The Pew study found that only 20% of 18- to 29-year-olds are using the Internet as a regular resource for news about campaigns, whereas 42% of that same demographic relied on the Internet for campaign news in 2008. As the youngsters of America have used the Internet less for campaign news this election year, the 30- to 49-year-old demographic have been using the Internet more than in 2008 as a way to get learned with the campaign news. Overall, though, most Americans are now getting their campaign news from cable news networks (because that’s always so fair and balanced).

Given that the drop in the 18-29 demographic is so precipitous yet the 30-49 group continued to increase, I wonder if part of that shift could be owed to the fact that people who were in the 18-29 demographic in 2008 simply aged into the 30-49 demographic for 2012. If that were the case, then that would also open up the possibility that young people these days, they just don’t really care about the election (yet).

Party affiliation didn’t appear to be a determining factor among Americans who rely on cable networks for campaign news as 45% of Republicans, 41% of Democrats, and 37% of independents all choose cable television over any other sources included in this survey. What’s amusing is that 57% of conservative Republicans claim that there is “a great deal of media bias.” Someone should send out a newsletter to these tinfoil hat-wearing bugbears and inform them that just because a news station isn’t FOX News doesn’t necessarily mean it’s biased.

As for the prowess of social networking sites, Pew’s survey revealed that “very few” Americans are relying on these sites as a means to learn about candidates. Only 6% of Americans said they regularly learn about a campaign through Facebook, whereas only 2% said the same about Twitter. Pew explains, “This partly reflects the fact that these social networks are not used at all by large numbers of Americans.”

Ironically, I wonder how many of these cable news stations are now relying on social media to fetch news stories. Could be a filter effect happening there, or it could simply be that Americans aren’t yet acclimated to social networking sites as a feed for their news (nor may they ever get to that point).

It’s peculiar that cable news and the Internet have both leveled off since 2008. Pew found that 40% of Americans under 50-years-old say they regularly or sometimes learn about a campaign from Facebook. For those 50 and over, only 24% name social networking as a regular source. Given that it’s only January and the long winter of the Republican primary doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon, it’ll be curious to watch if these levels of engagement with cable news and the Internet for campaign news changes as the calendar pages flip closer and closer to November.

Experian Hitwise has some interesting information concerning the candidates, but whether or not it could actually predict the primary winner is up in the air. According to their research, Mitt Romney is leading in Florida – if you go by visits to his official website.

Hitwise looked at all four candidates’ sites and gauged traffic from people in the state of Florida. They determined that Mitt Romney received the most total visits from the state for the four weeks ending January 28th.

Romney has received the most visits from Floridians for three straight weeks, but Florida isn’t exactly on the same page as the nation as a whole. During the week ending January 28th, Newt Gingrich’s site actually got the most traffic nationwide.

Obviously, visits to official websites don’t directly translate to votes, but it does show who Floridians have been the most curious about in the month of January. Who knows, once Florida voters found what they were looking for on Romney’s site, it might have pointed them in a different direction. We’ll have to wait until the official primary results roll in to see if web traffic is an accuratel predictor of election results.

You can track those results live, county by county with Google’s Politics & Elections dashboard.

This sort of scene had been – and would yet be – repeated with different players in the roles in almost every election. Sometimes the Democrats would head home, sometimes the Republicans. But, this time was different. You see, at the time Carter’s concession was announced, the polls were still open on the west coast of the U.S. In fact, they were not due to close until 11:01 P.M. EST.

Democratic Congressmen Al Ullman of Oregon and James Corman of California were outraged. Upon hearing of Carter’s defeat, voters standing in poll lines or on their way to vote threw up their hands and returned home without voting. Ullman and Corman lost their election bids to their Republican opponents. And Carter was blamed.

For reasons such as this, Canada has had a law in place since 1938 that prevents the early transmission of election results. The law was upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada in 2007. The fine for violating the law was a maximum of $25,000 (Canadian, which is about $500 less in U.S. dollars, but still stings).

