Our presidential nomination process (as well as our election process) creates a situation where states with early primaries become more important than the rest. This can leave people that don’t live in these ‘early’ states to feel a little disenfranchised.

That was before the Internet! Today’s Washington Post has an article about a town called Columbus, KY, a small town of about 229 people. Using the site Eventful.com’s demand feature, which allows groups of people to demand someone to come to their town, 1,870 people asked Presidential candidate John Edwards visit Columbus, KY and he did! This is a pretty incredible event. It is rare for a top tier presidential candidate to visit a small town that is not in any of the early primary states.

This is the perfect example of the power of the Internet. When people have a medium to organize they can accumulate enough numbers that give them an influential voice. Eventful.com is a great organizing tool. It is being used extensively by presidential candidates, artists, musicians, and other speakers. This tool can be expanded to ask members of Congress as well. Right now, there doesn’t seem to be much demand for members of Congress. In the past, the best way to ask a member a question was to write a letter, email, call them on the phone, and go to an event they schedule. With Eventful, it is now possible to demand your member of Congress to come to you and that is pretty powerful.