Politics and Elections Blog
Trends, tools and news from the Google Politics & Elections team
Informing France’s voters for their presidential choice
Monday, April 23, 2012
Posted by Florian Maganza, Policy Analyst, Paris
(Cross-posted from the
Google European Public Policy Blog
)
The Internet plays a central role in citizens’ search for information about elections. Polling company
Opinionway
published a
study
at the end of last year that showed 52% of French citizens follow the electoral campaign online compared to 38% for the written press and 27% for the radio.
In order to help satisfy this growing demand, we developed
www.google.fr/elections
, an information hub to study, watch, discuss and participate in the French presidential campaign. Google tools such as Google News, Google+ YouTube and Google Maps were integrated to present information from a variety of sources on the campaign and its results.
This French presidential site is the latest edition of our Google election websites. After being rolled out in the
United States
to cover the Republican primaries, they now have expanded internationally to include presidential elections in
Senegal
,
Egypt
and
Mexico
.
When the polls closed last night at 8 p.m. in France, French internet users discovered the election results in real-time on Google Maps. Viewers could see each candidate’s performance for each of France’s 106 departments as well as for each of the country’s 33,844 towns.
By clicking on a candidate on the side-bar, users were able to visualize the nuances in a candidate's performance. The brighter the colour, the more votes a candidate obtained.
Socialist candidate Francois Hollande and incumbent president Nicolas Sarkozy finished first and second respectively. The two front-runners now face off for the next two weeks until French voters again go to the polls. Google will be there to five the results in real time - and in great detail. See you on May 6th for the 2nd and decisive round!
Accounting for the counties in our results map
Friday, April 13, 2012
Now that the Republican presidential primary race is winding down, we’ve got a new way to look back through three months of voting and caucusing. The latest version of our election results map lets you see the county-by-county results across the nation. This new feature allows you to see the details of thousands of counties by seamlessly gliding your mouse over
our map
.
(click to enlarge)
As with the previous map, click anywhere within a state to zoom in and see the statewide totals. And if you’d rather go back to the state-level colors, there’s a toggle at the top right (note that there are a few states where county-level data is not available, and in that case we show statewide totals in both views). And don’t forget a feature we’ve had for a while: if you click a candidate’s name up top, it shows their relative strength on the map.
We do understand that not every state calls them counties, please know we don’t mean to offend the parishes of Louisiana or the boroughs of Alaska. Speaking of county trivia, did you know that there are 31 different
Washington Counties
, or that San Bernardino County, CA is larger than the Rhode Island, Delaware, Connecticut and New Jersey combined? With so much geographic diversity in our vast nation, we hope this extra tool makes the politics of it all a little easier to sort out.
Posted by Jesse Friedman, Google Politics & Elections Team
Breaking down the walls of the convention
Friday, April 13, 2012
The first Republican National Convention was held in 1856 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and the only way to participate was to travel hundreds of miles by train, horse, or foot. We have come a long way since then. Technology has changed the political process from one that voters watch from afar, to one that people can participate in, engage with, and shape in a democratic way right from home.
The 2012 Republican presidential nominating convention in Tampa will be a convention without walls. Google and YouTube viewers will get an exclusive backstage pass to connect with Republican leaders off the podium via Google+ Hangouts, bringing convention conversations directly to voters. We will also be livestreaming key events right into their living rooms.
We are excited to partner with the
2012 Republican National Convention
and serve as the official social platform and livestream provider. Be sure to tune in!
Posted by Niki Fenwick, Google Politics & Elections Team
Primary Day in DC, MD, WI
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Ninety-five delegates are up for grabs
in today's GOP primaries
in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Wisconsin. Almost half of the delegates will be awarded in winner-take-all Wisconsin where Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are battling for the number one spot
As Mitt Romney continues his quest for the 1,144 delegates required to win the GOP nomination, Google Search data in Wisconsin indicates interest in Romney surged (to the tune of +125.1%) during the week leading up to the state’s primary. By contrast, interest in Newt Gingrich decreased by 19.7% during the same period of time.
Although Rick Santorum has dominated search during much of the past week in Maryland, Mitt Romney took the lead over the last day. If Romney manages to sweep the popular vote in Maryland’s congressional districts, he stands to take home all of the state’s 37 delegates.
Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team
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