This particular debate involved participation from the following Republican presidential hopefuls: Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain, Thaddeus McCotter, Gary Johnson and Rick Santorum. Other candidates, such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, did not take part in the event.
Andrew Hemingway — chairman of the Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire, who was a key organizer for the 140TownHall.com debate — says there were some difficulties getting candidates to commit.
"There were a few candidates who were really excited about it, there were other candidates who really kind of needed to understand it," he explains. "And then there were other candidates that didn't even want to be involved or associated with it at all, which I think was a mistake."
The plan was for the candidates to tweet at the public themselves, but Green admits he can't guarantee that this was the case. Though most candidates' tweets were released under their names, Bachmann's were released under @TeamBachmann handle. Meanwhile, Gingrich's camp released a picture of the former House of Representatives speaker sitting in front of a computer, seemingly ready to tweet.
"My general perception is that the candidates were saying what to tweet and some of them, at least, were tweeting," Green says. "But I can't guarantee that all six of them were literally typing. I don't know that."
Mashable reached out to the campaigns of four candidates, including Gingrich and Santorum, but inquiries about the town hall were not answered at the time of writing.
What's Next?
With the experiment now over, both Green and Hemingway have expressed an interest in using the platform used on 140TownHall.com in future debates. But the format might be slightly different next time.
"I think there's opportunities to do town halls around issues, whether it's healthcare or energy, or the economy, jobs," Hemingway says. "I think what we're going to start to do is roll out a series where we'll do one a week, or one every other week, a smaller type of town hall based on the current issues of what's going on today."
Green adds that the small-scale town halls could involve smaller numbers of candidates or policy experts, and could also involve bringing on two or three people from the audience.
Green and Hemingway's plans come at a time when Twitter is starting to take on an even bigger role in politics. Many politicians, including President Barack Obama, have their own Twitter accounts now. In fact, Obama also used Twitter to answer questions during a July 6 town hall moderated by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
Though Twitter would not comment on 140TownHall.com itself, spokesperson Rachael Horwitz did have the following to say about the social network's usage during the upcoming presidential election: "In general, we believe that as the 2012 election approaches, Twitter will be a valuable platform for anyone running for office. We look forward to seeing the creative ways different organizations and campaigns use the service over the next year."