Vote Smart

Site collecting data on candidates for elected US office, like for the coming Presidential Election.

http://www.votesmart.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Vote_Smart

I've checked roughly a half-dozen candidates, and none of them filled out the NPAT survey . (The site has lots of voting record and interest group rating data, though, which is cool. Though that generally applies only to Congress, so it doesn't do much good for evaluating governors who will run.)

I'm taking their 2002 Congressional survey.

• I wish there were links to information, like for the budget questions: how much of the Law Enforcement budget is associated with the War On Drugs?

• and I wish there were more finely-tuned questions: I'd increase tax credits for charitable contributions, but only to the extent that they go to helping feed/house people, not for symphonies and churches

• then you get things you want to argue with like Would you use Social Security surpluses to balance the budget? to which I think I'd answer "there is no surplus when you take into account future liabilities"

• damn there doesn't seem to be any way to save your results! And the "compare to your candidate" doesn't even seem to use your results, it just shows the candidates answers.

VoteByIssue --2004/01/05 03:26 GMT
an alternative