An unusual approach to raising turnout

Well, this is an unusual approach to increasing turnout at elections:

A Russian dating app is attempting to boost voter turnout in the upcoming elections by finding users an election “date”, it’s reported.

Popular dating service Mamba has introduced a feature called “Voting Together” which offers to help users find a companion to go to the polling station with during the 10 September local elections…

Users swipe through pictures of fellow users, and answer questions such as: “Would you go to vote with her (him)?” If two users say “yes”, they receive a message saying, “It looks like we like each other. We can go to vote together on 10 September.” They can then message each other and find a ballot station that is convenient for them both. [BBC]

The Voting Together service seems to have had a pretty mixed reaction so far, not helped by the suspicion (unproven) that it is part of a Kremlin strategy to bolster Vladimir Putin’s position.