We analyzed what Chicagoans were tweeting about voting; as seen from the pie chart above, a vast majority of their comments were merely on the act of doing so, and were generally neutral. That didn’t stop people like @CeejisAwesome from writing, “Didnt vote, will not vote, and probably never will. Unless the electoral college is removed. #werenotinthe1800s”, or @danmacavoy from saying, “No matter who you vote for tomorrow, remember that you should’ve dated more in college, and you should’ve gone to grad school.”
We also used Wordle to collect tweets Chicagoans sent today before the polls closed about the local, and presidential, elections we’re covering. Here are some of their comments from late Monday evening through Tuesday evening.
There weren’t too many tweets about the 2nd congressional district, where the controversial Jesse Jackson, Jr. is expected to win handily:
Joe Walsh, on the other hand, was heavily commented on in the 8th congressional district, prompting tweets like “I could care less who the president is going to be. I am just going to be glad that Joe Walsh & Tammy Duckworth will stop calling me!":
And in District 10, @bleeinternets tweeted,"I’m not enthused about Bob Dold! but when I see his name with an exclamation point it reminds me of people talking about Bob Dole in 1996"
In District 11, election fatigue was running high. @woohoodude11 commented that it was“Kinda pathetic that after two months of ads against joe walsh tammy duckworth bill foster and judy biggert, i didnt have to vote for one.”
And in the Indiana Senate race between Donnelly and Richard Mourdock, many hadn’t forgotten about the latter’s controversial comment about rape:
And tweets poured in from Chicagoans all day about the Presidential race expressing their excitement over voting:
Thales Exoo contributed reporting.
