A lot of people registered to vote because of Facebook last month

Facebook

Facebook's prompt showed people a link to register and then share that they had registered with their friends.

A couple of weeks ago, you may have seen a message at the top of your Facebook News Feed asking if you were registered to vote in the U.S. presidential election.

It turns out that the prompt, which was shown over a period of four days to Facebook users over the age of 18, resulted in a significant spike in registrations, according to the Center for Election Innovation and Research and multiple secretaries of state.

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"Facebook clearly moved the needle in a significant way," California secretary of state Alex Padilla, told The New York Times on Tuesday.

"Since Facebook launched its online campaign to remind Hoosiers to register to vote, we have seen substantially higher than normal online registrations," Indiana secretary of state Connie Lawson said on September 26.

Facebook has shown election day reminders since 2008, but a company spokesperson told Business Insider that this was the first year it showed a voter registration reminder. The spokesperson said the reminder was part of "a broader effort designed to get more people engaged in the civic process."

Here's a chart showing the uptick in registrations in some states before and after Facebook started running its News Feed prompt:

Center for Election Innovation & Research