Many of you may have already heard that Pat Lamarche (Green Independent Gubernatorial Candidate in Maine) has launched a major cell phone campaign around the issue of getting out the vote. She is the first candidate to seriously do this.

Last night she harnessed the power of the mobile medium once again. At last night's debate at the University of Maine, Pat asked the audience in her closing statement to use their cell phones to vote for who they think won the debate. "Using your mobile phone" she stated, "text 'pat' to 30644."

Those that did received a text message ballot back asking them to reply with the corresponding number of the candidate they thought won the debate.

This is the first time an instantaneous poll has been taken using "American Idol" style voting techniques in a political campaign.

But U.S. Cellular and Unicel customers were sadly left out. Those cell phone services do not have access to contests such as "American Idol" and this debate query.

Nevertheless, within minutes, over 100 people had voted. By 8:00 this morning, 220 votes had been received. The totals were as follows:

LaMarche 120 votes, 54%

Baldacci 44 votes, 20%

Woodcock 28 votes, 13%

Merrill 16 votes, 7%

NaPier 12 votes, 6%

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Total = 220 votes

Voting continues into the afternoon as the debate was aired again on the Radio.

"Generation TEXT" voters who do not have or use a land line are routinely left out of supposedly scientific polls that are used by many polling operations. This poll, by comparison, measured the opinions of those who watched the debate, decided to vote, and had cell phone technology and skill. The results show that, when approached and encouraged to participate, mobile voters enthusiastically respond.

The LaMarche campaign is thrilled by the active participation of Maine voters, both young and old alike. Based on the high volume of traffic on www.pat2006.com, word on the street, and now this cell phone poll, Pat LaMarche is on course to be the next governor of Maine.

In the interest of disclosure I am the mobile manager for the campaign in cooperation with Rights-Group.

For more information visit the Pat Lamarche Website at http://www.pat2006.com

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Technorati Tags: elections, lamarche, mobile, pat

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