Project Vote Smart

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  (Political Courage Test)
• Interest Group Ratings
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Project Vote Smart’s News Room

Since Project Vote Smart was inaugurated in 1992, we have offered special services and programs for journalists to enhance their coverage of politics, and elections. Vote Smart has partnered with hundreds of national, state, and local news organizations, all lending their support for the programs and comprehensive databases on more than 40,000 candidates and incumbents that help Americans become smart voters.

News Releases

View the Project's most recent news releases.

VoteEasy™

This cutting-edge, interactive tool converts thousands of hours of research on congressional candidates and key issues into just seconds. It allows voters to get an instant visual confirmation on which candidates agree with their own positions on the major issues facing the nation. The data in VoteEasy™ is a combination of responses to the Political Courage Test directly from congressional candidates, and information compiled by Vote Smart researchers on twelve key issues: Abortion, Afghanistan, Crime, Economy, Education, Environment, Guns, Health Care, Immigration, Social Issues, Social Security, and Taxes. Citizens may simply type in their zip codes to answer the same questions their own candidates were asked, and VoteEasy immediately displays the candidate or candidates most like them, with the option to drill deeper into the details of the candidates’ records. News organizations are encouraged to link directly to VoteEasy™ by placing VoteEasy banners on their elections website page.

• See a 2-minute demonstration of VoteEasy™
• Try VoteEasy™

The Political Courage Test

The Political Courage Test is Project Vote Smart’s flagship program. It asks all candidates one central question: “Are you willing to tell citizens where you stand on the issues you may face if elected?” Candidates who reply “yes” are asked to address some key issues that are both consistently of top concern to the American people and also likely to come up in the next legislative session. Test questions have been created designed and drafted by more than 200 of the nation’s most prominent political scientists, journalists, and leaders of the major and third political parties. Candidates’ Political Courage is measured by the number of top issues they are willing to address on the test, whether by choosing to support or oppose carefully-researched policy options, or by answering the questions in their own words

• Candidates’ 2010 State-Level or Congressional Political Courage Test Forms
• The results of your candidates’ 2010 Political Courage Test

News Media Partnerships

Project Vote Smart's News Media Partnership Program adds the influence of local, state, and national news organizations to that of national party leaders and Project Vote Smart members, to let candidates know there is strong local interest in their responses to the Political Courage Test. Each election cycle, news organizations support our programs by both informing their audience about Vote Smart’s candidate information, and by encouraging their candidates to provide relevant issue information through the Political Courage Test. Previous election-year results show that when local news organizations speak out in support of the Political Courage Test, candidates are more likely to provide answers to questions on the issues they will face on the public’s behalf if elected. Contact Media Coordinator Carly Griffin at 406-859-8683 or email PCTpartnership@votesmart.org to learn more.

Vote Smart Resources for Your Website

Ready-to-upload widgets, logos and banners make it easy for news organizations to provide Vote Smart’s online resources to their own communities and audiences. To create customized web pages and applications using all or selected parts of Vote Smart’s databases, news organizations can use our Application Programming Interface (API). The API will respond to simple requests for data, such as 'get bio information for candidate Y' and 'get Votes for candidate X.’ Project Vote Smart data is provided to the public free of charge.

• Widgets
• Banners and Logos

The Reporter's Resource Center

Call the Voter's Research Hotline (1-888-VOTE SMART) or email your questions to media@votesmart.org in order to access a free research and referral service for working political journalists. Our researchers have access to an extensive library and databases of continually-updated information on elected officials, candidates, issues, special interest groups, and government activities, in order to help journalists with fact-checking and background information for their stories.

Publications

The free 2010 U.S. Government Owner’s Manual(4.6MB) (Or as Zip/Tgz 7.4MB) provides the public with a tiny sampling from Vote Smart’s vast databases of voting records, campaign finance data, special interest group ratings, and contact information for all Members of Congress. The 2008 Reporter's Source Book is also still available and free to working political journalists, with issue summaries and a Golden Rolodex of the primary sources and voices on all sides of dozens of key national issues. Call 1-888-VOTE SMART or email media@votesmart.org for free copies.

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Project Vote Smart in the News

Accolades for Vote Smart programs and services from news journalists and the media.