An Informed Public: A Desirable Threat

By Michael Casper

   In a teaching course I took some years ago, the instructor told us point blank: "If there’s anything I want you to remember from this class a long time from now, it is to use your crap detector." That remains one of the best pieces of advice I ever got, and one I’d happily pass along to anyone alive today.
   On that note, it’s hardhat time. While we’ve been inundated with politicians’ oratorical acrobatics, media’s sidestepping angles, and the endless letters to the editor (often the most insightful of the three) on this month’s elections, many citizens have wished for a way to sort the rhetorical wheat from the chaff. We need this information not just for doing our duty come election day, but for exercising our duty to make sure our elected officials are doing what the public wants once they are in office.
   The rapid development and growing accessibility of the Internet is one way citizens can do that, regardless of how much or little useful information their newspaper subscription or ration of television news bites lets seep through. Websites now exist to provide comprehensive and up-to-date coverage of elected officials’ positions and voting records, as well as the candidates and campaigns, so that voters can have substantive information on which to based their own opinions (and their votes).
   One of the best resources now available to the public is Project Vote Smart.
   Project Vote Smart (www.project.vote-smart.org) is a program of the Center for National Independence in Politics, a national non-partisan 501(c)(3) organization focused on providing citizens/voters with information about the political system, issues, candidates and elected officials.
   "In recent years," according to the site, "technology has enabled candidates and elected officials to manipulate voters by clouding issue positions, sources of funding and qualifications for office. Project Vote Smart takes this technology and turns it around to the citizens’ advantage in a unique Voter’s Self-Defense System--by providing the most powerful tool citizens in a democracy can use: factual, relevant, independent information."
   Project Vote Smart’s services were inaugurated in March 1992 at Oregon State University in Corvallis. During the 1992 election year more than 400 volunteers, interns and a small staff received more than 200,000 calls for information from citizens in every state, 34,000 on election day alone. Callers received answers to their questions about where candidates stood on significant issues, how they were voting, the sources of their campaign donations, their biographical backgrounds, etc. Many of these citizens requested copies of the Voter’s Self-Defense Manual, which contained printed information from the PVS database.
   In 1994, Project Vote Smart opened an office at Northeastern University in Boston, to facilitate citizens’ access to its information system. Today students and volunteers staff the PVS Hotline in both Boston and Corvallis. The publications program provided 500,000 manuals free of charge during the election season that year, and online services were inaugurated in August 1994. That same summer PVS opened its National Internship, with students from colleges and universities across the country coming to study and work at the project’s headquarters.
   The Vote Smart Web site, opened in July 1995, was a comprehensive national political site during the 1996 elections. Anchored by the PVS database on candidates, elected officials and legislation, the site also provides links to other sites with government and political information on the Internet. A printed guide entitled "Vote Smart Web YellowPages," compiled by PVS interns, was distributed to the public and over 10,000 political journalists, free of charge.
   In 1996, the Hotline and publication programs continued to grow, with over a million free Voter’s Self Defense Manuals distributed to citizens upon request, and fifty students receiving scholarship support to work in Corvallis and Boston. PVS also expanded its reach by covering legislative candidates and races in every state. The primary focus was on the National Political Awareness Test (NPAT), which was designed to focus on the issues of importance in each state.
   Today Project Vote Smart remains an animated, year-round system. During off-election years the focus changes to offering citizens a way to monitor those they elected by using the Hotline, on-line computer access, and the "U.S. Government: Owner’s Manual" to track voting records, performance evaluations, campaign finances and key legislation. "CongressTrack" allows citizens to track the status of major legislation through the committee process on a daily basis over the Hotline and on the web site. The entire effort is aimed at providing tools to ensure public accountability by elected officials to those they represent.
   As of this time, Project Vote Smart has compiled information on over 13,000 candidates and elected officials, including the President, Congress, governors, and state legislators. To help voters make an informed decision about who they elect, PVS works to provide five key pieces of information for current elected officials and those who run for office: biographies, campaign finances, issue positions, performance evaluations and voting records. The PVS site also includes issues, and politics, including state ballot measures, voter registration information, educational materials, current and past campaign and election information and the 1998 special elections.
   "Remember," says the site, "the Vote Smart Web is Researcher-Assisted: If you can’t find what you are looking for on the Vote Smart Web, give us a call at the Voter’s Research Hotline, toll-free 1-888-VOTE-SMART (or 1-800-622-SMART). Our friendly and capable researchers can provide you with the information you need, or point you in the right direction."
   PVS is quick to refer callers to other useful sites, says Josh, a staffer in the PVS Boston office. These include the League of Women Voters site (www.lwv.org), the Center for Responsible Politics (www.crp.org), which has useful information on political organizations and campaigns, and Thomas (http://thomas.loc.gov), which features U.S. votes in the House and Senate.