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Voters register their opinions online
(Dallas Morning News, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) AUSTIN, Texas _ They blogged and Twittered, MySpaced and Facebooked, Googled and Yahooed.
Voters may have gone to the polls in record numbers on Super Tuesday, but there's no question where they were when they got home.
Right in front of their computers.
"I can only think that Google is helping democracy," said Colin Delany, whose site, Epolitics.com, tracks political activity online.
Google searches were dominated by "Super Tuesday polls" and "where to vote" and "poll results" all day and all night.
Teaming up with Twitter, an online journaling tool that lets users update their "status" minute-to-minute, Google broadcast comments from users across the world on their Google Maps site and updated returns.
Twitter reported, at 9:30 p.m. EST, more than 23,000 mentions of Barack Obama in the last few days. Hillary Clinton appeared in some 11,000 _ both far ahead of John McCain, who had just over half of Mrs. Clinton's buzz.
Overseas, citizens were voting online for the first time. At home, the campaigns reportedrecord numbers of hits and being deluged with impassioned comments and debate by voters.
Facebook had its own "desk" in the ABC studios, where reporters were updating "hits" on pages all night long.
On MySpace, its rival social-networking site, some 50,000 viewers logged on to see a new Barack Obama music video by artist will.i.am in just a few hours' time.
Site reps chalked up record turnouts of youth voters in part to inspiring candidates, but also said "people-powered politics" played a huge role in youth involvement.
"Barack Obama is bigger on MySpace than U2. That's a pretty extraordinary thing," said Jeff Berman, senior vice president of public affairs.
Hi-tech played a role, too. The CREDO Mobile services, with the ONE campaign and Student Public Interest Research Groups, sent out some 20,000 texts to cell users reminding them to vote.
As networks were reporting a 3 or 4 percent increase in turnout among women nationwide, iVillage.com, one of the premiere websites for women, was alive with buzz about Mrs. Clinton.
It was clear that aside from the polls, the Internet was The Place To Be on Super Tuesday.
"You really are talking about a re-democratization of American politics," Berman said. "It's a great example of how New Media puts power in the hands of everyone."
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