Vote

Who's your Candidate in '08?

October 2, 2008

Know the Issues and Vote November 4th

Issues

My Election Choices - Find out which presidential candidate is your best match by selecting actual candidate statements that you agree with in major topic areas. You can also see side by side major news stories and blogs for the Democratic and Republican candidates.

Project Vote Smart: The Voter's Self-Defense System - For every presidential candidate, you can check out their biography, voting record, issue positions, interest group ratings, speeches, public statements, endorsements, and campaign finances.

FactCheck.org Annenberg Political Fact Check - Check out the factual accuracy of statements given by the Democratic and Republican candidates in TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases.

CQ Politics- White House - This website has a biography for each nominee for the Democratic and Republican parties. In addition, there are many tools in the "political toolkit" including an interactive presidential election map, poll tracker, campaign fundraising, and many more.

Washington Post- Mixed Messages: Tracking Political Advertising - Check out the political ads which have been aired in the 2008 Presidential Election. You can browse ads sponsored by candidates or 527's. In addition, you can browse by other criteria including: party, issue, character, music, and type.

Campaign Finance

Federal Election Commission- Presidential Campaign Finance - This website features very detailed and user-friendly tables & charts on campaign finance for the 2008 presidential election. Compare campaign contributions by state, party, or candidate. In addition, you can examine differences in contribution type, donation size, and expenditures.

Banking on Becoming President- OpenSecrets - For each presidential candidate, this website summarizes the following: bar charts on the amount raised and spent in the campaign, the source of funds, and the completeness of their campaign finance report. In addition, you can compare contributions by: geography, industry, contributor, donor demographics, and expenditures.

How do you register to vote?    Where do you vote?

Smart Voter by the League of Women Voters: Nonpartisan Election Information - On this page, you can investigate voting mechanics such as: how to register and locate your polling place. In addition, there are a lot of links to nonpartisan sites and the candidate's websites. Finally, after the election is over check out the results here.

Wisconsin Voter Public Access - Verify your voter registration status here. You can also locate your polling place and view a sample ballot by entering your address. Finally, view your voting history and a list of your voting districts & current office holders.

Election- City Clerk- City of Madison, WI - This site covers the whole gambit of voting for Madison residents. Use this site for information on the election schedule, voter registration, absentee voting, polling place changes, the Madison Election Advisory Committee, and election results.

Find News Articles about the Election (Library Databases)

LexisNexis for most current news updates
Major national and international newspapers and other publications
News transcripts from radio and TV news programs
All articles will be full text, but not every article will be included
ProQuest Newspapers - National
Full text of Wall Street Journal (Lexis-Nexis has only WSJ Abstracts) and other US papers
May not have full text of every article but has thorough indexing
ProQuest Newspapers - Regional
Covers Wisconsin papers, Chicago and Twin Cities
Popular and Scholarly Periodicals
Use Academic Search Premier or ProQuest Research Library or Academic OneFile
All will have indexing and full text of major news magazines
News from another perspective use Ethnic NewsWatch Complete
All full text articles
Newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press

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