More than one-third of Americans using the Net to get election info

Dulles (VA) - According to a recent poll conducted by the Associated Press and America Online (AOL), 35% of all Americans are going online to become more informed about the upcoming election. When looking just at people who are likely to vote, according to the poll, that number is even higher, at 43%.

The results also showed that people take advantage of the Internet features that aren’t available through more traditional outlets, when searching for and talking about election news. 24% of the polled audience have accessed a political blog to get more info, which tends to be much more biased than other news sources. Additionally, 10% spent time on message boards discussing the upcoming election.

Most interesting, though not completely surprising, is the partisan divide. According to the poll, liberals were the most likely to check online for election resources, with 51% of the polled liberals accounting for the overall participation. Those who described themselves as conservatives ranked in with only a 39% level of participation. This could also help define why Democrats seem to be the ones pushing online mediums, like YouTube, moreso than Republicans.

Other interesting conclustions from the poll included that the gender line was dominated by males. 49% of males looked up election coverage online, compared to 38% of females. Also, the under-35 crowd had a 59% level of participation. Finally, one of the most interesting results is that, even though Democrats were more likely to use the Internet to find election info, 46% of the people who did say they trust the Republican party when it comes to taxes.