The Web: E-mail's last-minute vote-getting

By Gene J. Koprowski
United Press International

Published 11/2/2004 8:36 AM
CHICAGO, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- As the battle for the White House wound down this weekend, one campaign sent out a message by e-mail, in French, to its constituents. The message contained the text of an editorial from the Paris daily, Le Monde, endorsing Sen. John F. Kerry, D-Mass., for president as its "Le choix americain" or American choice.The letter was not the braggadocio of the Kerry camp, however. It was sent by the Republican National Committee with an exhortation at the end of the e-mail to "forward this to a friend.""Real citizens are spending hours online, comparing how stories are reported," Steve Davis, chairman of the newspaper program at Syracuse University, told UPI's The Web. "They want to comment. They want to participate."Electronic campaign literature has officially joined bumper stickers, yard signs and phone calls as an essential tool in the final push before the vote on Tuesday, experts said.The RNC e-mail plays off a theme, publicized by James Taranto, editor of The Wall Street Journal's opinionjournal.com, that Kerry was "French-looking" and more interested in the opinions of Europeans than Americans.--The Web is a weekly series by UPI examining the global telecommunications phenomenon known as the World Wide Web. E-mail sciencemail [at] upi.com