Washington, the home of Microsoft and lots of technosavvy people, has been called the nation’s most “wired” state (doubly so with all that java!).  We’re seeing that in campaigns and elections, too.  Last year was the launch of online voter registration (Washington is one of only two states that allow this, AZ being the other.) Candidates can file online, in their jammies at 2 a.m. if they wish. The state and some counties have online Voters’ Pamphlets, and TVW guides are online as well. 

One of these days, we’ll surely be allowed to vote online, just like we buy records and cars and aardvarks online and do our banking and bill-paying and even mate-finding online.  It’s still a tough sell in the Capitol. A move to allow the Secretary of State to run an ultra-secure pilot project with military and overseas voters ran into a brick wall in Olympia this session.

Comes now a new report from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center that says three-quarters of Internet users went online during the big 2008 campaign cycle to get election news and information about how to take part. Fully 59 percent said they shared or received e-mail, IM, texting or Twitter tweets dealing with election.