What makes this election so much different than in the past? Our failing economy? The fact that outcome of the election will make history in our American textbooks? What makes this election much more different than in previous years is the usage of social media.

Read any blog, political or not, and the blogger is discussing the impact of the election. Twitter and its http://election.twitter.com streams microblogging and constantly updates when someone tweets about the election. What to know what people really think is going on during the debate? Go on the Twitter election website and watch along side. The access to other people’s views is simply a click away. Last week, Media Bullseye Roundtable discussed how NPR has called for Twitterers to live-fact-check the debates and bloggers are regularly featured in the networks’ election coverage.

Senator Barrack Obama has fully developed social media in his campaign for President. He tweets on twitter, sends text messages, sends daily e-mails , updates his blog, has RSS feeds on his website and has a Facebook page. He is connecting in a multifaceted way to voters. BusinessWeek featured an article by Auren Hoffman that examined how Obama used social media tools to ask for more than just donations and votes. He’s asking for community involvement , asking for registered people on his site to help out whether it be to call three voters in a swing state or dig an article.

Obama’s social media campaign has also sparked his opponent to take similar action. John McCain tweets as well, has a facebook page, an impressive blog and RSS feeds. This change to use social media is changing the way campaigns are reaching voters. The race to the White House isn’t the only race full of social media. Many politicians and supporters have been using social media to reach out to voters.

The real result of this election will lie in the role that social media did actually play. Will younger voters, those being targeted in social media campaigns, come out and vote? Will Obama’s text message on November 4 to tell voters to vote work? How will next elections be changed because of this ’08 race? I’m watching, reading my text messages and http://election.twitter.com and waiting for the result in 21 days.

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