bytes and ballots

That's according to Bush media advisor Mark McKinnon, who made that argument during a recent panel discussion at Harvard. More detail is provided by the National Post, in this article.

Here's more:

"In 2000, we had no BlackBerrys but the Democrats and Al Gore did," he said Saturday during a select panel discussion sponsored by Harvard's Shorenstein Foundation.

"In fact, Gore was on his way to the podium in 2000 to give his defeat speech and got a message on his way which told him not to concede. Because of the BlackBerry technology, we had a recount in 2000," he said.

Such technology, combined with blogs, the Internet and a decline in quality journalism, has changed politics, he added. "One button can be pushed and your message, both 30 seconds or 20 minutes, can go to six million in two seconds. Punch it again and it can go to 18 million," he said.

Also making a difference is the noisiness of the blogosphere and hundreds of media outlets. But the development represents both good and bad news. Voters are bombarded with ever-shallower information but also with the opportunity to obtain more in-depth information. "We still use the 30-second commercial, but now we can use the larger-format video. Interested people can view videos that deal with issues and candidates in depth. They can hear and watch the speeches," he said.

Voters can correspond with candidates. For the first time, roughly 23% of U.S. Senators have blogs, along with many Congressmen in this election.

I've not done a survey myself, but it would be interesting to compile a list of exactly which Senators are now using blogs --- and which are using blogs in a year (and then in two years). Not to mention what they are writing about on their blogs!