This general election will be the first that is held since the era of Facebook and Twitter. As
Mark Pack pointed out more people are now Facebook users than it takes to elect a government in the UK.
Technology will have a huge effect on the outcome of this election amongst certain groups in the electorate. Mainly the young. Although technology should never replace face-to-face campaigning (something, in my opinion, vital to holding politicians to account) it will no doubt play a large part in the 2010 general election campaign.
This throws up a huge number of problems for campaigners, political parties and the electoral commission.
Firstly imprints. How do you tweet when they imprint you may need to put on the end will possibly be longer than the total number of characters allowed. This is the same on text messages. On Facebook, where do you have to put an imprint on your page?
Personally I beleive that unless the electoral commission swiftly updates it's guidance to parties and candidates this could well end in a court case. Something that's never good for democracy.
Secondly the public expectation. Most local parties of all political persuasions are very limited in the technological skill base they can call on. Will this mean that good candidates will be overlooked by the public because they do not have a flashy website or a regularly updated Facebook page?
Thirdly there is the problem of the electoral commission policing all of these new forms of communication. Historically (even in a Lib Dem target seat!) voters will typically be directly contacted once or twice and will recieve something like 10 to 20 peices of literature during a campaign. With new technology, it is entirely possible for candidates to contact voters multiple times daily. How will the electoral commision and other parties keep track of these communications and make sure they stick to the rules?
