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What Kentucky Googled This Election

Earlier today, we introduced you to this awesome ProPublica / Google News Lab map that showed spikes in Google Search terms related to voter issues.

Now that polls have closed, check out what Kentuckians searched for as the Election Day progressed:

Morning 344% spike in searches for Long Wait Times in Mount Washington 517% spike in searches for Long Wait Times in Mount Washington

Afternoon 433% spike in searches for Long Wait Times in Pioneer Village 500% spike in searches for Long Wait Times in Versailles 380% spike in searches fro Voting Machine Problems in Sadieville 350% spike in searches for Provisional Ballots in Massac

Evening 347% spike in searches for Long Wait Times in Covington 633% spike in searches for Long Wait Times in Leitchfield 329% spike in searches for Long Wait Times in Covington

Read more about how this map works.

The election-based Google Trends map used historic data — from the 2012 election, Super Tuesday 2016 and early voting 2016 — to determine normal search traffic for the following categories:


  • Provisional ballots status
  • Long wait times at polling stations
  • Inactive voter status
  • Voting machine issues
  • Voter intimidation at polling places

When searches traffic for these categories rose above “normal” levels, it showed up on the map as a color-coded dot. The size of the dot indicates how abnormal the search traffic volume was. Larger dots meant more abnormal traffic.

 

KyCIR is one of hundreds of newsrooms across the country partnering with ProPublica for its  Electionland project. Electionland aims to seek out and scrutinize any problems at the polls that prevent voters from participating in the 2016 election.

You can follow us on Twitter for updates from across Kentucky. Electionland will be providing nationwide updates on Twitter and online. Read more about the project here.

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