Project Vote Smart Manual Offers Voters

All The Facts And None Of The Spin

With the November elections looming and candidates lurking behind every TV ad and mailbox, citizens are being given a powerful tool for defending themselves against the hype and spin. The 2006 Voter’s Self-Defense Manual (VSDM) is a free, 100-page sampling of voting records, campaign finance contributions, ratings by special interests and more on many of the candidates wishing to be elected. It also contains tips for using factual, relevant information as a defense against the often manipulative tactics of today’s political campaigns.

The Voter’s Self-Defense Manuals are available from Project Vote Smart free of charge to anyone by request at www.vote-mart.org or by calling the Project’s Voter’s Research Hotline at 888-Vote-Smart. While the VSDM represents only a tiny sampling of data being collected by the Project, it is stuffed with facts, including:

Contact Information: Phone numbers and email addresses for every US senator and representative are listed;

Key Votes: How did your representative and senators vote on certain key issues? Find out in the VSDM. A select number of issues are covered in the manual; complete voting records are available online and over the hotline;

Interest Group Ratings: A sampling of grades for every member of Congress, from 17 competing special interest groups, out of more than 150 available on the website and the hotline;

Campaign Contributions: A snapshot of how much money each representative raised for his or her last campaign and where the money came from; and

National Political Awareness Test (NPAT): Find out which candidates have been willing to tell citizens their positions on the issues they will most likely face on the public’s behalf. If a candidate’s name is bolded, he or she responded to the NPAT in their last election cycle. With a quick visit to Project Vote Mart’s website or a call to its hotline, voters can tell whether their candidates are willing to do the same this year, and if so, where they stand on key issues.

Project Vote Smart is a national, nonpartisan research and information library founded by prominent political leaders such as Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, Barry Goldwater and George McGovern, John McCain and Michael Dukakis, and 34 other national leaders. The project maintains a rigid standard of accuracy and balance in its research on candidates and issues.

The project accepts no money from special or corporate interests and is run primarily by idealistic young people and retired seniors, hoping for a rebirth of American democracy. The project’s website receives more than 400 hits per second from citizens looking for independent, trustworthy information about the candidates and their elected representatives.