On election night, a huge group of my friends taxied, bused, and brought our celebration of Barack Obama’s victory to the White House lawn.

The impromptu late night party was sparked by text — creating an exuberant flash mob of sorts. It is somewhat fitting that SMS should welcome our 44th President to the nation’s Capitol.

Without mobile technology, Obama would not have mustered up 53% of the popular vote that sent him to the White House.  Pivotal in this large margin was the huge youth vote turnout (ages 18-29), an estimated 21.6 – 23.9 million voters (up 2.2 million from 2004) of which  PEW Research finds 66% supported Obama.

Mobile Millennials Rocked the Vote!

Obama’s new media campaign engaged this demographic like never before.  According to PEW Research, 46% of Americans used wireless, e-mail or the Internet to engage and reach out to other voters in this election. Civic engagement, much of it youth, was harnessed by Obama’s text messaging campaign and implementation of new media technologies.

The Obama iPhone app fused mobile and social media with the “call a friend” feature encouraging wireless users to contact friends in battleground states and offering them real-time mobile access to issues.  In addition to the iPhone app, the “vote early” campaign encouraged early action at the polls.

The Politico aptly sums it up:  “never in post-war American politics have youth voted so differently than other generations as they did in 2008.”

I hate to say I told you so, but I thought as much in my August post “The Silence of the Mobile Millennial.” A majority of youth (and minority) voters were unrepresented in landline polls that exclude cell-only users.  The neck in neck presidential race was not so close — leading to the virtual landslide on November 4th.

Obama’s election brings not only a new political campaign, but a new interactive government.

His administration’s transition website, change.gov, promises continued interactivity with the electorate and hopefully brings an era of transparency with it.

According to the site, Obama will let citizens comment on non-emergency policies before he signs them. One can only speculate as to how he will use the vast database of texting, email and social networks (such as the still active mybarackobama.com) to engage the electorate.

FDR had the radio, JFK had TV, and Obama has mobile.  Previously, the electorate could see and hear their president.  Today, they can reach out to him AND they just might hear back!

I am very excited about where this could take American Democracy and our government.

What do YOU think?