The authorities in the State of Washington will allow residents to register themselves as voters through social networking site, Facebook.

The state of Washington has become the first state to allow people to register through Facebook after it had become the just eh second state in 2008 to offer online registration in 2008. Microsoft, which is based in the state, has designed a new Facebook app providing a new user interface to allow users to access the state’s MyVote system.

“Facebook has millions of users, and a lot of users in Washington State, half of all Facebook members log on every day,” said Shane Hamlin, the state’s co-director of elections on Tuesday. He said that the user information is sent to the state and the users will not have to leave the social network to carry out the registration process.

Hamlin also said that the authorities in the state are aiming to make it easy for voters to register.

Estimates show that more than 475,000 new registrations or updated information have been processed since 2008, which the state started accepting online registration.

Washington as well as 12 other states including Utah, California, Connecticut and Indiana offer online registration of voters.