Voters angered, excited by political posts on social media - KAIT-Jonesboro, AR-News, weather, sports

Voters angered, excited by political posts on social media

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JONESBORO, AR (KAIT) – If you decided to skip Tuesday night's presidential debate, chances are you still heard all about it on various social media sites. 

Twitter even estimates the debate spurred about 7.2 million tweets.

The political posts have become so unavoidable that some users have considered dropping off the social media map until the election is over, but others actually like the back-and-forth.

"I need to know who I'm voting for and why I'm voting," said Ivory Beasley, a student at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.

Beasley is just months into her second year of college, but on November 6, she will get to vote in a presidential election for the very first time.

"I was talking to my sister, she's really big into politics," Beasley said, "and she got me to watch the debate because she was like an uneducated vote is a wasted one and so I started thinking about that. I was like I am going to watch the debate."

She has tuned in twice to see President Obama verbally spar with Governor Romney and has kept a close watch on her Twitter timeline during the debates.

"When people comment, it's like stuff that I didn't notice, and it's kind of like your own personal commentary," she said. "It's like, oh yeah, that is a good point."

Beasley says the commentary can also turn comical.

For instance, Romney's response went viral Tuesday after saying he was presented "binders full of women" when striving to find more women to fill out his Cabinet as governor of Massachusetts.

That comment lit up social media, spawning more than 104,000 tweets per minute, according to the Twitter Government page. It also created dozens of parodies that have only grown more popular hours after the debate.

"I thought that [comment] was kind of odd," said Sharanda Crews of Jonesboro when asked about her thoughts on the "binders full of women" quip.

"He could've worded that a little bit better."

Crews avoided Facebook during the debate Tuesday night because of people's personal attacks against the two candidates.

Instead, she relies on Twitter for a few laughs and to keep track of what the president and his challenger are saying.

"I like reading about all the serious stuff of the debate," Crews added, "but I want some humor to kind of ease up."

She, however, still remains undecided with less than three weeks left until the election.

Perhaps the next debate will change her mind or at least create some fodder online when President Obama and Governor Romney meet for the last time on Monday, October 22.

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