I think we both agree that technology is changing communications and I believe it’s for the better.

How can you as an American possibly argue with that?”

Simple. I don’t view the world with such paranoia. Nor do I have much use for strict, dichotomous constructs.

That said, I’d much rather have an election decided by a court of exceedingly qualified individuals than a gaggle of “empowered” Twitter Vote Report volunteers. To me, the former are eminently more qualified in such matters.

-Bob

PS Readers should note that “Zeke” had the dubious distinction of being one of those whose Twitter Vote Report tweets were lucky enough to make the public datastream and avoid being ‘swept.’

You make a valid point. Ryan Jerz (who does not work for me, but is a friend and professional colleague) is indeed the author of the tweet we cited in our news release and in this post. In hindsight, I regret not disclosing that in the post and in the release (my mistake for sure). The tweet was selected from literally dozens that were irrelevant to the Vote Report from Nevada. It was chosen only because it was so absurd as to why it would be included and mine, for example, which was also full of hyperbole, was not.

It was this arbitrary selection process that piqued my interest in conducting the analysis, especially after a cursory view of the Nevada’s publicly posted tweets post-election.

And in response to the post at Louis Gray, I will, time willing, run another analysis of another state or two to see if the inconsistencies are consistent.

My bias/motivation? To throw caution in the wind when so many appear to zealously adopt these kinds of technologies without much thought. As well, playing fast and loose with data, especially by those who appear ill-trained as to the ethical handling of data, should also raise red flags — when attempting to draw conclusions from said data.

Best,
-Bob

You’re probably right about the number of data versus total voters, but then again an all volunteer effort built literally the week before the election, certainly at least showed the way in which private citizens can band together to protect voter fraud from government or media bias.

I watched your whole video about your voting day experience, and it’s pretty clear that you, sir, are the one with the bias insisting that voter intimidation doesn’t exist. Have you seen the videos from North Carolina? They were chanting people, and screaming at them not to vote for Brock Obama. The only reason we didn’t have that in Nevada was that nearly two thirds of Washoe County used the early voting program.

There were plenty of kinks in the system, but I thought it was a least interesting to see, and I don’t doubt that somewhere in some dark back room, some Board of elections supervisor is telling “his gang of election thieves” that the Internet has destroyed their ability to rig elections, as they have in the past.

How can you as an American possibly argue with that? Unless you’re in favor of stealing elections. Or maybe you’re not an American after all. It’s been known to happen.
Have a nice day

Visit me at
Zeke Says So Blog
and TWITTER

While there is no doubt that improvement could be made, I think it’s important that we look at the big picture impact that services such as this one has. The democratization of media will result in tilted results, since adoption of these services are skewed demographically. The really cool thing is how the tool brought thousands of people together, regardless of their political affiliation.

Ultimately I see twittervotereport.com as a great step in showcasing the possibilities that social tools can provide. There is need for improvement, but lets’ stay positive here. We should be encouraging fair and useful tools and not discouraging their development or use.

A great counter point to your post can be found here http://www.louisgray.com/live/2008/11/reno-bloggers-slam-twittervotereport.html

Is it true that it was your own twitter stream that the ““@DwayneH dude I love egg salad sandwiches, but liquor store is scary. downtown scarier, even. best of luck. #votereport” ” tweet was actually from Ryan Jentz of your firm? Seems interesting to me that you would bring that up.

Maybe some clarification is in order….

Did you get a chance to look at Fresh Squeezed Election Tweets?
http://anorangeamerica.com/

It’s got a great visualization of different terms people are using in election-themed tweets, and the connections between them. I’m proud of it because my employer, New Media Strategies, rolled it out for Tropicana on Tuesday morning as the polls opened.