Foursquare makes civic duties cooler with “I Voted” badge

Foursquare announced an interesting promotion earlier this month involving the Chicago mayoral election, but people around the country can also unlock election-related badges when they check in via Foursquare before, during or after voting.

The site elections.foursquare.com goes live on November 2nd, and checking in at a polling location with the shout #ivoted will earn you the badge. Jacksonville.com explains how voting became a cool, social media phenomenon:

It all started with an online petition by Jordan Raynor, a GOP new media guru and president of Direct Media Strategies. Raynor tweeted the petition and it “caught fire,” earning 554 re-tweets and eventually reaching 754,630 followers on Twitter.

According to the site’s current content (which is likely to change on Election Day when it launches), the project has three goals, including operating as a beta for the 2012 Presidential Elections:

The I Voted data visualization and badge have been designed with three purposes in mind: to encourage civic participation, increase transparency in the voting process and develop a replicatable system for the 2012 Presidential Election.

Are you planning on earning this badge next Tuesday?