Garrett Graff, an editor at Washingtonian magazine and a former Webmaster for Howard Dean, pointed out in an op-ed in The New York Times this week the growing importance of text messaging in the presidential campaigns, particularly the Obama campaign (where even as I write this the most connected Obamiacs are awaiting news of the VP pick).  And of course around the world text messaging is being used in many countries in many ways - to quickly form protests or groups of supporters, to remind people where and when to vote, and even to target the youth demographic to raise interest in voting.  But guess what?  These examples are just the beginning of the power of text messaging.  The potential for even larger scale and more strategic uses is right in front of us.

A few examples: The use of voting reminders could be expanded substantially by using systems that ensure personal SMS message traffic won’t be impacted by the sending of 160 character voting reminders to millions of people.  And savvy campaign managers will be using embedded links in SMS messages to their candidate’s mobile internet page with more information about the platform, position on key issues, scheduled appearances, etc.

MMS also carries huge potential for political campaigns.  We will undoubtedly see video captures of photogenic political candidates delivering messages directly to their supporters, or audio reminders to ‘rock the vote’ much as the MTV medium was able to do in the past. Operators are now able to tap into demographic information, which means these messages could be tailored to a subscriber’s specific and identified interests or even their location to ensure that the message has a personal impact that only the mobile phone can offer.

I believe the most exciting potential for text messaging, however, takes place on election day itself.  Mobile messaging 2.0 holds the promise of becoming the voting booth in a handset, by enabling operators to implement the supporting infrastructure. The potential is there – Ofcom (an independent organization that regulates the UK’s broadcasting, telecommunications and wireless communications sectors) has just reported survey findings that mobile use in the UK has doubled since 2002, and that 44% of adults use text messaging every day.

What better way to tap into the popular vote than to let this vast number of people vote with their thumbs?  After all, people are paying bills online, buying goods and services, donating to charities with their mobiles…why not vote for their next president or political representative?  With mobile messaging 2.0 it’s all possible.