Workshop presentation by Jesslyn Landgren, GEEMaP Trainee: Revealing spatiotemporal patterns in voting behaviors through Twitter: the 2014 midterm elections in Atlanta, Georgia

October 17, 2015 - 12:00am
University of Iowa

Landgren Talk

Revealing spatiotemporal patterns in voting behaviors through Twitter: the 2014 midterm elections in Atlanta, Georgia

by Jesslyn Landgren

Geotagged tweets and other forms of spatial social media data have the potential to inform research questions in social science fields. This study uses geotagged tweets to detect patterns of voting behaviors occurring in Fulton County, Georgia, on Election Day, November 4, 2014, for the US midterm election cycle. To determine spatial patterns of engagement and participation in the electoral process, the results of analysis of Twitter activity were normalized using odds ratio methods to show the amount of election-related tweeting normalized by the background level of Twitter activity. The spatial distribution of these odds ratios are compared to demographic distributions among registered voters in the county and the distribution of voter turnout.

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