April 30, 2009 (FinancialWire) (Cross Border: U.S. India News Wrap) - How is voter choice impacted by Google (NYSE: GOOG), BBC, Nokia (NYSE:NOK), T-systems, Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM)? Their technology has found its way into the oldest, most complex and widespread of society’s mechanisms: political elections.

Over 55% of adults in the U.S. used the Internet to participate in the 2008 U.S. general elections. Usage varied from candidate research, online political news, online debates over politically sensitive topics across a variety of tools including blogs, Facebook and content share applications. President Obama’s has been a post- digital election with the democrats intensifying their campaign through the internet. Surveys find that 26% of Obama’s supporters were active on the Internet as opposed to 15% of McCain’s.

Proliferation Of Technology Into Politics

This year India’s general elections have experienced a decidedly digital flavor. Online voter registration, political advocacy campaigns, candidate profiles and discussion groups have been web supported. The use of a million electronic voting machines has also made the 2009 elections one of the world’s largest digital elections.

What this means for the average Indian, is that the election process has become much more transparent and accessible. The objective of these promotions has been encouraging tech-savvy, first-time voters.

One of the country’s largest political contender groups, the BJP has launched an online ad campaign and is also reaching out to mobile subscribers through text messaging. Technology is being applied by state election commissions for effective management as well. The Election Commission in Bangalore distributed GPS enabled mobile handsets costing around US$600 per set to sector officers across the state of Karnataka. These handsets will help the officers mobilize to sensitive polling areas where ballots were being cast. They also allow uploading newspaper and TV clippings.

The election commission is now readying the system for introduction across the country with the possibility of feeding hourly information on voting percentages.

The dynamics of these strategies are especially significant in a democracy like India, which apart from being the worlds largest, has a median population age of 25 and over 70% of its population is under age 40. Three of the largest citizen mobilization and political advocacy campaigns have been sponsored by some of the largest corporate houses in the country, the Tata’s (Jagoo Re), Birla (My Idea) and newsgroup Times of India (Lead India).

India’s mobile phone penetration grew 25 times from 10 million subscribers in 2002 to 250 million in 2008. It also had around 50 million internet users as of 2008. Global corporates are collaborating with local partners capitalizing on the election bandwagon with Google establishing the Google Elections India Centre, in partnership with local newspaper Hindustan Times.

Taking Digital Politics To The Next Level

In the U.S., the national election technology council is debating the use of open source technology and its application in the voting systems of the country. Mobile technology was also recently utilized in the African national elections for compiling pre election analysis from across the country.

Hardware manufacturers are looking for better ways to collaborate with service providers to facilitate a host of VAS services along with GPS, which are expanding into newer markets. In a progressively technology savvy world, the use of digital technology opens limitless possibilities for standardization and specialization, perhaps sprouting a new wing of multibillion dollar business for technology companies to cash into.

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