a result, we're focused on ensuring that those who are eligible to vote know where they can cast their ballots and, if they wish, share the fact that they voted with their friends." Twitter Political reporters were quick to label the 2012 election the "Twitter Election," for the outsized role they expected the short-messaging social network to play, and they weren't disappointed, with campaigns using it to rally supporters and advertise as reporters, political junkies and users of all occupations tweeted their hearts out during the debates . But Twitter itself sought to offer election features above and beyond the chatter that users were already contributing. In early August , the website launched the Twitter Political Index , or "Twindex," a collaboration with social analytics firm Topsy designed to measure on day-to-day basis Twitter's overall "sentiment," positive or negative, about President Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The sentiment is represented as a numeric score that goes up or down day-to-day depending on whether more people tweeted positive or negative comments about either candidate. In addition, since it was updated in late October , the Twindex has allowed interested users to see a history of the sentiment about the candidates going back to May, and separately, to see total mentions in tweets of particular political topics -- energy and the environment, the economy, gay rights, etc -- over the past 30 days. In early November, Twitter launched another tool -- the Political Engagement Map, which ranks what Twitter considers