Politics & Elections Blog

Color inside the lines: New Congressional districts map

2012-05-21T11:25:00.000-07:00

The lengthy and tense redistricting process is finally wrapping up, but anyone wanting a national map of congressional districts faces the tedious task of compiling them from each state — until now! We’re excited to share this year’s U.S. Congressional districts in a single place.

Our friends at Azavea have worked hard to track and compile this data from every state, and they graciously agreed to share this product of their Cicero API to be freely used by media, campaigns, and anyone else who has use for it.

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Why is this data so hard to come by, and why did it take until now to get it? Well, the US Constitution requires rebalancing representation between the states based on population shifts, making each district within a state just about equal in population. However, each state determines how to draw new district lines. To cut a long story short, each of the 43 states with at least two Representatives uses its own process and timeline to draw and approve the lines.

This dataset features the lines for the 2012 elections. You’ll note missing data for Kansas: the lines haven’t finalized there yet, and we’ll add that data once it’s available. Also, in several states there are ongoing court challenges - should a court order a review or a change of district lines, we’ll work to reflect those changes.

With several months to go until the general election, we hope that that members of the media, developers, and others trying to understand, explain, and advocate in this political cycle, can make good use of this data.

Posted by Jesse Friedman, Google Politics & Elections Team

Tracking the French Presidential Election Results with Google Maps & Fusion Tables

2012-05-08T07:40:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday, France went to the polls for the second round of its Presidential Elections. François Hollande, the socialist leader, won the race for the French presidency with just under 52% of the votes beating the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy.

As we did for the first round two weeks ago, our results map displayed the results in real time. We used Google Fusion Tables to store the raw results data for France's 30,000+ communes/towns and 100+ departments.

We updated our Fusion Tables in real-time alongside our map, feel free to dig into the tables to create your own visualizations and tools.

Round 1 Tables: By Department and Commune
Round 2 Tables: By Department and Commune

You can also take a look at the official data from the French Ministry of the Interior here.

Posted by Steven Samorodin, Google Politics & Elections Team

Informing France’s voters for their presidential choice

2012-04-23T07:49:00.000-07:00

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

2012-04-13T12:06:00.002-07:00

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.

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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

2012-04-13T07:48:00.000-07:00

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

2012-04-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

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

The GOP Final Four

2012-03-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

While college basketball fans descend on New Orleans for the NCAA’s Final Four, another "final four" compete across the country for the Republican presidential nomination.

As the primary schedule slows down, we measured delegates and states won, YouTube views, Search interest, and Google+ fans to bring you the GOP final four. Looks like Mitt Romney leads in all categories except YouTube views and Search interest, where Ron Paul and Rick Santorum lead these respective areas.

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Posted by Natalie Vernon, Google Politics & Elections Team

Four Screens to Victory

2012-03-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

As we’ve shown through our search trends series, voters across the globe turn to Google and YouTube first to research, understand and share political views and candidates everyday. However, Google isn’t just a tool for voters. Our Politics & Elections Team has created solutions that help campaigns and candidates - up and down the ballot - organize, reach the electorate, and persuade undecided voters by connecting with them. Increasingly today, that connection with voters isn’t just happening at front doors and local coffee shops. It is happening online as voters use the Web to get involved in the issues that matter to them.

The Internet has fundamentally transformed how voters receive information on candidates and issues and has helped shift politics from a passive process to an active, participatory one. For campaigns and candidates, that means that the because of the Internet access to relevant political information no longer comes from one place--or one screen. Our recent research shows that voters - YOUR VOTERS - use an average of 14.7 sources of information to help make their candidate selection and are connected to multiple devices throughout the day (Google/Shopper Sciences, 2011).

So, whether your goal is a seat on the town council, building up support for your chosen issue, or even a race for the White House, integrated marketing efforts must engage voters across four screens: television, computers, tablets and mobile phones. Even if your goal isn’t 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but rather a seat in the State House or looking to help fix a local issue, research shows that using four screen ad campaigns are 48% more effective in driving campaign awareness and 77% more effective in driving campaign engagement.

Today, we’re launching “Four Screens to Victory” inside the Google Politics & Elections Toolkit where candidates and staff can make the web work for you. By learning how Google’s measurable solutions can win the moments that matter, campaigns can accelerate and amplify the impact of your television ads and help create a multi-platform marketing strategy that reaches voters where they spend time. With a solid strategy, a lot of hard work, and a little help from the team here at Google, we hope you and your supporters will be using your four screens - tablet, smartphone, TV and computer - to read good news on election night.

