all the recent stories about student voter suppression in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Montana, I decided to test the system out with a voting rights question. This was my text:

I am a student. What do I do if they won't let me vote?

That seemed like a reasonable request from a student who might be nervous about their registration or eligibility, or problems at the polling place. Within ten minutes I had a response:

You have to be 18 yrs of age to vote. If you are a student attending school, you can vote after school.

Not exactly a helpful answer, especially considering amount of pertinent information easily available on the Rock the Vote website. They didn't even give me the 1-866-OUR-VOTE election protection hotline . . . This service needs some more beta testing and a little more training before they roll out it.