Unless you have been hibernating this winter, you probably know that we are in the middle of Election 2008. Below, you will find a list of some Web sites to help you decide for whom to vote.
Indecision 2008
http://www.indecision2008.com
Comedy Central’s Web site provides video clips, interviews, a political news blog, interactive polls and featured content from Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. You can’t get through the election season without some comic relief!
The University of Michigan Documents Center: Elections 2008
http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/elec2008.html
This metasite provides links to all things election, including the candidates, campaigns, issues and historical elections. There are also links to scholarly sources for further research.
FactCheck
http://www.factcheck.org
Okay, you follow the debates and candidate sound bites. How do you separate fact from fiction? FactCheck is a resource from the University of Pennsylvania, and they do the legwork for you. Along with textual content, FactCheck offers video and audio clips. You can ask them specific questions about the candidates’ claims and also subscribe to the site via RSS feed or e-mail. Their archive goes back to 2003.
Federal Election Commission
http://www.fec.gov/index.shtml
Here is the official government Web site, which provides all of the rules and regulations pertaining to federal campaign finance issues. You can see which groups are donating to which candidates and how much. A searchable database is available.
YouTube: You Choose ‘08
http://youtube.com/youchoose
The candidates have discovered the popularity of YouTube and have a visible presence here. You can see them responding to questions raised by voters through videos that they have posted on YouTube. The site also links to videos produced by individual campaigns. Find immediate and accessible information to candidates’ views on a wide variety of subjects.
-Written by Librarian Renee Roth
