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Election Day emotion tracker: share your feelings, and we’ll tell you where you stand with others

You’re probably not alone.


The 2016 presidential election has been one of the most polarizing political cycles in recent history, and the effects have Americans stressing out, regardless of political party. One recent survey found that a slight majority of Americans (52 percent) say this election "is a very or somewhat significant" source of stress in their lives.

So today, we’re tracking how you’re dealing with it all. Tell us how you’re feeling, and we’ll grid your emotion by its level of happiness and intensity. You’re limited to submitting one reaction an hour, so come back at the top of every hour to see how your reactions line up with others’. We’ll also tell you the most popular emotion of the hour, as well as how many other people are feeling the way you do.

We'll save your reaction in your browser so you can track how you're feeling all day — and so we can see how emotions vary over the course of what promises to be a very tumultuous day. (This won't work if you switch browsers or are viewing the site in incognito mode.)

How does this work?

How do we know where to grid your emotions? We're using a publicly available dictionary of words rated by their emotional valence — i.e., whether they evoke positive or negative feelings — and arousal, or how intense the word is. These dictionaries are commonly used for emotion research and sentiment analysis.

With that, go ahead and chart your feelings — maybe it will even help you feel a bit better.


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