The big day has finally arrived, and a palpable tension hangs in
the air as engaged citizens, politicians and activists wait to
see how the arguments, donations, ads, Tweets, forwards, viral
videos and messaging they have pushed for so many months
translate into votes. The events of US Election Day will
determine who leads the most powerful country in the world, but
it will also serve as a lesson as to how big (or small) and
impact the Internet has actually had in shaping the election.
While national polling shows the candidates in a statistical
tie, state-by-state numbers gives US President Barack Obama an
edge in the electoral college . But what is the state of the
race online? By a variety of measures, Obama has outdone his
Republican rival Mitt Romney in the e-campaign. If the US
president loses, it could prove that the Internet has not yet
come of age as the tool of political persuasion, a possibility
already supported by two facts. For one, in a $2 billion
campaign, the two sides have spent less than a