Voting, Polling, And Politics On The Web
My grandmother voted for JFK because she liked his smile. And who am I to laugh? Particularly in lower-profile races -- ones in which I can't learn all I need to know by skimming the front page of the paper while I walk the dog -- I've often cast votes on similarly superficial grounds. In one instance, I remember using the voice afforded me by the democratic process to help elect a representative based on a snippet of a radio interview I heard in a coffee shop while I was buying a bagel. In another, I called a trusted friend an hour before the polls closed, wrote down the names of her favorite candidates and copied her vote for vote. And I wouldn't be admitting this if I thought I were alone.
We lame voters aren't stupid or lazy -- just busy. And several new Web sites are vying to help solve our problem. Voter.com, for example, offers free, personalized information at any time of the day or night. The privately owned, for-profit company says it aims to redefine the electoral process through "e-mocracy" -- that is, an increased flow of information between voters, politicians and advocacy groups using the Internet as a medium.
To use the site, you select the political issues that are most important to you and answer some questions about where you stand on them. Then, when you pull up information about particular candidates, their positions on your concerns are neatly laid out for you. The site provides information on the presidential race, as well as on your congressional, statewide and state legislative races using your zip code.
Voter.com, which describes itself as non-partisan, gets its information from political candidates and advocacy organizations, who pay to provide the site with content. It doesn't appear to have devolved into a mouthpiece for crackpots, though: The site says it checks out the legitimacy of the organizations and makes every attempt to insure the accuracy of the data provided. Organizations that have contributed information include the Democratic Leadership Council and the American Conservative Union.
Politics.com offers a similar get-the-dirt quick service for voters. The recently-launched site says it plans to offer a "network of information, communication and entertainment, all with politics as a common theme." But for the time-pressed, the site's most useful feature may be its personalized election information, including an interactive calendar that helps good citizens keep track of primaries, caucuses, conventions and other important political dates. Like Voter.com, Politics.com offers a range of additional services, including easy e-mail access to your elected representatives. Politics.com makes its money through advertising revenues, so the site is free.
If you feel more comfortable with a non-profit site, take a look at Web White and Blue, which calls itself "the largest on-line public service campaign promoting the use of the Internet in democracy." Sponsored by the Markle foundation and Harvard University, the site provides a wealth of information on voting, candidates and the issues. In general, the information is less at your fingertips than it is on the for-profit sites, but it's all there if you're willing to dig a little. For example, you might have to look at a candidate's Web site to determine her position on abortion, rather than having it presented to you in a tailor-made chart. But that's not such a bad thing: In doing so, you may well run across important information you didn't even know you were looking for.
In a related vein, political polling sites have been popping up on the Net over the past few months. Becounted.com , for example, is a for-profit site that asks visitors their opinions on various issues and then promises, somewhat vaguely, to relay the results "to national leaders and the media." Unfortunately, the fact that the site hypes the opportunity to win "cash and prizes" at every turn somewhat undermines the dignity of its mission. And, although using the site is free, you may find yourself paying for it in the end: becounted.com insists that you provide your name and address to "ensure the validity and integrity" of the poll results, then sells it to other organizations eager to hound you with "exciting offers." (Most political sites promise to keep your information private.)
For a slightly more grown-up take on the polling site idea, try Vote.com, which is run by former Clinton campaign advisor Dick Morris. The site features an on-line magazine and a discussion forum along with its polls -- and, praise God, there's a box to check to insure that you won't get a lot of spam mail as a result of your time there.
By Kate Fodor
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