Can you feel the tension among your family and friends and the country at large? With the touchline in sight and fingernails chewed raw, there could be more twists and turns before the end of polling day. So if you want to keep up to date with the very latest US election news, here’s how Google, Twitter, Facebook can help you do that.
How to track US election news
Whoever wins, whether that be Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, modern technology will make sure you never miss a word. So if you’re an avid social media user and have an iPhone or another kind of smartphone, you can keep updated. Here’s what each information provider is doing to keep you with them.
Facebook being patriotic
According to Facebook during this divisive campaign, it has encouraged more than 2 million people to vote. This was accomplished via the social network’s Get Ready for Election Day page, which Mark Zuckerberg is apparently very proud of. In fact, not only does the page help people register to vote and keep them updated with US election news, it also provides a vote planner made specifically for each user, meaning that person can print it off and take it to the polling station when they vote.
Twitter #Election2016
Twitter’s open nature allows you to see tweets from all over the USA, which is great, and the same goes for keeping up to date with US election news. If you don’t already know, the official #hashtags are #Ele4ctionDay and #Election2016; both have their own polling emoji.
However, Twitter has done its own thing this time around and encouraged people to vote. A lot of the work done by Twitter can be seen at the account @gov. While this on its own does not keep you directly updated with what’s going on in the US elections, you can send a tweet to the account asking about US election news.
Google results
Google has taken the unprecedented step of embedding US election news into its search results. This means that whether you want the information or not, it will be there, in more than 30 languages. According to Google, it has seen a rise of more than 233% in use of the phrase “how to vote” typed into the search engine. This is what prompted it to take a more direct informative approach. The numbers seen for the 2016 election have been far higher than it recorded in the 2012 victory by Barack Obama.
Additional help given for those looking for US election news can be found at Google’s voter registration page and the Google Trends Election Hub.
And there you have three ways you can keep up with US election news now and on the day of. We advise you to go and take a look at each service and decide which one best suits your needs. As with everything in life, each has their pros and cons, but ultimately they are there to be helpful and non-partisan.
Polls:
Opinions on Facebook (Feel free to comment):
For Twitter users:
So finally #ElectionDay is here, who do you think will win US Election 2016? – #ElectionFinalThoughts
— Sheeraz Raza (@SheerazRaza) November 7, 2016