Posted by: Charles Scrase, Google Politics & Elections Team

Obamacare Spikes in Search Interest

2012-03-28T10:58:00.000-07:00

This week, the Supreme Court is presiding over what some legal experts are calling a landmark case. The nine justices will determine whether certain sections of the Affordable Care Act are constitutional. Over the last two years, Republicans and Democrats have engaged in a fierce branding war over what to call the law. While the Obama Administration has used the phrases “Affordable Care Act” and “healthcare reform,” opponents of the legislation have labeled it “Obamacare.”

We decided to take a look at the last year’s worth of Google search trends to see which label has gained the most traction. While the phrases “Affordable Care Act” and “healthcare reform” were the most-searched in early 2011, “Obamacare” has become the most common searched term of the three for 2012. We also looked at the top rising searches associated with "Obamacare."

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Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team

Obama's March Madness

2012-03-22T12:43:00.001-07:00

On March 14, President Barack Obama tried his hand at filling out a NCAA March Madness bracket. He appeared on ESPN's SportsCenter alongside Andy Katz to walk through his picks. His winner? The North Carolina Tar Heels.

How did Obama's bracket perform in terms of search interest? Turns out [Obama NCAA Bracket] was a breakout word associated with Obama. His bracket video has also seen over 67,000 YouTube views and coverage in over 2,000 news articles.

Posted by Natalie Vernon, Google Politics & Elections Team

Hanging out with the candidates

2012-03-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

In American politics, there's nothing quite so frantic or fast-paced as a presidential campaign. Short campaign stops and relentless travel schedules can make it difficult for candidates to sit down with supporters and discuss the issues. Google+ Hangouts have made that a little bit easier, providing new ways for politicians, political organizations, advocates and campaigners to connect directly over video to share information online. We're excited to see more and more politicians use tools like these to engage voters.

Later today, Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will host a Hangout with supporters on his Google+ page. Supporters will be able to ask the Governor questions about his campaign in the Hangout, or by posting them on Google+ with the hashtag #AskMitt. This hangout will kick-off a series of campaign Google+ Hangouts including all the GOP presidential candidates.

Be sure to tune into Governor Romney’s Google+ page at 2:45 PM ET to catch his live hangout with supporters.

Posted by Steve Grove, Head of Community Partnerships, Google+

How much do rising gas prices affect Google search interest?

2012-03-18T12:43:00.000-07:00

With gas prices up 17 percent since January 1, President Obama and his GOP opponents have been trading barbs over a president’s role in raising or lowering gas prices. As Republican advisor Dan Schnur put it, “Voters see gas prices up on signs every block when they drive home from work.”

We decided to take a look at nationwide search trends for the phrase [gas prices] since January 2011 and compared them to average gas prices over the same time period. We found that a rise in gas prices did cause a spike in searches, but that the volume of searches stabilized shortly afterward, even if there wasn’t a sharp drop in prices.

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Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team

The Search for President: Iowa to Alabama

2012-03-15T10:37:00.003-07:00

The battle for the GOP presidential nomination seems to be far from over. We took a look back at the primary race starting in Iowa running through last Tuesday's contests in Alabama, Hawaii, and Mississippi.

As each candidate has had his turn in the spotlight -- whether it was Santorum’s win in Iowa, Romney’s in New Hampshire, Gingrich’s in South Carolina, or Obama’s State of the Union address -- each event corresponded with a spike in nationwide search interest. In some cases, a rise in searches preceded a candidate’s win in a primary state (we recently showed Santorum leading the pack in Alabama and Mississippi searches).

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Posted by Natalie Vernon, Google Politics & Elections Team

Who's leading Google searches in Alabama and Mississippi?

2012-03-13T12:00:00.000-07:00

Today's GOP presidential primaries in the deep south are being watched closely. Recent polls have found Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney neck and neck in both Alabama and Mississippi, with Rick Santorum trailing not far behind them.

According to Google Insights for Search, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum have been the search traffic frontrunners over the last week, with Santorum leading the field in the last 2 days leading up to today's primaries. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul have wrestled for third and fourth throughout the week.

Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Politics Team

What do Google search trends tell us about Super Tuesday?

2012-03-08T09:15:00.005-08:00

Following an exciting Super Tuesday, the Google Politics and Elections team decided to look at how each Republican candidate competed in the Super Tuesday states, in the categories of states won, Google Search interest, delegates won, and percentage of votes achieved. In six of the 10 states, the candidate who received the most search interest prior to Super Tuesday also won the state.

We also compared searches for the GOP candidates with searches for President Obama, who still commands the most national interest.

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Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team

Super Tuesday: Who’s ahead and what’s at stake?

2012-03-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

Today, voters in 10 states will head to their polling places to determine the allocation of 419 delegates to the remaining four GOP candidates. Last week, Gallup released the results of a new nationwide poll that found economic and unemployment issues to be the chief concerns of most voters. Healthcare and national security ranked not far behind while social issues and immigration trailed the pack.

