New App Helps You Get Around Voter ID Laws

New voting laws could restrict millions of Americans from casting a ballot this fall—but an iPhone app aims to help voters navigate these rules and regs, writes Erika Eichelberger at Mother Jones. Designed by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and other voting rights groups, the "Election Protection" app provides registration forms and information for each state. It also has a hotline to call for last-minute news on election day snafus and hijinks.

"You might be thinking: Mother Jones writer, you are a privileged white girl, oblivious to the fact that poor people don't have fancyphones!" writes Eichelberger. But half of American cell phone owners use smartphones, and according to one study, "blacks and Hispanics are more likely than whites to use their phones for 'non-voice' applications." Eichelberger says the app is not only good for the underprivileged, but "the scatter-brained, the nomadic, and those who don't have the time to take a day off and parse all the new rules." (More voting rights stories.)