July 28, 2008

Project Vote Smart

Adelaide Elm is a board member, and Senior Advisor to Project Vote Smart, which is a national, not for profit, non-partisan, research and information gateway. Essentially, the organization gathers an amazing amount of information about candidates for public office, and makes it available to the public at no charge through their website, http://www.votesmart.org/, which they call "The Voter's Self-Defense System.

Currently the site provides information about candidates running for offices from state legislatures to U.S. President. Over 40,000 incumbents and candidates are in their database. In the future, they hope to add information about state and local candidate, including such races as Mayor or County Supervisor.

Several types of information are posted, including:

-Background and Contact Information

-Key Votes on many issues

-Interest Group Ratings, from groups supporting all kinds of causes, both conservative and liberal

-Campaign Contributions--totals raised and spent, and who is donating to them

-A Political Courage Test, which challenges candidates to inform citizens of their positions on the issues they will face if elected

-Public Statements, search able by key words

VoteSmart.org itself is supported by gifts from individuals and foundations, but refuses to accept donations from any businesses, labor unions, or government agencies, in order to maintain their independence. But it was founded by over 35 national leaders of all political stripes who agreed on the need for an unbiased source of candidate information.

In addition to the website, VoteSmart.org also offers a 100-page "Voter's Self-Defense Manual" that Adelaide says shows how to look beyond campaign hype, spin, and negative attacks from opponents, to discover what the candidates may do for us--or to us--if elected.

In the last half of the program, Jim Schneider invited callers to tell what candidate they believe has earned their vote at this point 100 days from the Presidential election in November.

More Information

For information about candidates, go to Project Vote Smart's website:

http://www.votesmart.org/

or call the "Voter's Research Hotline":

1-888-VOTE-SMART (1-888-868-3762)

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