A supporter sends a photo on his mobile phone during a campaign rally for U.S. President Barack Obama at Loudoun County High School in Leesburg, Virginia.
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Just how much will the mobile revolution affect the 2012 vote? It is too early to tell, but since the 2010 midterms, a wave has been building. According to a Pew study, 14% of American adults used their cell phones in that year to tell others they had voted, and 12% of adults used phones to keep up with political news; the Romney and Obama campaigns are determined to get those numbers higher. The larger question is whether all this new technology is changing politics in a broader sense, altering and facilitating the way Americans engage in self-governance. The answer to that could be as important as the outcome of the 2012 election itself.