Next Tuesday’s election has both Democrats and Republicans anxiously awaiting results to see which party will maintain or regain control the House and the Senate. Interactive maps abound on the web, but one in particular seems to be a favorite of political watchers. Electoral-vote.com was the #2 ranked website in the Hitwise Lifestyle – Politics category for the week ending October 30, 2004, and has re-emerged at #15 for the week ending October 28, 2006. Visits to the site have been steadily increasing as poll results are updated on the site.
Another favorite site of the 2006 elections has been going strong this campaign season: JibJab was ranked at #16 in the Lifestyle – Politics category for the week ending October 28, 2006. During the 2004 presidential election, it was the #6 Politics website (week ending October 30, 2004), when the flash video “This Land” spread virally over the web.

The average session time for Electoral-vote.com was 4 minutes and 52 seconds for the week ending 10/28/06. The length of time surprised me because it doesn’t look like there is much content on the site, but if you dig a little you can find straightforward information about the House and Senate races on a state by state basis. Hitwise Demographic data show that the average visitor to the site for the four weeks ending 10/28/06 was male (70.5%), aged 35-44 (37.1%) with annual incomes of $60-100K (34.7%). This is different from the average visitor to sites in the Politics category, which was 59% male and more likely to be over 45 (49.5%) during the same time period.
JibJab visitors stayed an average of 8 minutes 29 seconds during the week ending 10/28/06. Visitors were equally male and female, and were more like typical visitors to the Politics category than visitors to Electoral-vote.com, with 47.4% over age 45. Visitors to JibJab were over-represented in the group earning more than $150k per year, at 13.6% of visits. What’s interesting about JibJab is that while we think of online video as for the younger folks, this site appeals to an older, higher income audience. It’s a different type of entertainment and could provide clues for content creators and marketers looking to attract older users.