Democratic president-elect Barack Obama waves to supporters following his acceptance speech during an election night rally in Grant Park in Chicago, Illinois, U.S., on Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2008.

Photo credit:Daniel Acker/Bloomberg News

During Tuesday night’s presidential election, millions of Americans used their handsets to communicate via text message.

Between 7 p.m. and 12 a.m. EST, more than 1.2 billion text messages were sent across the country, according to Sybase 365, a subsidiary of Sybase Inc.

Ten minutes after Obama was officially elected as the country’s 44th president at about midnight on the East Coast, the volume of messages surged more than three times the normal amount for that time of day, according to the mobile messaging service provider. The amount of text messaging increased 9% from the previous day for the hour between 11 p.m. and midnight.

“Such a surge is not surprising, as text messaging has become so ubiquitous around the world,” Marty Beard, Sybase 365 president, said in a statement. “This is a great example of the power of mobile messaging as a communication tool for the masses.”

The company also said that text messaging overall for Election Day was 10% higher than the previous day.

An estimated 78.58 million people watched prime-time coverage of the historic election on 14 broadcast and cable networks Tuesday night, according to final national averages from Nielsen Media Research.

Interestingly, Obama used text messaging during his election campaign. And after he was declared the winner, Obama sent out a text message to those who signed up online or by texting the campaign’s shortcode of 62262. In the text message, Obama thanked supporters for helping make history.

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