Research Blog : politics, elections

Vote early at the library

knightvision@evpl — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:01:00 GMT

Early voting at five EVPL locations begins Monday, October 15 and will end November 2.

Library voting locations:

Central Library (in the second floor Quiet Study Room)
McCollough Branch
Oaklyn Branch
North Park Branch
Red Bank Branch

Voting hours:

Monday-Thursday: noon-6:00 pm

Friday: noon-5:00 pm

Please note that polls will close promptly at the scheduled time, regardless of the length of the line. If you have not voted by poll closing time, we appreciate you returning another day to cast your vote.

Can't find the voting area when you get to the library? Just follow the signage and/or yellow footprints on the floor, or ask a staff member to point you in the right direction.

Thank you for exercising your right to vote!

Fact vs Fiction in Political Campaigns

Meditatinglibrarian@evpl — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:34:00 GMT

As elections approach, decisions about how to vote are being made. And political campaigns and candidates have been known to bend the truth in their efforts to get the votes. The PBS blog, Media Shift, had a helpful article this week, Political Fact-Check Sites Proliferate, But Can They Break Through the Muck? The non-partisan, fact-checking sites recommended are Annenberg Public Policy Center's FactCheck.org, the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly's PolitiFact and the Washington Post's Fact Checker blog. The title of the Media Shift article refers to their observation that the partisan fact-checking sites are being used more that these non-partisan sites. Links to those more biased sites are also part of the article, but I'm not going post them here.

Want to see how our voting preferences have changed over the last 160 years?

SuDocQueen@evpl — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:36:00 GMT

Visit Voting America, United States Politics 1840-2008. A project from the University of Richmond, Voting America offers interactive maps, with data to the county level, of our Presidential elections. Along with this, the project offers expert video analysis of our voting trends and special periods in our voting history.

Over 100 people running for President in 2008!

SuDocQueen@evpl — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:51:00 GMT

So far over one hundred people have announced or filed for candidacy with the Federal Election Commission. Visit Project Vote Smart to learn about them and the front runners McCain and Obama. Project Vote Smart is a non-partisan organization endorsed by leading newspapers and journals, the United States Government, and organizations such as the American Political Science Association. The organization provides information on candidates and government officials from the national to the local level. You can access information on your elected officials from voting records to campaign finances.

New Local Newspaper

lotech@evpl — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 19:31:00 GMT

Free copies of a new local newspaper have appeared in our libraries: "The City County Observer". The paper describes itseilf as "A Non-Partisan Publication Dedicated to the Reporting of Your Local Government at Work". This is the first issue, August, 2008, volume 1, issue 1; the paper appears to aim for a monthly publication. Besides several articles about local government, this first issue has two pages of local candidates for the upcoming general election; the page includes thier photos and comments. A calendar of some of this month's governmental meetings appears on another page. The paper's website, http://www.citycountyobserver.com , also has a full copy of this month's paper, links to both city and county governement websites, and an archives which will apparently have past issues as new issues are published.

Fact-checking the election ads and coverage

googler@evpl — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:41:00 GMT

There are a number of nonpartisan websites that can assist in determining what's true, what's misleading, and what's just plain wrong in both the media's election coverage and the candidates' own ads.

FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. They do fairly in-depth analyses, explaining fully why something is misleading, and frequently provide audio and video links to the content being checked.

PolitiFact is a service of the St. Petersburg Times and Congressional Quarterly Inc. This site features a "truth-o-meter," a graphic that rates the truthfulness of the ad or claim. While usually not as in-depth as FactCheck, the content on this site is well-organized and accessible in a variety of ways (you can browse by candidate or subject, among other things).

The Center for Public Integrity is a "nonprofit, nonpartisan, non-advocacy, independent journalism organization" that uses examines political and campaign issues in depth. These folks also have a Buying of the President site which looks at how money influences presidential campaigns.

The Fact Checker is a blog from the Washington Post that analyzes campaign statements in a similar way to FactCheck.org and PolitiFact, prompted by reader suggestions. Submit a question there if you're wondering about a claim that isn't being addressed on the other sites.