In 2000, Paul Bryan, a software designer, posted election results from one end of Canada on his blog while the polls were yet open in other areas. He fought the case all the way to the Supreme Court and lost.

But many, including the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, think the whole law is ludicrous. Despite the warning example of Carter, the PM points out that:

“Those with telephones could get the information from their aunt Mabel living in Toronto. With Internet access, you could get the results internationally from ‘Yahoo.’ And those with satellite TV could get the results from American networks like CNN or ABC, and even from the government’s own CBC satellite news service!”

The current Conservative government in Canada has been determined to do away with the outdated law and says that the next elections will be free of its draconian shadow.

In Canada, the decision was seen as a “bowing to Twitter and Facebook”. Many see it as a practical implementation, getting rid of an unenforceable law – something designed in the 20th century that just doesn’t fit in the 21st.

But, others fear the same thing those Democrats suffered from Carter.

Apparently, God has told Pat Robertson who the next President will be, but Pat isn’t talking.

Predicting the outcome of elections, especially U.S. Presidential elections, is big business. Everyone gets in on it. And if you have an opinion that you can spout in 3-second soundbites, 24-hour news channels will put you in a little box next to another guy in a similar box who disagrees with you and will let you duke it out.

"Oh, can u tell me who the next Pres, is gonna b?! 'Cuz that would b some useful information!"

But, what if there was a way to track people’s opinions and more accurately predict their behaviors when voting? Well, that’s the Holy Grail, isn’t it? That’s what polling is all about. But, that only ever gets us so far, especially in the U.S. where the ever-present and ever-in-the-majority “undecided” voter gets all the effort and attention from every candidate.

Enter Facebook. And Twitter. And YouTube.

Two websites, Sociagility and AllFacebook, have analyzed metrics from those three sites in the days leading up to the Iowa Caucus. According to their analyses, only Facebook metrics would have predicted the right outcome.

AllFacebook’s approach, in particular, tallied Facebook “likes” and “talking about” information for each candidate, the idea being that, the ratios of how much candidates were being discussed and “liked” were an indicator of their position in the eventual caucus outcome. Let’s collapse their chart a bit and look at Facebook, the only social media outlet in their study that came close to predicting the outcome correctly.

It is an interesting after-the-fact analysis of a single event. But the data they have tallied leads to some other questions when compared to the final outcome.

For example, one huge hole in the election results in terms of Facebook activity is Rick Santorum. He finished in a statistical tie with front-runner Mitt Romney. But his Facebook activity was outrageously down compared to other candidates. In fact, the only candidate trailing Santorum in Facebook mentions and likes was Huntsman.

The final caucus tally put the candidates in this order:

1) Romney
2) Santorum
3) Paul
4) Gingrich
5) Perry
6) Bachmann
7) Huntsman

If one had looked at Facebook metrics as a predictor, the race would have been forecast as:

1) Romney
2) Paul
3) Bachmann
4) Gingrich
5) Perry
6) Santorum
7) Huntsman

Romney’s lead, or at least a top-three finish, was predicted widely. Ron Paul finishing in the top three was also commonly expected. It is generally acknowledged that Huntsman would be dead last no matter what (for now). So, that left huge questions about the other four candidates. All we really had to go on was the current direction of their inertia in media and popular culture.

And that is what I think we get out of looking at the Facebook data. It is a peek at who is talking, but not about what they are saying. And, for Facebook particularly, we need to look at the quality and content of what is being said.

Bachmann was being talked about a lot. But, there are tons of crazy-eyed Bachmann photos being traded around. She made outrageous statements and gaffes almost daily. She was a walking joke. And Facebook trades jokes.

What about Santorum and his conspicuous absence from Facebook activity? Well, what do you get when you Google “Santorum”? And who wants that kind of NSFW material being passed around with kids all over Facebook? Who wants to explain anal froth? Let’s just not talk about it, shall we?

Huntsman doesn’t have much in the way of controversy or gaffes. He hasn’t been much of a topic of conversation since he admitted that he actually listens to scientists.

