Midterms cause traffic surge at political websites

The weeks leading up to the midterm elections saw traffic spikes at most online political sites, according to a new report from ComScore. Traffic to political news sites was up 12 percent in October over September, thanks to the approaching November elections. The category drew 27.4 million visitors last month; online gambling sites also saw strong growth thanks to the closing of the World Series of Poker. CNN was the leader among political sites with 7.8 million visitors in October, followed by PoliticsDaily and RealClearPolitics, which saw a 79 percent jump in traffic over September. BarackObama.com also saw traffic increase dramatically, capturing the No. 4 slot in the rankings. The Economist's website rounded out the top five with 2 million visitors.