Did Social Media Just Become the Place for Election Results and Information? [OPINION]

How did you find your Michigan Primary results or information? Was it online where all your friends were hanging out posting memes? Pretty sure it was.

Gone are the days of political junkies, like myself, staying up into the wee hours of the morning watching the results come across the TV screen. This time around, I watched it all go down on Twitter and Facebook. Quite the shift of where information is coming from these days, right?

Yes, the same place where I browse cat pictures and, apparently, see what my friends are eating, was the same place I got my election results and information on the Michigan Primary. I have to say, getting my election results in a less traditional way was a great way for me to see how fast information can be filtered through. It was fast and breaking information, and it was pretty entertaining too.

At the start of the evening, there were reports coming out that polling places in Flint ran out of ballots for voters.

Of course, when I heard about this, via Facebook, I took to Twitter to get the information out. I also Googled what the rules are when a ballot shortage occurs. I felt like it was my duty to talk to as many people as possible to make sure that their vote counted and it would be all right.

After the ballot situation in Flint was resolved, I kept watching Twitter especially since it seemed that everyone was there getting election information and results or even projections out as fast as they could. It was amazing to see the amount of #MichiganPrimary posts. It was great to see even the actual campaigns getting into the conversation. I especially appreciated when the information was rolling in and fans of a particular candidate were posting memes and GIFs.

No matter if your candidate won or lost, it was great to watch everything unfold in pretty much real time from all walks of life. I'm glad that there was so much excitement about getting out, voting and paying attention to the results. I understand that this was a record breaking amount of voters who came out and voted in a primary. I am looking forward to the general election. You will find me on Twitter giggling in my own delight while trying to figure out how I can use cat memes to dispense election results.