Perry, Gingrich and Bachmann all have two things in common: 1) they all have said things that are worth poking fun at, and 2) they were all three on their way down.

What this all adds up to is that “talking about” and even “likes” do not add up to favorability. They simply mean activity. Herman Cain is not even in this race anymore. He’s gone away quietly. But if he showed up on Maury tomorrow for a paternity test, he’d be charting on Facebook again. How would that skew the election analysis? Perhaps analysis of this type should not be done by some campaign consultant, but by your average Redditor.

In the end, elections are complex things. People build careers around analyzing and advising on the topic, just like jury selection specialists. There are social factors, religious factors, racial factors, economic factors, etc. Candidates are advised on which tie to wear, how to smile, what to eat. It extends into legislation and activities that will hopefully affect future election results through re-districting, ballot initiatives, voter fairness/suppression.

Facebook and that ilk tells us what we talk about. And, usually, it just ends up being cats. Now, if Jon Huntsman started doing funny stuff with cats in public before the New Hampshire Primary…

Google News now features an Elections section on its homepage which, like all other Google News sections, will attempt to feature the most recent and important stories about the volatile political season.

In Google News’ standard homepage (non-personalized), the Elections section will appear just below the Health section, according to the Google News team.

The new Google News homepage section is just one of many ways Google is attempting to keep internet users in the know this year. The aforementioned Google Politics & Elections hub charts the hottest news surrounding the campaign, as well as search trends, mentions tracking, and specific subcategories for each candidate. The site is also a place to see recent election results, for instance Tuesday night’s Iowa Caucus results.

And remember, YouTube Politics still compiles all the best political videos, whether they be news, parodies, or user-submitted rants.

A new site looks at choosing a political candidate like choosing a significant other. It’s all about finding your perfect match.

OkCandidate uses the OkCupid matching algorithm to set you up with the candidate of your dreams. But instead of asking you questions about your ideal eye color, height, and favorite movies, OkCandidate asks you about hot-button political issues like abortion, gay marriage, and immigration.

In order to determine your political match from the nine options (President Obama and eight GOP contenders), OkCandidate asks you a few questions about each subject. The matching algorithm wants to know how you personally feel about the issue, what stances you would accept from a candidate and how important the issue is to you. You have the option to elaborate on your answer or skip an question that you don’t want to respond to:

After about 10 or so questions, you’ll receive a compatibility score for each person:

OkCandidate was developed during the NYTimes’ 2011 TimesOpen Hack Day earlier this month.

Although it is suggested that voters do a little more research on their own regarding candidates’ positions before making any final determinations, it is certainly fun to see what candidates you match well with, using an OkCupid algorithm. It also helps that we have such a wide array of handsome candidates to choose from. Well, mostly.

Republican presidential candidates are not only taking to social media, but the social network of the hour, with Google+. And they’re not only taking to Google+, they’re utilizing hangouts. An update on the Special Report (the Fox News program) Google+ Page says:

On November 15, Bret Baier will begin the first in a series of Google + Hangouts with Governor Mitt Romney. Throughout the weeks leading up to Election 2012, Bret will moderate a Hangout with each of the GOP presidential candidates and several members of the public.

On that note, here’s an interview we did with Hugh Hewitt at BlogWorld last week discussing the impact of social media on the Presidential race:

Special Report has 2,106 followers on Google+. It will be interesting to see how this news is able to boost the follower count.

The Hangouts feature has been one of the clear stand-outs of Google+ since its launch, when comparing the social network to Facebook and Twitter. Recently, Google made Hangouts even better, with the addition of mobile Hangouts, Hangouts on Air, and Hangouts with Extras.

In fact, Hangouts are likely to be a highly engaging feature of Google+ Pages moving forward, and will no doubt be used by all kinds of businesses and celebrities.

The service proved to be accurate and turned into almost a spoiler service for the show. Because it became quite popular, Likester founder and president Kevin McCarthy began thinking about what else he could do with the technology. In the end, he came up with a social media platform called Likester Lists that allows users to track Facebook Likes based on a particular topic on a daily basis for free.

