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AOC to stream herself playing viral game ‘Among Us’ on Twitch to promote voting

U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Democrat from New York, says she plans to stream the game “Among Us” to “get out the vote” on Tuesday night.

“Anyone want to play Among Us with me on Twitch to get out the vote? (I’ve never played but it looks like a lot of fun),” she tweeted Monday.

She then asked “who would you want to watch in a game together?” and responses poured in.

“Among Us” is an increasingly popular game of social deduction set on a spaceship. One or more players are selected as “impostors” whose goal is to sabotage the other players, known as “crewmates.” “Crewmates must run around the ship and try to complete a set of tasks while trying to root out and avoid getting killed by the one or several impostors. Players can be voted off the ship, so each game becomes one of survival,” according to the New York Times.

Ocasio-Cortez created an account on Twitch, a popular streaming site, that has since gained 215,000 followers.

“Don’t worry everyone — I haven’t streamed yet,” she tweeted Monday night. “Spent tonight setting up accounts, mods, streaming & run throughs. Hoping to go live tomorrow night.”

She tweeted Tuesday that she’ll start the stream at 9 p.m. EST.

She said she’ll help viewers make a voting plan on iwillvote.com, a site funded by the Democratic National Committee that helps people learn about voting in their state, register and find out out to vote.

Reaching young voters

The get-out-the-vote event is one of many new efforts during the 2020 election season aimed at reaching young voters — with members of Generation Z and Millennials accounting for more than a third of the eligible voting population. Many of those efforts come via gaming sites and social media, according to Gaming Street.

Younger voters tend to turn out at lower rates than older voters, NPR reports, and a heavy emphasis has been placed on mobilizing them to cast ballots this year.

An increasing number of younger voters plan to vote in the upcoming election — with 77% of voters ages 18-35 in 13 battleground states saying in an August poll they “definitely” plan to vote compared to 70% the month before, The Hill reports.

But in 2016, 88% of voters ages 18 to 30 said they planned to vote and only 43% actually did, according to data from American National Election Studies.

A new organization, Up to Us, started a campaign last month to encourage young people to register and to vote, Axios reports. Snapchat also launched its effort to education users and encourage them to vote.

Other organizations — such as When We All Vote, Rock the Vote and NextGen America — have employed social media influencers and platforms to reach young voters.