Nov 5, 2008 7:59 pm US/Eastern
Obama Used The Net To Rock The Vote
Nationally, Obama Collected The Under-30 Vote By A 2-1 Margin
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Stephen Morton/Getty Images
"It's history, he's the first black president and first bi-racial president and I think that very much had to do with the youth vote."
Millions of young Americans, just like University of Miami freshman Asia Major, who voted for President elect Barack Obama feel connected to him by a bond forged through the internet. Major said she feels that bond.
"A day I got at least 15 to 20 text messages, phone messages and emails," said Major.
Results and exits polls show there was a big surge in voters 18 to 29 with Obama taking 68 percent of the youth vote to John McCain's 30 percent.
The Democratic presidential candidate did it by using popular websites like Youtube, MySpace and Facebook in conjunction with his own site, mybarackobama.com, which was used to organize supporters and raise funds.
"All we had to do was go online, send a message to ourmemeber and it was done like that," said Jason Stevens, with UM's Young and College Democrats. "That's why the youth vote is so big because we are really connected online and access each other that way."
The internet was so vital to Obama's campaign that once he was declared the winner, he chose to thank his online supporters first by email: "I'm about to head to Grant Park to talk to everyone gathered there, but I wanted to write to you first. We just made history."
UM Senior Laura Simon said the email meant a lot to her when she received it.
"I thought it was pretty significant and it shows how he decided to reach out to us via the internet before going to talk to all those people," said Simon.
In Florida, those who were 18-29, 61% voted for Obama and 37% for Sen. John McCain; those 30-44, 49% voted for Obama and 49% voted for McCain; in the 45-64 age group, 52% voted for Obama, and 47% voted for McCain; those 65 and older, 45% voted for Obama and 53% voted for McCain.
Moreover, when South Florida public school students cast their ballots (those children not of the legal age to vote) they, too, would have put Obama in the White House.
Of about 67,000 students who cast ''ballots'' in Broward, an overwhelming 76 percent chose Obama.
In Miami-Dade, of nearly 81,000 kids who voted, Obama won by an even greater margin: 79 percent.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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