Election Night 2012

Wednesday, 7 November 2012

One hundred million votes and 31 million Tweets later, Election Day 2012 has come to a close. As the results of the election were called by news organizations, the conversation about the election on Twitter surged, hitting a peak of 327,452 Tweets per minute (TPM). Before President Obama took the stage to address the nation, he shared a special update on Twitter. As thousands of supporters cheered in Chicago, more than 455,000 (and counting) retweeted his celebratory message:

While the announcement of results was the biggest moment of the election cycle, there were many other notable Twitter moments tonight:

  • 327,452 TPM - 11:19pm ET - Networks call Obama’s reelection
  • 85,273 TPM -11:12pm ET - IA presidential race called
  • 69,031 TPM - 9:33pm ET - PA and WI presidential races called
  • 65,106 TPM - 8:03pm ET - Polls close in various states; AP calls races for IL, CT, ME, DC, DE, RI, MD, MA

As international leaders tweeted diplomatic messages directly to @BarackObama, Twitter also provided a glimpse into global politics:

Since the campaign cycle unfolded on Twitter, it’s only fitting that for candidates nationwide, the journey also culminated here. After the votes were tallied, the candidates came to Twitter to share their final campaign Tweets. And so we’ll wrap things up by letting them speak for themselves.

Posted by Adam Sharp (@AdamS)
Head of Government, News, & Social Innovation