Midterm elections are historically less popular than their presidential counterparts, but they’re gaining speed on social media, reports the Pew Research Center.
Pew’s latest study indicates that more than twice as many registered voters have been active on social media regarding the 2014 midterm elections as compared to 2010 midterms.
For example, about 16% of voters now follow candidates, political parties or elected officials on social media, compared to just 6% four years ago. Granted, 16% is a pretty small slice of the pie, but it’s still a 10% hike.
According to a Pew Research tweet, voters are most likely to follow political figures on social media in order to learn about political news first (41%) and feel more connected to candidates and political parties (35%). However, votes don’t necessarily believe they’re getting the least biased news from political figures—40% find it to be “less reliable” than traditional news.
See also: Twitter Demystified: How To RT, MT, #FF And Fave Like A Pro
On Tuesday, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr all highlighted features to encourage social media users to vote. Clicking on Tumblr’s custom election logo prompts users to find their polling place. Facebook put up a midterm elections dashboard last month, and Tuesday provided a widget that easily lets users update their status to show contacts that they’ve voted. Twitter launched an election page last week where users could determine which election discussions are most buzzworthy on Twitter.
Photo by Eunice
