A Board of Elections volunteer watches people cast their ballots during early voting October 23, 2008 in Savannah, Georgia. Fifty-nine percent of the 2,599 registered voters polled by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press said they have sought out election content online or had some type of online communication about the campaign.

More liberal Democrats than conservative Republicans are using the Internet to get information about the presidential campaign but use of the web is growing among all voters, according to a survey released Thursday.

Fifty-nine percent of the 2,599 registered voters polled by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press said they have sought out election content online or had some type of online communication about the campaign.

Six in 10 of the voters who identified themselves as liberal Democrats said they have watched some form of campaign video on the web compared with just 33 percent of conservative Republicans.

Forty-three percent of liberal Democrats said they read blogs about politics and the campaign while only 22 percent of conservative Republicans said they do so.

The Washington-based Pew Center said increasing numbers of voters have been using the web for campaign information and activity with the approach of the November 4 showdown between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain.

In December 2007, just 18 percent of voters said they had exchanged emails about the campaign with friends or family; now 37 percent have done so.

Early voters cast their ballots at the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters office on October 22, 2008 in Norwalk, California. Fifty-nine percent of the 2,599 registered voters polled by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press said they have sought out election content online or had some type of online communication about the campaign.

Twenty-six percent of voters now say they have received an email from one of the political campaigns or from a political group or organization, up from 17 percent in December.

Overall, 39 percent of voters said they have watched some type of campaign-related video online, up from 24 percent in December, while 23 percent said they have visited a candidate's website, up from 16 percent.

Pew said use of social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook for campaign information did not appear to have grown much.

Just eight percent of voters said they have visited a social network site for campaign information, up only two points since last year. Four percent said they have signed up as a "friend" of a candidate.

The survey was conducted between October 16 and 19 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

© 2008 AFP