SMS are used in political campaign around the world. During last elections in South Africa, nearly 200,000 voters used them to register. In Iran, parliamentary elections staged political parties text-messaging citizens.

In the US, MTV’s Rock the Vote (a nonpartisan youth voting group), has teamed up with Motorola to launch Rock the Vote Mobile, building on wireless technology popularity to recruit young voters. Since young people rely on SMS to get updates about bands and artists, why not apply the scheme to politics?

The idea is to target the information on the phone display. Registered member can take part in weekly polls, get to know the candidates, receive “breaking election news” and, on November 2, locate their polling places.

So far, over 14,000 people have signed up for the Rock the Vote mobile program.

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