Tweeting the next election meltdown

If the next presidential election goes into overtime, heaven help us. It’s gonna get ugly.

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The tweets were full of rage. As officials began to tally the results
of the tight ballots, many voters suspected fraud. After all, there had
been allegations of election misconduct before, as well as
lost-and-found votes. Trust in government officials didn’t run high. By
late in the evening, one opposition party leader came forward, accusing a
local election official of “tampering with the results.” Fears of a
political backlash rose. Soon there were even suggestions of violence.

The scene wasn’t the site of some Arab Spring-inspired revolution. It
was Wisconsin in August 2011. Wisconsin residents had just voted on
whether to recall a number of state senators, with the potential to flip
the legislative body from Republican to Democratic hands. The vote
totals were rolling in from polling places across the state, and I was
following the reaction of hundreds of political junkies tweeting about
the results using the hashtag #wirecall.

Read more at Slate.