Gender Differences in Voter Reporting on Facebook

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Facebook has launched a special tool for Election Day that tracks (in real time) who is reporting their votes on the social network. Interestingly, throughout the day thus far, women have reported voting at nearly twice the rate of men (see screenshot below taken just after 1:00 PM PDT). This difference could mean any number of things, but the two most salient conclusions are either that women are voting in greater numbers than are men, or that women are reporting having voted on Facebook more than men are. Facebook is unlikely to provide (because it doesn’t have) the information necessary to support one of these conclusions over the other, but the degree of difference is remarkable.

Relatedly, a Pew Study found that earlier today 22% of voters have revealed their choices online.