In the graphic below, we provided a state-by-state comparison of search trends for the candidates and issue-related keywords for the past three days. While the economy and healthcare remained paramount across all Super Tuesday states, social issues like abortion and gay marriage ranked as the third most-searched terms in seven of them. Terrorism and national security ranked third only in Alaska, North Dakota, and Vermont. Among the candidates, Mitt Romney leads in searches for six of them, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul split the rest. Ohio, the most closely-watched Super Tuesday state, is among those with Romney in the lead.

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Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team

Mapping the March to Tampa

2012-03-06T06:08:00.000-08:00

Super Tuesday has arrived! So far, 12 states have held caucuses or primaries to nominate a Republican presidential candidate in time for the RNC convention in Tampa this August. Today, 10 more states with 419 delegates at stake will get a chance to add their voices. From Alaska’s Bering Sea to the Georgia’s Golden Isles, voting will span five time zones and over 4,000 miles; by the time polling closes in Nome, AK, it’ll be 12 a.m. on the East Coast.

Our Politics & Elections team has mapped the results of every contest since Iowa, and now we’ve upgraded the visualization. The new map lets you track both the state-by-state numbers as well as the results by county, with delegate counts in addition to raw numbers and percentages from the AP. This auto-updating map will live on google.com/elections, and outlets subscribing to Associated Press election results can also embed it on their site.

We also have some other great tools to help you make sense of this year’s political scene. Our infographic gallery features Google Insights for Search data, much of which is broken down by state to make sense of regional variation. Follow the Google+ page for Hangouts on Air with prominent political reporters and daily insight. And if you just want to quickly look up how things are going, you’ll find fresh results in Google search on both desktop and mobile.

Posted by Jesse Friedman, Google Politics & Elections Team

The most-searched candidates in Super Tuesday states

2012-03-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

Next week, 10 states will determine the distribution of 437 delegates to the four remaining embattled GOP candidates. While Mitt Romney emerged from the Arizona and Michigan primaries still retaining his frontrunner status, Rick Santorum remains the most-searched candidate in 9 of the 10 Super Tuesday states over the past 30 days. Only in North Dakota does Ron Paul have the lead in searches.

We'll be posting more interesting candidate and relative search trends as we get closer to Super Tuesday.

Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team

Santorum surging in AZ, MI, and national Google searches

2012-02-28T12:58:00.000-08:00

Voters are hitting the polls today to vote in the Arizona and Michigan primaries. While most pollsters agree that Mitt Romney maintains a comfortable lead in Arizona, polls show him and Rick Santorum in a tight race in Michigan

According to Google Insights for Search, however, Santorum leads Romney in Arizona, Michigan, and national searches over the past week.

Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team

Top search trends from last night's GOP presidential debate

2012-02-23T08:36:00.000-08:00

What were Americans searching for during last night's GOP presidential debate? We monitored nationwide search trends during the two-hour event and found earmark to be the standout term of the evening.

Both earmark and the second trending term bridge to nowhere likely reference a heated discussion between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney over government spending. Other trending debate searches included Title 10 - commonly known as Title X - and Romneycare.

We also looked at search increases for the four GOP candidates. We found that Gingrich experienced the largest increase in Arizona searches during the debate, as well as the largest increase nationally. But while Gingrich saw the largest percentage increase, Santorum led in overall national searches among the four candidates, followed by Ron Paul.

Posted by Natalie Vernon, Google Politics and Elections Team

Measuring the race for First Lady with Google searches

2012-02-14T09:04:00.000-08:00

While presidential candidates are usually the main campaign trail attraction, their spouses see a fair share of the spotlight. We wondered how the leading ladies compare in Google searches.

Even though Mitt Romney leads the nation in search traffic, Newt Gingrich's wife Callista ranks first among the candidates' significant others for the last 30 days. Ann Romney comes in second, followed by Karen Santorum and Carol Paul.

Happy Valentine's Day from the Google Politics & Elections team!

Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team

Visualizing Santorum’s surge in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri

2012-02-08T13:07:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Rick Santorum swept all three primary and caucus states in his ongoing battle for the GOP presidential nomination. As the Washington Post noted, Santorum campaigned only minimally in Florida and Nevada, instead placing much of his efforts in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri, and the effort seems to have paid off.

In Google search trends for all three states, Santorum experienced a drastic surge in searches within the last 24 hours in each state. In fact, in two of the three states, Colorado and Minnesota, search trends mirrored the first and second place finishers. In the last week, Santorum searches have increased by 262% in Colorado, 515% in Minnesota, and 386% in Missouri. No other candidate achieved even half this percentage increase.

Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team

Who and what were Floridians searching for during last night's debate?

2012-01-27T07:38:00.000-08:00

Last night, the four remaining GOP candidates took the stage in Jacksonville, Florida for what was the last Presidential debate until February 22. With the Florida primary just days away and Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich neck and neck in the polls, the candidates sparred on a diverse list of topics, ranging from Romney and Gingrich’s ties to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to whether the US should establish a colony on the moon.

We at Google Politics & Elections closely monitored Florida search trends to determine which candidates and issues experienced a rise in search interest. In the first graphic below, we noted which search terms surged during the debate.

The second graphic displays which candidates experienced the strongest increase in searches over the course of the event.

Posted by Samantha Smith, Google Politics & Elections Team

In Raleigh, the Mayor-Elect Turned to the Web for the Win

2012-01-26T08:07:00.000-08:00

(From time to time we feature creative or interesting uses of our tools and ad platforms from campaigns and issue advocacy groups. These mentions and examples should not be construed as an endorsement. - Ed.)

Back in October of 2011, voters in Raleigh, North Carolina turned out and elected Nancy McFarlane as Mayor of Raleigh with 34,424 votes -- and 63,683 views on YouTube. Yep. Almost 2 video views for every vote.

As recently as 2008, online ads were largely the province of Presidential campaigns, with the Obama campaign in particular heralded for its success. In 2010, we chronicled how even more campaigns caught on to the web. Now in 2011 local candidates like McFarlane are taking advantage of new formats and targeting options on search, display, and online video to persuade voters, win the “Zero Moment of Truth” and drive turnout efforts.

Taken just last week, our South Carolina poll with Public Opinion Strategies further cements the notion that voters - of all types - are tuning in to web videos in big numbers. The data shows that more than one out of every three primary voters had watched a video online from a campaign - thus the idea of watching a web video on one's lunch break is the new 'prime time news'. It is plain to see that video on the web is not something that campaigns, up and down the ballot, can afford to ignore.

The Raleigh race - because it took place in an off-year - was expected to have low voter turnout. Sagar Sane, the campaign manager for Nancy McFarlane for Mayor decided that an added emphasis on online ads would allow the campaign to target likely voters and core demographics that they knew would be receptive to their message.

The first tool that the campaign utilized was TrueView Video Ads - a pre-roll video ad format that only became available to candidates in 2010. The McFarlane campaign was able to successfully target relevant content and audiences on YouTube--only paying when Raleigh-area voters actually chose to watch the ads, and making the format more effective and efficient for the race than broadcast or cable television could have been for the campaign.

But the campaign didn't stop with video. Beyond YouTube, they began to target sites, audiences, and specific content themes across the internet with the Google Display Network - utilizing display ads like the one pictured here above. That meant that when voters in Raleigh were reading online about local politics or looking for their polling place, they likely came across a relevant McFarlane ad. For a race that took just 34K votes to win, the McFarlane campaign ran a cost-effective digital campaign that received 3.8 million impressions on Google’ Display Network ads alone.

Google Search ads complemented this strategy, allowing the campaign to talk to voters as they researched the race and looked for information in the Raleigh area. When McFarlane won endorsements first from the outgoing mayor and then from the Raleigh News & Observer, the campaign was able to move quickly, spreading the word by bidding on local news searchers and linking directly to the endorsements, highlighting this important third-party validation.

With races all across the country heating up for the 2012 cycle, campaigns at every level are getting savvier about their online strategy. Like Nancy McFarlane, they’re utilizing new digital tactics to win the ‘Zero Moment of Truth’--and win their elections.

Posted by: Andrew Roos, Google Politics & Elections Team

Politics & Elections Blog

Color inside the lines: New Congressional districts map

Tracking the French Presidential Election Results with Google Maps & Fusion Tables

Informing France’s voters for their presidential choice

Accounting for the counties in our results map

Breaking down the walls of the convention

Primary Day in DC, MD, WI

The GOP Final Four

Four Screens to Victory

Obamacare Spikes in Search Interest

Obama's March Madness

Hanging out with the candidates

How much do rising gas prices affect Google search interest?

The Search for President: Iowa to Alabama

Who's leading Google searches in Alabama and Mississippi?

What do Google search trends tell us about Super Tuesday?

Super Tuesday: Who’s ahead and what’s at stake?

Mapping the March to Tampa

The most-searched candidates in Super Tuesday states

Santorum surging in AZ, MI, and national Google searches

Top search trends from last night's GOP presidential debate

Measuring the race for First Lady with Google searches

Visualizing Santorum’s surge in Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri

Top related searches for Romney and Gingrich in Florida

Who and what were Floridians searching for during last night's debate?

In Raleigh, the Mayor-Elect Turned to the Web for the Win