• by Masha Geller , November 4, 2002

It’s Election Day, folks, and throughout the day, news anchors, reporters and herds of political analysts will be waxing poetic about the effects of everything from the weather to the color of the voting booth curtains on voter turnout. Unfortunately, I doubt anyone will spend any time talking about email. What does email have to do with elections, you ask? Well, according to Penn Public Affairs, up to 5 million Americans would welcome a greater participation in the electoral/political process via – you guessed it - email.

The study conducted over the last 3 months involved more than 88,000 Americans who supplied a detailed profile on their political preferences (Conservative, Liberal, Pro-Choice, Pro-Life), party preference and 10 other data points. The respondents were also given the opportunity to be contacted by organizations that share their views.

Penn revealed that of the total people surveyed, 62% indicated the desire to be contacted by major political organizations who shared their views and provided their email addresses. Moreover, according to PennMedia EVP Roy Weiss, there are probably 5 million more Americans who feel this way – “people who want to be part of the process."

Weiss also said that the phenomenon “reinforces what we saw in the 2000 Presidential election. We gave all the presidential candidates access to 5 million active online email subscribers and tens of thousands of Americans requested more information. Email communication allows politicians to reach out and, more importantly, it allows citizens to easily reach back. "

Paul Welday, Managing Director of Penn Public Affairs agreed, saying, “Many more folks would participate in the political process but they're never asked. People just don't know how to connect. It's pretty clear that those organizations that reach their constituents via email can build a much stronger community."

I think it’s safe to assume that politicians will take full advantage of email in future elections if there’s a hint of a chance it will help them win. I do wonder, however, where that would leave spam legislation…