“I caught Pokémon with them I visited with them. “I was out there the whole day,” he said. He had seen how a local mall had attracted scores of people playing the game before he got the idea for a PokéStop Voter Registration Drive at the County Courthouse, held on July 23. Holliday had been playing Pokémon Go himself. “Being that I was just in college five years ago, you’re so slammed with just everything being targeted at you and thrown at you nonstop - but it’s the things where people actually reach out to you personally.” Holliday, 28, isn’t far from college age and remembers how college students’ priorities can get hijacked. So Holliday, the county clerk, whose duties include running elections, has no shortage of potential new voters.īut he said that 18 to 24 year-olds are underrepresented (60 percent registered) compared to other voting-age demographic groups, 80-plus percent of whom are registered. In Arkansas, Craighead County is the home of Arkansas State University in Jonesboro. “We’re already thinking about in a couple of weeks doing something slightly different.” “It was like a win-win for small businesses here too,” she said. The libraries handed out Pokémon-themed stickers, and a pizza parlor near one branch offered a free drink with purchase in exchange for customers’ stickers. “We also saw some parents, probably in their 20s or 30s, bringing their young kids and then staying and doing other things.” She added that staff were encouraged to talk up “atypical” library programs to people who may not be typical users - such as adult coloring nights and “after-hour recess” for adults, where they can reconnect with their inner child by playing games like hopscotch. Over the course of about four hours on July 22, Brophy estimates that about 800 people participated, ranging in age from teens to middle-agers. It was an easy sell to the branches, Brophy said: There were employees at all but one of the libraries who were playing the game already, “so everybody wanted to be involved.” The location-and-time-based game uses a smartphone’s GPS and clock to make creatures - to be captured - appear on a phone’s screen at locations corresponding to GPS coordinates. “The goal of it really was to capitalize on the phenomenon,” said Julie Brophy, BCPL’s adult services director, “and also to try to reintroduce the library to people who may not have been to see us in a while.” County’s Metro used it to raise transit awareness. Clerk Kade Holliday used the game to entice potential voters to register, and L.A. In Maryland, it was an event to attract Pokémon players to 19 Baltimore County Public Library (BCPL) branches. Libraries in Baltimore County, Md., a county clerk in Arkansas and the transit system in Los Angeles County have all fashioned events around the hunt for Pokémon characters. Hopping on the Pokémon Go bandwagon, and several counties are hoping to ride the game to greater recognition for county programs and services. Your kid, some libraries, a county clerk - and maybe even you. Legislative Presentations, Reports & ToolkitsĬounties hop on Pokémon Go mobile game craze to promote services.Policy Committees, Caucuses & Initiatives.Committees, State Associations & Affiliates.
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