TO: CVF-NEWS FROM: Kim Alexander, CVF President DATE: October 24, 2000 RE: State voter guides flourish on the Web!
Hi Folks,
Voter education is alive and well on the Internet! This election season, the California Voter Foundation put together an online directory of links to state-level voter information resources. We built this directory because in the past we have found that while there is plenty of coverage of the Presidential election, it is often difficult for voters to access reliable information about state and local races. The State-by-State Directory helps meet voters' need for reliable voter information on all levels, and is available online at:http://www.webwhiteblue.org/directory.
The directory is a feature of Web White & Blue 2000, an outstanding web site that has much to offer voters, especially a lively online debate between presidential candidates.
To create the directory, CVF contacted every state election agency to find out if they have online voter information, and also surveyed each state to find out what will be on the ballot. Here's what we found:
* 48 state election agencies offer some kind of election information online *
* 42 state agencies have current campaign finance data online (up from 35 this time last year!)
* at least 29 states are planning to offer live election night returns.
We found that Delaware and South Carolina are the only two states that provide no official election information online. We also found that 42 states have some kind of ballot measure or question on their statewide ballot, and 15 states are having races for statewide offices this November.
The best part of all was discovering that 19 states now have nonprofit, nonpartisan voter information guides available on the Internet, similar to CVF's California Online Voter Guide. These are sites sponsored by civic organizations, state chapters of the League of Women Voters, and universities. When I started the California Voter Foundation six years ago, our site was only one of two state-level voter information sites available at that time -- the other being Minnesota E-Democracy. Today, we find that voter education is flourishing on the Net, and lots of groups are now using the Web to help voters prepare to make informed choices on every contest on their ballot.
I've compiled a summary of the state-level nonprofit voter information sites below to help highlight these excellent resources. In general, voters will find that these sites are simple and easy to use, are commercial-free, do not require registration, and are not setting cookies or attempting to gather personal data on visitors that can be sold or traded with third parties. In addition to these state voter guides, the State-by-State Directory of Election Information also links to Project Vote Smart's information for each state, and also offers direct links to the official state online voter information and campaign finance data.
The California Voter Foundation is thrilled to have so much company this election season, and we applaud all of the outstanding work being done by government agencies and nonprofit groups to ensure that American voters have convenient access to reliable and trustworthy election information.
-- Kim Alexander, President & Founder
California Voter Foundation, www.calvoter.org
kimalex@calvoter.org, (916) 325-2120
* * * * * * * * * *
State-level nonprofit voter guides created for the November 7, 2000 election:
* Alabama:
Your Vote Alabama, http://www.yourvotealabama.org
* Arkansas:
League of Women Voters of Arkansas, http://www.insolwwb.net/~lwvar/
* California:
California Voter Foundation, http://www.calvoter.org/2000
League of Women Voters' Smart Voter, http://www.smartvoter.org
Easy Reading Voter Guide, http://www.easyvoter.org
* Colorado:
League of Women Voters of Colorado, http://www.sni.net/lwvco/
The Bell, http://www.thebell.org/whatsnew.htm
* Connecticut:
League of Women Voters of Connecticut, http://www.lwvct.org/election2000.htm
* Georgia:
League of Women Voters of Georgia,
http://www.ga.lwv.org/Election00/ElecLink.htm
* Massachusetts:
League of Women Voters of Massachusetts, http://www.ma.lwv.org/
MassVoter.org, http://www.massvoter.org
* Michigan:
Citizens Research Council of Michigan, http://www.crcmich.org
* Minnesota:
Minnesota E-Democracy, http://www.e-democracy.org/2000
* New Jersey:
League of Women Voters of New Jersey, http://www.lwvnj.org/election99.html
* New Mexico:
League of Women Voters of New Mexico, http://www.lwvabc.org
* New York:
Savvy Voter, http://www.savvyvoter.org
* North Carolina:
North Carolina Center for Voter Education,
http://www.ncvotered.com/govote/sitefiles/welcome.html
* Ohio:
League of Women Voters' Smart Voter, http://www.smartvoter.org
* Oregon:
X-Pac, http://www.xpac.org
* Pennsylvania:
League of Women Voters of Pennsylvania, http://www.libertynet.org/pa/vote.html
* Utah:
University of Utah's Vote Utah, http://www.voteutah.org
* Virginia:
League of Women Voters of Virginia,
http://monticello.avenue.org/leagueva/guide.html
* Washington:
League of Women Voters of Washington, http://www.washingtonvoter.org
Please note - this figure was revised in our 10/25/00 news release, which said that all 50 state election agencies now offer some kind of election information online.
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This page was first published on October 24, 2000 | Last updated on November 17, 2000
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