“Likester Lists is a platform that allows you to track the daily Likes that anything in the Facebook universe is receiving,” he said.

In a nutshell, the platform is an ongoing poll that calculates new data daily. There are other services that provide a similar service, but many of these charge for their data. Anyone can create a List, and once you do, Likester creates a dashboard that organizes all your Lists with images, links, and more.

For example, one List that already exists is “Who’s Winning the Shoe Wars?” Although some people might speculate that Nike receives the most Likes, it does not. It does bring in a few thousand Likes each day, but Converse brings in 20,000 Likes on average daily.

“What’s popular on a Net basis in the Facebook universe is not necessarily what’s popular on an ongoing basis,” said McCarthy.

Because Facebook’s Like data has grown to be tremendously valuable, McCarthy believes that Likester Lists will be beneficial to both general “for fun” users as well as professional users. He also sees the platform being extremely useful in the upcoming election season.

“In 6 months, I would bet that the political world is going to realize what Likester is onto here,” he said.

Likester has plans to create animated heatmaps that show the likes for each candidate in blue and red. This service is likely to really influence the election season because, as McCarthy pointed out, polls have a lot of flaws in them, but a Like analysis is purely data driven.

Could you see Likester shaking up the political scene during the upcoming elections? Let us know.

The former Governor of Utah and U.S. Ambassador to China under the Obama administration joins a crowded field already populated with names like Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann. Huntsman is now the second person of Mormon faith to enter the Republican primary field.

His connection to the Obama administration is thought by many to be a hindrance to his campaign, considering the strong anti-Obama feelings held by many Republican voters. Today, in his speech in New Jersey backdropped by the Statue of Liberty, he addressed his service under the current President -

He and I have a difference of opinion on how to help the country we both love. But the question each of us wants the voters to answer is who will be the better President; not who’s the better American.

You can watch his announcement speech below –

It also appears that up until this announcement, Huntsman did not have a Twitter account. @JonHuntsman only has two tweets currently, the first of which was tweeted out about an hour ago. He also only has about 1700 followers –

Also popping up in the last few hours was @Jon2012HQ, his official campaign Twitter account. This account’s first tweet was a couple of hours ago, and since then it has live tweeted his Presidential announcement.

Huntsman has had a Facebook page for a little while now. He currently has just under 5,000 likes. In comparison, frontrunner Mitt Romney has over 1 million. It’s no surprise that Huntsman jumped aboard the Twitter ship. Social Media is going to be absolutely vital to the candidates, both during primary season and then for the general election. It’s no secret that President Obama is a social media superstar.

In his speech today, Huntsman said that “our challenges are many, and they are urgent. We are a resourceful, ingenious, determined, problem-solving people.” If that is true, we are also a people who loves information in concise packages. We also love connection (or at least the illusion of connection) with politicians and (other) celebrities. Huntsman’s team knows this, and his jump onto Twitter shows that the face of elections has changed. They are truly fueled by social media.

"It’s been a memorable campaign season on YouTube, but the time for persuasion and debate is over — now it’s time to vote," writes Ramya Raghavan of YouTube News and Politics on the company blog. "As polling results come in from across the country, we’re partnering with CBS News to live stream election results and highlight election trends on YouTube and Google."

"Already, CBS has been highlighting election trends through data from Google and YouTube platforms," notes Raghavan. "In addition to analyzing the top political videos on YouTube, they’re watching Google Trends and Insights for Search to determine what people are searching for and watching online. This approach of examining web trends adds a new level of depth to election reporting and is a model that news organizations can use for any major event or milestone."

9 out of the top 10 searches on Google today have been election-related, according to the company. Google itself is providing other tools to help users follow the elections and to find where to vote. 

In fact, social networks like Facebook and Twitter are doing their parts as well. Here you can see what Twitter is doing, and here are Facebook’s offerings. Chances are if you use Facebook, you’ve already seen some of them today. 

CBS is taking feedback and ideas via Google Moderator from their channel. The top submissions have a chance to make it on the air.