Voting Resources: or Educate Yourself With Interactive Inforgraphic Fun

Election Day (November 2nd) is around the corner! Still trying to make up your mind? Here are some resources available online and in the library.

Vote Easy is an interactive website that helps you figure out which candidate best aligns with your values. It's a very useful tool with the election coming up next week. After you choose your location, the VoteEasy site looks up the candidates specific to your area.  By entering your opinions on 12 critical issues and how important each issue is to you, the site shows you which candidates most closely match your beliefs.  Some candidates have submitted their answers, and the rest are inferred from the public records. The site is designed by Project Vote Smart.

Can I Vote? - Run by the National Association of Secretaries of State, Can I Vote contains state-by-state voting and voter registration information including polling places, and absentee voting.

FactCheck.org - A nonpartisan, nonprofit "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. They monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

Rock The Vote - Rock the Vote has combines efforts from those in the entertainment community with youth activities to encourage young people to be involved in the political process.

and just for fun:
The Living Room Candidate - This site is operated by the American Museum of the Moving Image and provides an archive of historical Presidential television ad campaigns.

Want to learn more? Check out VU Webcat for some books on voting and its trends and history!

• Connery, Michael. Youth to Power: How Today's Young Voters Are Building Tomorrow's Progressive Majority. Brooklyn, N.Y: Ig Pub, 2008. [Shake Library Call Number: 324.973 C752y 2008]
• McCaffrey, Paul. U.S. Election System. The reference shelf, v. 76, no. 4. New York: H.W. Wilson, 2004. [Shake Library Call Number: 324 U58e 2004]
• Percy, Herma. Will Your Vote Count?: Fixing America's Broken Electoral System. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2009. [Shake Library Call Number: 324.6 P431w 2009]
• Thernstrom, Abigail M. Voting Rights-and Wrongs: The Elusive Quest for Racially Fair Elections. Washington, D.C: AEI Press, 2009. [Shake Library Call Number: 324.62 T411v 2009]